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A
DICTIONAKY OP
THE CHUECH OF ENGLAND.

A
DICTIONARY OP
THE CHUEOH OF ENGLAND.

Ret. EDWARD L. CI7TTS, B.A. Cahtar,
D.D. OF THE UNIVERSITY OF THE SOOTH U.S.A.

PUBLISHED UNDER THE DIRECTION OP THE TRACT COMMITTEE.

LONDON:
SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE,
, NORTHUMBERLAND AVENUE, CHARING CROSS, W.C.;
43, QUEEN VICTORIA STREET, E.C. ;
BRIGHTON: M5, north street.
New York: E. & J. B. YOUNG * CO.

PREFACE.
The religious Controversies and Ecclesiastical politics of the day
are leading to a greatly increased demand for information on Church
matters. This 'Dictionary of the Church of England' aims at
supplying the demand briefly, accurately, and in the handiest way.
¦ In the desire to limit the book in size and cost, so as to make
it widely useful, systematic completeness has been sacrificed, and
the "subjects most likely to be useful have been arbitrarily selected.
The Classified Table of Subjects arranges some of the articles in
such an order that the student, reading them consecutively, may
find something like connected essays on various subjects, e. g. on
English Church History, Architecture, History of the Prayer
Book, &c.
For some special articles the book is indebted to the kindness of
contributors : those signed E. T. are by the Eev. Dr. E. Thornton ;
those signed A. H. are by Major Alfred Heales ; those signed J. E. A.
by J. Eomilly Allen, Esq.

A CLASSIFIED TABLE OF SOME OF THE ARTICLES
IN THIS DICTIONARY.
CHUECH HISTORY.— Church, The. Roman British C. Celtic C. Saxon Period.
Supremacy, Papal. S., Royal. Mediaeval Period. Reformation. Trent,
Council of. Nag's Head Controversy. Hampton Court Conference. Re-
hellion, the Great. "Westminster Assembly of Divines. Savoy Conference,
Revolution. Toleration Act Non-Jurors. Modern Period. Dissent.
Dissent, Causes of.' Dissenters, the number of.
General Councils. Creeds. Canon Law. Articles. Discipline.
Church and State. Established Church. Church, Property of. Tithe.
Vicarage. Patron.
Diocese. The Diocesan Histories under their several names. Wales,
the Church in. Also see Biographies.
SCHOOLS AND SECTS. — Lollards. Puritans. Calvinism. Arminianism.
Latitudinarianism. Erastianism. Protestant. Broad Church. Low Church.
Evangelical. Non-Jurors. High Church. Tractarian. Ritualism. Non
conformists. Dissent. D., Causes of. Protestant. Romanist. Recusant.
Popery. Papal Aggression. Independents. Baptists. Quakers. Wesley.
Methodism. Lady Huntingdon's Connexion. ITnitarianism. Sweden-
borgians. Irvingites. Plymouth Brethren.
BIOGEAPHIES.— British Period. St. Alban.
Saxon Period. Columba of Iona. Augustine. Edwin, K. of Northumbria.
Aidan. Agilbert. Cedd. Ceadda. Egbert, K. of all England. Etheldreda,
Abbess. Hilda, Abbess. Guthlac, Hermit. Csedmon. Cuthbert. Aldhelm.
Venerable Bede. Egbert, Archbp. of York. Alcuin. Dunstan. iElfric.
Mediaeval Period. Lanfranc. Anselm. Becket. Friar Bacon. Langton.
St. Hugh of Lincoln. Grostete. Richard Rolle, Hermit. Arundel, States
man Bp. Wiclif. Chicheley, Beaufort, Statesman Bps. Tyndale.
Modern Period. Colet. Cromwell. Cranmer. Ridley. Latimer.
Coverdale. Gardiner/ Feckenham. Bucer. Parker. Jewel. Whitgift.
Abbot. Laud. Juxon. • Chillingworth. Calamy. Hooker. Andrews.
Barrow. Beveridge. Bull. Baxter. Burnet. Collier. Butler. Clarke.
Hoadley. Wesley. Selwyn. Patteson.
CLERGY. — Clergy. Holy Orders. Apostolical Succession, Secular C. C.
disqualified for Parliament. Celibacy of C.
Archbishop. Primate. Bishops. B., Election of. B. in Parliament.
Conge" d'elire. Confirmation of B. B. , Costume of. Pall. Pastoral Staff.
Mitre.. B.'s Palace. Coadjutor B. Suffragan B. Priest. Deacon.
Minister. Deaconess. Minor Orders. Sub Deacon. Acolyte. Exorcist.
Lector. Ostiary. Cathedral Chapter. Dean. Canon. Prebendary. Arch-

CLASSIFIED TABLE.

deacon. Rural Dean. Surrogate. Rector. Parson. Vicar. Chaplain.
Warden. Cure of Souls. Curate. C, Perpetual. C, Stipendiary. Parish
Clerk. Sacristan. Sexton. Legate. Proctor. Churchwardens.
Ordination. Induction. Institution. Canonical Obedience. C, Benefit
of. Tonsure. C. , Convocation of. "Pan- Anglican Synods." Vestry.
VESTMENTS, CLEBICAL. — Vestments. Alb. Almuce. Amice. Chasuble,
Cope. Dalmatic. Tunicle. Maniple. Pall. Stole. [For Rochet, Chimere-
Surplice, see Vestments.] Mitre. Pastoral Staff. Tippet. Hood. Vest.
ments, Symbolism of. Colours, Symbolical. [For Ordinary Costume of
Clergy, see Secular Clergy.] [For Law of Vestments, see Ritual Judgments.]
MONASTIC SYSTEM. — Monachism.v Ccenobite. Monk. Nun. Conversi.
Abbey. Convent. Abbot. Abbess. Prior. Prioress. Benedictines.
Clugniacs. Carthusians. Cistercians. Gilbertines. Grandmontines. Pre-
monstratensians. Augustinians ; Regular ; Canons. H. Sepulchre, Canons
of. Military Orders— Hospitallers, Templars.
Friars. Franciscans. Observants. Dominicans. Carmelites. Austin.
Crutched. Fontevraud. Antony, St. , of Vienna. De Pica. De Pcenitentia.
St. Nicholas of Arroasia. St. Victor. Trinitarians. St. Mary of Mertune.
Bethlemite. Bonhommes. Culdees. Hermits.
Brigettine Nuns. St. Clare, Nuns of. Recluses. Widows.
Monastery. List of Greater Houses. Cloister. Chapter-House. Dor
mitory. Refectory. Hospital. Leper House. College. Alien Priories.
Cor'rody.
BIBLE.— History of the English Version.
BOOK OP COMMON PRAYER.— Prayer-Book, History of. Liturgy.
Liturgy, British. Mass. Missal of the Anglo-Saxon Church. Use.
M. of the Use of Sarum. Communion Service, First Reformed. C. S.
First Book of Edward VI. C. S., Second Book of Edward VI. C. S.'
of Elizabeth. Hours, Canonical. Primer. Bidding Prayer. Matins.
Evensong. Ave Maria. Hampton Court Conference. Westminster
Assembly of Divines. Savoy Conference. Litany.
ARCHITECTURE.— Architecture, Church. Cathedral. Cathedra. Cathedral
Close. Cloister. Chapter House. Chancel. Apse. Nave. Transept
Aisle. Clerestory. Triforium. Baptistery. Chantry Chapel. Porch!
Pews. Vestry. Altar. Lord's Table. Baldachin. Credence. Piscina. Font.
Reading-desk. Lectern. Easter Sepulchre. Chests. Ambry Screens'
Sanctuary, and Chancel. Stall. Shrine. Bells. Mullion. Transept'
Chahce, Paten, Flagon, Offertory-Box and Dish. Pyx. Lych-gate.
RITES, CEREMONIES, &c— Baptism. B., Infant. B., Lay. Affusion
Aspersion. Chrism. Breaking of the Bread. Communion, Holy. Eucharist'
Lords Supper. Eulogiaj. Offertory. 0. Boxes ; Dishes. Ciborium. Con
firmation. Matrimony. M. , forbidden degrees of. Affinity. Consanguinity
Divorce. Churching of Women. Burial. B. Service. Hours, Canonical.'
Hours of B V. M Evensong Bidding Prayer. Ave Maria. Litany.
Hymns. Metrical Psalms. Extra Services. Fast Days. Festivals
Excommunication. Benediction. Pilgrimage. Procession

A DICTIONARY OF
THE CHUECH OF ENGLAND.

ABBESS (Abbatissa, a feminine form
derived from Abbas), the name given
to the Superior of a community of
nuns. She held a position correspond
ing with that of an abbot ; except that
an abbess, not being capable of receiv
ing Holy Orders, could not execute
any of the functions which ordained
abbots were accustomed to exercise.
In the Celtic Church it was not un-
frequent for an abbess to preside over
adouble community of nuns and monks,

Benedictine Abbess and Nun, from MS.
in British Museum, Eoyal 2 B. vii.
living in the same monastery, though
divided into two portions ; e.g. Folke
stone, Lyminge, Whitby, Repton, Wen-
lock, Ely, Barking, Coldingham, Tyne-
mouth, Wimborn. Several of these

monasteries were destroyed by the
Danes, and on their rebuilding were
tenanted by monks or nuns only. In
Anglo-Saxon times it. was not unfre-
quent for kings to provide for a sister
or daughter by founding an abbey, and
making her its abbess (as Folkestone
and Selsey), and widows of royal and
noble persons sometimes founded an
abbey and ruled over it, as at Lyminge
and Ely
An abbess had her separate apart
ment, her chaplains, and the male
and female servants necessary for the
establishment of a lady of wealth and
consideration. The abbesses of tho
Benedictine Orders carried the crosier,
and had a distinctive veil. The wood
cut of a Benedictine abbess and nun
is from a fourteenth century MS. ¦ in
the British Museum Lib. (Royal 2
B. VII.).
The majority of the female houses
of the various orders were kept subject
to some monastery, so that the Superiors
of these houses usually bore only the
title of prioress, though they had the
power of an abbess in the internal
discipline of the house. (See Chaucer's
description of his Prioress in the ' Can
terbury Tales.')
ABBEY. The name may perhaps
be given to a community of persons
living under religious vows, and ruled
by an abbot [see Convent] ; but it is
usually given to the group of buildings,
consisting of church, cloister buildings,
&c, occupied by such a community.
[See Monastery.]

ABBOT

ABBOT

ABBOT, from Abba, the Chaldee and
Syriac form of the common Semitic
word for Father.
The name given to a Superior of a
community of monks. In the early
ages of Monaehism the word exactly
expressed the undefined nature of his
authority and rule, which was paternal,
i. e. despotic. In later times his au
thority was limited by the rule of his
order, by the canons of the Church,
and by the customs of his house.
In the Saxon Church, many of the
abbeys were regarded as family bene
fices, the abbot was often married, and
the office descended from father to son.
By the eleventh century the office
of abbot of a great abbey had grown
out of its primitive simplicity into the
dignity of a great prelate, who had
estates separate from those of the con
vent ; he did not live among his monks,
but in a separate apartment, which was
often a detached house as large as that
of a nobleman of like wealth, with a cor
responding establishment [see Abbot's
House] ; he carried on the discipline of
the convent through a prior and other
officials, whom he nominated, but with
the counsel and good-will of the com
munity. The abbot was nominally elected by
the monks, but in fact the king exer
cised a considerable power in the choice
of the abbot in the case of the greater
monasteries. Once elected he held his
office for life.
From the eleventh century many of
the more powerful monasteries began
to obtain from the Pope exemption
from the rule of the bishop of the
diocese in which they were situated.
The _ abbots then virtually exercised
quasi-episcopal supervision and disci
pline over their own houses and estates ;
and were allowed to make clergy of
the minor orders by benediction. All
abbots had, from the earliest times,
carried the pastoral staff as the badge
of their office and rule : as early as
the tenth and eleventh centuries some
abbots had begun to wear the ring,
mitre, gloves, and sandals, like bishops!

In Chapter the abbot wore the ordinary
habit of his order, with only the dis
tinguishing insignia of mitre and pas
toral staff, as in the accompanying cut
of an abbot of St. Alban's, from the
' Catalogus Benefactorum ' of that
abbey (British Museum Lib., Nero D.
VII.) ; but in later times the bishops
of many of the greater houses obtained
the papal licence, on occasions of
highest solemnity, to assume the frill
episcopal costume and ornaments. [See

Benedictine Abbot, from MS. in British
Museum, Nero D. vii.
the monumental brass of Abbot Dela-
mere of St. Alban's, under Vestments.]
The abbots of these greater houses
held the estates of their houses of the
king as a barony, and sat and voted ia
Parliament. Fuller says that, 49 Henry III.,
sixty -four abbots and thirty-six priors
were called to Parliament. But this

ABBOT

ABBOT

number being too great, King Edward
III. reduced it to twenty-five abbots
and two priors, to whom were after
wards added two abbots. So that
there were twenty-nine in all, and no
more than that statedly and constantly
enjoyed this privilege, viz. the abbot
of Tewkesbury, the Prior of Coventry,
the Abbots of Waltham, Cirencester,
St. John's Colchester, Croyland,
Shrewsbury, Selby, Bardney, St. Ben-
net's Hulme, Thorney, Hide, Winchel-
combe, Battle, Reading, St. Mary
York, Ramsey, Peterborough, St. Peter
Gloucester, Glastonbury, St. Edmunds-
bury, St. Augustine's Canterbury, St.
Alban's, Westminster, Abingdon, Eves
ham, Malmesbury, Tavistock, and the
Prior of St. John of Jerusalem. The
above first twenty-four names are in the
order in which they went to Parliament,
3 Henry VIII. Mr. Hearne thinks they
took precedence according to seniority
of creation, but some abbeys seem to
have had a precedency, and St. Alban's
seems to have been premier, until West
minster afterwards was allowed it.
The Consiietudines of the Abbey of
Abingdon supply the following notes
on the abbot's duties. He shall sleep
at night in his chamber, with his chap
lains, whom he shall choose out of the
convent. One of his chaplains ought
always to be with him. He shall cele
brate mass on festival days, and dine in
the refectory. On Sundays as often as
he is disengaged he ought to head the
procession and begin the antiphonar
in the entrance of the church ; if he
is indisposed, the chantor. After the
triple prayer made in the morning he
shall visit the sick ; and when he
returns from a journey, after praying
for pardon for excesses in the way, his
-first visit shall be to the sick. Three
days before Easter and other festivals
he ought to head the procession to the
Chapter. If he made an error in the
pronunciation of a chant he was to ask
pardon. He could reprove and censure
a monk, which was not allowed to the
prior or any other. In every accusa
tion . the abbot could remit sentence,

except in the transgression of silence,
and then he could modify it. When
he entered the Chapter, all descending
one step, were to rise and bow to him,
and stand on the same step till he sat
down. When he went to foreign parts
the consent of the convent was requisite.
Both the duties and virtues of a good
abbot are shown in the following'
character of William, Abbot of St.
Albans: " Whenever he returned from
a journey he had all the poor brought
to the gate to receive refection. Every
day he attended the duties of the
Chapter and greater mass ; present even
on private days, he stimulated the
others with his spirited chanting ; and
on the greater and simple feasts came
to Vespers and to Compline daily. He
assisted indefatigably at festivals of
twelve lessons, by reading the lesson,
singing the response beginning Te-
Deum, standing with those who stood-
according to their turns, and animating
the whole choir by his example. He-
was always present mitred in the middle
of the choir at the mass of commemo
ration of the Blessed Virgin, and on
principal feasts always celebrated the
mass at the great altar. On the
double feasts he held the choir in his
mitre, and on other days standing in
his stall, led the band, and sang the
whole service with spirit. When the
convent was in copes or albs, he sang
his response in the mass at the nod of
the chantor. . He always attended the
unction of the sick, and performed
the funeral service in his own person.
He never professed a novice but at
the great altar ; attended all proces
sions (especially those of Sundays),
and never anticipated the hour when
the convent was wont to eat. He
lent effectual aid to the fabric of
the church, and its building and orna
ments. He studied books, preached
in the chapter, and was kind to the
writers and their masters. Both in
doubtful ordinances of the Rule, and
in divine services, he took the previous
advice of his convent, and even in
structed the old and removed their

ABBOT'S HOUSE

ABBOTT

doubts. He was always the first
speaker upon arduous business, and an
efficacious assistant respecting the wine
and other matters concerning him ; and
he was either the donor of it, or a brisk
and faithful principal agent of procuring
it " (Fosbroke's ' British Monachism ').
The ABBOT'S HOUSE [see Monas
tery] in smaller monasteries was some
times only a series of rooms in the main
building; but in the greater monas
teries it was a detached house, similar
in size, arrangements, and architectural
character to the unfortified houses of
laymen of similar rank and wealth ; or
lather, under the necessity for providing
accommodation for a frequent succession
of a great number of guests, it was in
some respects larger than such lay
houses. For example, the hall of the
Abbot of Fountains was divided by two
rows of pillars into a centre and aisles,
and was 170 feet long by 70 feet wide..
Besides his house within the pre
cincts of the monastery, the Abbot had
also houses built on the manors belong
ing to the monastery, in which he re
sided from time to time, and among
which often a large proportion of his
time was spent.
ABBOTT, George, Archbishop of
Canterbury; born at Guildford, October
29th, 1562 ; son of a clothworker ; edu
cated at the Grammar School of that
town, and at Baliol College, Oxford ;
1597, master of University College ;
1599, Dean of Winchester ; 1600, Vice-
chancellor of Oxford. While reigning
supreme in the University as the repre
sentative of the Calvinistic school of
theology, he was greatly mortified to
find a new school arising among the
younger men, of which William Laud,
a young Master of Arts and tutor of
St. John's, was the leader, who boldly
controverted the tenets of the dominant
school, and taught the continuity of the
visible Church, apostolical succession,
the efficacy of sacraments, and generally
the other doctrines held by the earlier
English Reformers, as held by the
Primitive Church. He was one of the
eight divines of Oxford engaged on the

"Authorised Version" of the Bible;
was engaged as chaplain of the Earl
of Dunbar, Treasurer of Scotland,
in effecting the acceptance by the
Scottish Church of King James's plan
for the restoration of "moderate Epis
copacy. " This and subsequent services
secured for him the king's favourable
notice, and (1609) he was nominated to
the See of Lichfield and Coventry ;
within a month he was translated to
London, and in the following year to
Canterbury. He was active in public
affairs, and maintained the rights of
the Court of High Commission against
the prohibitions of Coke the Attorney-
General. In his episcopate the Church
of England reached its extreme point
in the direction of the Calvinistic
discipline and doctrine. He set an
example in his own chapel at Lam
beth, of a service in which the cope
was disused, the organ and choir were
abolished, the archbishop and his
chaplains no longer bowed at the name
of Jesus, and the whole service was
reduced to a simplicity which would
have satisfied Calvin. By his ex
ample, he made the endeavours ¦ of
his successors, Bancroft and Laud, to
restore her relaxed discipline to appear
harsh and arbitrary. He induced
James to remonstrate with the States
of Holland on the appointment of
Vorstius, . a noted holder of the Ar-
minian views, to a professorship at
Leyden, and thus procured his banish
ment ; and at the same time he excited
the anger and alarm of the rising party
in England who were opposed to Cal
vinistic doctrine. He did a great
service to the public morality by his
open opposition to the divorce, by Act
of Parliament, of Frances Howard,
Countess of Essex, from her husband, al
though it was favoured by the king. In ¦
1619 he founded the hospital at Guild
ford, which still remains, a picturesque
monument of the architecture of the
time. In the same year the Arch
bishop had the misfortune, while shoot
ing with a crossbow at a deer in Lord
Zouch's park at Bramshill, to kill one

ABSTINENCE

ACHIEVEMENT

of the keepers. He settled an annuity
of £20 on the man's widow, and kept a
monthly fast of mourning for the occur
rence. By the shedding of blood,
however involuntary, he had incurred
the canonical disability termed ' ' irregu
larity," which incapacitated him from
performing the functions of his office.
A commission was appointed to con
sider what should be done ; and in pur
suance of its recommendation, the king
issued a pardon and dispensation, by
which he reinstated the Archbishop in
the full enjoyment of his functions.
From that time, however, under the
plea of growing infirmities, he absented
himself from the Council. He attended
James on his death, and assisted in
the coronation of Charles. He was
not in favour with the new king and
the ecclesiastical party which was now
dominant ; and on refusing to licence a
sermon preached in defence of one of
the illegal acts of the Government, he
was by virtue of the supremacy deprived
of his jurisdiction, was desired to retire '
from Court, and a commission was ap
pointed to exercise his authority. Be
fore the summoning of the Parliament
of 1626 he was, however, recalled, and
restored to the full exercise of his office.
His championship of the interests of
the Calvinistic party, and opposition to
the arbitrary conduct of the Government
and to the ecclesiastical policy which
was now in the ascendant, put him un
der the disfavour of the Court through
out the latter part of his life. He died
at the age of 71, on the 3rd July, 1633,
and was buried at Holy Trinity Church,
Guildford, where his monumental effigy,
in his robes, still remains. He was the
author of ' Questiones Sex, " Exposition
on the Prophet Isaiah,' ' A brief descrip
tion of the whole world,' and several
controversial and occasional pieces.
ABSTINENCE is a lesser degree
of fasting, but the Church gives no
authoritative definition of the differ
ence between them. Abstinence may,
perhaps, consist in eating no flesh meat,
while fasting consists in eating nothing
during a certain time.

ACCIDENTS. A scholastic Word,
used in the controversy on the tran-
substantiation theory, "the accidents
of bread and wine," and will be found
explained under that title.
ACHIEVEMENT, or HATCHMENT.
It was very common in the middle
ages to hang up over a, man's tomb
some symbol of his rank or calling.
Over the tomb of a knight his helmet,
sword, and gauntlets, with a banner of
his arms ; over the tomb of a bishop a
crosier and mitre ; over the tomb of a
pilgrim his palmer's staff and scrip,
&c. Thus over the tomb of the Black
Prince still hangs his tabard of arms,
sword, helmet, and gauntlets. At
Bottesford, in Notts., the chancel is
picturesque with the banners of the
Rutland family ; in very many country
churches rusty helmets, swords, and
gauntlets still hang upon the walls.
The gilt funereal mitre and crosier of
Bishop Morley (1684), and Bishop Mews
(1706), still hang over their graves in
Winchester cathedral, one on the N. E.
pier of the nave, the other on the wall
of the N. E. chapel. It is to be observed,
however, that in course of time, not
the real arms and weapons were thus
hungup, but "representative mortuary
armour," made for the purpose, and
only rudely made, so that the helmet
does not open on its hinge, the visor
does not work on its pivots ; e. g. at
Great Basing is a representative gaunt
let, which represents five clumsy iron
finger-plates, with no glove behind
them. A shield and wooden sword
hang on the wall of Castle Hedingham
Church, Essex,1 as the hatchment of
one of the ' Ashhnrst family. In the
same way the mitre and crosier placed
on the coffin of a bishop, the chalice and
paten on the coffin of a priest, were made
for the purpose of inferior material.
In the seventeenth century, when
armour ceased to be worn, it became
the custom to hang up in church a
square board, hung lozenge-wise, on
which the armorial bearings of the
deceased were painted ; many of them
still remain in our churches, and are

ACOLYTE

J5LFRIC

called Hatchments. A garland and a
pair of gloves was in some places, e. g.
at Hathersage, Derbyshire, hung over
the seat of a deceased maiden.
ACOLYTE, from okoXovBoq, a fol
lower, an attendant. The fourth of the
Minor Orders of the Church [which sec].
We first hear of them in the Roman
Church, in the Epistles of Cyprian and
Cornelius of Rome, where they seem to
have been attendants of the bishops,
carrying their messages, &c. Their
duties in the divine service were to
prepare the elements, to carry the in
cense, to light the lights at the reading
of the Gospel, &c. The fourth Council
of Carthage (A.D. 398) directs the mode
of ordaining them by benediction of the
bishop and delivery of the implements
of the office, viz. the ampullae for con
taining the wine and water for the
Eucharist, and the taper for the lighting
of the altar and gospel lights.
ADVENT. Earlier writers exhort to
a preparation for the due keeping of
the Festival of the Nativity by some
days or weeks of fasting, almsgiving
and continence ; but as a Church season
of definite length, with its proper
lessons, gospels, and other appropriate
observances, it cannot be certainly
traced back to an earlier time than the
latter part of the sixth century. In
some churches the advent fast extended
over forty days, in imitation of the Lent
fast in preparation for Easter, as in
England in the time of Bede (Hist. III.
27 ; IV. 30), and probably for at least
two centuries later. About the eighth
century the length of Advent became
restricted throughout Western Chris
tendom to the four Sundays preceding
the Nativity, while the fifth preceding
Sunday sounded a note of warning of
the approach of Advent. This con
tinues to be our rule. We have still
four Sundays in Advent, while how
ever many Sundays there may be after
Trinity, the Sunday before Advent has
its special Collect, Epistle, and Gospel,
making it a preparation for Advent.
ADVOWSON (probably derived
through the French from the Latin

advocationem, patronage) is a right
of perpetual presentation to an ecclesi
astical benefice in a man and his heirs
and assigns. An advQWson may be
either appendant, i. e. attached to a
manor, or in gross, i. e. which can be
transferred separately from one owner
to another. [See Patron.]
JELFRIC, Archbishop of York (other
wise Alfric, jEilfric, Elfric, Aloric,
Alured, and Putta), was educated in
the school of Bishop Ethelwold at
Winchester. In 987 he was made
Abbot of Cerne in Dorsetshire ; after
wards was Abbot of Medehamstead or
Peterborough ; then Bishop of Worces
ter ; and lastly, in 1023, Archbishop of
Canterbury, and died 1050 A.D. He
was so famed for his knowledge that he
was surnamed the Grammarian, and
his reputation as a theologian led
Wulfsin, Bishop of Sherborne, to ask
him to compose a summary of useful
information for the clergy. His
sermons were so highly esteemed that
they were translated into the vulgar
tongue, and read in the churches ; and
his letters were inserted in the Synod-
icon of the Saxon Church. Many of
his works remain in MS., and some
of them have been published. His
Paschal sermon, containing strong]
testimony that he, and the Saxon
Church with him, held primitive
doctrine on the subject of the Eucharist
and not the transubstantiation theory,
was published by Cranmer at the time
of the Reformation. The following is
a translation of some of its most im
portant sentences : "Now certain men
have often enquired, and yet frequently
enquire, how the bread, which is pre
pared from corn and baked by the heat
of fire, can be changed into Christ's
body ; or the wine, which is wrung
from many berries, can by any blessing
be changed to the Lord's blood ? Now
we can say to such men that some
things are said of Christ typically, some
literally. It is a true and certain thing
that Christ was born of a maiden, and
of His own will suffered death, and was
buried, and on the third day rose from

/ELI'KIU

AFFINITY

death. He is called bread typically,
and lamb, and lion, and whatever else.
He is called bread, because He is the
life of us and of angels ; he is called a
lamb for His innocence ; a lion for the
strength with which He overcame the
devil. But yet according to true
nature Christ is neither bread, nor a
lamb, nor a lion. Why then is the
holy housel called Christ's body or
His blood, if it is not truly that which
it is called? But the bread and the
wine which are hallowed through the
mass of the priests, appear one thing
to human understandings without and
cry another thing to believing minds
within. Without, they appear bread
and wine both in aspect and taste, but
they are truly, after the hallowing,
Christ's body and His blood through
a ghostly mystery. A heathen child
is baptized, but it varies not its aspect
without, although it be changed within.
It is brought to the font- vessel sinful
through Adam's transgression, but it
will be washed from all sins within,
though it without change not its aspect.
In like manner the holy font-water,
which is called the well-spring of life,
is in appearance like other waters, and
is subject to corruption, but the might
of the Holy Ghost approaches the cor
ruptible water through the blessing of
the priests, and it can afterwards wash
body and soul from sin through ghostly
might. Lo now we see two things in
this one creation. According to true
nature the water is a corruptible fluid,
and according to a ghostly mystery has
salutary power ; in like manner if we
behold the holy housel in a bodily
sense, then we see that it is a corrupt
and changeable creature ; but if we
distinguish the ghostly might therein,
then understand we that there is life in
it, and that it gives immortality to
those who partake of it with belief.
Great is the difference between the
invisible might of the holy housel and
the visible appearance of its own nature.
By nature it is corruptible bread and
corruptible wine, and is by power of
the Divine word truly Christ's body

and His blood, not, however, bodily
but spiritually. Great is the difference
between the body in which Christ
suffered and the body which is hal
lowed for housel. The body verily in
which Christ suffered was born of
Mary's flesh and blood, and with bones,
skin, sinews, human limbs, quickened
by a rational soul ; and His ghostly
body which we call housel, is gathered
of many corns, without blood and bone,
limbless and boneless, and there is,
therefore, nothing therein to be under
stood bodily, but all is to be understood
spiritually. Whatsoever there is in
the housel which gives us the substance
of life, that is from its ghostly power
and invisible efficacy ; therefore is the
holy housel called a mystery, because
one thing is seen therein and another
thing understood. That which is there
seen has a bodily appearance ; and that
which we understand therein has
ghostly might. Verily Christ's body
which suffered death, and from death
arose, will henceforth never die, but is
eternal and impassible. The housel is
temporary, not eternal ; corruptible
and is distributed piecemeal ; chewed
betwixt teeth and sent into the belly ;
but it is nevertheless in ghostly might
in every part all. Many receive the holy
body, and it is nevertheless in every
part all, by a ghostly miracle. Though
to one man a less part be allotted, yet
is there no more power in the great
part than in the less, because it is in
every man whole by the invisible
might. The mystery is. a pledge and a
symbol ; Christ's body is truth. This
pledge we hold mystically, until we
come to the truth, and then will this
pledge be ended. But it is, as we
before said, Christ's body and His
blood, not bodily, but spiritually. Ye
are not to enquire how it is done, but
to hold in your belief that it is so
done" (Elfric's 'Homilies,' translated
by Thorpe, ii. 269).
AFFINITY is the name given to
the relationship which exists between
a man and his wife's blood relations,
or between a woman and her husband's

AFFUSION

AGILBERT

blood relations. Marriage is forbidden
by the law of God and the law of the
land between persons who are within the
third degree of relationship by affinity.
[See Marriage, forbidden degrees of.]
In the middle ages when prohibitions
to lawful marriage were unwarrantably
multiplied, canons were passed de
claring that relationship of affinity was
contracted by unlawful intercourse ;
other canons declared the existence of
a spiritual affinity between god-parents
and their god-children ; and between
a person baptising and the person
baptised. AFFUSION, pouring of liquid upon
a person or thing. The Church use of
the word is in connection with baptism.
The early practice of the Church pro
bably was that the person to be bap
tised went down into the river or other
natural water, or into the great bath
like font in the baptistery, and there
stood partly immersed in the water,
while the baptiser poured water over
his head also, uttering the proper
baptismal formula.
In the early Church, however, bap
tism was administered to the sick and
dying by affusion or aspersion (sprink
ling) ; and the bad custom, which pre
vailed from the third century down
wards, of delaying baptism till the time
of sickness or approaching death, made
such baptisms common.
The rubric of our Baptismal Office
still makes immersion, or plunging
into the font, the normal mode of
baptism, but it recognises affusion as
an exceptional mode. The fact is, that
by the thirteenth century, though the
ancient practice was always recognised
as the normal practice, yet the admin
istration by affusion or aspersion had
become general in the western Church.
With us the climate, and our way of
clothing children, and our habits gener
ally, have brought it to pass that a bap
tism by immersion is a rare exception.
Our defence of the validity of this
mode of baptism against the objection
of the so-called Baptists is, that the
Church of Christ has always held that

such partial application of water to the
baptised was sufficient.
To the common assertion of the
Baptists that the scriptural word
PaTrriZeiv means to immerse in water,
we reply that it is not so : e.g. where
(Matt. xv. 2) the Pharisees marvelled
that our Lord had not washed before
eating, it means washed his hands.
The word used is viirTovrat, but no
Eastern ever dipped his hands into a
basin to wash them ; the invariable
cuatom was and is to have water poured
over the hands. In the parallel pas
sage in St. Mark, ch. vii., at verse 3,
the more usual verb for pouring water
on the hands, vlirrfiv, is used ; but in
the next verse /3airT(linv is used as the
equivalent ; and not only is it said that
when they come from market they wash
themselves (baptise), but it also says
that they wash (baptise) cups and pots,
brazen vessels, and couches.
Further light is thrown on the
question by the directions in eh. vii.
of the recently-published ' Teaching
of the Lord by the Twelve Apostles
to the Gentiles,' a document whose
date is said to be "far nearer the
middle of the first century than the
middle of the second." "But as re
gards baptism, baptise in this way :
Having taught all that goes before,
baptise in the name of the Father, and
of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, in
living [i. a. running] water. But if
thou hast not living water, baptise in
other water — in warm if thou canst
not do it in cold. But if thou hast
neither [in sufficient quantity], pour
water upon the head three times in the
name of," &c.
AGILBERT, Bishop of Dorchester,
said to have been a Parisian, was con
secrated in France as a bishop, but
"apparently without a see ; came to
Ireland to study, and thence to Wessex,
648 ; and the death of Birinus having
left the West Saxons without a bishop,
complied with the invitation of King
Cenwalch to remain as his successor, i
After several years Cenwalch divided "
his kingdom into two sees, and placed

AIDAN

ALB

Wina as bishop of the eastern portion
at Winchester, leaving Dorchester as
the see of the remaining portion of the
kingdom. Agilbert upon this aban
doned Wessex, and went to Northum-
bria, where he gave his support to the
Continental party at the Synod of Whit
by. In 664 he returned to France,
and in 668 was made Bishop of Paris.
There he consecrated the Northumbrian
Wilfrid. Being invited by King Cen
walch to return to Wessex, he declined,
but recommended his nephew Leu-
therius, who was accepted as Bishop of
Dorchester, 670.
AIDAN, Apostle of Northumbria,
stands side by side with Augustine, as
one of the great apostles to the English
race. When Oswald had recovered the
throne of Northumbria at the battle
of Hefenfeld, and Paulinos had fled
to Kent [see Paulinus] with the widow
of the usurper Edwin, Oswald sent to
the monastery of lona, by whose fathers,
during his seventeen years of exile,
he had been converted to the faith, to
ask for Christian teachers for his people.
Colman was sent, but soon returned to
report his failure to produce any good
effect on so stubborn and barbarous a
people. In a Chapter of the house
Aidan suggested that the failure was
due to want of gentleness and patience.
The brethren saw in the giver of the
counsel the best man to carry it into
effect ; he was consecrated bishop, and
sent to Northumbria. Here, obtaining
from the king a grant of the little island
of Lindisfarne, near Bamborough, the
principal royal residence of the Nor
thumbrian king, he erected a monastery
upon it, after the fashion of the parent
house of Hy. Here (about 635), instead
of at York, the chief city of the king
dom, Aidan fixed his see, and made it
the centre of missionary work through
out the kingdom of Northumbria.
The monastery was governed by an
abbot elected by the brotherhood, and
all the clergy inside and outside the
house, including the bishop, observed
the Columban Rule. And Bede says
that down to his time all the bishops

continued so to exercise the episcopal
office, while the abbot ruled the monas
tery. Here the Northumbrian youth
were taught and trained, and many of
them entered into the brotherhood, and
became the clergy of the Northumbrian
churches. Daughter monasteries were
founded, churches were erected at the
principal villages of the king and his
nobles, and Christianity took firm hold
of the people. When on the death of
King Oswald his kingdom was divided
into its two constituents of Bernicia
and Deira, Aidan still exercised epis
copal authority over both kingdoms ;
an instance of the way in which for
centuries afterwards the bishop's see
stood stable, and helped to give stability
to society, amidst the shock of political
changes. He died in 651. Bede gives
a beautiful description of his virtues
and apostolic labours (Bede, 'Eccl.
Hist.' bk. iii. cc. 5 and 17).
AISLE (ala, a wing). ' When the
chancel, nave, or transepts of a church
are divided by arcades, then the nar
rower sub-divisions are called the aisles.
ALB, or ALBE, Alba tunica, a white
tunic. [For general description of it,
and of its use as a clerical vestment,
see Vestments.] Originally it was either
of linen or woollen material, according
to climate ; in later times, on great
solemnities, albs of silk and other costly
materials were sometimes worn. Origin
ally white, as its name implies, in later
times it was sometimes of other coloors.
It was often ornamented round the
bottom and the cuffs with a broad hem
of embroidery. Albs of this costly kind
were in use in the Saxon Church from
an early period, and continued in use
after the Conquest.
About the beginning of the thirteenth
century it became the fashion to attach
ornaments called "apparels" of rich
cloth, or of embroidery, or of gold
smith's work, to the alb, two to the
lower hem in front and behind, on the
two cuffs, and sometimes two others,
one on the breast, the other on the back.
The ornaments rubric of the First
Prayer-Book of Edward VI., returning

ALBAN

10

ALDHELM

to earlier simplicity, prescribed "a
white alb plain," "plain" probably
meaning without the "apparels." (See
Dr. Rock, ' Church of our Fathers, '
Vol. i. p. 424, &c.)
ALBAN, ST., the proto-martyr of
Britain. Bede tells us ( ' Eccl. Hist. , '
bk. i. c. 7) his story, which is briefly
this : At the beginning of the Dio
cletian persecution (A. D. 304) Alban,
¦a citizen of Verulamium, sheltered in
his house a priest who was fleeing from
the persecutors. The sight of the good
man's life, his watchings and prayers,
impressed his entertainer's mind, and
he became a convert. After some days
it became known where the priest was
concealed, and soldiers were sent to
seize him ; but Alban put on the priest's
habit, or long coat, and allowed him
self to be taken while the priest made
his escape. On being brought before
the judge he was ordered to sacrifice to
' the gods, but refusing and declaring
himself to be a Christian, he was
scourged, and ordered to execution.
The place of execution was a grassy
hill at some distance from the city
¦ walls, and divided from it by a rapid
river. The people of the city rushed
out in such numbers to witness the
martyrdom, that the bridge over the
river was crowded and made impass
able ; whereupon Alban, impatient for
the martyr's crown, walked to the
river bank, and the waters opened, like
those of Jordan, and made a dry road
for the party to pass over. The execu
tioner, seeing this, threw down his
sword, and declared himself converted
to the Christian faith. Arrived at the
summit of the hill, Alban prayed for
water to quench his thirst, and imme
diately a fountain burst forth from the
earth. One of the soldiers at length
struck off the martyr's head, and his
own eyes fell to the ground together
with the victim's head. The converted
executioner was executed at the same
time. Then the judge, astonished at
these wonders, ordered the persecution
to cease. When peaceable Christian
times were restored, a church of wonder

ful workmanship was erected on the site
of the martyrdom. King Offa founded
a monastery there in 793. The noble
abbey church, founded in the twelfth
century, and built of materials from
the neighbouring city of Verulamium,
is one of the most interesting churches
in England. The abbey was the premier
abbey, and possessed great estates in
Hertfordshire. The town of St. Albans
gradually grew up about its walls.
Though there are some things of a
legendary nature in Bede's story, yet
it is not in its general outline impro
bable, and we may safely continue to
honour St. Alban as the proto-martyr of
Britain. ALCUIN was born in Northumbria
about 735 ; brought up from infancy in
the schools of York ; became the favour
ite pupil of Archbishop Egbert. When
Egbert died and Ethelbert succeeded
to the See, Alcuin probably succeeded
Ethelbert as the head of the schools. On
the death of Ethelbert, the new Arch
bishop Eanbald sent Alcuin (780) to
Rome to solicit the honour of the pall.
On this journey he met with Charles
the Great at Parma, who extorted from
him a promise (if he could obtain the
permission of his own king and arch
bishop) to return and enter into the
great Emperor's service. It is only,
therefore, the, early part of his life
which belongs to the history of the
English Church. He spent the re
mainder of his life in the Frankish
dominions, first as master of the Palatine
school, and latterly as Abbot of St.
Martin of Tours, which he made famous
as a school of learning, to which many
English scholars resorted. He died on
Whitsunday, 804 a.d.
ALDHELM, born about a.d. 650, and
died 709, was educated under an Irish
scholar at Malmesbury, and afterwards
under Theodore and Hadrian at Canter
bury, and then returned to Wessex to
his old master at Malmesbury, and suc
ceeded him as abbot there. He founded
two other monasteries at Frome and
Bradford, and did much to spread
Christianity throughout the West of

ALES

11

ALES

England. He brought over the Dam-
nonian (Devon and Cornwall) Britons
to the Catholic usages as to Easter, &c.
In 705 the bishopric of Wessex was
divided, and Aldhelm was appointed
bishop of the western half, with Sher
borne as his See, which he held four
years. His fame chiefly rests upon his
own learning and the success with
which he promoted learning in his
several monastic schools, so as to make
the schools of Wessex in the first half
of the eighth century the rival of the
Northumbrian schools.
His extant works, collected and
edited by Dr. Giles, Oxford, 1844, are
not of much importance. He wrote
hymns in the native tongue, which
unhappily have not survived.
ALES, CHURCH. The eighty-eighth
canon of 1603 directs that the church
wardens or questmen, and their assist
ants, " shall suffer no plays, feasts, ban
quets, suppers, Church-ales-drinkings,
&c, to be kept in the church, chapel,
or churchyard." That it should have
been necessary in 1603 to prohibit the
holding of anything which could be
' described as "feasts, banquets, suppers,
and Church-ales-drinkings," in church,
seems almost incredible to us, with our
habits of life and ideas of religious de
cency. The excuse to be made for our
ancestors who did such things is that
these meetings had a quasi-religious
character, i. e. they were connected
with works of piety and charity, and
were the modem representatives of
the ancient Agapce, or love-feasts.
The promoter of the " ale " brewed a
quantity of this vin du pays, and
invited his neighbours to come and
drink it .; he not only charged a good
price for the liquor, but when men's
hearts were opened by it he made a
"gathering" besides for the object of
the "ale." A newly-married couple
would give a "Bride Ale" to help to
establish them in housekeeping. A
man in difficulties would give a " Bid
Ale " (from biddan, to pray, to beg), and
so would get his neighbours to give
•him a helping hand. So the Guardians

of the Poor would give a "Whitsun
Ale," to provide funds for the relief
of the poor, and the churchwardens
would give a " Church Ale" to raise
funds in lieu of a Church-rate, or for
any other ecclesiastical expenditure. *
Bede relates that Gregory the Great,
in his letters to Augustine and Melitus,
ordered them to allow the people liberty,
in their annual feasts of the dedication
of their churches, to build themselves
booths round about the church, and
there feast and entertain themselves
with eating and drinking, in lieu of
their ancient sacrifices while they were
heathens. Wharton, in his ' History
of English Poetry,' says that among
Bishop Tanner's MS. additions to
' Co well's Law Glossary,' in the Bodleian
Library, is a note from his own col
lections, of which the following is a
translation : —
"A.D. 1468. The Prior of Canterbury
and the Commissaries made a visitation
(the diocese of Canterbury being vacant
through the death of the Archbishop),
and these published that drinkings
made in churches, vulgarly called Yeve
ales [Give ales] and Bred alys [Brede
ales], should not longer be allowed
under pain of excommunication. In
the following extract from their own
account book, the churchwardens of
St. Lawrence, Reading, stand self-
convicted of the fact : ' 1449. Paid for
making the church clean against the
day of drinking in the said church,
iiijd.'" The custom, it has been already sug
gested, had a very respectable antiquity
in its favour. Bingham (Book XX.
chap. vii. sec. 10) says : "It was the
custom upon the festivals of the martyrs
(and upon other festivals also), for the
rich to make feasts of charity and com
mon banquets on these days at the
* " In 1532 the little village of Chaddesden
spent 34s. Wd. on an 'AelT for the benefit
of the great tower of All Saint's, Derby,
which was then being built, and earned by
it over £25 8s. 6A— near £400 of our money.:
Brailsford spent 14s. 5d., and paid in £11 8s.
id. to the same good work" (Lichfield,
' Diocesan Hist.,' S. P. C. K.).

ALMS-BOXES, FIXED

12

ALMUCE

graves of the martyrs." The ancient
writer under the name of Origen
(Origen on Job, lib. iii. p. 437), says on
these solemnities : " They met together,
both clergy and people, inviting the
poor and needy, and refreshing the
widows and orphans." Chrysostom
(Horn. 47 in Sanct Julian, t. i. p. 613)
tells his people, if they desire a cor
poreal as well as spiritual table upon
any of these festivals, they might, as
soon as the assembly was done, recreate
themselves under a vine or fig-tree near
the monument of the martyr, and
thereby secure their conscience from
condemnation. It appears that these
feasts were then managed with great
gravity and sobriety, and chiefly used,
as they were originally designed, for
the use and benefit of the poor ; and as
such they are recommended by Nazian-
zen, Theodore, Paulinus, and others ;
being indeed nothing more than those
common feasts of charity called Agapae,
and derived from Apostolic practices,
only now applied to the festivals of the
martyrs. But they were in practice
frequently held in the churches them
selves, as well as in their precincts.
Aurelius got a canon made in the third
Council of Carthage, obliging the clergy
to refrain from all such feasting in the
church, and as much as in them lay, to
restrain the people from the same prac
tice. This had been prohibited before by
the Council of Laodicea forbidding all
feasts of charity, and all eating, and
spreading of tables, in the church; and
it was prohibited by the Council of
Orleans, in France, where a general
canon was made that no one should
pretend to pay any vow in the church
by singing or drinking, or any loose
behaviour whatever. Similar feasts
were held in the festivals of the dedi
cation of churches.
[Paper on Church Ales; in the
'Churchman's Family Magazine for
1865,' p. 419.]
ALMS-BOXES, FIXED. The use of
an alms-box in a church is to collect
money for various purposes, such as
church expenses building fund, the

poor, &c. It consists of a strong box
usually of wood, the lid of which is
secured by one or more hasps and pad
locks, and provided with a slit in the
top for dropping in the coins. The
earliest examples are solid trunks of
wood hollowed out, such as St. Benno's
chest at Clymog Fawr in Carnarvon
shire. In some of the Early English
church chests, such as that at Climping
in Sussex, there is a small 'box par
titioned off from the rest to receive
money, so that the chest serves the
double purpose of alms-box and re
pository for deeds. The alms-box of
the Perpendicular period, as at Blythr
burgh in Suffolk, was an upright
wooden post with a receptacle for
money hollowed out in its top, and
was ornamented with panelling, &c. In
later times the post was often turned
like a baluster. A special type of
small round poor's-box was used by
guilds and companies, such as the Cord-
wainers of Oxford. Several devices
are used for preventing the coin from
being removed when once it has been
deposited in the box, such as an in
verted hemispherical cup of iron be
neath the slit ; plates of iron placed in
opposite directions one below the other
so as to form a zigzag path for the coin ;
canvas tubes weighted with lead at the
bottom for the coin to pass through.
Authorities :— M. H. Bloxham in the
'Assoc. Arch. Soc. Rep.' ; J. A. Repton
in the ' Archseologia,' vol. xx. p. 532-;
'Journal British Archaeological Inst.,'
vol. vi. p. 278, and vol. xxvii. p. 141 ;
'Journal British Archaeological Asso
ciation,' vol. xxiv. p. 332, and vol.
xxxi. p. 400.— J. R. A.
ALMS-BOXES and plates. [See Offer
tory Collecting' Boxes.]
ALMUCE, or AMESS, a tippet of black
cloth with a hood attached, lined with
fur, worn in choir by canons, and in
some counties of England by parochial
rectors. In the earlier examples it is
full, and falls as low as the waist [see
Canons] ; in sixteenth century examples
it only covered the shoulders, and was
shaped in front into two ends, like a

ALTAR

13

ALTAR

lady's tippet of the last generation, as
in the portrait of Archbishop Warham
at Lambeth. The "collar of sables"
which Parker wore at his consecration
was the amess. It is the "tippet" of
the 58th canon of 1603; the "hood"
of modern graduates. Its fashion,
colour, and lining serve to mark the
University degree of the wearer. [See
Hood.] ALTAR (altare, in Patristic Latin,
altar). The table in church on which
the Holy Communion is celebrated.
In our Prayer Book it is always called
"the Table," "and the Holy Table,"
and the word altar is not used, out of
deference to certain prejudices against
the use of the word altar. The word
altar is used in all Christian anti-
?uity to designate the Holy Table.
ndeed both in classical, in Jewish, and
in Christian use, the two names altar
and table are interchangeable. There
is only one true Altar, Sacrifice, Priest ;
the Jewish altar, sacrifices, and priests
were so in a secondary and typical sense ;
and so the Christian altars, sacrifices,
and priests are so in a, secondary, re
presentative, and commemorative sense ;
and the words are thus used by all the
ancient Christian writers from apos
tolic times downward, and their use is
defended by some of the best authors of
our Reformed Church. "It is called
a Table with reference to the Lord's
Supper, and an Altar on the score of
the sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving
there offered to Almighty God." ('King
Edward's Letter,' A.D. 1550.) Even the
Nonconformist Richard Baxter says : —
Question. "What think you of the
names Sacrifice, Altar, anil Priest?"
Answer. "The ancient Churches used
them all without exception from any
Christian that I ever heard of."
('Christian Institutes,' p. 304.) The
word altar is used in the Coronation
Service. The first Christian altar was the
table in the Upper Chamber in Jeru
salem at which our Lord instituted the
great memorial ; and it is probable that
it was at the same table in the same

place that the apostles continued to
" break the bread " daily after the
institution of the Church ; what
was its material it is impossible to
say. When buildings were appropri
ated to the exclusive use of divine
worship, it is certain that an altar
formed part of its most necessary
furniture, and there is every reason to
believe that it was considered a matter
of indifference of what material it was
made. The altar in St. John Lateran,
at which St. Peter is said to have cele
brated, and which is unquestionably
very ancient, is of wood ; as also is that
in the church of St. Praxedes ; they
were, however, usually of stone. It is
the slab which is properly the altar ;
and it was supported sometimes on four
pillars of stone; sometimes on only one
central pillar ; sometimes on a frame
of metal ; and the portable altars in
frequent use might be placed upon any
convenient support.
In the East at all times down to the
present day altars are made either of
wood, stone, or metal. In the West
the earliest decree of a Council bearing
on the subject is one of the Council of
Epaona (in France), which forbids any
other than stone altars to be con
secrated with chrism. A law of Charles
the Great orders that priests should not
celebrate except on stone altars con
secrated by bishops, and it gradually
became a rule in the West that altars
should be of stone. In England wooden
altars were still used, at least down to
the Conquest. Wulstatf, Bishop of
Worcester (1062—1095), demolished
throughout his diocese the wooden
altars which were still in existence
from ancient times in England. Lan-
franc ordered that they should be of
stone. The altar was normally placed at the
east end of the church. ,In the Basili-
can churches of the western half of
Christendom it was placed on the chord
of the apse, under a canopy, and the
seats of the bishop and clergy were
behind it. In the cruciform churches
of the eastern half of Christendom, the

ALTAR

14

ALTAR, SUPER

eastern limb of the cross within which
the altar was placed was more or less
cut off from sight by a screen. Our
English usage followed that of the east,
for the altar was placed in a distinct
eastern portion of the building, separ
ated by a pierced screen from the rest
of the church. In some exceptional
cases, however, the altar was placed at
the west end of the building ; but then
the celebrant stood behind it, facing
east ; as at St. Peter's, St John Lateran,
and St. Clement's, Rome ; at the church
of the Holy Cross, Jerusalem ; and in
the first cathedral church of Canter
bury the altar was at the west end, with
the archbishop's throne behind it.
The action of the Reformers of the
time of Edward VI. and Elizabeth, in
taking down the old altars, and substi
tuting others of different material and
form, and placing them differently, may
be explained in this way, that knowing
the influence which externals have upon
the mind, and the force of old associ
ations, they thought it desirable to
alter the outward circumstances of the
celebration of the Holy Communion so
as the better to break off the minds
of the people from the old erroneous
doctrines and superstitions and abuses
connected with it. The old system
had perhaps exaggerated the sacrificial
aspect of the Eucharist ; they desired
to bring the people to realise the sacra
mental aspect, and they exaggerated
it ; the old view was perhaps symbolised
by the stone altar, the new view by
the Holy Table, and therefore they took
away the altars, and substituted the
tables. They knew as well as we do
that the two aspects of the Eucharist
ought to be held together, and that the
terms Altar and Holy Table were used
indifferently by the ancient Fathers.
So in SpaiTow's 'Collection,' under
date 1559 a.d.: "Tables placed in
some churches, but in others the
altars not removed. In the other
whereof [in either of which cases] saving
for an uniformity, there seemeth no
matter of great moment, so that the
sacrament be duly and reverently ad

ministered. Yet for the observation;
of one uniformity throughout the whole.
realm, and for the better imitation of.
the law in that behalf, it is ordered'
that no altar be taken down but by the
curate and churchwardens. The Holy
Table to be decently [becomingly]
made, and set where the altar stood ;¦
at the Communion to be placed in front,
and set within the chancel, and after-.
wards placed where it stood before."
As a point of antiquarian interest it-
may be noted that a few of the old
stone altars escaped the general destruc
tion, e.g. that of Arundel . Church, by"
the accident that the church belonged.
to a noble family which adhered to the
Papal obedience ; chantry altars at
Porloek, Somersetshire ; Abbey Dore,
Herts ; Grosmond, Monmouth ; the
chapel of the Pix at Westminster ; at
Chipping Norton, Warmington, War
wickshire ; Burford, Oxon ; and Shot-
teswell, Warwickshire ; Broughtori!
Castle, Oxon ; Bengeworth near Eve4
sham ; Enston, Oxon ; in a chapel in;
Gloucester cathedral ; in the Lady
Chapel at Christ Church, Hants; at
Claypole near Newark ; at Titchbome,
Hants. Of the new altars erected after the.
Restoration, several are marble slabs
resting on metal supports; as in St..
Clement Danes, and others of the'
London churches.
In the famous " Stone altar case " of.
the Round Church, Cambridge, it was
decided by Sir Herbc.t J. Fust, the
Judge of the Arches ' Court, that im-.
movable stone altars are illegal in the
Church of England, but that movable
altars may be of any metal.
ALTAR, SUPER. A small portable]
tablet of stone framed in wood, stone,
or metal, sometimes elaborately orna
mented, which could be placed upon
any table or other convenient support,
was used for the celebration .of the.
Holy Eucharist, when it was necessary
to celebrate away from a church of
chapel with a fixed altar. They were
in use in very early times. One was
found in the grave of St. Cuthbert at

ALTAR TOMB

15

ALTAR TOMB

Durham, when it was opened in 1827 ;
it is engraved in the 'Archaeological
Journal,' iv. 245.* That they were
sometimes used with very little rever
ence would appear from an Injunction
of Bishop Grossteste, as follows : " Let
the super altars [portable altars ?] be
decent and of such size, and firmly
fixed in a frame of stone, so that they
cannot be moved from it ; neither let
them be set to any other uses but
the celebration of Divine worship, by
grinding colours upon them, or the

the top is common both in Etruscan,
Greek, and Roman art. But the
development of this rudimentary idea
into the altar tomb, with a full-length
effigy lying upon it, with the hands
in the attitude of prayer, and the
whole surmounted by an architectural
canopy ; even if the adaptation is all
the Gothic artist did ; is still an
adaptation which required a religious
and cultured genius. It is called an
"altar tomb " because it is of the same
material, and nearly of the same size

Effigy of a Monk. Tenby Church.

like" (Grossteste, 'Ep.' 157; comp.
Wilkins, ii. 705). The name is some
times applied to the retable of an
ALTAR TOMB. [See Sepulchral
Monuments.] The most solemn and
beautiful type of sepulchral monument
which the Gothic artist has left us, is
the altar tomb with its recumbent
effigy. It may be doubted whether
the Gothic artist did more than adapt
an ancient type of monument, for the
small coffer with a figure reclining on
" See article in the ' Archieological Jour
nal,' iv. 245.

and shape, as the old stone altars.
There is great variety in their orna
mentation. They have plain arcaded
sides, as in the cut from Tenby church ;
or the arcades are filled with statuettes,
usually of the children and relatives of
the person commemorated, as the tomb
of Thomas Fitzalan and Lady Beatrix
in Arundel church ; or they have panel
led and traceried sides in endless variety.
The effigy of the deceased, which so
frequently lies on the monument, is
usually a portrait of the deceased, and
is often of a very high degree of artistic
merit ; the attitude, lying supine, with
eyes closed, and hands clasped in an

16

Tomb of Thomas Fitzalaii and Lady Beatrix. Arundel Church.

Tomb of Le Despeneer Family. Tewkesbury Abbey.

ALTAR TOMB

17

ALTAR TOMB

endless prayer, is very finely conceived
and is always affecting. Such effigies are
represented in several of the accompany
ing wood-cuts. Most usually they are of
marble, but sometimes of metal,* and

chasing, and enamelling; and some
times they are carved out of a block
of oak, as at Brancepeth St. Giles,
Durham ; Gloucester ; Pamber Priory,'
Hants ; and at Little Horkesley and

Monument of Sir John Manners and his "Wife (Dorothy Vernon). Haddon.

these were ornamented with gilding,
* E. g. at Westminster, the effigies of De
Valence, Henry III., Queen Eleanor, Richard
II. and Queen Anne, Henry VII., Queen
Elizabeth, and Margaret, Countess of Rich
mond ; at Canterbury, the Black Prince ; at
Warwick, Earl Richard ; at Winchester, the
Earl of Portland.

Danbury, Essex ;' Ashwell, Woodford,
Northants ; Burham, Gayton, Fersfield,
Boxted, Suffolk.
The tomb is often surmounted by a
canopy, partly for the protection of the
effigies, partly causd honoris, and partly
as a beautiful architectural feature of

ALTAR TOMB

18

ALTAR TOMB

the monumental design ; and these
canopies are still more varied in design
than the tombs themselves. Some
times it is only a flat tester, suspended
or supported over the tomb, as in that
of the Black Prince at Canterbury ; or
the tester is enriched and carried on
ornamental pillars, as at Arundel ;

that the deceased was the founder of at
least that part of the church in which
the tomb is made, or a considerable
benefactor to the church.
With the general change of taste
which came in with the revival of
classical learning in the fifteenth cen
tury, came a change in the fashion of

Pope's Monument. Twickenham.

or a shrine-like structure, like the
tomb of one of the Despenser family in
Tewkesbury Abbey.
Tombs with or without effigies upon
them are frequently found under an
' arch, constructed in the wall itself of
the church, as in the above tomb of
a monk at Tenby church, and are be
lieved, with good reason, to indicate

these monuments. They were now
most frequently placed against the walls
of the church, and the canopy assumed
the modified shape of an ornamental
entablature over the tomb. The effigies
are now no longer laid supine ; the
most common attitude is kneeling at a
prayer-desk ; frequently the man kneels
at one side of a double desk, with his

AMBRY

19

ANGLICAN

sons kneeling behind him, while his
wife kneels at the other side vis-a-vis
with her daughters behind her. Of
this type is the tomb of Sir John
Manners and his wife Lady Dorothy
(ne'e Vernon) at Haddon Hall. Another
frequent attitude of the effigy is re
clining on the side. At Boxted,
Suffolk, are two standing effigies of Sir
I. Poley and his wife, under arched
canopies. A still further degradation
of taste introduced the fashion of busts
within medallions or on brackets, and a
vast variety of mural tablets, of which
the interior of Twickenham church
gives several examples ; the monument
on the left is that of Alexander Pope.
The better taste of the present genera
tion has again revived the altar-tomb,
with its recumbent effigy.
AMBRY, or AUMBRY, a corruption
of the' old French armarie, from the
low Latin armaria, a chest or cupboard,
especially a book-case. Recesses in
the walls of the ' church, which have
usually had a door, and served as cup
boards, are sometimes called by this
old-fashioned name.
AMICE, one of the ancient clerical
vestments. It was a linen hood, which
was sometimes worn over the head, but
more frequently thrown back from the
head, and hanging about the neck. In
representations of clerics it is not very
conspicuous, but is seen when we know
where to look for it, and what to look
for ; e. g. on the brass of Bishop Good
rich of Ely [under Bishop] it is seen
like a ruff about the neck. It was worn
by all the orders of clergy (Dr. Roch's
' Church of our Fathers, ' vol. i. p. 477).
AMPULLA, a globular vessel for hold
ing liquid. The vessels, usually of the
precious metals, for holding the wine
and water used at the. altar ; the vessel
used for holding the chrism used in
baptism and other rites of the mediaeval
Church. The small vessels, usually of
lead or pewter, which were sold to
pilgrims and others at -the great places
of pilgrimage, containing water in
which some relic of the saint who was
the object of pilgrimage had been c

washed or dipped ; the water being
superstitiously believed to have curative
properties. [See Pilgrimage.] The
word occurs in the Coronation Service,
where it is given to the vessel which
contains the "Holy Oil" with which
the Sovereign is anointed.
ANABAPTIST. [See Baptist.]
ANCHORET (' A.va%iopi]TriQ, one who
lives in retirement). [See Hermit.]
ANDREWS, Lancelot, Bishop of
Winchester ; born 1555, died 1626 ; was
a native of All Hallows, Barking, edu
cated at Merchant Taylors' and Pem
broke, Cambridge, and elected Fellow.
Afterwards appointed one of the first
Fellows of Jesus College, Oxford, then
newly founded. Had at this early
period a, great reputation as a divine
and casuist. Was successively Rector
of Alton, Hants ; Vicar of St. Giles',
Cripplegate, London ; Prebendary and
Residentiary of St. Paul's ; Master of
Pembroke, Prebendary and Dean of
Westminster. In favour with Elizabeth,
but declined a see because he would
not accede to the alienation of the
episcopal revenues. In favour with
James, at whose request he wrote an
answer to Bellarmine's attack on James's
' Defence of the Right of Kings. ' Con
secrated Bishop of Chichester, 3rd Nov.
1605 ; translated to Ely, 22nd Sept.
1609 ; and to Winchester, 28th Feb.
1618 ; died 28th Sept. 1626, and buried
in St. Sepulchre's, South wark. Of great
piety, charity, learning, and wit. His
most popular works are his ' Sermons, '
' The Moral Law Expounded, ' ' Collec
tion of Posthumous Lectures,' and espe
cially his 'Manual of Devotions. '
ANGLICAN, English : as the Angli
can Church (Ecclesia Anglicana),
meaning the branch of the Church of
Christ planted in this kingdom. Angli
can Communion, the whole body of the
Churches which are in communion with
the Church of England, viz. the Colo
nial and Missionary Churches and the
Churches of the United States of
America. [See Pan- Anglican Synod.]
Ecclesiastical customs, &c., which ob
tain in the Church of England.

ANNATES

20

ANSELM

ANNATES. [See First Fruits.]
ANSELM, St. , Archbishop of Canter
bury ; born about 1033, died 1109. Was
born atAosta, a thoughtful, studious
boy, with dreams of heaven, who,
; before he was fifteen, wished to become
a monk ; afterwards was led away by
the gaieties and sports of youth.
'Driven by his father's unkindness to
leave home to seek his fortune in
strange lands, he spent three years in
Burgundy ; then remained for a time at
•Avranches, in Normandy, where Lan-
•franc had lately taught ; followed
Lanfranc to the monastery of Bee ;
settled there as a student under his
famous countryman, and a helper in his
teaching. In his twenty-seventh year
his father's deatli gave him the choice
of an honourable place in the world,
and a competent fortune ; but he had
both head and heart for something
higher, and after consideration and
counsel he resolved to remain at Bee,
and to become a monk there. In three
years Lanfranc was removed to Caen,
and Anselm succeeded him as prior.
After fifteen years, on the old Abbot
Herlwin's death, he was chosen
abbot, and governed Bee as abbot for
•fifteen years more. He governed his
abbey and taught his scholars with
success, but his great work here was
his work as a thinker. * "The men of
his day recognised in him something
more than common as an inquirer and
a. thinker, but it was reserved for much
later primes to discern how great he
was ; " and to place him among the
few discoverers of new paths in philo
sophical speculation. ' ' His first works
written at Bee, show his refined subtlety
of thought, with the strong effort to
grasp in his own way the truth of his
subject They exhibited a mind really
at work, not amusing itself with its
knowledge and dexterity. They are
those dialogues in which he grapples
with the idea of Truth, with the idea of
t°r^ll}:mi with the idea "f Sin, as
exhibited m what may be called its
n„*„ T?.t 1u<>taHons in this article are from
Dean Church's ' St. Anselm.'

simplest form, the fall of an untempted
angelic nature." But the two works
composed at Bee which have gained
him his place among the great thinkers
of Christian Europe, are "two short
treatises on the deepest foundations of
all religion, examples of the most severe
and abstruse exercise of mind, yet
coloured throughout by the intensity of
faith and passion, into devotion of the
soul to the God of truth, who sets the
reason to work ; " they are the ' Mono-
logion' and the 'Proslogion.' The
first is "an attempt to elicit from tho
necessity of reason, without the aid of
Holy Scripture, the idea of God and
the real foundation of it, and to exhibit
it in plain language, and by ordinary
argument, and in a simple manner of
discussion ; and he aims further at
showing how this idea necessarily leads
to the belief of the Word and the
Spirit, distinguished from, but one
with, the Father." But he was not
satisfied with the 'Monologion,' "a
chain containing many links, a theory
requiring the grasp in one view of
many reasonings. He sought to dis->
cover some one -argument — short,
simple, self-sufficing — by which to
demonstrate in a clear and certain
manner the existence and perfections
of God. " " The result was the famous
argument of the ' Proslogion, 'the argu
ment revived, with absolute confidence
in it, by Descartes, and which still
employs deep minds in France and
Germany with its fascinating mystery
—that the idea of God in the human
mind of itself necessarily involves the
reality of that idea." "God is that
than which nothing greater can be
conceived; and he who well under
stands this will understand that the
Divine Being exists in such a manner
that His non-existence cannot even bo
conceived" ('Proslogion,' c. 4).
When Lanfranc died in 1088, the
year after the death of the Conqueror,
Rufus left the see of Canterbury vacant
that he might enjoy its vast revenues..
Naturally men speculated as to who
should be his successor, and the general

ANSELM

21

ANSELM

voice designated Anselm as the fittest
" man to fill the great place with advantage
.to the Church and nation.
He was therefore reluctant to come
to England when the urgent entreaty
of a sick friend (Hugh, Earl of Chester)
and the business of his convent called
him. Once in England Rufus forbade
his return, but still did nothing about
the vacant see ; until a dangerous sick
ness made him begin to set his house
in order in fear of death. Then he no
minated Anselm to the vacant Arch
bishopric. Anselm refused, but was
dragged into the sick king's chamber,
a pastoral staff was forced into his
resisting grasp, and the king ordered
the temporalities to be delivered to
him. He complained that they had
yoked a young untamed bull with an
old and feeble sheep. The comparison
may have represented the king's cha
racter fairly enough, but did injustice
to his own. He was of mild and gentle
temper, but with a keen, subtle humour,
and with sufficient courage and firm
ness of action. What he meant by
their being yoked together may need a
word of explanation. The position of
the archbishop then, and his relations
to the king and kingdom, were very
different from anything which our
institutions will help us to conceive.
The vast possessions of the see alone
sufficed to make him the most powerful
man after the king ; all men regarded
him as a spiritual ruler, second in
dignity only to the Pope ; he exercised
his authority by means of the wonder
fully complete organisation of the
Church, which extended into every
parish and touched every individual.
The royal authority, absolute enough
over his own estates, was limited else
where by the feudal privileges of his
Barons. The archbishop was the
greatest of the barons, and the first
constitutional adviser of the king in
affairs of State. In short, the king
ruled the nation in temporal matters,
and the archbishop in spiritual
matters ; and the efficient exercise of
the two rules required that they should

be co-ordinated by the agreement of the
two rulers ; the well-being of the nation
required a good understanding between
the king and the archbishop.
But misunderstandings broke out at
once between them. It was the custom
for the bishops on their appointment
to make a considerable present in
money to the king. Anselm thought
it bore the appearance of a simoniacal
transaction, and offered so small a
present that the king contemptuously
refused it, and the archbishop gave it
to the poor. Then Anselm asked leave
to go and receive his pall from the
pope. This was during the papal
schism, when there were two rival
popes, Urban II., the Italian successor
of Gregory VII. , and Clement, the anti-
pope, set up by the German Emperor.
"Which pope?" asked the king.
"Urban," replied the archbishop.
"But I have not acknowledged him,"
retorted the king, and accused Anselm
of a violation of his oath of fealty. It.
was true that the Conqueror had as-'
sumed it as a right of the Crown to
decide between rival claimants of the;
papacy ; but since Anselm, as Abbot
of Bee, had already, in common with
the Church of Normandy, recognised'
Urban, he could not now retract and-
declare himself ready to recognise the
anti-pope, if the king should so decide.
The king also was prepared to recognise.
Urban, but apparently wanted to obtain
certain concessions from him as the.
price of his recognition ; and one of.
the concessions seems to be on the sub
ject of investiture ; he desired to obtain
for the Crown the right of investing
the archbishop by the symbol of the
pall. The king accordingly refused
Anselm leave to go, but he himself sent
an embassy to Rome. His messengers.
came back, accompanied by a legate.
bringing, the pall with him. He passed
through Canterbuiy, without holding
any communication with the arch
bishop, and the king caused Urban to
be proclaimed as Pope without consult
ing the archbishop. But the legate.
compromised the question of the pall. :

ANSELM

22

ANSELM

Anselm was not required to go to Rome
to receive it in person ; neither, on the
other hand, did the legate place it in the
king's hands that he might confer it ;
he placed it on the altar of Canterbury
cathedral, and Anselm took it thence.
But the king and the archbishop
still disagreed. The king refused him
leave to hold a synod, on the ground
that the country was occupied with
the expedition to Wales. And when
the expedition was over he complained
that the contingent of armed, men
furnished from the archbishop's estates
had been defective in numbers and
equipment. Some of the bishops took
part with the king, and Anselm was
hindered in his plans for a revival of
discipline and reformation of manners
which the long vacancy of the see had
made desirable. He asked permission
to go to Rome and seek counsel in his
difficulties of the pope. The king re
fused, and it was unlawful for the
archbishop to leave the kingdom with
out his permission. At last the arch
bishop declared his resolve to go with
out permission, and the king threatened
if he did to seize the archbishopric,
and never to suffer him to return.
Anselm went in October, 1097, thus
putting himself in the wrong, and the
king fulfilled his threat.
Anselm was away three years, until
the death of Rufus. In the mean time
he was received with great consideration
abroad ; the pope espoused his cause,
and required the king to reinstate him.
At Capua he found time to write his
famous book on the Incarnation, ' Cur
Deus Homo,' which is still one of our
theological text-books, of which the
following is a description :
"In the ' Cur Deus Homo,' the term
'satisfaction' is for the first time
applied to the atoning work of our
Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ ; and it
is a term employed to suggest an ex
planation of the whole mystery of
redemption. When God commanded
rational creatures and men into exist
ence, the relation which He assumed to
them was that of a sovereign. Sovereign

power implies the existence of a law,
and a pledge to enforce it. The one
law to all created intelligence is obedi
ence, or the submission of the created
will to that of the sovereign ruler.
As long as the submission lasts the
creature lives, and lives in happiness ;
there is no impediment to his happy
existence, no cause for his destruction.
But this implies death and misery as
the inevitable consequence of disobe
dience. The consequence cannot he
avoided without the annihilation of
law ; and the annihilation of law would
be the triumph of the created will
over that of the Creator, and the non-
version of the universe into a hell.
On the fall of human nature, therefore,
the well-being of creation required the
misery and death of man, unless some
thing were done which would maintain
the majesty of the law as forcibly as
our condemnation. But the obedience
of God to His own law would be more
than an equivalent ; and this God con
descended to render. But God as God
could neither obey nor disobey. God,
therefore, in the second Person of the
ever-blessed Trinity, without ceasing
to be God became man also ; and the
God-Man was obedient, even unto
death. Thus we see why God was
made man ; how the demands of the
law were satisfied, and the Divine
honour vindicated, even though the
God of justice extended His pardon,
under the condition of repentance, to a
fallen and an outlawed race. I have
not attempted to analyse the ' Cur
Deus Homo ; ' I have merely given the
character of the argument." (Hook's
' Lives of the Archbishops — Anselm.')
Anselm was present at the Council
of Bari, 1098, where a discussion was
held between the Latins and Greeks on
the disputed question of the Procession
of the Holy Ghost, and the pope called .
upon Anselm as the most distinguished
theologian of the Western Church to
answer the case of the Greeks. The
pope was about in this Council to pro
nounce sentence of excommunication
against the English king, but Anselm

ANSELM

23

ANTIPHON

knelt and pfayed for a suspension of
the sentence, and the Council which
had admired his learning now praised
his meekness.
In the following year he was present
at a Synod in Rome, in which it was
forbidden, under penalty of excommuni
cation, to receive investiture into any
ecclesiastical dignity from lay hands,
or to come under the tenure of homage
for any ecclesiastical promotion.
When Rufus died, 1100, Anselm set
out on his return towards England.
Messengers from the new king, Henry,
met him, urging his immediate return.
The king received him with all honour,
and proposed at once to reinvest him
in his see ; whereupon the old difficulty
arose in a new form. Anselm, in accord
ance with the decree of the Synod at
which he had assisted in Rome, refused
to do homage, or receive his arch
bishopric at the king's hand, and re
quired the king to accept the decree
in the case of all the bishoprics and
abbeys of England. The king treated
the matter with great forbearance. He
firmly refused to give up his sovereignty
over all persons in his dominions ; but
he allowed the question to rest till an
embassy could be sent to Rome to ask
the pope to dispense with the late
decree ; and in the meantime he allowed
Anselm to enjoy the revenues and
discharge the duties of the see. A
long controversy ensued, which it is
convenient to sum up at once. Anselm
again went to Rome to discuss the
question with the pope, and in the
end a compromise was agreed to, that
the king should abandon the right to
nominate bishops, or to give them in
vestiture to their spiritual office, but
that the prelates should do homage for
their temporal possessions, and take the
oath of fealty to the king. In 1102
the archbishop was able at last with
the king's consent to hold a national
Synod in London, at which, in order to
give it the greater weight, many of
the nobility were present, and to issue
a number of constitutions for the en
forcement of discipline among the clergy

and the suppression of vice generally.
The rest of his life was taken up with
the laborious management of the affairs
of the Church ; in contentions with
unruly suffragans ; in trying to compel
the clergy to put away their wives ;
and his pious soul was vexed continually
with the ignorance and coarseness and
viciousness which abounded. He died
at Canterbury, April 1109, in the 16th
year of his prelacy, and the 76th of his
age. He was canonised in the reign of
Henry VII., at the instance of Cardinal
Morton, his successor in the see.
ANTHEM. A corruption of the word
antiphon. In its modern sense, of a
passage of Scripture set to music for
use in the Morning and Evening Prayer,
it first occurs in the time of Queen
Elizabeth. These services original!}'
ended with the third collect, and after
that, ' ' in choirs and places where they
sing," an anthem was added. Its
meaning is often misunderstood. It is
not a performance for the gratification
of the congregation ; it is a solemn act
of worship. The trained choir, which
has, all through the service, been re
strained to the simplest tones, in order
that the congregation might he able to
join with voice as well as heart, now
presents to God a special offering of
the cultured exercise of the resources
of its art. The people do not sit as if
they were being sung to, but stand as
joining in heart and soul in the service
which is being offered.
ANTIPHON (dvn, <puvij). A song
in which one part is opposed to, or is a
response to, another. The mediaeval
Church was accustomed to use what
were technically called antiphons in
the following way : before chanting a
psalm, or reciting some other portion
of scripture, a few words of the psalm
or scripture were said, to give to the
mind the key-note, as it were, of the
whole psalm or scripture ; or to give
emphasis to some particular part of it,
or train of thought in it, for the sake
of which it was then used ; or to indi
cate the spiritual meaning underlying
the surface meaning of the words.

ANTIPHONAL

24 APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION

ANTIPHONAL singing ; alternate
singing ; as when one verse of a psalm
. is sung by the Decani side, and the
other verse by the Cantoris side.
It is probable that the Psalms, or at
.least some of them, were sung in this
responsive form in the temple. The
structure of Hebrew poetry, which con
sists of the parallelism of thoughts in
the two lines of each couplet, lends
itself to, and even suggests, a responsive
" mode of recitation. It is probable that
.this custom was continued in the
Church. But this antiphonal method
runs throughout the Morning and
Evening Prayer. In the Eucharist the
¦celebrant stands isolated and aloof in
the sacrarium, and says the greater
part of the service alone, for it symbol
ises the mediation of the great High
Priest ; but in the Morning and Even
ing Prayer, the clergy and people are
together ; the Psalms, which are the
main body of the office, are said in
alternate verses by all ; and this re
sponsive idea is carried through the
rest of the office, symbolising the whole
Church rendering its collective offering
¦of prayer and praise. It is a striking
recognition of the priestly character of
the whole Body of Christ, set forth in
Holy Scripture (Exod. xix. 6 ; 1 Pet. ii.
5, 9 ; Rev. i. 6 ; iv. 10 ; xx. 6).
ANTIPHONARIUM. One of the
:ancient Service Books ; so named, says
Lyndwood, from its containing the
antiphons which were_ sung at the
¦canonical hours, arranged properly
under the respective days and hours.
.Afterwards were gradually added other
portions of the Divine Service, as the
invitatories, hymns, responses, verses,
and little chapters. Some antiphoners
have more, some less of these additions.
.It was , intended for the use of the
choir ; and in some cases is a large
folio, with the text in very large
characters, with the accompanying
music in notes to correspond ; it was
placed on a lectern in the middle of
the choir ; and some illuminations show
us a group of clerks round the lectern,
all singing from the same book.

ANTONY, ST., OF VIENNA, Order
of Friars, were instituted for the help
and relief of persons afflicted with the
disease known as St. Antony's Fire.
They were brought here early in 'the
reign of Henry III., and had two
houses, one at London, the other at
Hereford. They were distinguished
by a Tau cross of blue cloth on the
breast of their black habit.
APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION. The
doctrine of apostolical succession is that,
as Christ at first gave authority to the
apostles to govern the Churches, so the
apostles, acting under divine guidance,
appointed others to succeed them in
the permanent elements of their
apostolic authority, and that this is
the regular form of Church organisa
tion. The doctrine includes, further,
that our Lord gave to the apostles
power to confer certain gifts of grace,
and that the power to confer these per
manent gifts of grace in the Church
was transmitted by the apostles to their
successors ; so that this succession of
the episcopal form of Church organisa
tion is not a mere accident, not merely
an external fact of Church organisation,
but forms a channel for the transmis
sion of divine authority to the ministry*
and supernatural gifts to the ChurcL '•¦
There are here two points to be dealt
with : (1) the historical fact that there
has been such a succession, and that
it has been maintained in our own
branch of the Church ; and (2) that the
Church of England holds the doctrine
of a transmission of authority and grace
through this succession.
(1) We find in the New Testament
indications that it was intended that
the authority exercised by the apostles
over the Churches should be continued
by others in a similar form. It is the
testimony of the whole ancient Church
that St. James was appointed to exer
cise the authority of a diocesan bishop
in Jerusalem, and this is confirmed by
the history in the Acts and elsewhere
(Acts xii. 17 ; xv. 13 ; xxi. 18 ; Gal. ii.
9). St. Paul delegated Timothy and
Titus to exercise apostolic authority in

APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION 25 APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION

Ephesus. and Crete respectively ; so
that this authority was capable of being
committed to and exercised by others
than the first apostles. The "Angels
of the Churches in Rev. i. 3, are held
by the whole Church to have been the
bishops of those Churches, and it is
matter of history that at the time the
book was written (e. 95 a.d.) Polycarp
was Bishop of Smyrna, and the names
of bishops of the other cities at a period
very shortly after are known to us.
We have an express statement of the
highest importance by Clement, Bishop
of Rome, who is said to be the Clement
mentioned by St. Paul (Phil. iv. 3),
in his First Epistle to the Corinthians,
which was written within a few years
of St. Paul's martyrdom, and probably
before some eight books of the New
Testament had been written: — "the
apostles knew, through our Lord Jesus
Christ, that contentions would arise
about the name of episcopacy, and for
this reason, being endued with perfect
foreknowledge, they appointed an order
(or method) of succession, so that when
they should depart, other approved
men should take their office and
ministry" ;('Ep. ad. Corinth.' lib. i.
chap. 44). Clement of Alexandria
says, "the Apostle St. John, when he
settled at Ephesus, went about the
neighbouring regions ordaining bishops,
and setting apart such persons for the
clergy as were signified to him by the
Holy Ghost " (Stroni. lib. , ' Quis Dives
salvetur '). Tertullian ( ' adv. Marc. ' iv.
5) bears like testimony : "the order of
bishops if traced to its origin will be
found to have St. John for its author."
From the earliest moment that we
have any evidence at all of the con
dition of any Church throughout the
world, we find that it had a bishop ;
and to this rule there are only two
exceptions : when Clement wrote the
Epistle to the Corinthians which we
have quoted, that Church had not a
•bishop ; and when Polycarp wrote to
the Philippians, that Church had not
a bishop. These exceptions may serve
to indicate that when the death of an

apostle left some Churches for a. time
without a head, or when vacancies
occurred from time to time between
two episcopates, the presbyters , and
deacons carried on affairs ad interim
until a bishop was provided.
But the universal testimony of
antiquity is, that every Church in the
world had its line of bishops 'descend-.
ing immediately from the apostles.
Irenaeus, who was the disciple of Poly
carp, who was the disciple of St. John,
makes the appointment of bishops in
all the Churches of the apostles, and,
their regular succession, an argument
against the heretical congregations of
his day: "we," says he, "can reckon
up those whom the apostles ordained
to be bishops in the several Churches,
and who they were that succeeded
them, down to our own times. And
had the apostles known any hidden
mysteries (as the heretics pretended),
they would have committed thein to.
those men to whom they committed
the Churches themselves ; for they
desired to have them in all respects
perfect and unreprovable whom they
left to be their successors, and to whom
they committed their own apostolic
authority." He adds, "because it
would be endless to enumerate the
succession of bishops in all the Churches,
he would instance that of Rome."
The 'Apostolic Constitutions' (vii.
46), a compilation of earlier documents
made about the end of the third or be
ginning of the fourth century, contains
lists of bishops from the apostles to
that period. Eusebius, the historian of
the early Church, who wrote in the
early part of the fourth century, derives
the bishops of all Churches from the
apostles, and gives the actual lists of
the bishops of all the principal cities
of the Roman Empire, from the apostles
down to his own time. "There is
such a multitude of unexceptionable
witnesses for this fact," says Arch
bishop Potter, "as can scarce be pro
duced for any other matter of fact,
except the rise and progress of Chris
tianity, so that whosoever shall deny

APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION 26 APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION

this, may with better reason reject all
histories whatever." "It is as im
possible for an impartial man to doubt
whether there was a succession of
bishops from the apostles; as it would
he to call in question the succession of
Roman emperors from Julius Caesar, or
the succession of kings in any other
country." There ,is absolutely no room for the
theory that the Churches were left by
the apostles to the government of their
presbyters, and that episcopacy arose out
of the usurpation of personal authority
by the presiding presbyter. There is
absolutely no space of time between the
death of the apostles and the historical i
existence of universal episcopacy for
any such revolution ; and it is impos
sible that any such revolution can have
taken place in every Church and yet
no historical evidence of it remain.
The bishops were at first called
apostles, but after a very short period
this title was reserved, out of reverence,
for the first iapostles, while their suc
cessors appropriated the title of bishop
as distinctive of their office, leaving
that of presbyter to the second order
of the ministry. But the title apos-
tolicus was applied to all bishops, and
their sees were called apostolic sees,
down to the time of Charlemagne, and
then was gradually dropped, till about
the twelfth century the Roman see,
always more conservative of ancient
claims, alone retained it.
It is only necessary to say here
that the invasion of the Barbarians did
not in Gaul, as in Britain, sweep away
the population and the Church which
it found ; on the contrary, the cities of
Gaul remained like so many islands,
round whose walls the Barbarian inva
sion rolled its waves harmlessly. The
Gallic bishops were seated in these
cities ; and there is abundant historical
evidence that the succession of bishops
was kept up with entire regularity.
Augustine, the first archbishop of the
Saxon Church, was consecrated by
the Gallic bishops. The Lindisfarne
episcopate also is traced back to the

bishops of southern Gaul. All our
mediaeval bishops could trace descent
from Augustine. Every bishop had
three episcopal consecrators, making
any accidental fault in the succession
a moral impossibility. In short, in
our time the subject has been carefully
investigated by Haddan, one of the
most learned and trustworthy of the
remarkable school of historians which
the present generation has produced,
and he sums up his conclusions in the
following words :
" Upon the whole question . . . the
evidence to the succession of bishops
from the beginning is throughout
copious and precise, for the most part,
according to the time and circumstances
of each period. The lines of bishops
in almost every see, Eastern and
Western, are traceable in almost every
case almost from the beginning, and
in the chief sees are traceable from the
very beginning throughout " (p. 228).
' ' And that moral evidence upon which-
all men act in secular matters . . .
exists in this particular case to an
amount, and with a strength, that can '
leave no practical doubt upon the
minds of reasonable men. If any pro
fess to doubt it who really are capable
of forming a judgment, it can only be
from a foregone conclusion, or from
ignorance of the real state of the case "
(p. 228-9).
(2) Next we have to deal with the
question that the Church of England
holds the doctrine of a transmission of
authority and grace through this chain'
of succession. That Cranmer and the
divines of the Reformation held the
doctrine of apostolic succession, includ
ing the transmission of a divine gift
and office, is abundantly proved by the
formal documents which they put forth.
Thus the ' Necessary Doctrine and
Erudition of a Christian Man ' put
forth in 1543 as an authoritative ex
position of reformed doctrine, defines
that ' ' Order is a gift or grace of minis
tration in Christ s Church, given by
God to Christian men, by the consecra
tion and imposition of the bishop's

APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION 27 APPROPRIATE BENEFICE

hands upon them .... and thus by
succession from the apostles hath order
continued in the Church. "
' Cranmer's Catechism ' put forth in
1548 says : "The ministration of God's
Word, which our Lord Jesus Christ
did first institute, was derived from the
apostles unto others after them, by
imposition of hands and giving the
Holy Ghost, from the apostles' time to
our days, and thus was the Consecration,
orders, and unction of the apostles,
whereby they at the beginning made
bishops and priests, and thus shall con
tinue in the Church even to the world's
end. Wherefore, good children, you
shall steadfastly believe all those things
which such ministers shall speak unto
you from the mouth and by the com
mandment of our Lord Jesus Christ.
And whatsoever they do to you, as
when they baptise you, when they give
you absolution, and distribute to you
the body and blood of our Lord Jesus
Christ, these you shall so esteem as if
Christ Himself in His own person did
speak and minister unto you. For
Christ hath commanded His ministers
to do this unto you, and He Himself
(although you see Him not with your
bodily eyes) is present with His minis
ters and worketh by the Holy Ghost
in the administration of His sacra
ments. And on the other hand, ye
shall take good heed, and beware of
false and privy preachers . . . For
Christ is not present with such preach
ers, and therefore doth not the Holy
Ghost work by their preaching. "
The Ordinal of the Church, as we
have it, is further evidence that the
Church of England still holds these
doctrines. The first rubric says : "It
is evident unto all men diligently read
ing the Holy Scriptures and ancient
authors, that from the apostles' time
there have been these orders of minis
ters in Christ's Church, bishops, priests,
and deacons." The words of ordina
tion of a priest are : " Receive the Holy
Ghost for the office and work of a
priest in the Church of God, now com
mitted unto thee by the imposition of

our hands. Whose sins thou dost re
mit," &c. And the words of consecra
tion of a bishop are : ' ' Receive the
Holy Ghost for the office and work of
a bishop in the Church of God, now
committed unto thee by the imposition
of our hands ; in the name of the
Father," &e. Which wprds plainly
assume a transmission of divine au
thority and spiritual gifts through the
ordainers to the ordained.
APPARITOR, an officer of the Eccle
siastical Courts, whose principal duty
is to summon persons accused of eccle
siastical offences to appear before the
proper court. He also has certain
duties to perform in court equivalent to
those of usher of our civil courts. A,
very well known and unpopular person
in the days when the Ecclesiastical
Courts took cognisance of people's
morals. Chaucer introduced him into
his gallery of fourteenth century cha
racters, under the title of Sumpnour,
i.e. Summoner.
APPROPRIATE BENEFICE. There
is no doubt that the revival of monas-
ticism on the continent in the tenth
and eleventh centuries was a revival
of religion after a long period of
ignorance and irreligion, and that the
Norman nobles in introducing the
Reformed Orders into England, and
settling them upon their estates, be
lieved themselves to be taking the
wisest way to revive and promote
learning and piety in the land which
they had conquered. On the other
hand, while the parochial benefices,
by the gradual increase of population
and cultivation of waste land, had
increased in value, the parochial clergy
were not learned, and did not affect
that asceticism which enlisted the
popular admiration for the monks.
The policy was therefore adopted of
the " appropriation " of parochial bene
fices to the endowment of monasteries.
The tithes and glebe of three or four
benefices would suffice to endow a
priory of ten or a dozen monks ; the
pious and self-denying community
might be expected to make better

APSE

28

APSE

provision for the spiritual instruction
and care of the parishioners than here
tofore, and to spend their surplus
revenues in pious and charitable uses.
The fashion of appropriation spread.
Livings were given to found new pre
bends in cathedral churches ; to form
endowments, or augmentations of their
endowments, for ecclesiastical officials,
asprecentors, chancellors, archdeacons,
&c. Livings were appropriated to aug7
ment the endowments of colleges, hos
pitals, chantries, guilds, fraternities, &c.
In some cases a living was divided
into a rectory and a vicarage in the
gift of the rector, who thus enjoyed
the major part of the revenue of the
living while divesting himself of the
work and responsibility of the cure.
Lastly came the evil of the farming
of benefices, the rector handing over
his living for a term of years, or for
his life interest, to a monastery or
Other ecclesiastical.body, who received
the whole proceeds of the living, and
provided for the cure, paying a stipu
lated annual sum to the rector.
Within three centuries from the Con
quest near one-third of the parochial
benefices of England, and they the
richest of them, had been thus appro
priated. [See Vicarage.]
APSE (apsis, genitive apsidis, hence
the adjective, apsidal), the semicircular,
or multisided, termination eastward of
the chancel of a church. In churches
of the Basilican type the plan of the
main body always, and of the aisles fre
quently, terminated eastward in a semi
circle. This peculiarity was common
in churches of the Norman style of
architecture ; it went out of fashion in
the thirteenth century ; but through
out the Gothic period of architecture
there are a few examples of polygonal
or many-sided apses. There are a very
few examples of an apsidal termination
of the west end of the nave. [See
Church.] There is a curious piece of architect
ural history connected with the apse.
The ¦ plan and arrangement of the
churches of the Celtic Church were

neither like, the Roman ^Basilica nor;
the Byzantine Cross "church. The plan
consisted of a long rectangle, with the ,
door at the west end of the south side ;
the sacrarium was divided from the
nave by a wall, with only a small
opening, sometimes nothing more than,
a door between the two, and the,.

Apses, Norwich Cathedral, S.E.

sacrarium was square-ended. The/
missionaries who came to the conver
sion of the Anglo-Saxons from the
continent of Europe brought the archi
tectural ideas to which they were ac
customed, and such of the native
converts as were under their influ-,;
ence, as Benedict Biseop, adopted the
same ideas, and built on the Basilicaw
plan. But the extent of country i
evangelised *by Celtic missionaries very
far exceeded that over which the

ARCHBISHOP

.29

ARCHBISHOP

influence of the continental missionaries
permanently lasted, and the result is
that the Saxon churches generally have
the Celtic square end, and not the
Basilican apse. The Normans, again,
introduced the Basilican apse in the
churches with which they covered
the country ; but when the builders of
the thirteenth century lengthened the
chancels to contain the choir, they uni
versally reverted to the national type
of the square east end, so that there is
. not a cathedral left with an eastern apse.
ARCHBISHOP =chiqf bishop. (Arch
from apxltv> t° he. the first.) The
grouping of a number of bishops under
the presidency of one of -their number
is a feature of Church organisation so
.ancient that its origin is lost in obscur
ity. Some think that the principle is
seen, in the oversight of each Apostle
over a number of Churches ; in James's
presidency over all the Churches of
Judea, Titus's over the Church of Crete,
St. John's over the Churches of the
Roman; pTO vince of Asia. The historical
fact is that before the end of the third
century we find generally that the
Churches of a province are grouped
together under the presidency of the
bishop of the metropolitan city of the
province, the civil organisation of the
empire having manifestly been accepted
in the ecclesiastical arrangements. It
is said that the title archbishop, as
applied to these metropolitan bishops,
is first met with when Athanasius gave
it to the bishop of Alexandria. The
office of metropolitan was recognised as
an ancient one by the Council of Nicaea,
and the title archbishop was officially
given by the Councils of Ephesus and
Chalcedon. As to the question of Order, an arch
bishop is simply a bishop, with the
same spiritual authority and dignity
as other bishops, who has been made
president of a college of neighbouring
bishops co-equal with himself, and to
whom as president certain duties chiefly
relating to matters of discipline have
been committed. He presided in the
provincial synods, and was the proper

organ of communication between the
province and other branches of the
Church. He had the duty of confirm
ing episcopal elections, and (together
with two or more other bishops) con
secrating bishops in his province.
Though with no right of direct inter
ference with the ordinary rule of
another bishop, he had a right to inter
vene in case of any irregularity, and
in some cases the clergy and people
of any diocese in the province had a.
right of appeal to the metropolitan.
At first the metropolitan acted with
the counsel and as the executive of
the metropolitan synod, but the ten
dency of things was gradually to make
his power more personal.
Gildas says that the British Church
had its metropolitans, and since that
Church followed the customs of the
other Churches of the Empire, it is
very probable that it had metropoli
tans, who would naturally follow the
division of the island into its five de
partments, viz. Britannia Prima, south
of the Thames and Bristol Channel ;
Britannia Secunda, Wales ; Flavia
Caisaricnsis, from the Thames to the
Humber and. Mersey ; Maxima Caisari-
ensis, from thence to twenty-five miles
north of Hadrian's Wall ; Valentin,
the lowlands of Scotland. It is very
possible that the three bishops present
at Aries were the metropolitans of the
Prima, Secunda, and Caisariensis de
partments. When Bishop Gregory the Great
planned the conversion of England he
proposed to divide it into two Provinces
of Canterbury and York. Augustine
assumed the character of metropolitan
of all England, but the British bishops
declined to recognise his primacy, and
practically the bishops of Canterbury,
until Theodore, exercised metropolitical
authority only over their suffragan of
Rochester. It was Theodore who, with
the consent of the independent kings
and bishops, gathered the Churches of
the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms into a pro
vince, and exercised a vigorous metro-
political authority over them.

ARCHBISHOP

30

ARCHDEACON

A hundred years later (735) Nor
thumbria was powerful, its Church
flourishing ; Egbert, the Bishop of York,
was a member of the royal family ; the
schools of York were famous through
out Christendom ; the original plan of
Gregory had lately been published by
Bede ; and it was amicably arranged
that his plan should now be carried
into effect by the organisation of the
four dioceses of the Northumbrian
kingdom into a separate province, with
York for its metropolitan see. In
another half-century Mercia, under
King Offa, had conquered Kent, Wes
sex, and East Anglia, and had become
the leading kingdom, and the king
considered it due to the dignity of his
sovereignty that Lichfield, his chief see,
should be raised to metropolitical rank,
with Mercia for its province. A coun
cil held at Calchythe consented to the
arrangement. But eighteen years after,
on the death of Offa, another council
at Cloveshoo condemned the innova
tion, and Canterbury regained its au
thority over all the Churches south of
the Humber. Since then we have only
had two provinces and two archbishops.
The title archbishop did not come into
general use in the West till about the
eighth century, and then it was given
to all metropolitans.
Archbishop of Canterbury. The
position of the Archbishop of Canter
bury was in mediaeval times recog
nised by the rest of the Church
as one of exceptional independence,
extent of jurisdiction, and dignity.
England having been outside the Em
pire of Charlemagne, it was claimed
on its behalf that it was also outside
the Western Patriarchate ; and in fact
till the Norman Conquest, though re
garding the Roman Church with great
reverence, it did not acknowledge any
subordination. The Archbishop of
Canterbury anciently had primacy not
only over England, but over Ireland
also, and from him the Irish bishops
received consecration till 1152 ; for
which reason it was declared in the time
of the first Norman kings that Canter

bury was the metropolitan church of
England, Scotland, and Ireland, and
of the isles adjacent ; the Archbishop of
Canterbury was therefore sometimes
styled a Patriarch, and Orbis Britannia
Ponlifex. At general councils abroad!
the Archbishop of Canterbury had pre
cedency of all other archbishops. The.
officials of the Province are the Bishop
of London, dean ; Bishop of Winchester^
chancellor ; Bishop of Lincoln ancientlf!
was vice-chancellor ; Bishop of Salis-J
bury, precentor ; Bishop of Rochester;
carried his cross before him. His styh|
and title are the Most Reverend Nj
by divine providence Archbishop of
Canterbury, Primate and Metropolitan
of all England ; he is addressed by the
title of Your Grace, and takes preclj
dence of all except the Royal Family.
The Archbishops of Canterbury are
styled Primates Metropolitan ol all
England, partly because of their ancient
legatine authority throughout both
provinces, partly because the ArchA
bishop still retains the power of grant
ing faculties and dispensations in both
provinces alike.
It is difficult to define the exact re
lations of York to Canterbury. Eachl:
archbishop presides over his own inde
pendent synod, and exercises metro
politan authority in his own province ;
but Canterbury claims not only greater
dignity and precedency, but also some
kind of patriarchal authority. [See
York, Diocese of.] A mediaeval arch
bishop bore two badges of his metro
politan dignity, the pall and the crossi
For the history of the first, see Pall,
and of the second sea Crosier. [Fob
list of Archbishops of Canterbury, sm
Canterbury, Diocese of.]
ARCHDEACON. (Arch from apxeiijj
to be first. ) There is evidence that at.
an early period one deacon of the chief
church of a diocese had some kind of
precedence over his brother deacons,
arising probably out of his having
chief charge and administration of the
property and finances of the Churchi
The name first appears in the sixth.
century, though there is no doubt that

ARCHDEACON

31

ARCHDEACON

the office had existed much earlier,
and it would seem that he then super
intended and exercised discipline over
the deacons and other inferior orders
in the diocese. But the close relations
which existed between the bishop and
his archdeacon gradually led to an
extension of the archdeacon's functions
into the spiritual sphere. In the sixth
century the bishop delegated him, as
his trusty confidential minister, to do
business on his behalf with both clergy
and laity. About two centuries later we
find that the archdeacon has ceased to
have any connection with the custody
or administration of the property of the
Church. He is a priest whom the
bishop employs as his assistant in the
general supervision of his diocese, and
is described as the Occulus Episcopi.
At first the duties of the archdeacon
were those of inquiry and inspection,
but he had no power to correct faults
in his own name. But in time, by
grant from the bishop, or voluntary
submission of the clergy, and so by
custom, the archdeacon came to have
power to correct as well as to visit in
certain cases.
The early ecclesiastical records of our
own country mention the archdeacons
as a part of the cathedral institution ;
they are described as members of the
Chapter whose duties were to assist the
bishop in the exterior government of
the Church. In a wide diocese there
were several archdeacons ; thus Lincoln
had seven, Salisbury four. In modern
times the archdeacon has not neces
sarily been a member of the Chapter ;
but recent legislation (3 and 4 Vict. c.
113, h. 16) has again appropriated one
of the canonries to be attached to the
office. The first person who is called an arch
deacon is Winfred, who became Arch
bishop of Canterbury in 805 ; he is so
called in a, charter of his predecessor.
An archdeacon is only mentioned once
in the Saxon laws (Stubbs, ' Const.
Hist.'i. 267).
After the Conquest, in the recon-
stitution of the courts for the ad

ministration of ecclesiastical juris
diction, since the dates of modern
archdeaconries conform closely with
the Conquest, it is inferred that the
archidiaconal courts were formed as
ministerial subsections of the epis
copal jurisdiction. Great care was
taken to fit the archdeacons for their
judicial work. They were generally
kept in deacon's orders. Educated at
foreign universities, where they learned
habits and forms strange to English
men, they wielded their jurisdiction
aggressively, and were soon viewed
with apprehension by the bishops and
detestation by the clergy. They like
wise increased their power by visit
ations, which at this early period were
probably an effective court of justice or
arbitration for matters which, in default
of a settlement, could always be trans
ferred to the more formal courts. To
the jurisdiction of the archdeacons,
besides the ordinary ecclesiastical
causes, belonged the immediate care
of the fabric, furniture, &c. of the
parish churches, which jurisdiction
was exercised in rural chapters. Owing
to the strong feeling _ among the
clergy against this archidiaconal juris
diction, the powers of the _ arch
deacon were soon reduced, the episcopal
jurisdiction was again consolidated,
and placed in the hands of an
Official Principal. [See Ecclesiastical
Courts.] The archdeacon has the right to visit
every year, and must visit once in
every three years. The archdeacons
in some dioceses have never grown
up to the same power as in others ;
e. g. in Carlisle, where the archdeacon
has no jurisdiction. Usually the arch
deacon has his court, and his official
learned in the canon law ; he summons
the clergy and churchwardens to his
visitation ; and exercises such jurisdic
tion as is according to the law, usage,
and custom of his own Church and
diocese. An Act of Parliament, which came
into force 6th August, 1885, enabled
the Ecclesiastical Commissioners to

ARCHITECTURE, CHURCH 32 ARCHITECTURE, CHURCH

raise the stipend of archdeacons to not
more than £200 a year.
ARCHITECTURE, CHURCH. The
churches built by the Christians of the
Roman province of Britain would pro
bably be of the Basilican form adopted
throughout the Western Empire, and of
the debased Roman style of the period in
which they were built. The remains of
secular buildings — temples, baths, &c. —
show that the architecture of the public
buildings of this province was not be
hind that of contemporary buildings in
Gaul, and we may reasonably conjecture
that the architecture of the Christian
churches would be similar in style

walls are Roman, though altered at
different periods ; but this may_ have
been originally a secular building
turned into a church ; the tower was
added upon the Roman walls of a porch
or western tribune.
After the Saxon occupation, the
earliest churches were built either by
the Celtic missionaries, or by the foreign
—Italian, Burgundian, Gallican— mis,
sionaries. •
The Celtic buildings, even the largest,
and best, were of the rudest description j
mere timber framework, covered with
"wattle and dab" — a rude kind of
"lath and plaster "—and thatched with'

Saxon Church, Bradford on Avon.

to the other public buildings of the
time. The churches probably existed
only in the principal cities of the pro
vince. Two at Canterbury survived the
Saxon invasion, and were again restored
to the Church after the Saxon con
version ; and it may therefore be sup
posed that in other places also some
of these buildings had survived into
Saxon times. The only buildings still
remaining which can be said to have
been churches of this Roman period are
that in' Dover Castle, which is partly
of Roman work, altered in the eleventh
century, and again almost rebuilt in
the thirteenth ; and the parish church
at Brixworth, North Hants, whose

reeds. This was the character of the.
buildings at Iona. It was the cha
racter of the buildings which Aidan
erected at Lindisfarne; and no doubt
also of the great majority of the churches
which were built, by the bishops and
priests who went forth from Lindis
farne into Northumbria, Mercia, and
Essex. The Saxons were no more masons
than the Celts. Their buildings were
also of timber, but perhaps of a more
substantial construction, with slabs of
timber to fill in the wall-spaces, and
shingles to cover in the roof.
Both among the Celts and the Saxons
some exceptional buildings of stone

ARCHITECTURE, CHURCH 33 ARCHITECTURE, CHUECH

were erected by men who came from,
or who had travelled, beyond the seas.
Thus Ninian built the Candida Casa of
stone afc Withern. Benedict Biscop
built Wearmouth and Jarrow ; Wilfrid
built York, Hexham, and Ripon, all of
stone, after the Basilican plan. But
these were exceptional buildings. The
majority of the Saxon churches and
monasteries were built of timber ; which
indeed, in the stoneless districts of
England, continued to be the principal
building material for many centuries.
An example of each of these two
different styles of churches still remains.
At Bradford-on-Avon, within our own
generation, has been brought to light
a very interesting stone church, con
sisting of chancel, nave, and porch,
which is probably the original church
of the abbey founded by St. Aldhelm,
A. D. 705. At Ongar, in Essex, remains
a timber church, which probably re
ceived the body of St. Edmund, on its
translation from London to Bury, a.d.
1013 ,- and it is quite compatible with
the evidence that it had already existed
for some indefinite period, when the
body of the royal saint was' deposited
within it for one night's halt. It is
composed of large chestnut-trees, split
asunder, and set upright close to each
other, with the round side outwards.
The ends are roughly hewn so as to fit
into a wooden sill at the bottom, and
a wooden plate at the top,, into which
they are fastened with wooden pins.
The structure is about 30ft. long by
24ft. wide, and the walls are 5ft.
high. It is very possible that these timber
churches may have been ornamented
with carving, and it is also probable
that ornamental features of metal- work
were sometimes affixed to the timber
framework. Dunstan is said to have
thus ornamented the interior of his
wooden church at Glastonbury.
A study of the grand series of churches
which actually remain to us, shows that
they may be conveniently classified into
six different styles. These styles corre
spond roughly with the six centuries,

from the eleventh to the sixteenth,
viz. : — >
1. Saxon, eleventh century.
2. Norman, twelfth century.
3. Early English, thirteenth century...
4. Decorated, fourteenth century.
5. Perpendicular, fifteenth century.
6. Renaissance, sixteenth century.
Only it must be observed that the.
styles did not change abruptly ; there

St. Michael's Church, Oxford.
was a period during which one style;
was gradually passing into the next,,-
and this transition period may be taken
as occupying about the last thirty years
of each century. Also it must bo noted
that in some individual churches tha
new style appears almost complete at:
an early date in the transition period,!
while in other churches the . old style; ,
was still retained without much changa
to a late date in the transition period.
1. Saxon, eleventh century. ;

ARCHITECTURE, CHURCH 34 ARCHITECTURE, CHURCH

Many of the churches which were
pronounced by thfe early authorities, as
Rickman and Bloxam, to be of earlier
date than the Conquest, have been sub
sequently declared by Parker, with
good reason, to be really of later date,
though of a peculiar style, which may
be concluded to be that of the native
English builders before the develop
ment- of . the grand style which the
Norman architects introduced here.

rower at the top than at the bottom ;*¦
often they are double-headed, with ,
a short shaft in the middle of the;.'
thickness of the wall supporting the •
impost, Which is a long stone carried i
through the thickness of the wall, lnej
doors are generally round-headed,. but*
sometimes triangular-headed. Scu«p-j
tured ornamentation or moulding is-
rare, and of a rude "barbaric charac
ter : towers narrow and lofty in pro-;

St. Magnus, Kirkwall.

The characteristics of the Saxon style
are as follows : — The masonry of the
walls is very rude and irregular, the thin
stones frequently arranged in "herring
bone" pattern ; with "long and short
work " at the coigns, i. e. with the
angles formed of long stones set upright
alternately with , similar stones laid
horizontally ; when the masonry is of
squared stone the mortar joints, espe
cially the vertical joints, are very wide.
The windows are frequently triangular:
headed ; often the windows are nar-

portion, destitute of buttresses without
or staircases within, diminishing in
width at each stage upwards, or slightly
"battering" (tapering with a slight
curved line) throughout from bottom to
top. Altogether the style seems to be
the lowest point to which Roman archi
tecture had fallen, in the hands of.
Saxon imitators of the provincial ex:
amples of it open to their observation^
Some of the most characteristic ex
amples are the towers of Earl's Barton,
North Hants, and Sompting, Sussex; ;

ARCHITECTURE, CHURCH 35 ARCHITECTURE, CHURCH

tho churches of Corhampton, Hants,
DeerhurstrGloucestershire, St. Michael's,
Oxford. That this style continued to be used
long after the Norman Conquest is
seen in the tower of Monk's Wear-
mouth, date 1 075 ; of St. Peter, at
Gowts, Lincoln, date about 1080 ; of
St. Alban's abbey church, date after
1077 ; of Daglingworth church, Glou
cestershire, date not earlier than Henry
1. ; which all present the characteristics
of what has been called the Saxon style.
2. Norman, twelfth century.
The Normans introduced into Eng
land a stylo of building grander in its
proportions, more artistic in design, and
more rich in ornamentation, than the
style which had preceded it. They had
a great love of building, and within a
century they not only scattered strong
castles all over the country, but built
stately monasteries ; commenced the
rebuilding of every one of the cathe
drals, some on new sites ; and built or
rebuilt a great number of the parish
churches. T;he most salient characteristics of the
fully developed Norman style are : —
Walls of hewn stone, with fine mortar
joints ; flat pilaster buttresses reaching
to and dying into the cornice of the wall ;
large, plain, round-headed windows ;
doors deeply recessed and richly orna
mented with picturesque mouldings of
endless variety. The cross plan, with
a central tower and eastern apse, were
introduced by the Normans ; the central
tower is always massive and low, some
times only rising to the ridge of the
roof, seldom more than a square above
it, and was capped with a low pyram
idal roof, usually of timber, sometimes
of stone, as in St. Magnus, Kirkwall,
on the preceding page. The eastern
apse is nearly always semi-circular and
covered with a semi-domical vault, and
lighted with three small windows. In
large churches the height is divided
internally into arcade, triforium, and
clerestory, of nearly equal heights.
Massive, plain piers and plain round
.arches. The aisles plain vaulted, but

the nave covered with a timber roof
and flat painted ceiling.
Though round arches are character
istic of the Norm in style, yet at an early
period in it the pointed arch was some
times' used in great arches of construc
tion, as at Malmesbury Abbey, a.d. 1115
—1139 ; at St. Cross, Winchester, 1136 ;

Durham Cathedral.
at Fountain's Abbey, before 1140. [For
the ground plan and general design of
the larger churches, see Cathedral.]
3. Early English, thirteenth century.
The thirteenth century was a time of
vast intellectual activity, and of fertile
originality ; architecture shared- in the
general progress ; and in ¦-¦ very short
time a new style was developed and
generally adopted, which differed in
many respects from that which had

ARCHITECTURE, CHURCH 36 ARCHITECTURE, CHURCH

preceded it. The general adoption of
the pointed arch, not only in the great
constructive arches, but throughout the
design, was one important factor in the

mentation is rich, but mechanical in
design and bizarre in effect. The cha
racter of the new style is light and
aspiring ; its proportions lofty ; its or-

Selby Abbey.

change. But it was accompanied by
an entire change of motif. The cha
racter of the Norman style is massive
and grand ; its proportions are low, its
leading lines are horizontal, its orna-

namentation consists chiefly in mould
ings of successive rolls and hollows, •
which relieve the apparent thickness of
piers, arches, and walls, and suggest in
the piers and arches an idea of a vi«or-

ARCHITECTURE, CHURCH 37 ARCHITECTURE, CHURCH

ous, organic, upward growth, rather
than of superimposed stones ; an idea
which is favoured by the use in the
capitals of an ornamentation of crisp
unfolding foliage, in place of the quaint
\ geometrical forms or stiff Byzantine
foliage of the preceding style. There
is a great difference also in the con
structive idea of the two styles. The
Norman architect builds thick walls
and huge pillars and arches, whose
solid masses seem calculated to last for
ever. The Early English architect is a

Winchester Cathedral.
skilful engineer ; he economises his
material ; he sets up moulded columns
with detached Purbeck marble shafts
which look almost too slender to bear
the weight upon them ; he calculates
the place, amount, and direction of the
thrust of his roofs, arid places buttresses
at the points where they are needed to
carry these thrusts ; he does what the
Norman was afraid to do, he vaults
his nave, and supports it by the bold

contrivance of flying buttresses. The
effect is that the building does not so ¦
much seem to rest upon the ground as
to spring out of it.
The mouldings of this period differ
from all others in consisting of bold
projecting rolls alternating with deep
undercut hollows, the section being not
geometrical but freehand. The orna
ment called the dog-tooth, introduced
very largely into the mouldings, gives
great piquancy to the effect, and is
very characteristic of the style. The
smaller windows are narrow in propor
tion to their height, and pointed like a
lancet, and are so characteristic as to
have given one of its names to the style
in which they are used — the "lancet
style ; " the larger windows, and espe
cially the round windows, which were
inserted in gables, began to be orna
mented by the insertion into the head
of thin stone pierced with patterns,
"plate tracery " it is called, which very
soon developed into the net-like tracery
which is, characteristic of the later
Gothic styles.
The doors are also pointed and
moulded, and sometimes both windows
and doors have small detached shafts
in their vertical mouldings which help
to carry the capitals, and form a
very elegant enrichment ; large portals
are often divided by a central pillar
and sub-arches, with a sculpture or a
statue in the tympanum over them.
In plan and elevation the' proportions
of the design are longer and loftier
than in Norman, and the apsidal ter
mination is entirely disused. The flat
east wall is usually lighted by a triplet
of lancet windows, of which the centre
light is higher than the others, forming
a very pleasing composition ; the edges
of the broad internal splays of the
triplet are often ornamented with
detached columns, carrying richly-
moulded arches. The external but
tresses are important constructive fea
tures ; being made to carry a portion of
the thrust of the roof, they therefore
become more conspicuous features,
spreading by "set offs" as they near

ARCHITECTURE, CHURCH 38 ARCHITECTURE, CHURCH

the ground, so as to contain the line of
thrust of the roof. The first example
of the style was given in Canterbury
Cathedral, in its rebuilding after the
great fire in 1174. "The progressive
change in the character of the work is
very remarkable. At first it is almost
pure Norman, though late ; this is the
work of the first year, 1175. Before
its completion in 1184, it had gradually
changed into almost pure Early English.
St. Hugh's Choir at Lincoln Cathedral,
commenced in 1185, is a magnificent
example of the purest Early English.
More building was done in this century
even than in the previous period, and
we accordingly find a large amount of
Early English work in the cathedrals
and parish churches of the country."
4. Decorated, fourteenth century.
The Early English style passed by
gradual and imperceptible degrees into
the Decorated style. There is no such
difference in constructive idea, and in
leading forms of design, between Early
English and Decorated, as there was
between Norman and Early English.
Saxon and Norman might be classed
together as two varieties of Romanesque,
since both are descended from Roman,
and retain its chief characteristics ;
while Early English, Decorated, and

Decorated Window, Norwich Cathedral.
Perpendicular, are only varieties of one
style, which has obtained the general
name of Gothic, diffetenced from one
another not in- principles but in the

details which depend upon that, love
of change which is a feature of the
European mind. Still these differences
of detail are sufnsiently marked to
enable the student with ease and cer
tainty to distinguish, within a few
years, the age to which they belong,

l«

Sa>]S^Pl|3l

rWM

w%

Si
MB
pfil
khhH!!1
*He
Decorated Window, Norwich Cathedral.
and it is convenient to classify them
under distinguishing names.
This style is less lofty and aspiring
than in Early English ; there is a greater
breadth and repose in the general pro
portions of the building, a greater
softness and elegance in the tone of
the decoration, yet always controlled
by an exquisite taste. The windows
are larger than in the previous style,
because the artist has learned to sub
divide them with mullions- and tracery
in an endless variety of beautiful de
signs ; in the earlier part of the period
these designs are geometrical, in the
latter part of it free and flowing like
patterns of lace. The mouldings in this
style have not such bold projections
and deep hollows as Early English, and
are always accurately geometrical ; the
" roll -moulding " is the most character
istic form, so-called because it might be
formed by rolling up a plastic slab of
stone, as one rolls a sheet of paper,
leaving the sharp edge projecting over
the roll. Instead of the " tooth mould-'
ing," which gave such piquancy to the
Early English mouldings, the Decor
ated style inserts the "ball-flower"
ARCHITECTURE, CHURCH 39 ARCHITECTURE, CHURCH

ornament into its wide shallow hollows.
The columns have no longer detached
shafts, and the sculptor wreaths their
capitals with foliage which he has

tionalising them just so much as is
necessary to make them suitable for
repetition in stone. In such work,
important wall-spaces are often covered

Lichfield Cathedral.

studied from nature, in the fields and
gardens around him, imitating the
-vine, the maple, the oak-leaf, with its
'acorns, with great felicity; eoirven-

with a surface ornamentation of a foli
age diaper pattern sculptured in in
taglio. The East front of a Decorated
church most commonly has a large,

ARCHITECTURE, CHURCH 40 ARCHITECTURE, CHURCH

richly-traceried window flanked by two
.buttresses, and a smaller window on
each side in the aisles. The West end
is also . of similar design, with, the in
sertion of a doorway under the middle
window. The nave of York, the choir
of Selby, and, on a smaller scale, the
choirs of Hull and Dorchester, Oxon,
are fine examples of this style. The
cathedral at Lichfield has retained its
three spires, and gives the best idea
of the general effect aimed at in a
great church of the period. Mr.
Itickman says : "The general appear
ance of Decorated buildings is at once
simple and magnificent ; simple from the
small number of parts, and magnificent
from the size of the windows, and the
easy flow of the lines of tracery. In
the interior of htrge buildings we find
breadth, and an enlargement of the
clerestory windows, with a correspond
ing diminution of the triforium, which
is now rather a part of the clerestory
than a distinct member of the design.
The roofing, from the increased rich
ness of the groining, becomes an object
of more attention. "
5. Perpendicular, fifteenth century.
Gothic architecture reached its high
est point of excellence about the middle
of the fourteenth century, and the
changes of fashion which then began
to set in were in the direction of de
cadence. Two factors which especially
worked in this direction were the intro
duction of low-pitched roofs covered
with lead, and the exaggerated en
largement of windows in order to afford
scope for the glorious .stained glass
which was one of the great features of
the period. At the same time there
was a desire to reduce the bulk of the
pillars and arches of the arcades, so as
to get a spacious, light, unencumbered
interior ; and a satiety of the flowing
lines of Decorated /design/had led to
a desire for strongly-marked vertical
lines, and squarer forms, in the general
features of design ; - it is this latter
peculiarity which has given to the
style its name of "Perpendicular;"
this .taste- shows itself also in the

substitution of square panelling as a
substitute for the foliaged diaper pat
tern of the previous styles, in ihe sur
face enrichment of wall-spaces.
A Perpendicular church thus comes
to have a squareness of external out
line. The gables are low, the low-
pitched roofs are hidden by embattled
parapets. The whole support of the
structure is boldly thrown upon its
buttresses, and the wall -spaces are
almost entirely occupied with win
dows ; and the windows have flat, often
"Jour-centred" arches, so that they
occupy almost the entire space between
one buttress and another from sill to
roof. In the clerestory especially there
is a marked difference between the
small windows which pierce the wall
at wide distances in the earlier stylesj,
and the large wide windows which
make a perpendicular clerestory some-.
times like a continuous window. The
design of these windows requires special
attention ; they are no longer filled
with the flowing tracery of the Decor-.
ated style; the principal mullions.are
carried up in rigid straight lines to the
arch above, and the spaces between
are frequently divided and subdivided
by similar perpendicular lines, into a.
number of panels which have mono
tonous arched and cusped heads. And
this style of design often appears also
in the panelling of the walls, and in
the ornamentation of the screens and
bench-ends. There is a great love, especially
late in the style, for ornamenting the
exterior walls with parapets overhang
ing on a richly moulded cornice, with
panelling in low relief, with ornamental
sculpture, with flint- work in patterns,,
and with texts or inscriptions running
round the walls either in relief in
the stone, or in flint-work contrasting
with the stone.
The interiors of Perpendicular
churches often command admiration
by their .grand, lofty, spacious, light
area, better adapted than in any pre
vious style for the purposes of a great
assembly,. The arcades are often thin;

ARCHITECTURE, CHURCH 41 ARCHITECTURE, CHURCH
and poor in effect, with shallow mould- thin and meagre appearance ; but they
ings and meagre capitals, or in some I are seen at a great disadvantage when

King's College Chapel, Cambridge

examples no capitals at all; the I deprived of the rich stained glass which
immense window-space adds to this I was one of the great features of the.

ARCHITECTURE, CHURCH 42 ARCHITECTURE, CHURCH

architect's design ; it is only where the
- glass still remains, as at King's College
Chapel, or at Fairford in Gloucester
shire, that it is possible to see what an
injustice is done to the architect of a
Perpendicular church if that dominant
feature in his design is not taken into
calculation. Another special feature
of the interior is the roofs. They were
a very special feature of the style.
When groined the " fan-tracery " was
a magnificent development of the earlier
systems of groining. When the con
structive roof formed part of the interior
effect, heavily-timbered roofs, richly
moulded, and often ornamented with
carving, especially the hammer-beam
roofs with carved angels projecting
from the walls to support every prin
cipal, are a great advance upon any
thing which had previously been de
signed. It was the age of rich wood
work, in screens and chancel-stalls and
nave-benches ; and all the rich furniture
must be taken into account in estimat
ing the interior effect as the architect
designed it. To descend to some minor
details which are characteristic of the
style ; the square "four-centred arch"
is a very marked peculiarity ; and the
mouldings with broad and shallow
hollows, and the peculiar ogee form
which appears in the outline of decor
ative arches as well as in the section
of mouldings, and the Tudor flower
which, as an enrichment of the shallow
hollows of the moulding, takes the place
of the Early English dog-tooth and the
Decorated "ball-flower." The foliage
of the capitals is in broad flat leafage
which turns round the bell, and the
crockets and finials are made to fall
into the square outline which is the
spirit of the style. The towers of this
style are often broad, lofty, and grand
in design, and richly ornamented with
parapets and corner pinnacles, which
make an architectural crown to the
work ; in this feature at least the
Perpendicular style excels all its prede
cessors. And indeed, while it is con
ceded that, on the whole, the style has
not the aspiring vigour of Early

English, or the elegance of Decorated,
it had, when its glass and its wood
work were uninjured, a spacious mag
nificence internally, and a solid state-
liness externally, which might well
make the men of the fifteenth century
deny that their churches were on the
whole to be reckoned inferior to those
of previous ages.

Peterborough Cathedral. Lady Chapel.
The earliest example of the stylo is
in the church of Edington, Wilts,
which is as early as 1361, where the
general feeling of the design is Decor
ated, but there are several features of
the coming style. Wykeham seems to
have been the great author of the
Perpendicular style ; his chapel at New
College, Oxford, is perhaps the earliest
example of an entirely Perpendicular
design. The choir of York, the nave
and transepts of Canterbury, Redcliffe
Church Bristol, and Bath Abbey,
are other conspicuous examples. Of

ARCHITECTURE, CHURCH 43 ARCHITECTURE, CHURCH

the later period of the style King's
..College Chapel is the most glorious

a sumptuous but debased example of
the same type. All through this

Magdalen College, Oxford.

realisation of its peculiar excellences ;
and after it, St. ¦ George's, Windsor ;
Henry VII.'s Chapel, Westminster, is

fifteenth century the towns were grow
ing in population, wealth, and import
ance, and many of the town churches

ARCHITECTURE, CHURCH 44

ARMINIANISM

were accordingly built and rebuilt in
this style, which was especially suited
for their requirements.
6. Renaissance, sixteenth century.
Church work in a very good and pure
style of Perpendicu'ar, was erected down
to a later date than is commonly sup
posed ; and with the revival of a sound
school of theology in the reign of James
I., a strenuous endeavour was made to
revive Gothic architecture, and that

St. Paul's Cathedral.
not without a considerable measure of
success : Lincoln College Chapel, the
choir of Wadham, the east window of
Jesus College Chapel, are examples. In
London, the Hall at Lambeth, and the
Middle Temple Hall are examples of
this "Jacobean Gothic." But the
general taste for the classical in liter
ature and art was too powerful to be
stayed. It was inevitable that churches
should be built in the only style which
architects now studied and practised.
But what the revived ecclesiastical

knowledge and feeling did secure was
that churches should be built with a
plan and arrangement, and with furni
ture and ajipliances, adapted to the
worship of the Church of England. A
very remarkable and complete example
is in the Church of St. John Leeds;
and there are other churches of this
and a somewhat later period in, which
the general plan and outline of a Gothic
church are carried out in Renaissance
details. Pulpits of this period with
fine Jacobean carved panels are com
mon ; screens and altar-rails are fre
quently to be found. Even in the
churches of purely Renaissance feelings-,
of Wren and his followers, the ancient
plan of an English church is retained,
with chancel, nave, and aisles, and
even the spire is executed in classical
forms, and sometimes with remarkable
felicity of adaptation ; internally, altars
and fonts, screens, choir-stalls and
pulpits, were all executed on ancienfj
models, translated into the forms of
classical art. After the Revolution,
until the Church revival of the present
century, there was very little churrh-
building anywhere in the country..;
The Church Tevival of the present
century soon created a new interest and
study of the ancient styles of archi
tecture, and a revival of Gothic archil
te'eture, which has restored most of
our old churches, and rebuilt thousands'
of new ones in a style, which, with all
its blunders, is not altogether unworthy
of the ages which have been thus passei|
under review.
ARMINIATT ISM. A system of
theology so called from James Har-
mensen, who Latinised his name, after
the fashion of the men of letters
of his time, into Arminius. As Pro
fessor at Leyden he taught views on
Predestination and the cognate doc
trines which were opposed ,to the
extreme Calvinism which was then'
accepted in Holland and other "rc-.j
formed" Churches, though his views"
perhaps never advanced beyond a
moderate Calvinism. The chief in
terest of the matter to us here, is that

ARTICLES OF RELIGION 45 ARTICLES OF RELIGION

the Anglo-Catholic school of reaction
against the prevalent Calvinism in
England in the seventeenth century
was commonly called Arminian, though
in fact it did not arise out of the
movement of Arminius, or accept its
teachings, but was an independent
revival of the principles of the early
Church, in harmony with the teach
ing of the earlier English phase of
the Reformation of the sixteenth
century. ARTICLES OF RELIGION. A series
of sets of "Articles " have from time to
time been put forth in the Church of
England at periods when the minds of
men were disturbed and confused by
religious controversy, in order to guide
the belief of the people on certain
points of doctrine and discipline, and
to afford tests of the orthodoxy of the
elergy and others who were in positions
of authority. The first set of " Articles ' '
was put forth avowedly "to establish
Christian quietness." From the nature
of the case all the "Articles" were
elastic and comprehensive in their
terms, the object being to include men
of various shades of opinion, not to
exclude all but those of one shade ;
and none of the sets of Articles was in
tended to be an exhaustive statement of
doctrine, but only statements on certain
points, on which there had been, or
might be expected to be, differences of
opinion. The first set of Ten Articles was
agreed to by Convocation, and put
forth under the authority of the Crown
in the year 1536 a.d., in the early part
of the Reformation, and defines the
extent to which, by that time it had
gone. The 1st declares that " the funda
mentals of religion are comprehended in
the whole body and canon of the Bible,
and also in the three Creeds or Sym
bols ; " it also recognises the authority
of "the four holy councils, that is to
say, the Councils of Nice, Constantinople,
Ephesus, and Chalcedon." The 2nd
relates to the Sacrament of Baptism.
It declares that baptism was instituted
by our Saviour " as a thing necessary

for the attaining of everlasting life,"
and that by it all, as well infants as
such as have the use of reason, obtain
"remission of sins, and the grace and
favour of God ; " that infants baptized
and dying in their infancy "shall un
doubtedly be saved thereby, and else
not ; " that by the sacrament of baptism
"they receive the Holy Ghost;" that
rebaptisation is inadmissible ; that in
men and children having the use of
reason, "repentance and faith are
needed in order to the efficacy of
Baptism." The 3rd is entitled "the
Sacrament of Penance." It affirms
that Penance is a sacrament instituted
by our Lord in the New Testament as
a thing absolutely necessary to salva
tion, in the case of sins committed
after baptism, and that it consists of
contrition, confession, and amendment
of life. The 4th, entitled "the Sac
rament of the Altar," declares that
"under the form and figure of bread
and wine, which we there presently do
see and perceive by outward senses, is
substantially and really comprehended
the very self-same body and blood of
our Saviour, which was born of the
Virgin Mary, and suffered upon the
cross for our redemption ; " that ¦' the
very self-same body and blood of Christ,
under the same form of bread and wine,
is corporally, really, and in very sub
stance, exhibited, distributed, and re
ceived unto arid of all them which
receive the said sacrament." The
5th defines "Justification" as "re
mission of our sins, and our acceptation
or reconciliation unto the grace and
favour of God, that is to say, our perfect
renovation in Christ ; " and affirms that
Justification is attained by contrition
and faith joined with charity, ' ' not as
though our contrition or faith or any
works proceeding thereof can worthily
deserve to attain the said justification,"
but are required by the Almighty as
accompanying conditions. The 6th, "of
Images, " allows the use of statues and
pictures, but forbids the abuse of them,
"else there might fortune idolatry to
ensue, which God forbid." It enjoins

ARTICLES OF- RELIGION 46 ARTICLES OF RELIGION

-i

the clergy to instruct their flocks, that in
censing, kneeling, and offering to images
"they in no wise do it, nor think it
meet to be done, to the same images,
but only to be done to God and in His
honour." The 7th, "of honouring
of Saints, '' sanctions a modified rever
ence for them in that ' ' they already
do reign in glory with Christ," and
"for their excellent virtues which He
•planted, in them," but guards against
giving them the honour due to God
only. The 8th, "of praying to
Saints," allows the practice of invoking
them so long as they are regarded as
intercessors, praying with us and for us
to God, but affirms that grace, remission
of sin, and salvation ' ' can be obtained
of God only, by the mediation of Jesus
Christ, which is the only sufficient
Mediator of our sins." The 9th, of
"Rites and Ceremonies," vindicates
many of those in use on the ground
that they are " things good and laud
able to put us in remembrance of those
spiritual things that they do signify,"
but asserts that "none of these cere
monies have power to remit sin." The
last, "of Purgatory," affirms "that it
is a good and charitable deed to pray for
the souls of the departed, in order to
facilitate their rescue from a present
state of suffering ; " but denounces some
of the more scandalous abuses of the doc
trine. The book called the ' Institution
(i. e. instruction) of a Christian Man,'
published in the following year, was an
elaborate explanation and defence of
the positions laid down in these "Ten
Articles." These articles did not satisfy any
party. The Reformers objected to
several of them, and Cranmer urged
further changes upon the king on the
subjects of purgatory, invocation of
saints, authority of tradition, use of
images, lawfulness of marriage of the
clergy. On the other hand, the Catholic
¦ party were dissatisfied with several of
these articles, and were much disturbed
by the fear of further changes. On
the whole, it seemed to the kine
politic to allay the general ferment

by something like a declaration ;-of
finality. _ > ,
Accordingly, a committee of bishops!
having failed to come to any agreement,,
the king sent suggestions to Parliament,
which were accepted, and embodied in
the Act of Six Articles. The Preamble
stated that "the king, being sensible;
of the good of union and the mischief
of discord, in points of religion," had
set forth these Articles : —
1. That in the sacrament there was
no substance of bread and wine, but
only the body and blood of Christ.
2. That Christ was entirely in each
kind, and so communion in both was
not necessary.
3. That priests, by the law of God,.;
ought not to marry. ,-
4. That vows of chastity taken after
the age of twenty-one ought to be kept:
5. That private masses are lawful
and useful.
6. That auricular confession is neces
sary, and ought to be retained.
Such as should speak or write against
the first of these were to bo burned
without the benefit of abjuration$fto
dispute against the other five was made
felony ; to speak against them or act
contrary to them, praemunire for the
first offence, and felony for the second.
Only four persons are said to have suf
fered under the Act, but it peremptorily
checked the progress of reform. It
will be observed that they were put,;
forth entirely by authority of king and "
Parliament, without any authority from
the Convocation of the Clergy.
In the year 1552, the last of the
reign of Edward VI., Archbishop Cran
mer received the king's command to
draw up a set of Articles of Religion,
which should embody the reformeflj
doctrine and discipline of the Church
of England. His chief assistant in.the
work was Ridley. The Lutheran Con
fession of Faith, and especially that. of
Augsburg, were the chief sources to
which they were indebted for defini
tions already drawn up, with much
learning and skill, of the chief doctrine*
of the Refoimation. A draft thus

ARTICLES OF RELIGION 47 ARTICLES OF RELIGION

prepared was submitted to the criticism
of certain bishops and of certain of the
royal counsellors ; and finally, in the
shape of Forty-Four Articles of Re
ligion, was laid before Convocation and
adopted, with little alteration, and
promulgated under the royal authority.
Space will only allow us to give the
briefest list of these Articles :— 1. Of
faith in the Holy Trinity. 2. Of thri
Incarnation of the Word. 3. Of the
going down into Hell. 4. Of the
Resurrection of Christ. 5. On the
sufficiency of Holy Scripture. 6. En
joins reverence for the Old Testament.
7. Accepts the definitions of the three
Creeds. 8. Of original or birth-sin.
9. Of Free Will. 10. Of Grace. 11. Of
Justification only by faith in Jesus
Christ. 12. Of works before Justifica
tion. 13. On works of Supererogation.
14. Affirms that our Lord was born
without sin, but repudiates the doctrine
of the immaculate conception of the
Blessed Virgin Mary. 15. Of sin
against the Holy Ghost. 16. Of
Blasphemy against the Holy Ghost.
17. Of Predestination and Election.
18. Salvation through Christ only.
19. Against Antinomianism. 20. De
fines the Church. 21. Of the authority
of the Church. 22. Of the authority
of General Councils. 23. Against
Purgatory, Image worship, &c. 24.
Ministers to be lawfully called. 25.
Divine Service should be in the vulgar
tonguei 26. Of the Sacraments. 27.
Wickedness of the minister does not
destroy the validity of the sacraments.
28. Of Baptism. 29. Of the Lord's
Supper. 30. Affirms the uniqueness
and completeness of Christ's sacrifice.
31. Lawfulness of marriage to the
clergy. 32. Declares excommunicate
persons unfit for the society of Chris
tians.. 33. Vindicates Church order
against private, judgment. 34. Au
thorises the First Book of Homilies.
35. Authorises the Ordinal and Prayer
Book. 36. Of civil magistrates. 37.
Condemns community of goods. 38.
Affirms the lawfulness of oaths. 39.
Affirms the resurrection, of the body.

40. Denies that the spirit perishes with
the body. 41. Is against the "Mille-
narii." .42. Against the belief in the
eventual restoration of all men.
On the resettlement of religion on the
accession of Elizabeth, one of Arch
bishop Parker's earliest labours was a
revision of the Forty-four Articles.
He expunged some part, of the original
article? and added some others ; and
in this work ho, like Cranmer, availed
himself of the work of the German
Reformers, taking several clauses from
the Confession of Wurtemburg. The
Archbishop's draft was considered in
Convocation, which made some further
alterations in the original Forty-four
Articles. Then ensues a curious inci
dent in the history. The , Articles as
issued under the Queen's authority did
not agree with those which Convocation
had authorised. They did not con
tain the 29th, "Of the wicked which
eat not the Body of Christ in the use
of the Lord's Supper ; " and they had
added to the 20th the clause, "The
Church hath power to decree rites
and ceremonies, and authority in con
troversies of faith." Both alterations
seem to have been made entirely by
the authority of the Crown, acting, no
doubt, under the advice of the Council.
The Convocations soon after put forth
an English translation of the Articles
(which were drawn up in Latin), but it
was of the Articles as they had them
selves accepted them, ignoring the
alterations made by the Crown. In
1571 the Articles were again subscribed
by both Houses of Convocation, and
received anew the sanction of Parlia
ment, and were committed to the
editorship of Bishop Jewell ; but now,.-
while the Latin version omitted the
clause on Church authority, the English
version contained it, while both con
tained the 29th Article. It is uncertain
to this day whether the Crown's ad
dition to the 20th Article was at that
time formally accepted by Convocation.
The Thirty-nine Articles, as we have
them in. the English version at the end
of our Prayer-books, . .have, however,

ARUNDEL

48

ARUNDEL

this authorisation, viz. "the unanimous
and solemn assent of all the Bishops
and Clergy of the Church, and of all
the graduates of the two Universities
for well nigh three hundred years"
(Bishop Harold Brown).
The chief books on the subject are
those of Bishops Beveridge, Burnet,
Harold Brown, and Forbes (Hard-
wick's 'History of the Articles').
ARUNDEL, Thomas, Archbishop of
Canterbury; born, 1352; died, 1413;
an example of the statesman prelates of
the middle ages. He was the second
son of R. Fitzalan Earl of Arundel and
Warren, and brother of Richard Earl
of Arundel. At the age of twenty-two
he was consecrated Bishop of Ely, 9th
April, 1374.
The feebleness of the later years of
Edward III., the minority of Richard
II., and afterwards his incapacity, and
the usurped sovereignty of Henry IV. ,
opened a field for the play of political
parties, and produced a degree of con
stitutional government which had never
before existed since the Conquest, and
which ceased to exist under the Tudors ;
the Government was virtually in the
hands of the Royal Council, who cor
responded to some extent to a modern
cabinet, and Parliament assumed a
certain control over the Council.
The principal parties were the party
of the king's friends ,* the party of the
Barons, striving to retain their feudal
privileges against the Crown, the
Commons, and the Church ; the rising
power of the Commons, resisting the
feudal power of the Barons, jealous of
the wealth and power of the Church,
and finding in its abuses a weapon
against it ; the Lollards, who receive
a too undiscriminating sympathy from
Churchmen in these days, because their
sweeping denunciations of things as
they existed included some of the
erroneous doctrines and many of the
abuses of the Church of their day
which the Reformation swept away,
but who were really the Communists
and religious fanatics of their time, and
obtained an amount of popular sym

pathy and political support which made!
them dangerous to the very existence;
of society.
It was on this field the young high
born bishop soon displayed a political
ability which placed him in the fore''
most ranks of the statesmen of the
time. He took the part of the oppo
sition to the king's friends, and con
tinued to the last his able and bitter
opponent. In 1388, when Parliament
wrested the power out of the hands
of the king's favourites, the Earl of
Gloucester, the Bishop of Ely as chan
cellor, and the Earl of Arundel his.
brother, were chief members of the
new Council to whom the Government
was entrusted ; which in the Wonder"
ful Parliament which followed obtained'
the death of some and the confis
cation of others of the chief favour
ites. Two years afterwards he was
translated to the Archbishopric of York.*
In 1839 Richard broke the leading-
strings in which he had hitherto been
held by the Council, and declared ' his
intention to rule in person ; he demanded
the great seat of Arundel, and trans
ferred it to the aged Wykeham, Bishop
of Winchester, the great Chancellor of
his father's reign. But in 1391 the
opposition again obtained power ; Arun
del in turn succeeded Wykeham, and re
moved the Courts of Justice to York, the
northern capital, quoting the precedent
of Archbishop Corbridge eighty years
before. He remained in office till 1396,
when he was promoted to Canterbury.
(the first instance of such a tranship
tion), and in consequence resigned th&
chancellorship. Two years afterwards he was im
peached by Parliament, together with
his brother the Earl, and the Duke o|
Gloucester, for having coerced the king
into granting them the Commission' of
1388, and the Archbishop was deprived
and banished.
He returned with Henry of LancasteK
when he invaded the realm ; was the
guiding spirit of the revolution whieli
placed Henry IV. on the throne of !
the deprived Richard II. (1399); wa)

ASCENSION DAY

49

ATTERBURY

restored to his archbishopric, and offici
ated at the Coronation of the new king.
He naturally had great weight in the
councils of the new reign. In- 1406 he
was Chancellor for the fourth time, and
soon after began to take vigorous mea
sures against the Lollards. This made
him unpopular ; he resigned in 1409.
He died, 20th Feb. 1413. He was a
great statesman and a popular minister.
His action against the Lollards has
made him a mark for the attacks of a
party ever since, but it was his duty as
minister no less than as archbishop to
take action — such action as the circum
stances of the time made possible —
against the very serious dangers with
which the State as well as the Church
were threatened by their communistic
propaganda. The Bishop of Chester
(Stnbbs) says of him: "The highest
intelligence, on the whole, in the
government was Arundel's." He "knew
how to rule the Commons, and how to
guide the king ; he believed in the
right of the (Lancastrian) dynasty, arid,
apart from his treatment of the heretics,
realised the true relation of king and
people. If his views of the relation
of Church and State, as seen in his
leading of the Convocation, are open to
exception, he cannot be charged with
truckling to the Court of Rome "
('Constitutional History of England,'
iii. 77).
ASCENSION DAY. It is not known
when the festival was instituted.
Augustine speaks of it as one of the
festivals supposed to have been insti
tuted by the Apostles, so that it must
have been of general and ancient ob
servance in his time, but it is only in
his age that it is first found mentioned.
Chrysostom and Gregory of Nyssa, as
well as Augustine, have left sermons
on the festival. It fittingly concludes
the cycle of. festivals of our Lord, and
is marked out in our Prayer Book, by
the Proper Preface at Holy Communion
provided for it, as one of the great
festivals to be observed for eight days
with daily Communion.
An illustration of the usefulness of

these days of commemoration in bringing
into prominence certain doctrines con
nected with each of them, is seen in the
fact that there are many Church people
who conceive that when the Son of
God returned to heaven He left His
humanity behind Him, an error which
they could never have fallen into if
they had been accustomed year after
year oh Holy Thursday to hear the
Gospel for the day, narrating the rising
of the Lord from Olivet in the sight of
His disciples ; and in the Psalms the
song of the angels attending on Him
through the sky : " Lift up your heads,
0 ye gates, and be ye lift up, ye ever
lasting doors, and the King of glory
shall come in. Who is the King of
glory ? The Lord of Hosts, He is the
King of glory ; " and lastly, the First
Lesson from Daniel, in which the
Ancient of Days sits on his throne
amidst the ten thousand times ten
thousand angels who stand before Him,
and there is brought before Him one
like unto the Son of man ; and to him
is given dominion and glory and a
kingdom, that all peoples, nations,
and languages shall serve Him ; a
dominion which shall not pass away;
and a, kingdom which shall not be
destroyed. And the want of familiarity
with this doctrine obscures others, e. g.
the true nature of the Incarnation,
that the Son of God took the manhood
into a union with the Godhead in His
Person, never to be divided.
ASPERSION (= sprinkling), as of
holy water. [See Holy Water.] An
ciently baptism was sometimes, and
now is frequently, administered by
aspersion. [See Affusion. ]
ASSEMBLY OF DIVINES. [See
Westminster Assembly, &c]
ASYLUM ('AavKov, an inviolable
place, as a temple ; an altar). A place
in which whoever took refuge was (at
least temporarily) safe from the pursuit
of justice. [See Sanctuary.]
ATTERBURY, Francis, Bishop of
Rochester ; born, 1663; died, 1732 ; was
born at Middleton Keynes ; educated at
Westminster and Christ Church, Oxford..

ATTERBURY

50

AUGUSTINE

A man of elegant scholarship, versatile
genius, and considerable ambition, who
•played a very prominent part in eccle
siastical politics in the reign of William
and, Mary, as one of the most able
leaders of the party opposed to the
Court. Having married a relation of
the Duke of Leeds, a beauty with a
fortune, he obtained in 1691 a position
in London as Lecturer at St. Bride's.
His geni us soon attracted notice. About
1692 he was appointed Royal Chaplain ;
in 1700 he was preacher at the Rolls.
On the accession of Queen Anne, Atter-
bury came into Court favour ; in 1704
was made Dean of Carlisle ; in 1710
was Prolocutor of the Lower House of
Convocation; and in 1713 was made
Bishop of Rochester. In the early part
of his public career he was one of those
who endeavoured to increase the power
of the Church by developing the con
stitution of Convocation so as to gain
lor it something of the political power
which the House of Commons had ac
quired. The Lower House of Convoca
tion (which see) had an origin very
similar to that of the Commons' House
of Parliament ; and in the early times
of parliamentary history there was a
certain parallelism between the status
and functions of these two bodies. The
House of Commons had in the course
pf ages developed into the most powerful
safeguard of the rights of the people
against the Crown and nobility, and
exercised a large influence over the
'acts of the Government. The plan, of
Atterbury and his friends was to de
velop the power of the Lower House of
Convocation — a constitutional body
which exercised the right of self- tax
ation, and possessed at that time the
enthusiastic confidence of a large body
of the nation — so as to make it a safe
guard of the Church against the designs
of the Court and the authority of the
Court bishops. Atterbury was not only
a brilliant writer, but had the genius
of a politician, and conducted the
struggle against the Court and the
Upper House of Convocation with great
skill.

On the accession of George I. Atter^
bury's opinions both in civil and eccle
siastical politics threw him into disgrace
at Court. It is not improbable, though,
there is hardly adequate proof of it,.
that he was engaged with the party
which had contemplated on the death
of Anne the proclamation of James as
the rightful sovereign. He certainly
was an active member of the party, of
which Bolingbroke and Swift were the
leading members, which bitterly opposed
the Government. He is said to have
refused an offer from Sir R. Walpole
of the reversion of Winchester, and a
pension of £5000 a-year in the mean
time, to bribe him to silence ; and
thereupon it is said the Minister had
him arrested on suspicion of concurrence.
in a plot in favour of the Chevalier,
and committed to the Tower. A Bill
of pains and penalties against him was
passed by both Houses of Parliament,
and he was deprived and banished. He
died in exile, 15th February, 1731-2.
His body was brought home to England,
and- interred in Westminster Abbey.
AUGUSTINE, commonly called the
Apostle of England, an honour which
in justice should be shared by Aidan. ij
It was while Gregory the Great was
still a monk in the monastery of St.
Andrew, which he himself had founded;
on the Ccelian Hill, that the blue eyes.
and fair hair of some boys from Deira
(Yorkshire and Durham), exposed for
sale in the Forum, inspired him with
the desire to evangelise the people of
whom they were the representatives.
It was not till he was made Bishop of
Rome that he was able to carry out his
intention. Then he sent Augustine
(of whose previous history nothing is
known), the prior of his monastery of
St. Andrew, with forty of its monks, to
undertake the task of converting the
island in the northern sea.
They set out a.d. 596, by the usual
route across Italy and Gaul. What
they heard in Gaul of the barbarous
character of the people they were sent
to, led them to send Augustine back to
Rome to ask to be recalled. Gregory

AUGUSTINE

51

AUGUSTINE

repeated his commands and encourage
ments to them to persevere. They
learnt in Gaul that Ethelbert the King
of Kent had married a Christian Prin
cess, Bertha, the daughter of Charibert,
King of Paris, and that a bishop
and priests were residing at his Court.
They accordingly directed their journey
thither instead of to the north of
the island, and landed in the Isle of
Thanet, August 597. The king came
to meet them. They approached him
in procession ; one carrying a large silver
cross preceded ; another followed bear
ing as a kind of banner the picture of
the Saviour ; the rest followed chanting
a Litany. Ethelbert allowed them to
settle in Canterbury, to join in the
services carried on for the queen in the
restored Roman Church of St. Martin,
and to preach to the people. Soon
Ethelbert was led to accept the faith.
After the custom of the time, he con
sulted with the chief men of his king
dom ; they concurred in the wisdom of
abandoning their worn out barbarous
superstitions, and adopting the religion
of the civilised nations of the West ;
and the people as a whole accepted
Christianity as the national religion.
After this success Augustine, accord
ing to the directions Gregory had given
him, repaired to Aries, and there by
Vergilius, the Metropolitan of Aries, was
consecrated archbishop. On his return
Ethelbert gave him his own house
in Canterbury, and a deserted church
of the Romano-British time which
was near at hand, which became the
nucleus of the cathedral. Ethelbert
gave him also another deserted British
church, then used as a Saxon temple,
outside the city, where he founded an
other monastery under Peter the Deacon
as its first Abbot. Gregory, on hearing
the success of his mission, sent over some
valuable additions to the missionary
staff — the Abbot Mellitus, Paulinus,
Justus — with ecclesiastical furniture
and books, and a letter of counsels, and
answers to questions which had been
put to him. Several of these are im
portant. Augustine had found the

Gallican liturgy in use in St. Martin's
Church, and found that the British
Church had also a distinct liturgy,
both differing from that of Rome.
Gregory directed him to select from
either whatever appeared good, and
thus in effect to compile a new liturgy
for the English Church. Gregory also
directed him not to assume authority
oyer the bishops of Gaul ; but all the
bishops of Britain he committed to his
care, "that the unlearned might be
instructed, the weak strengthened by
persuasion, the perverse corrected by
authority." Augustine accordingly
sought an interview with the British
bishops, who met him on the borders
of Wessex to the number of seven, with
monks of the great monastery of Bangor,
and a number of the clergy. Augustine
required that they should adopt the
Roman customs of Easter, &c, and
the Roman mode of baptism (the British
custom being probably by single instead
of trine immersion), and should aid him
in the conversion of the Saxons. That
they should accept the primacy of
Canterbury was also implied ; and it
was on this point especially that the
British Church refused to have anything
to do with Augustine. He received
them sitting, as their superior, and did
not rise to salute them. They reasoned :
"If he will not so much as rise up to
greet us, how much more will he con
temn us if we put ourselves under sub
jection to him."
Augustine returned to Canterbury to
prosecute his work with his own re
sources. He founded a second see at
Rochester, for a sub-tribe who were
settled in that corner of the Kentish
kingdom, with Justus for its first bishop.
Redwald, King of East Anglia, through
Ethelbert's influence, allowed mission
aries to preach in his kingdom, but was
not himself a convert, and the mission
was unsuccessful. Through Ethelbert's
influence over his nephew Sebert, King
of Essex, the Italian missionaries were
admitted into that kingdom also, where
they had some temporary success, and
Mellitus was made Bishop of the East

AUGUSTINIAN

52

AUGUSTINIAN

Saxons, with London as his see. This
was the extent of the work during
Augustine's lifetime. Soon after his
death Ethelbert consented to the mar
riage of his daughter Ethelburga to
Edwin, King of Northumbria, on the
same conditions on which he himself had
married Bertha, viz. that the princess
should retain her religion, and should
have her royal chapel with its staff of
ministers. Paulinus was chosen, and
consecrated bishop, to accompany the
Princess to Northumbria, where he
effected the conversion of Edwin, and
the acceptance of Christianity as the
national religion. But the work of the
Roman mission was soon subverted in
Essex and in Northumbria, and those
kingdoms were finally converted by
the missionaries of Lindisfarne. So
that the permanent results of the labours
of Augustine and his companions were
limited to the one kingdom of Kent in
which they began. He died 604.
AUGUSTINIAN (popularly con
tracted into Austin) Friars. [See
Friars.] The popularity of the Orders of
Francis and Dominic led to a number
of attempts to found other Orders
which had only a partial success. Pope
Alexander IV. no doubt acted wisely
in the interest of sound discipline when,
in 1256 A.D., he decreed that all these
small communities, together with the
scattered hermits and solitaries, should
be incorporated into a new Order, under
the rule of St. Augustine, with some
stricter clauses added, under the name
of Eremiti Augustini, Hermits of St.
Augustine. Their constitution re
sembled that of. the other Orders :
a Cardinal Protector, a General in
Rome, Provincials and Priors. Indoors
their habit was. a white frock and
scapular ; in choir and abroad they
added a sort of cape and a large hood,
both black, the cape round in front
and hanging down to the waist in a
point, girt with a black leather belt.
Before the Reformation they numbered
in Europe 30,000 ; there were forty-
five houses of them in England, but

no female houses, viz. : at Cambridge,
Penrith, Bredsale Derbysh., Barn
staple, Tavistock, Blakemore Dorset,'
Sherburn, Bernard Castle, Ashen Es-'
sex, Winchester, Huntingdon, Canter-'
bury, Warrington, Leicester, Boston,
Lincoln, Stamford, London, Lynn,
Newbrigge, Norfolk, Norwich, Thet-
ford, Northampton, Newcastle-on-Tyne,
Newark, Oxford, Ludlow, Shrewsbury,
Woodhouse Salop, Bristol, Stafford,
Stoke Clare, Gorleston Suffolk, Ips
wich, Orford, Rye, Atherston, Droit-
wich, North Allerton, Hull, Tickhill,
York, Newport, Pembroke.
AUGUSTINIAN orders of clergy..
There were two great monastic families l
one which followed the Benedictine,
the other the Augustinian rule.
Augustine, on his conversion, had
adopted the ceenobitical life, and was
the chief of a little community of his
friends at Thagaste ; and when he was
consecrated bishop, of Hippo, he turned
his episcopal house into a kind .of
monastery, in which he lived in com
mon with his clergy, under certain
regulations which he laid down for
them, based upon the usual monastic
principles of abstinence from marriage
and property, a common life, and
obedience to a Superior. The episcopal
house became after a time insufficient
for the numbers who desired to entejj
into its community, and other house|
were opened and other communities'
founded on the same principles. The
great African bishop did not, however,
found an Order in the same sense ifl
which Benedict, Dominic, and others
did ; he only set an example which
others followed ; and laid down prin
ciples for the regulation of his own
family of priests engaged in the active
service of the Church, which in after
times were adopted for the regulation
of similar communities of priests. So
that the great difference between the
regulations of Benedict and Augustine
is that the one was intended for laymen
secluding themselves from the world,
the other for priests engaged in the
duties of their office.

AUGUSTINIAN

53

AUGUSTINIAN

The formal Rule known under the
name of Augustine is believed to have
been really drawn up by Ivo de Char-
tres out of the writings of the saint.
The Augustinians were divided into
Canons Secular and Canons Regular.
The Canons Secular of St. Au
gustine were in fact the clergy of
the cathedrals (which were not Bene
dictine), and of the collegiate churches
[see Collegiate Church], who formed
communities. Their habit was a long
black cassock (the secular clergy did
not then universally wear black clothes)
[see Clergy], over which during divine
service they wore a surplice, and (after
the 12th century) a fur-lined tippet
called an almuce or amyss [see Almuce],
and a four-square cap called a baret ;
out of doors they wore a black cloak
and hood with a leather girdle. They
might wear their beards, but from
the thirteenth century downwards were
usually shaven. [See woodcut under
Canons.] The Canons Regular - were monks
who lived more or less in seclusion,
hut according to the Augustinian
rule. It was the least severe of the
monastic orders. "Among them,"
says Enyol de Provins, a thirteenth
century writer, ' ' one is well shod, well
clothed, and well fed ; they go out
when they like, and talk at table."
They were first introduced into England
in the reign of Henry I. at Colchester,
where the interesting ruins of their
church (St. Botolph's Priory), built in
the Norman style, of Roman brick, still
remain. Their habit differed in differ
ent houses, usually a cassock of dark
colour, over that a white linen rochet,
and over that out of doors a dark
cope, but they might not wear the
beard. According to Tanner they had
147 houses in England — 158 for monks
and 16 for nuns. The editors of the
latest edition of the ' Monasticon ' have
recovered the names of additional small
houses which make up a total of 217.
Only two of these priors— viz.,, of Wal-
tham and Cirencester— were entitled
to wear the mitre. [See miniature of

one in MS. Tiberius III. f. 148, British
Museum.] The chief peculiarities of their rule
are indicated in the following brief
notes,, which are chiefly the titles of
the several chapters of the rule : — " Rule
I. Property relinquished by the appli
cant for admission. Probation by the
prior. Nothing to be taken away by
a canon leaving the order from neces
sity. Everything offered to be accepted
with the prior's approbation. The
rule to be observed by all from the
Superior downwards. Punishment for
contumacy, and offences declared to
the Praepositors, before whom disagree
ments also were to be laid. Property
retained through necessity to be de
livered to the Superior. Rule II. What
psalms, &c, to be sung at the Hours,
and nightly readings immediately after
Vespers. Labour from the morning till
Sext, and from Sext till Nones reading,
after refection work till Vespers. Two
to be sent together on the convent
business. No one to eat or drink out
of the house. Brothers sent to sell
things not to do anything against the
rule. No idle talk or gossiping, but
sitting at work in silence. Rule III.
Union in one house. Food and raiment
distributed by the Superior. Every
thing common. Consideration to be
had of infirmity. Against pride on
account of difference of birth. Con
cord. Attention to divine service at
the proper hours. Not to make other
use of the Church than that it was
destined to, except praying in it out of
the proper hours when they had leisure
or inclination. When psalm-singing
to revolve it in the heart. Not to sing
but what was enjoined to be sung.
Fasting and abstinence : — Those who
did not fast to take nothing beyond
the usual time of dining except when
sick. Reading during dinner. Better
food for the sick not to make the others
discontented. Better provisions and
clothing for those of delicate habits
not to annoy the others. Sick to be
treated on recovery as suitable, return
to the usual habit when well. Habit

AUGUSTINIAN

54

AUGUSTINIAN

not to be conspicuous. To walk to
gether when going out, and stand
together at the j ourney's end. Nothing
offensive in gait, habit, or gestures.
Not to fix their eyes upon womer..
Mutually to preserve each other's
modesty when two together in a church
where women are. Punishment by the
Superior for such offences. Receipt of
letters or presents to be punished unless
voluntarily confessed. Clothes from
one vestiary, as food from one cellar.
Labour for the common good. Vest
ments sent by relatives to be stored in
the common vestiary. Same punish
ment for concealment as for theft.
Clothes washed according to the order
of the Superior, either by themselves or
fullers. Washing the body in case of
infirmity by medical advice, or on re
fusal of that by order of the Superior.
Not to go to the baths but by two or
three, and then with the person ap
pointed by the Superior. Sick to have
the infirmarer. Cellarers, chamberlains,
and librarians to serve the brethren
with good-will. Books not to be
obtained but at the stated hour. Clothes
and shoes to be delivered when needed.
No lawsuits or quarrels, or terminated
as quickly as possible. Satisfaction to
be made for offences, and speedy for
giveness of the offended. Harsh ex
pressions to be avoided, and an apology
made when used. Obedience to the
Superior, who if he spoke harshly was
not to beg pardon. Obedience to the
heads over them, but especially to the
priest who had the care of the whole
house. Superior, when his authority
not sufficient, to have recourse to that
of the elder or priest. Superior to
govern in charity ; to be strict in dis
cipline, yet aim more to be loved than
feared. Rule to be read in presence of
the brethren once a week. " The Augus-
tinian rule was adopted as the basis of
several branch orders, as the Praemon-
stratensian, Gilbertine, and several
Orders of nuns, as the Brigettine nuns
of Fontevraud, &c. ; it was also adopted
by Dominic and Francis as the basis of
the rule of their friars j and the Austin

Friars were, as their name implies,
incorporated under it. It was also the
basis of the religious discipline of the
Military Orders, the Hospitallers and
Templars. A plan of the regular Augustinian
Abbey of Newstead is given in the
'Journal of the Archaeological Asso
ciation, ' vol. ix. p. 30. That of Oxford
in the ' Building News ' for February
8th, 1878. Interesting particulars of a
house of Austin Canons, and digest of
final Regula drawn up for them by
Wolsey, will be found in Tandridge
Priory by Major Heales. 1885.
Regular Augustine Canons, List of
Houses of, from latest edition of the
' Monasticon. ' (P. = Priory, N. =
Nunnery, C. = Cell. )
Plympton P., Devon ; Waltham
Holy Cross; Pentney P., Norfolk;
Walsingham P., Norfolk; Thremhale
P. , Essex ; Huntingdon ; St. Oswald)
P. , Gloucester ; Barnwell P. , Came, f
Nostell P., Yorks; Bredon P., Lei-
cest. ; Woodkirk C, Yorks ; Hyrst P.,
Lane; Stowkirke P.,. Yorks; Bfun-
burgh P., Northumb.; St. Botolph P.,
Colchester ; Hagmond, Salop ; St.
James's, Northampton ; Wirksop P.,
Notts; Felley P., Notts; Lanthony,;
Gloucester ; Carlisle P. ; Little Dun'
mow P., Essex ; Christ Church, Aldgate
P., London; Taunton P.; Hastings
P.; St. Mary Overey P., Southwark;
Bresethe P., Suffolk ; Cirencester ;
Hexham P.; Studeley P., Warwicks.;
Laund P. , Leicest. ; Thurgarton P.;
Notts; Drax P., Yorks; Marton P.,
Yorks; Bethgelert P., Carnarvon;
Bolton P., Yorks ; KirkhamP.. Yorks;
Launceston P. ; St. Denys, ' South
ampton ; Leedes P., Kent ; Haselberge
P., Somerset ; Kenilworth, Warwick^
Stone P., Staffordsh. ; Brooke P.,
Rutlandsh. ; Lanercost P., Cumb.;
Dunstable P., Beds; Southwyke,
Hants ; Merton P., Surrey ; Oseney,
Oxford ; Ronton P., Stafford ; Pyne-
ham P., Sussex; Lillieshull, Salop;
Giseburn P., Yorks ; Scarthe C,
Yorks; Nutley P., Bucks; Busk
mead P., Beds; Bridlington P. , Yorks^

AUGUSTINIAN

55

AVE MARIA

St. Bartholomew P., Smithfield ; War-
tre P., Yorks ; Christ Church P.,
Hants; Hardham P., Sussex; Chich
St. Osyth P., Essex; Ixworth P.,
Suffolk ; Norton, Cheshire ; Newburg,
Yorks ; Hode C, Yorks ; Dorchester,
Oxon ; Thornton, Line. ; Brummore
P., Hants ; Harwood P., Beds ; Brink-
burne P., Northumb.; Canon Leigh
N., Devon ; Bruton P., Somerset ;
Bradenstoke P., Wilts; Norton P.,
Line. ; Wigmore, Hereford ; Thorne-
holm P., Line; Derby P., Derbysh.;
Cathedral, Bristol; Cokesford P.,
Norf. ; Bourne P. , Lane. ; Newnham
P. , Beds ; Kyme P. , Lines ; Butley
P., Suffolk ; Newark P., Surrey ; Bar-
lynch P., Somerset; Wombridge,
Salop ; Caldwell P., Beds ; Tunbridge
P. , Kent ; Anglesea P. , Camb. ; Tren-
tham P., Staffordsh. ; Wormleye P.,
Herefordsh. ; Royston P. , Herts ; Erd-
bury P., Warwick; Poughley P.,
Berks ; Roucester, Staffordsh. ; Comb-
well P., Kent ; Wordspring P., Somer
set ; Ivy Church P., Wilts; Old
Buckenham P., Norf. ; Cold Norton
P., Oxon ; "Osulveston, Leicestersh. ;
Torksey P. , Line. ; Sancomb P. , North-
ants ; Repton P., Derbysh., with C. of
Calke ; Caermarthen P. ; Burcester P. ,
Oxon ; Hartland, Devon ; Helagh P. ,
Yorks ; Canons Ashley, Northants ;
Haverford P., Pembroke ; Woodham
Ferrars or Bickenacre P., Essex ; St.
Trinity, Ipswich ; Fineshed P., North
ants ; Keynsham, Somerset ; Cartmell
P. , Lancash. ; Westwood, Kent ; Burs-
cough P., Lane. ; Staverdale P., Somer
set ; De Pratis, Leicester ; Wellow,
Line; St. Thomas P., Stafford ; New-
stead, Notts ; Hickling P., Norfolk ;
Stoneley P., Hants ; Mobberley P.,
Cheshire ; Spinney P. , Camb. ; Shotes-
ford P., Hants; Fristoke P., Devon ;
Wroxton P. , Oxon ; Creyk, Norfolk ;
Acornbury P., Heref. ; Bilsington P.,
Kent ; Bradley, Leicest. ; Michelham
P., Sussex; Ratlingcope P., Shropsh. ;
Ravenston P., Bucks; Chetwood P.,
Bucks ; Lacock N., Wilts ; Selborne
P., Hants ; Kirby Beler P., Leicest.;
Ashridge P., Bucks ; Reygate P.,

Surrey ; Haltemprice, Yorks ; Badles-
mere P., Kent; Maxstoke P., War-
wicks.; Bisham P., Berks; Flanes-
ford P., Herefordsh.; Edindon P.,
Wilts; Dartford N., Kent; SyonN.,
Middlesex; Bentley P., Middlesex;
Burnham, Bucks ; Missenden, Bucks ;
Griesley, Derbysh. ; Cornworth N.,
Devon; Berden P., Blackmore P.-,
Lees- P., Tholey P., and Tiptree P.,
Essex ; Wymonclesley ParvaP., Herts ;
Conisheved P., Lancash.; Ailsham P.,
Markeley P., and Newstede P., Line;
Sandleford P., Berks ; Ulverscroft P.,
and GraceDieuP., Leicesters. ; Beeston
P. and Bromwell P. , Norfolk ; Lan^
tony, Monmouth ; Wiggenhale N.,
Hempton P., Massingham Magna P.,
Mountjoy P. , Peterston P. , Sheringham
C, and Westacre P., Norfolk; Roth-
well N., Northants ; Shelford P.,
Notts ; Caversham O, Oxon ; Car-
ham C., 'Northumb. ; Briontune P.,
Wilts ; Ovingham P., Northumb.;
Lees P., "Staffordsh.; Chebury P.,
Salop ; Shulbred P., Sussex ; Byrkley
P. or Hermitage, Somerset ; Goring N.,
Oxon ; Flitcham P., Norfolk ; Long-
leat P., Wilts ; Alborne P., Campsey
P., Bliburgh P., and Chipley P., Suf
folk; North Ferriby P., Yorks; Dod-
nash P., Suffolk ; Wormegay P., and
Wayburn P., Norfolk ; Kersey P., and
Flixton N., Suffolk; Weybridge . P. ,
Norfolk ; Calwich C, Staffordshire ;
Haleywell C. , Warwicksh. ; Lethering,
ham C, Suffolk ; Tortlington P.,
Sussex ; Calke C. , Derby ; Thirling
P., Camb. ; SS. Peter and Paul,
Ipswich ; Heringflete P., Woodbridge
P., Suffolk; Latton P., Essex; St.
Sepulchre, Warwick ; Tandridge P.,
Surrey ; Ilchester, Somerset.
AURICULAR CONFESSION (auris,
the ear) means confession not merely
spoken in the heart to God, but spoken
audibly into the ear of the priest.
AUSTIN. [See Augustinian.]
AVE MARIA. A recitation of the'
salutation of the angel Gabriel to the
Blessed Virgin Mary : " Hail thou that
art highly favoured," &c, first occurs
in the prayers of the Church in the

BACON

56

BANGOR

Sacramentary of Gregory (590 a.d.) as
an antiphon for the Fourth Sunday in
Advent.. Many councils and bishops
had directed the people to a frequent
use of the Lord's Prayer and the Creed,
but it is not until the end of the
twelfth century that the Ave Maria is
joined with them as a devotional act,
as a memorial of the Incarnation.
The ' Institution of a Christian Man '
put forth, 1537, as an exposition of
reformed doctrine, says : " The Ave
Maria is not properly a prayer as the
Pater Noster is ; nevertheless the
Church hath used to adjoin it to the
end of the Pater Noster as a hymn,
laud, or praise, partly of our Lord and
Saviour Jesus Christ for our redemp
tion, and partly of the Blessed Virgin
for her humble consent given and
expressed to the angel at the saluta
tion. "
The modern Roman addition, "Holy
Mary, mother of God, pray for us sin
ners, now, and at the hour of our death, "
does not find a place in any of the
devotional books of the English Church
down to the Reformation ; though it
was being introduced into use just
before the time of the Reformation.
It was put into the Roman Breviary
in its present form by Pope Pius V. in
the latter part of the sixteenth cen
tury. [See Angelus.]

B

BACON (or Bakon, Bacun), Roger,
Franciscan Friar, one of the most
learned scholars of the thirteenth cen
tury, his special reputation being in
mathematics and natural philosophy.
He was born near Ilchester, Somerset,
J214 ; ' studied in the schools of Oxford
and Paris, and became a friar at the
age of thirty-four. His experiments
gained for him among the vulgar the
reputation of being a magician, a stigma
which hao clung to the name of "Friar
Bacon " to the present day. But the
Pope Clement IV. in 1266 asked for a
copy of his works ; and his writings,
revised and arranged for the pope, under

the name of the ' Opus Majus,' remaini
The pope at this time- supported him,;
but in the latter part of his life he was
confined to his cell by the orders of the
General of -his Order, it is said because
his pursuit of science had led; him to
conclusions which seemed unorthodox
in his time, and he did not recover his
liberty till the year before his death at
Oxford, 1292. He was one of those
men so far before his age that many of
his discoveries remained unappreciated
and unutilized for centuries. The name
given him by his contemporaries, ac
cording to. the custom of the time,
Doctor Mirabilis, not unaptly expresses
the vague wonder with which he in
spired them.
BALDACHIN (Ital. baldachino), a
canopy of honour. The use of a canopy
as a mark of honour is very ancient;
We find it over the heads -of monarchs
in Assyrian bas-reliefs and in Persian
sculptures, in the shape of a portable
conical umbrella. It was used through
out the middle ages as a half-tester
over the throne of the king, or the
chair of state of a bishop, or over the
tomb of a noble, or over the high
table at the upper end of the hall,
as at Eton College. In very early
times the altar in a Basilican church
had a canopy over it, carried on four
pillars ; in mediaeval churches tho
canopy was sometimes conical, sus
pended from above ; sometimes a half-
tester projecting from the east wall,
It is useful from an artistic point of
view, as helping to give greater im
portance to that feature of the church.
which is ritually its focus, and towards
which in fact all eyes are turned.
Many of the churches of the Jaco
bean period had an ' ' altar piece, " which
is in fact a pedimental canopy supported,
by two pillars, the whole being of a
handsome composition, costly with
marble, sculpture, and gilding.
BANGOR, DIOCESE OF. When the
Roman Empire withdrew its authority
from the Island, Wales broke up into
several principalities, of which Gwynedd
was one. Each came to have its bishop,;

BANGOR

57

BANNS

and Deiniol, or Daniel, who died 584
a.d., to whom the Cathedral Church
was dedicated, is probably the first of
this line of bishops. The name of the
place where he fixed his see, Ban-chor,
"head." or "chief choir," implies
that he either found or gathered together
here one of those great companies of
Csenobites which were characteristic of
the Celtic Church.
. There are no records of the See of
Bangor during its independent Welsh
existence ; but the names of a few
bishops occur at intervals. Elbodg, or
Elfod, occurs between 768 and 809 ; he
introduced the observance of the Roman
Easter into North Wales. Mordaf ac
companied Prince Howel Dha to Rome,
920—930. Madoc Min, i.e. Madoc
the Fox, betrayed Llewelyn, and after
wards his son Gruffudd, to Earl Harold.
The history of the see really begins
after the Norman Conquest. On the
occasion of a vacancy the king, Henry
I., nominated, and Thomas, Archbishop
of York, consecrated, Herve,or Hcrveus,
a Breton, to the see ; but his flock
refused to receive him ; and after trying
against them, in vain, first the spiritual
weapon of excommunication, and after
wards the carnal weapon of the sword,
he gave up the contest and fled to
England, and we shall meet him again
there as the first Bishop of Ely. The
see continued vacant till 1120, when
David, a Welshman, nominated by the
Prince of Gwynedd, was consecrated at
Westminster by Ralph, Archbishop of
Canterbury, and David made a formal
profession of canonical obedience to
that see. , He was succeeded by Mewrig
or Maurice, who was elected by the
clergy and people of the diocese, and
consecrated by the Archbishop of Can
terbury, to whom he made profession
of obedience. But on his death the
people resisted the intrusion of a
Norman upon them by Thomas Becket,
and appear to have procured the con
secration of a man of their own choice
by an Irish bishop.
Bishop Anian- (1267—1305) rebuilt
the cathedral, which had been destroyed

by fire. It was he who baptised the
infant Prince of Wales, afterwards
Edward I. , at Carnarvon. He arranged
the Use of Bangor. When the Welsh
rose against Henry IV., Anian's build
ing was burnt and greatly injured by
Owen Glendower. A vacancy occurring
during this period, Lewis Bifort was
elected by the Welsh, and obtained
consecration, and sat at the Council of
Constance as Bishop of Bangor, but
was not recognised by the English king
or archbishop. In the subsequent
centuries this see, on account of its
poverty and remoteness, was held by
few distinguished men, and by those
few only as a stepping-stone to higher
preferment ; in several cases other more
lucrative preferment was held in com-
mendam with this see.
The diocese consists of the counties
of Anglesea, Carnarvon, and Merioneth,
with part of Montgomery. Population,
226, 040 ; 2 archdeaconries, Bangor and
Anglesea, and Merioneth ; 14 rural
deaneries, 138 parishes.
' The Ancient British Church,' by J.
Pryce ; Murray's ' Handbook to the
Cathedral.' BANNS is a Saxon word which means
a proclamation. Publicity was always,
under the Roman law, held to be an
important requisite for a legal marriage,
and this wise principle has been adopted
into the ecclesiastical marriage law. It
is secured among us by the publication
of the banns, i.e. by the announcement
of the names and description of the
persons intending to marry, during
divine service, on three several Sundays
or holy days, in the church of the
parish, or parishes in which they reside
By a canon of the Synod of London,
A.D. 1342, banns were ordered to be
published on .three solemn days pre
vious to solemnisation.
There is some doubt at what time in
the Morning Service the banns should
be published. The original rubric, in
the sealed Prayer Book, says that it is
to be " in the time of divine service
immediately before the sentences for
the offertory." The rubric as now

BAPTISM

58

BAPTISM, INFANT

printed, says ' ' during the time of Morn
ing Service, or of Evening Service (if
there be no Morning Service), im
mediately after the second lesson." The
explanation suggested is that since in
many churches Morning Service was not
performed every Sunday, an Act (26
George II. c. 33, s. 1) was passed to
make it legal in such a case to publish
the banns at Evening Service, and di
rected that the publication should be
made after the second lesson : , that
about 1809 the Curators of the Press
at Oxford (see Bishop" of Exeter's speech
in Hansard, III. viii. 21) caused the
rubric to be altered in all th&Oxford
Prayer Books, so as to make rt direct
that the banns should be published
after the second lesson at Morning or
at Evening Prayer, their object being
to bring the rubric into agreement w'ith
the Act. But in 1856 Baron Alderson,
in his judgment in the case of Regina
v. Benson, gave it as his opinion that
the banns ought still to be published in
the Communion Service before the offer
tory sentences, and only in the Evening
after the second lesson. Bishop Wilber-
force, of Oxford, in his charge in 1866
expressed the same opinion. The ne
cessity for the publication of banns
before a marriage may be dispensed
with by a license from the Court of the
Bishop of the diocese or any of his
surrogates, or from the Archbishop of
Canterbury. BAPTISM. |8a7rW£w, to wash. The
Sacrament of initiation into the Cove
nant and Church and Body of Christ.
In ancient times there were two great
seasons for baptism, viz. Easter Eve
and Whitsunday, and it was adminis
tered by the bishop. But after a while
infant baptism was administered by the
priests soon after birth. Adult bap
tisms are still by the rubric of our
Prayer Book referred to the bishop.
The wholesale conversions of the
northern races, were accompanied by
wholesale baptisms i Augustine is said
to have baptised 10,000 Kentish men in
one day in the river Kennet, and
Paulinus also his 10,000 Northumbrians

in a day in the river Swale in Yorkshire*
One of the points on which the usages
of the Celtic Church differed from those •
of the Continental Churches was that
the former baptised with one immer
sion, the latter immersed thrice. The
Anglo-Saxons of the Celtic school
adopted trine immersion, together with
the other continental customs, at the
Council of Whitby (664).
The Sarum Office for baptism con
tained several symbolical ceremonies,
which have been omitted from our
Reformed Office, as Exorcism of the
Evil Spirit, anointing with oil, &e,
the only one retained being the sign of
the cross upon the forehead. The Re
formed Office brings out more distinctly
than the ancient one the primitive
doctrine of baptism, as the divinely^ '--¦
appointed sacrament whereby the child
undergoes a spiritual regeneration, is
grafted into Christ, receives remission
of sin, and the gift of the Holy Ghost.
The Church of England, together
with the rest of the Church, holds that
immersion is the normal mode of bap
tising, but that affusion or aspersion
are sufficient. [For a notice of these
two latter modes, and their defence
against the Baptists, see Affusion,
Aspersion. See also Infant Baptism.
and. Lay Baptism.]
BAPTISM, INFANT. It may he
desirable to sum up briefly the argu
ment in defence of the baptism of in
fants against the objections of the anti-
Paedo Baptists.
1. Every child born into this world
is born in sin (i. e. with a sinful nature),
and is what Scripture calls a child of
wrath (i. e. the opposite of being a sub
ject of Divine pleasure and approval).
2. God gives his grace not for any
merits or doings of our own, but freely,
for the sake of what Jesus Christ has
done ; therefore he may give His grace
to unconscious infants though they
have not done anything to merit it.
The fact that the infant has been
brought into the state of sin and con
demnation without any conscious com
plicity on its part, makes it the more

BAPTISM, INFANT

59

BAPTISTERIES

congruent that it should be brought
into the state of grace through Christ's
death for all men, without any conscious
complicity on its part.
¦ 3. Baptism in the New Covenant
clearly occupies the position of Circum
cision in the Old as the Sacrament of
initiation into the covenant with God.
Circumcision was ordered to be ad
ministered at eight days old ; if chil
dren could not be brought into the
New Covenant, then it would be a
narrower covenant, and children would
be under greater disadvantages under
it, whereas the New Covenant is one of
wider and of greater grace.
4. Christ commanded His apostles to
make disciples (i. e. Christians) of all
nations (by) baptising them ; they had
been accustomed to see the infants of
families of proselytes to the Jewish
religion circumcised as a part of the
ceremonies of their reception into the
Jewish Church, and in the absence of
any caution to the contrary they would
naturally understand that so the infants
of families of proselytes to Christianity
were to be admitted into the Christian
Church by baptism.
5. The Acts of the Apostles records
the baptism of five households ; this is
sufficient proof that it was the general
practice of the apostles to baptise house
holds ; and if not in any of these five,
certainly in the thousands of other
households which these represent, there
were children of all ages.
6. Christ rebuked the apostles for
keeping the little children away from
Him, and laid His hands on them and
blessed them ; so that little children
are capable, by the outward sign and
accompanying word of Christ, of being
the recipients of spiritual grace.
7. The Epistles addressed to baptised
members of the Church assume that
they have received the grace of God :
some of them address special injunc
tions to children, as Eph. vi. 1 ; Col.
iii. 20.
8. There is historical evidence that,
as a question of fact, the Church has
from very early times baptised infants.

[See Wall on ' Infant Baptism ; ' Sadler
on the ' Sacrament of Responsibility. ']
BAPTISM, LAY. Baptism admin
istered by a lay person, i. e. one not in
Holy Orders.
It was in very early ages decided by
the' Church that any Christian not
under sentence of excommunication is
competent to administer baptism, and
that the baptism of a lay person, man
or woman, administered with the right
matter and the right words, is a valid
baptism, and is not to be repeated.
This is distinctly the doctrine of the
Church of England as evidenced by
the rubrics, &e, at the beginning of
the office for the admission of those
who have been privately baptised. At
the same time the Church directs that
as a matter of order baptism shall be
administered, except in case of neces
sity, by a priest only ; that it shall
be administered in church, and on a
Sunday or holy day, in time of divine
service. It was also ruled at a very
early period, notwithstanding the con
trary opinion of some very eminent
persons, that the baptism of Christians
who were in heresy or schism was valid.
From these decisions a conclusion
is drawn which is of great practical
importance in these days, viz. that the
baptism duly administered by those
who are not in communion with the
Church of England may be accepted
by her ministers and people without
scruple as valid baptism. [See ' Holy
Baptism, a Dissertation,' by W. Mas-
kell, 1848.]
BAPTISTERIES. The cathedral
churches of the Basilican type, of the
early centuries, frequently had a circular
or octagonal building, adjoining but
detached, for the celebration of the
sacrament of baptism at the great
festivals. The baptismal water was
contained in a bath-like, or grave-like
basin (piscina) in the middle of the
floor ; sometimes probably sunk beneath
the level of the pavement ; in other
cases certainly the basin was like the
basin of a great fountain whose sides
rose above the level of the floor ; such

BAPTISTS

60

BARROW

a one is* represented twice over in the
Pontifical of Landulphus of the ninth
eentury. [See engravings in D'Agin-
court's 'L'Art .par ses Monuments.']
These buildings were found convenient
for other "ecclesiastical purposes, such
as those for which chapter-houses were
afterwards used. Thus, Cuthbert, Arch-,
bishop of Canterbury, erected a build
ing adjoining the cathedral church [see
Cathedral], to serve for baptisteria,
cxaminationes judiciorum, and also as
the place of interment for the arch
bishops: When- gradually the custom
of the Church became to baptise infants
in their parish church, fonts of smaller
size were erected in the churches, usually
near the principal entrance. [See
Font] BAPTISTS. The Baptists, as a sepa
rate organised religious body, took their
rise in a secession from the Independent
congregation in London, of which Mr.
Lathrop was the minister, 12 Septem
ber, 1633, Mr. J. Spilsbury being the
first minister of the new sect. The
two great points in which the Baptists
differ from the Independents are in
the mode and in the subjects for bap
tism. They hold that baptism is not
valid if administered by affusion or
aspersion, but only by immersion.
They hold that a personal profession
of faith in Christ is an indispensable
requisite for baptism, and therefore
refuse to accept any as proper subjects,
for baptism who have not come to
years of discretion. [See Affusion, and
Baptism, Infant.]
The sect spread .with some rapidity,1
so that in 1643 they held a meeting "of
representatives of Baptist congregations
in London and. drew up a Confession of
Faith, which, however, only kept them
together for about seventeen yenrs. At
the end of that time they divided into
two bodies, under the name of General
i and Particular Baptists.
The Particular Baptists represent
¦ the original body, and retain their
original Calvinistic theology. They are
subdivided into two sections ; the Free
¦ C'ommunionists admit- to the "Lord's

Supper" those who have been baptised
only in infancy and have afterwards
come over to their connection ; the
Close Commimionists will only admit
those who have been baptised as adults.
The General Baptists seceded in
1660, holding what were then called
" Arminian " views of redemption. On
the passing of the Toleration Act in
1689 the Baptists held a General As*
sembly, in which more than one hun
dred congregations were represented,
and adopted a new Confession of Faith
which may be found in Neaps ' History
of the Puritans,' vol. iii. p. 559, and
which was republished by Mr. Spurgeon
in 1863. In course of time, however,
the congregations .of General Baptists
became largely infected with Unitarian
principles, and those who still held to
the original Arminian tenets of their
sect separated from the rest in 1770;,
and formed themselves into a New
Connection of General Baptists ; those
who were left behind speedily became
wholly Unitarian, and decreased in
numbers, but having the advantage of
possession of the old endowed chapels,
they continue to maintain about one
hundred congregations.
In 1812 was formed an association of
these various Baptist bodies under the
general name of the Baptist Union,
which has a committee, and a general
meeting once a year, and publishes
annually a ' Baptist Year Book,' which
contains an account of the statistics and
doings of the denomination. The body
also has a periodical organ called the
' Baptist Magazine. ' [See Curteis,
' Bampton Lectures. ']
BARROW, Isaac, Master of Trinity
College, Cambridge, was born at London
1630; the son of an eminent citizen;
educated at Charterhouse, Felsted, and
Peterhouse, Cambridge, where his uncle
was Master ; but his uncle being
ejected as a Royalist, he entered Trinity
College ; , and :was elected to a
scholarship. Here his Royalist opinions
endangered his scholarship, but Dr.
Hill, who had been made Master by
the Parliament, protected him, saying,

BATH AND WELLS

61

BATH AND WELLS

" Barrow is a better man than any of
us." When Parliament imposed the
"Engagement" [nee Great Rebellion]
upon all who held office, Barrow took
it, but had the courage afterwards to
declare his desire to have his subscrip-
_ tion cancelled. He was elected Fellow,
1649, in spite of his known opinions ;
but lost on that ground his candida
ture for the Greek Professorship. After
four years of foreign travel (1655-1659)
in Europe and the Levant, he returned,
was ordained, and was appointed to the
Greek Professorship (1659) without op
position ; 1662, Professor of Geometry ;
1.663, the first occupant of the new
Professorship of Mathematics, in which
Isaac Newton succeeded him. In 1672,
when Pearson, the author of the ' Ex
position of the Creed,' was promoted to
the see of Chester, Barrow was nomin
ated by the king to succeed him as
Master. He died 4th May, 1677. In
his lifetime his fame rested chiefly
upon his scientific acquirements ; he
is best known to us as the writer of
.'Sermons,' which are remarkable for
the thoroughness of their treatment of
every subject dealt with, their depth of
thought, force of expression, and sound
ness of judgment. "On every subject
he multiplies words with an overflowing
copiousness, but it is always a torrent
of strong ideas and significant expres
sions" (Blair).
BATH AND WELLS, Diocese of.
The diocese of Bath and Wells has this
perhaps unique feature, of special inter
est, that in it the British Church sur
vived until the conversion of the Saxon
conquerors, and that at least one of
its churches lived on continuously into
the Saxon times, and received the
honour on that account due to it,
till the Reformation, in the sixteenth
century, in sweeping away all the
religious houses, included this also,
with horrible circumstances of cruelty
and slaughter.
The Church of Glastonbury Was the
interesting survival of - the British
Church, and connecting link with
.Saxon times. Putting aside the stories |

of the coming of St. Philip and St.
James, and of the coming of Joseph
of Arimathea, and admitting that the
legend which connects the name of
Arthur with the Isle of Ynysvitrin is
equally unhistorical, there still re
mains sufficient historical evidence to
prove that a church and monastery
existed at Glastonbury up to the
time when Ceawlin and his Saxon
followers (577) overthrew the Roman
city of Aquce Solis, the Waters of
the Sun (Bath) ; and that before the
next wave of conquest, sweeping still
westward, had reached the sacred isle
(652-8), the West Saxons had been
converted by St. Birinus ; they no
longer destroyed churches and their
ministers ; " so that in the larger part
of the diocese of Bath and Wells the
worship of Christ was never displaced
by the worship of Woden ; " and in
subsequent times they honoured Glas
tonbury as the oldest church in the
land. Passing by much legendary matter,
which yet may probably contain germs
of truth, and which implies the influ
ence of a strong British element in the
early history of Somerset, we come to
the division, under King Ini, of the
west Saxon diocese into two ; the
western division consisting of part of
Wilts, Somerset and Dorset, having its
bishop's see at Sherborne, while the
parts east of the forest of Selwood fell
to Winchester. Here, as in North
umbria, the two schools — the Celtic
and the Continental — were mingled
together ; and their different customs
caused confusion. A west Saxon Synod
requested Ealdhelm to write a letter
on the subject to the Celtic Christians,
addressed to the King of Dyfnaint (it
is still extant), which had the effect of
inducing many of them to adopt the
Catholic customs. It was in the next
year (705) that the western counties
were erected into a separate bishopric,
and Ealdhelm was made their bishop.
The distinction between the two
Churches gradually died out soon after
his time.

BATH AND WELLS

62

BATH AND WELLS

The conquest of Devon and Corn
wall, completed in the reign of Egberht,
made the diocese of Sherborne too un
wieldy ; and when the west had. peace
under Eadward, he and Archbishop
Plegmund held a council in 909, at
which the bishopric was divided ; the
sub-tribe of the Sumorsaetan received
a bishop of their own, whose see was
placed at Wells, probably because there
was already a large church there, served
by a body of secular priests, one of the
foundations perhaps of King Ini. The
first bishop of Wells, .ffithelhelm, was
consecrated in 909, and in 914 was
translated to Canterbury. The history
of Dunstan, which begins with his
Abbacy of Glastonbury, and for years
after belongs to this diocese, must be
sought under his name [see Dunstan].
The other abbeys of Somerset before
the Conquest are Bath, Muchelney,
and Athelney. At the time of the
Domesday survey the churches of Puri-
ton had been given to St. Peter's at
Rome ; of Chewton to the Abbey of
Jumieges ; and of Crewkerne to the
Conqueror's foundation of St. Stephen
at Caen. Bishop Gisa, himself a
foreigner, appointed by Edward the
Confessor, retained his see after the
Conquest. The Abbot of Glastonbury
was deposed, and the Norman Thurstan
took his place, and tried unsuccessfully
to dragoon the monks into adopting
the Norman style of chanting the
service. Gisa was succeeded by John de
Villula (1088—1122), who, on a vacancy
of the Abbacy of Bath, obtained the
house from Rufus, and moved his see
from Wells to the Abbey church ; he
bought some lands round the city of
Bath, and shortly after bought the
city itself (i. e. the lordship of it) for
500 lbs. of silver. The grant of Bath
and the removal of the see were con
firmed by a charter of Henry I. * He
pulled down the cloister, refectory, and
dormitory which Gisa had built at
• See the similar transfer, at the same
£eriod, of the see of Lichfield, under 'title
iphfield, Diocese of.

Wells, and built himself a house on
the site of the destroyed buildings ;
took away some of the canons' lands;
allowing them a pension out of them,
and restored them to the life of secular
priests. On the bishop's death his
son John, the archdeacon, claimed the
Provostship of Wells, as though it
were his by right of inheritance.
Bishop Robert (1136—1166) reorgan
ised the chnrch of Wells, and gave it
a chapter, with a dean and precentor.
Recovering the lands of the canons, he
divided the property of the see from-*
that of the canons ; the latter portion
he divided, settling one part on the
chapter collectively, and the other part
he divided into separate prebends, as
signing one to each canon. The other
usual dignitaries of a cathedral chapter
— the treasurer and chancellor, together
with the minor offices of sub-dean and
precentor, were added before 1252.
The diocese was also divided into three
archdeaconries — Wells, Taunton, and
Bath. The relations of the bishop to
his double see were settled : episcopal
elections were to be made by represent
atives of the monies of Bath and the
canons of Wells ; the bishop was to
be enthroned in both churches, and
the chapters of both were to assent to
all grants. This arrangement of the
bishopric, of Bath and. Wells continued'
till the dissolution of Bath Abbey by'
Henry VIII., after which the bishops
took their title from Wells only.
Bishop Robert was also "good lord"
to the town which gradually grew up
about the church of Wells, granting <
certain liberties to the burghers ; he
also granted them the right to hold
three fairs a-year in the streets of the
town, in place of the market which
had come to be held in the church
and its forecourt, to the disgrace of
the church and the discomfort of the
worshippers. Bishop Reginald Fitz-Jocelin (1174—*-
1191) was one of the statesmen-bishops
of Henry II. ; he considerably aggrand
ized the church of Wells, and increased
the number of its prebendal stalls to

BATH AND WELLS

63

BATH AND WELLS

thirty-five ; ho also enlarged the liber
ties of the town of Wells, making it a
free borough. Savaric (1193—1205),
liis successor, adopted the wise policy
of co-ordinating the abbeys of his
diocese to the cathedral, by annexing
a prebend to each of the abbacies of
Muchelncy and Athelney ; he also
annexed a prebend to the abbacy of
Bee, in Normandy. Thus the three
abbots were enrolled as members of the
Wells chapter, and a bond of spiritual
brotherhood was established between
the bishop and his chapter, and the
abbots and their convents. The Abbot
of Glastonbury refusing to accept a
similar arrangement, Savaric obtained
a grant of its abbacy, to be held, like
Bath, together with the bishopric, and
took the title of Bath and Glaston
bury ; but his successor surrendered
the abbacy, retaining, however, some
of its estates as an augmentation of the
endowments of the see.
Bishop Jocelin Trotman (1206—1242)
was the builder of the greater part of
the present cathedral ; the upper part
of the three towers and the eastern
portion of the church being the work
of Robert Burnell (1275—1292).
Glastonbury, a Benedictine house,
was the only parliamentary abbey
in Somerset. William of Mortain
founded a Clugniac monastery at
Montacute, in 1100. The Cistercians
had a house at Cleeve, founded in
1188, by William of Romare. Henry
II. introduced the Carthusians into
England at Witham, of which St.
Hugh of Lincoln was for some time
abbot. [See Hugh, Bishop of Lincoln. ]
William Longespee founded another
house of this Order at Hinton. There
were houses of the Canons Regular of
St. Augustine at Taunton, Bruton, and
Barlinch. The Order of St. Victor had
priories at Keynsham, Stavordale, and
Wbodspring. The latter was built by
William Courteney, a relation of Tracy,
one of the murderers of Becket, in
expiation of his kinsman's crime, and
was dedicated to St. Thomas of Canter
bury ; it possessed, as one of its most

precious relics, some of. the blood of
the martyred archbishop. In some
recent repairs done to the neighbouring
church of Knostoke, a walled-up niche
was discovered, containing a small cup,
in which was a residuum of human
blood, probably the relic aforesaid, con
cealed here ; it is now in the Somerset
Archaeological Society's Museum, in
Taunton Castle
The Templars had a Preceptory at
Temple Combe, which at their dissolu
tion was transferred to the Hospit
allers. The Hospitallers had also a
Commandery at Buckland. Buckland
Priory was originally founded for
Augustinian canons ; soon after its
foundation the canons slew the steward,
a kinsman of their founder, and tho
house was consequently forfeited to the
Crown ; in 1180 the king granted it to
the English prior of the Hospitallers,
on condition that all the Sisters of the
Order in the kingdom should be settled
there, beside the Commandery. In the
reign of Edward III. the Commandery
had a preceptor, five brethren, their
servants, and chaplain ; and there were
fifty sisters in their nunnery. The
Friars had three houses in the diocese :
the Dominicans at Ilchester, the Fran
ciscans at Bridgewater, and the August-
inians near Bristol. There were four
nunneries in the diocese : at Canning;
ton, Barrow, Ilchester, and Buckland,
as above stated. ( For a detailed account
of them, see a paper by the Rev. G.
Hugo, in the ' Somerset Archaeological
Proceedings,' x. 13. ) ,
There seems to have been only one
collegiate church in the diocese,
founded by Sir J. Beauchamp (1304),
at Stoke. Hospitals abounded : two
at Bath, one each at Wells, Glaston
bury, and Bridgewater ; hospitals for
lepers at Taunton, Ilchester, Langport,
Bridgewater. There were hermits and
recluses at Hasleburg, near Crewkerne,
at Och, in the parish of Aller, at
Winscombe, and at Tiverton.
The diocese had the usual variety
of character in its bishops. William
Button, the younger .(12.67—1274),

BATH AND WELLS

¦64

BATH AND. WELLS

though never formally canonised, was
regarded by the people as a saint, and
they visited his tomb with prayer and
offerings ; his aid was specially invoked
by sufferers from toothache Robert
Burnell (1275—1292) was the Chancel
lor of Edward I. ; during his tenure
of office the statute of mortmain was
passed, which forbade the further ac
quirement of landed property by re
ligious or other corporations, except
with licence from the Crown. "His
life seems to have been little different
from that of a lay noble . . . the
number of his sons, and the splendid
matches he made for his daughters,
scandalised the regular clergy."
Bishop William of March (1293—1302)
was also a Minister of State, but he
Was none the less a saintly bishop ;
many miracles were said to have been
wrought at his tomb, and an attempt
was made by the archbishop and seven
bishops, headed by the king, to got
him formally canonized. The earliest
bishop's register of the diocese is that
of John of Drokensford (1309—1329),
which contains much interesting matter.
He played a conspicuous part in the
political troubles of his time. Oliver
King (1495—1503) was Henry VII.'s
chief secretary. Wolsey held the see
'in commendam for three years (1520 —
1523). There was a good deal of Lollardism
in theJdiocese in the fourteenth and
fifteenth centuries, Bristol being the
headquarters of it ; but in every case
the heretics, when brought before the
authorities, abjured their heresy, and
escaped punishment. A full report of
the trials of William Curayn, in 1429,
and of John Young, chaplain of St.
Cross, in 1449, are given in 'Bath and
Wells,' S, P. C. K, p. 143.
The history of the diocese affords
much local matter in illustration of
the history of the Reformation ; the
judicial murder of the last Abbot
of Glastonbury, the plunder of the
bishopric, the impoverishment of
parochial benefices, and the destruction
of chapels. In the time of the Great

Rebellion the palace, deanery, chapter
house, and much Church property in
Wells, were sold to a Dr. Cornelius
Bruges, who stripped off the roof of
the palace, and left nothing but bare
walls ; with the materials he repaired
the deanery and lived in it. He had
authority from parliament "to preach
the Word of God in the late cathedral
church of St. Andrew, Wells ; " but
the Wells people refused to listen to
his preaching, and used to walk up
and down the cloisters all sermon time.
The clergy suffered here, as elsewhere.
The whole number sequestered in the
diocese seems to have been 107. The
dean, a nephew of the famous Sir
Walter Raleigh, was set on a horse,
with his legs tied beneath the body,
and so led prisoner to his house ; there
he remained for awhile, suffering from
illness, and then was sent to Ilchester
jail. Thence he was taken to the
bishop's house at Banwell, and con
fined in the deanery, where he was in
the custody of one Barrett, a shoe
maker, the constable of the village
This Barrett, being one day in an ill-
humour, demanded to see a letter the
dean was writing to his wife, and when
the dean resisted and struggled to
withhold it, stabbed him through the
body. After lingering some weeks, he
died, Oct. 10, 1646. He was buried
at Standish, one of the priest-vicars
reading the Church service over his
body — a crime for which ho was im
prisoned till the day of his deathi
Barrett escaped all punishment. "Wilt
liam Pierce, the son of the bishop,
Archdeacon of Taunton, and Rector of
Kingsbury, was forced to earn a scanty
living by threshing, and carrying cheese
to Taunton and Ilminster markets.
Tarlton, the Vicar of Ilminster, was
also sequestered, and his daughter, in
after days, used to tell how she had
often seen her father, Pierce, and other
Royalist clergy, sitting together on
market days, eating bread and salt,
with not a penny to buy a glass of ale.
Gaulen, the Rector of Chiselborougbp
was sequestered in 1646 for refusing

BATH AND WELLS

BAXTER

to. sign the covenant ; his goods were
seized, and he was kept some time in
prison, in spite of a petition in his favour
from the parishioners. When he was
released he was unable to obtain his
fifths, and the intruding minister offered
him two spinning-wheels, once his own
property, that his daughters might spin
for a living.
The Presbyterian "Plan" for the
ecclesiastical organisation of the diocese
divided it into nine "classes," but the
paucity of suitable ministers and elders
caused the nine to be reduced to four.
The Bath "class" contained twelve
ministers and thirty-two elders. The
Baptists appear to have formed a con
gregation as early as 1630, which at
first met in the woods near Taunton,
and finally settled at Hatch. About
1648, Sims, a Baptist, preached in the
church of Middlezoy, and was seized
by the Presbyterians for preaching
without a licence. In 1650 Cromwell
caused the magistrates to grant the use
of the Shirehall at Chard to a congre
gation of Baptists. In 1653 an Associa
tion of Baptist Congregations was
formed for Somerset, and in 1656 they
put forth a Confession of Faith.
At the Restoration, Bishop Pierce
returned to his see, which he retained
till his death, in 1678, at the age of
ninety-four. There were about eighty
seceding ministers of this diocese in
1662. The name of Bishop Ken unites the
diocese with the resistance to James
II. 's schemes for the advancement of
popery, for he was one of the seven
bishops sent to the Tower, and with
the religious difficulties caused by the
charge of dynasty in William III., for
he was one of the non-juring bishops ;
nine of the beneficed clergy of the
diocese followed his example in the
latter case.
Hannah More, known elsewhere
chiefly by her writings, is known in
this diocese for the, religious revival
which the labours of herself, her sister,
and her friends, effected in the Mendip
district. 

The diocese consists now, as always,
of the entire county of Somerset ;
population, 427,705 ; 3 archdeaconries,
viz. Taunton, Bath, and Wells; 23
rural deaneries ; 491 parishes.*
BAXTER, RICHARD, Nonconformist
divine ; born 1615, died 1691. Was
born at Rowton, Shropshire, of pious
parents. He had not a learned educa
tion, but by his diligence in after life
obtained the reputation of competent
learning, was ordained and made Vicar
of Kidderminster in 1640. He endea
voured to remain neutral during the
Civil War, and. with that view left
Kidderminster and returned to Coven
try. But when the Presbyterian army
chaplains general. y left the army to
be ministered to by independent and
fanatical officers, Baxter joined the
army, and endeavoured by his preach
ing to maintain the principles of the
Puritans. When Cromwell usurped
supreme power, Baxter again fell back
into retirement. He was one of the
leading Nonconformists who, on the
eve of the Restoration, visited Charles
II. at Breda, and endeavoured to ob
tain promises in favour of a modifica
tion of the Church in the direction
of Presbytery and Calvinism. In pur
suance of the conciliatory policy of the
Church and the Court, he was made one
of the king's chaplains, and offered the
Bishopric of Hereford ; but declined it.
He was one of the Nonconformist divines
who assisted at the Savoy Conference.
On the settlement of the Church, and
the passing of the Act of Uniformity, he
was one of the considerable group of
ministers who, declining to accept the
settlement, had to vacate their livings.
He continued, however, to minister to
co-religionists, and was in 1665 arrested
and imprisoned, but at once liberated
by the Government. The Declaration
of Indulgence enabled the Nonconform
ists generally to resume the celebration
of Divine Worship ; and Baxter, settling
in London, established, with the aid of
* This article is compiled from the ' History
of Bath and Wells,' by the Kev. W. Hunt,
published by S. P. C. K., which see.

BEAUFORT

BEAUFORT

Owen, Manton, and others, the Pin
ner's Hall Lectures, which were carried
on till 1695.
In the reign of James II. Baxter was
brought before Jeffries for his Para
phrase of the New Testament, which
was charged with being so paraphrased'
as to make it a scandalous and seditious
book, and suffered two years' imprison*-
ment. He died in 1691 at the age of
seventy-six. He was a man of considerable genius
and eloquence, of earnest piety and
moderate principles, and a diligent and
successful parish priest. He was a volu
minous writer ; he is said to have com
posed 145 works in folio, and 63 in
quarto ; out of them the ' Narrative of
his own Life and Times' has an his
torical value ; but his memory is chiefly
kept alive by two of the smallest of
them, 'The Saints' Everlasting Rest,'
and 'The Call to the Unconverted,'
which have ever since been among the
most popular of our English books of
the class to which they belong.
BEAUFORT, Henry, Cardinal, was
one of the great statesmen bishops of
the time of Henry V. and VI. There
were three Beauforts, sons of John of
Gaunt by Catherine Swynford, whom
he married after their birth, and ob
tained their legitimation by Parliament
in the reign of Richard II. ; they were
therefore the half-brothers of Henry
IV. and uncles of Henry V. While
Arundel [see Arundel] represented the
constitutional traditions of the late
reign, the Beauforts were the king's
friends, and were a tower of strength
to him. Henry Beaufort, while still
very young (1397), was made Bishop of
Lincoln. In the latter part of Henry
IV. 's reign, the state of the king's
health threw much of the burden of
the government upon others. The
Prince of Wales took a prominent part
in affairs, the Beauforts were his sup
porters, the bishop having been pro
bably his tutor, and certainly his con
fidential adviser. On his accession as
Henry V. (1413), he removed Arundel,
and gave the great seal to Beaufort.

On the death of Wykeham in the fol
lowing year Beaufort succeeded him at
Winchester. In 1417, on the departure
of thekingfor the French War, Beaufort"
resigned office, and went on pilgrimage'
to Palestine : the king's uncle, the Duke
of Bedford,' being left as the king's
lieutenant, and Bishop Longley as
chancellor. On his way to the Holy
Land, when he had reached Ulm, he
was invited by the emperor to visit the-
Council then sitting at Constance,* in
I the hope that his reputation and au-
' thority might help in settling the dis
pute on which the Council seemed about
to make shipwreck, viz. whether to pro-
j ceed first to the election of a pope, or to
I the reformation of the Church. Beau
fort recommended the former course,
and his advice was accepted. In 1 421
he was godfather to the young prince,
afterwards Henry VI. The king died
in the following year, and a Council of
Regency was appointed, in which the
Duke of Bedford, Duke Humphrey of
Gloucester, and Bishop Beaufort, were
the principal members ; Beaufort being
made chancellor in 1425, when Bedford
went to take command in the French
War. The home government was dis
tracted by quarrels between Duke
Humphrey and the bishop, which went
so far that the bishop, garrisoned the
Tower against Duke Humphrey, and
sent for the Duke of Bedford tomediate
between them. A reconciliation was
forced upon them by Parliament, but
Beaufort resigned the great seal and
left the kingdom in 1-426, and did not
return till 1428. In the mean time
he had been made cardinal and legate
and commander of a crusade against
the Hussites. When he had collected
money from the clergy for his crusade
against the Hussites, and had raised
troops, Bedford at that juncture need
ing reinforcements in France. Beaufort
assented to the desire of Parliament to
transport his troops to France, and ei»
ploy them there for six months, before
* Hallam, Bishop of Salisbury, who was ope
of the English representatives to the Council,
had died there a little while before.

BECKET

67

BECKET

proceeding to Germany. On his return
to England in 1428, his cardinalate,
his legateship, and his war against the
Hussites, had cost him the favour of
the people. Archbishop Chichele pro
tested against his being allowed to act
as legate, and a royal proclamation for
bade him to do so. Duke Humphrey
renewed his opposition, and tried to
deprive him of his bishopric, and to
have him excluded from the Council ;
and he retired to France. After Bed
ford's death (1435), Beaufort was the
only great statesman left, and he took
the lead in the councils of Henry VI.,
and was his chief adviser, and was per
mitted to exercise authority as legate.
He died 1447, his great antagonist, Duke
Humphrey, having died a month pre
viously, and was buried in Winchester
Cathedral, under a magnificent tomb
which still remains. Shakespeare was
a dramatist, not a historian, and habit
ually adopted the popular traditional
view of historic characters ; he has
blackened the character of Cardinal
Beaufort in order to heighten that of
Duke Humphrey by contrast. The truth
is that the Duke of Gloucester had no ele
ment of greatness in his character, while
Beaufort was a great statesman. ' ' Beau
fort, by his long life, high rank, wealth,
experience, and ability, held a position
almost unrivalled in Europe ; but he
was neither successful nor disinterested ;
fair, and honest, and enlightened, as
his policy may have been, neither at
the time nor ever since has the world
looked upon him as a benefactor. He
appears in history as a lesser Wolsey "
(Bishop of Chester (Stubbs), ' Constitu
tional History of England,' iii. 662).
But there is no historical ground for
the dark traits by which the dramatist
has given tragic effect to his character.
BECKET, THOMAS, Archbishop of
Canterbury ; born, 1118 ; died, 1170.
The romantic story which used to be told
of Becket's parentage may be dismissed
as entirely fabulous. His origin is well
ascertained. His father, Gilbert Becket,
was a Norman, a merchant in Cheap-
side, London, and at one time held the

office of Portreevo ; his mother's name
was Roesia or Matilda. He was educated
at the house of the Canons Regular of
Merton, and in London, and was then
taken into the household of Richer do
l'Aigle at Pevensey Castle. Thence he
went to the University of Paris to com
plete his education. When just of age
his father failed in business, and Thomas
returned to London, and entered the
office of a kinsman of the strange name
of Eightpenny, who was clerk to the
Portreeve, the office which his father had
formerly filled. After three years of
this apprenticeship to business, he was
made known to Theobald, Archbishop
of Canterbury, who took him into his
household, and soon discovered and
encouraged his remarkable talent. The
archbishop enabled him to study for a
year at Boulogne, and employed him
in his affairs at the Papal Court.
His patron provided him, according to
the custom of the time, with several
benefices, the Rectories of St. Mary-le-
Strand, and Otford in Kent, a Prebend
in St. Paul's and another in Lincoln.
On the accession of Henry II. Becket
was taken into the king's household
and made chancellor, and soon received,
as the reward of his services, the arch
deaconry of Canterbury, the highest
and most lucrative preferment, next
to the bishopric, which the Church
afforded. The new chancellor was only thirty-
eight years of age, and was not only
an able statesman, but a pleasant com
panion, handsome in person, cultivated
in mind, gay and cheerful in disposition,
fond of field sports, magnificent in his
tastes. The young king, a little over
twenty years of age, entertained a
friendship for him, and treated him
with familiarity. The chronicler says
that the chancellor was famous for the
magnificence of his household, and his
profuse and costly hospitality. Earls
and barons sat daily at the high table
on the dais, knights and gentlemen
crowded the long tables of his hall.
Gold and silver dishes decked the table,
and the most costly viands and wines

BECKET

68

BECKET

were provided. The young king would
sometimes ride into the hall in the
middle of the meal, throw himself off
his horse, leap over the high table, sit
down beside the chancellor, and join in
the festivity. But Canon Robertson
suggests that it is really the king's
household which is thus described ;
that the young king devolved upon his
chancellor the duty of acting as host,
and that the chancellor only showed
his magnificence and taste in arranging
and presiding over the Royal Court
and its hospitalities. In the War of
Thoulouse, Becket took part in it in
person, in full armour, at the head of
700 knights of his own estates, besides
1200 men in his pay, and 4000 foot
men, and distinguished himself in the
combat. When peace was made, the
chancellor was sent as ambassador to
conclude the treaty, and went through
France with such a magnificent train
that all beholders said, "If such was
the chancellor, what was the king ? "
Henry on his accession had found
the country in great disorder after the
civil wars and anarchy of the reign of
Stephen. Every petty baron had built
himself a strong castle, ruled his es
tates, and waged war on his neighbours,
without restraint from the law ; so
that the people had suffered from cruel
oppression, while the king had been
reduced to the condition of little more
than the greatest of the barons, ruling
his own estates, and having certain
feudal claims on the rest of the baron
age. The young king had set himself
to work with a statesmanlike plan,
great ability and energy, and with
considerable success, to reduce this
anarchy to law and order. He com
pelled the dismantling of the castles
which had been erected without royal
licence ; reduced the armed following
of the nobles by excusing them from
serving in his foreign wars, on pay
ment of a pecuniary commutation, with
which he hired mercenary troops ; and
at the same time he balanced the
military power of the nobles by reorgan
ising the ancient popular force of the

fyrd, or militia, under the sheriffs of the
counties, to secure order at home. The
king further organised the legal depart
ment of the government, and estab
lished the system of judges of assize
and justices in Eyre. His aim was to
abolish the feudal jurisdictions, and to
establish a system of equal law and
justice for all men over the whole
kingdom. There was another exceptional juris
diction in the country to which the
king next turned his attention. William
the Conqueror had separated the civil
and ecclesiastical jurisdictions, and
given to the clergy courts of their own
[see Ecclesiastical Courts], which took
cognisance not only of ecclesiastical
causes, but of ecclesiastical persons also.
The result was that if an ecclesiastic5
committed a crime he could not be
tried and punished by the king's jus
tices, but must be handed over to the
ecclesiastical authorities. Now the
ecclesiastical law, though more severe
in its dealing with moral offences, was
less severe than the civil law in the
punishments which it inflicted for
crimes ; the result was, that in many
cases a clerk convicted of a crime for
which the civil law would have hanged
him, escaped with a term of imprison
ment. The king desired to deprive the
clergy of this privilege, and to make
them subject to the jurisdiction of the
royal courts. On the death of Arch
bishop Theobald, the king thought that
the time had come for carrying out his
plans, and he nominated his chancellor
to the archbishopric in the belief that
he who had aided him in his previous re
forms would willingly lend himself to the
further reforms contemplated. Becket
said words which might have warned
the king: "If you do as you say, my
lord, you will soon hate me as much as
you love me now ; for you assume an
authority in Church affairs to which I
shall not consent, and there will be
plenty of persons to stir up strife be
tween us." It must be remembere|
that Becket had been trained to public

BECKET

BECKET

business in the archbishop's household,
and knew well the points in which the
interests of the Church and of the king
diverged. The chancellor was still only in
deacon's orders. On Whitsunday 1162
he was ordained priest, and on the fol
lowing Sunday was consecrated bishop,
and appointed the latter day to be
observed hereafter in the English
Church as the festival of the Holy
Trinity. The archbishop at once re
signed his office of chancellor, began
to lead an ascetic life, and seemed to
seek only to devote himself to the
duties of a good bishop.
The king had been absent on his
continental dominions at the time of
the archbishop's consecration. On his
return in the following year he set
about the prosecution of his plans. A
Council was summoned at Westminster,
and the king's proposals laid before it,
which amounted to this, that a clerk
convicted of a crime should be handed
over to the king's justice. The pro
posal seems reasonable in the abstract,
but the special circumstances must be
taken into account. In the imperfect
state of mediaeval law, and with mediae
val habits of injustice, was it expedient
that the clergy should surrender the
advantage of their own more scientific
system of law and the protection from
arbitrary treatment which their own
courts afforded them ? At first the
bishops were disposed to accept the
king's proposals, but the archbishop
opposed them, and brought the majority
of the prelates round to his views.
The king was greatly enraged, and both
parties sent envoys to the pope to en
gage his influence in the matter. The
pope acted with his usual tortuous
policy : temporised, gave ambiguous
replies, said enough to encourage the
archbishop without saying enough to
make a breach with the king ; did not
sanction the king's proposals, but re
commended the bishop not to quarrel
with him.
Becket seems to have tried to follow
this temporising policy. He agreed to

consent to the king's proposals. The
king required that this should be done
in legal form by the Church assembled
in Council, and a Council was convoked
at the Castle of Clarendon, near Salis
bury, for the purpose. Then the pro
posed Constitutions (as the canons pro
mulgated by an archbishop and accepted
by a national Synod are technically
called), which had been drawn up by
Roger de Luci, the Justiciar, were read,
and Becket verbally assented to them.
He was then required to execute them
legally by affixing his archiepiscopal
seal.- The authorities . disagree as to
whether he did or did not affix his seal ;
but they are all agreed that he at once
retracted his assent, and proceeded to
suspend himself from saying mass, and
to do penance, as one who had fallen
into a grievous fault.
Then the king began to persecute
him under the forms of law, deprived
him of his personal property, accused
him of malversation in his office of
chancellor, and tried to drive him into
submission or resignation. The arch
bishop appealed to the pope, and fled
to the continent. Henry confiscated
the see, plundered the exile's relations
to the number of four hundred, and
banished them from the kingdom, mak
ing them take an oath to go and present
themselves in their ruin and misery to
the archbishop. Becket remained in
exile six years, residing principally at
the Cistercian monastery of Pontigny
(which still exists), about twelve miles
from Sens.
At length a reconciliation was ef
fected, and the archbishop returned to
England, amidst great demonstrations
of joy by the people. But he had
prepared fresh trouble by sending before
him sentences of excommunication on
the Archbishop of York, and the
Bishops of London and Salisbury for
usurping his own functions during his
absence. The three bishops set out for
Normandy to lay their complaints be
fore the king. Henry ignored the fact
that he had given permission for the
excommunication; and burst out into

BEDE

70

BEGGARS

a transport of rage : "A curse on all
the false varlets 1 have maintained, who
have left me so long subject to the in
dolence of a priest without attempting
to rid me of him. " Four of his knights
who had heard the rash words set out
at once for England, hastened with
some armed followers to Canterbury,
found the archbishop in the cathedral,
and murdered him on the spot. The
news of his death ran throughout
Europe, and it Was everywhere accepted
as a martyrdom. Henry obtained ab
solution on condition of abandoning his
design against the privileges of the
clergy. 'Shortly miracles were said to be
wrought at the martyr's tomb, Pope
Alexander canonised him, and St.
Thomas of Canterbury became the most
popular saint in England, and con
tinued so down to the Reformation.
Then Henry VIII. very naturally felt
a special hatred of the archbishop who
had successfully defied the king in de
fence of the privileges of the Church,
and had his throne broken down and
his name erased from the service-books.
The strength of Becket's resistance,
and the cause of his subsequent popu
larity, were that he had on his side the
religious feeling of the age. Becket
was the champion of the Church against
the Crown. ' Material s for the History
t>f Thomas Becket,' by Canon Robert-
soil ; Dean Hook's ' Dines of the Arch-

BEDE (correctly, Beda, or Baeda),
styled the Venerable, was born at
Jarrow, 673, died 735, the greatest
name the Saxon Church can boast.
Was placed at seven years of age in the
monastery of Benedict Biscop of Jar-
row ; ordained deacon at nineteen, and
priest at thirty, by John of Beverley,
Bishop of Hexham ; and passed his
whole life in the twin monasteries of
Wearmouth and Jarrow. Here he
made himself master of the learning of
his time ; he was familiar with most of
the Latin Classics, he knew Greek, and
perhaps something of Hebrew. He
was accomplished in the usual round

of the subjects of the schools — gram
mar, rhetoric, arithmetic, music. He
was learned in the Scriptures and the
Fathers. His fame rests especially
upon his ' Ecclesiastical History '- ; he
took pains to collect authentic inform
ation, he used his materials with great
judgment, and the result is a work
which is invaluable as a record of the
history of the English Church and
people of that period. Bede was as
remarkable for his piety as for his
learning. On the day of his death he
dictated to a pupil the last words of a
translation of the Gospel of St. John,,
upon which he was engaged, and died
with the Gloria Patri on his lips.
BEDESMAN. Bede, prayer, from
Saxon, biddan, to pray. It was not
uncommon before the Reformation for
wealthy and charitable people to found
hospitals and almshouses for so many
poor men or women — thirteen was a
favourite number (because the number
of our Lord and His Apostles) — under
the care of a priest ; one of the con
ditions of the foundation being that
in their daily prayers in chapel they
should pray for the founder and his
relatives. For this reason they were
called his bedesmen, and they usually
wore a uniform habit, with a badge of
the founder's arms on the sleeve or
breast. The people to whom sums of money
were given at funerals to pray for the
deceased ; pensioners, who were in grati
tude bound to pray for the well-being
of their benefactor, might be called
his bedesmen ; and generally any one
who wished to pay court to a superior,
especially if already indebted to him, '
might insinuate his pious remembrance j
of past favours by styling himself his ™
bedesman. [See next article]
BEGGARS used to be formally li
censed, and the licenses of those au
thorised to beg were read from the
pulpit. They used to assemble at the
doors of churches, at the shrines of
saints, at burials ; some were allowed
to go up and down the aisles of the
churches, carrying a begging bowl in

BELLS
their hands, begging from the congre
gation. (See Liber Vagatorum, ' York
shire Archaeological Journal,' iii. n
259.) p'
BELLS. The golden bells on the
hem of the high priest's ephod, which
-tinkled as he moved about in his
ministrations, are the earliest on record.
Small bronze bells were found in the
palace of Nimroud. Bells were used
by the Greeks and Romans for many of
the same purposes for which they are
still used.
It was not, probably, till soon after
500 a.d. that they came into ecclesi
astical use. Those first used in England
were hand-bells, made of a plate of
metal, beaten into shape, and riveted
or soldered at the edge ; of a flat oblong,
or square section, more frequently than
round ; sometimes elaborately orna
mented. No actual notice of the use
of these bells has been observed ; but
it would seem as if, in the Celtic
churches, every priest possessed one as
part of the equipments of his office,
and it is probable :that it was used to
give notice of Divine Service ; the bells
of many Celtic saints are preserved as
relics ; there are many Irish examples
in the Library of the Royal Society,
Dublin ; in the British Museum, and
in other collections ; Scotch examples
are engraved in J. Anderson's ' Scotland
in Early Christian Times ' ; Welsh
examples are noticed in the 'Arche-
lologia Cambrensis,' vol. iii. 230, 301 ;
vol. iv. 167 ; and in the fourth series
of the same journal, vol. ii. 271.
The large bell cf cast metal, placed
in a belfry or tower, appears to have
been first used in Italy and almost
contemporaneously in France about
550 a.d. Bede records that Benedict
Biscop brought one (together with
stained glass and other novelties) from
Italy for his Basilican Church at Were-
mouth. He also mentions a story that
on the death of St. Hilda, a.d. 680, one
of her nuns heard in the air the well-
known sound of the bell which used to
awake and call them to prayers, when
any one of them was taken out of this

71

BELLS

world ('Eccl. Hist.' iv. 23). The
second Excerption of Egbert (about
a.d. 750) commands every priest at the
proper hours to sound the bells of his
church, and then to say the sacred
offices. A peal of bells is a number of
bells so regulated in size, weight, and
note as to sound the notes of a dia
tonic scale A full rinrv cmsisrs of

\g<^s^§

Bell of St. Patrick.
s^ven bells ; but peals frequently con
sist of an octavo ; sometimes of ten or
twelve ; and for chimes smaller bells
are sometimes added, to the number of
more than thirty. The excellence of
a ring consists in the rich or sweet
quality of the individual bells, their
accurate tuning, and lastly their weight
and consequent power of tone.
The earliest notice of a peal of bells
is given by Ingulphus in his history
of Croyland Abbey, who relates that

BELLS

BELLS

Abbot Turketul made two great bells,
which he named Bartholomeus and
Bettelmus ; two of middle size which
he named Turketul and Tatwin ; and
"two smaller, which he named Pega
and Bega ; that these, together with
a great one , which he had previously
made and called Guthlac, composed a
wonderful harmony ; and that there
was not at that time such a set of
bells (Consonantia Campanarum) in all
England ; but it must be borne in mind
that the whole of Ingulphns's story
i.3 mythical. In the Benedietional of
St. Ethelwold (wrlttan at Hyde Abbey,
A.D., 980) is a picture of a belfry on
the roof "of a building, containing five
bells. Bells are rung to announce Divine
Service Dunstan in the tenth century,
and Lanfranc in the eleventh, laid down
regulations for the ringing of the bells.
The Lichfield Consuetudinary, e 1266
(Wilkins, ' Concilia,' i. 498), gives the
customary mode of ringing the bells
for service : the smallest bell for the
ordinary hours, this followed by a
medium bell, and that by a still
larger, and lastly all the bells together,
for vespers and matins ; and all the
. bells in a crash before and after mass,
on double feasts and Sundays.
... Canons of the- English Church from
Saxon times down to the sixty-seventh
canon of 1603, require that the " pass
ing bell " shall announce when a Chris-1
. tian is passing out of this life, that all
witnin- hearing may pray for the depart
ing soul. Usua!ly noW the bell does
not ring till after- the death, when it
first tolls 3 times 3 for a man, 3 times
2 for a woman, 3 times 1 for a child ;
then after a pause announces the age
by an equal number of strokes ; and
then continues to toll at intervals for
an hour.
The bells are rung in honour of a
bishop's visitation, or of the coming
of any distinguished visitors.
A joyful peal proclaims a marriage ;
a muffled peal some general calamity ;
a peal rung backward is1 an alarm
. signal.

Bells were not anciently baptised,, as
is commonly said, but they were washed
with holy water, anointed with chrism,
a prayer of benediction was said, which
may be found in the old Pontificals,
and they were dedicated in honour of
some saint. The most common dedi
cations of bells in England, arranged in
the order of their popularity, are to St.,
Mary, St. John, Jesus, St. Catherine,
Trinity, St. Margaret, and St. Peter. ,
The bells are made to . give their
sound either by ringing or. chiming.
In ringing, the bell is first "raised,"
i. e. made to swing in larger and larger
oscillations till it rests, in unstable
equilibrium, mouth upwards ; then it
is made to swing completely'round at
each stroke, and so the clapper strikes
upon the bell and brings out its best
and loudest tone. Ringing changes
is peculiar to England ; it consists in
ringing in order the different changes
possible on the number of bells in the
peal ; thus the possible changes on three |
bells are six in number, viz. 1, 2, 3;
1, 3, 2 ; 2, 1, 3 ; 2, 3, 1 ; 3, 1, 2 ;
3, 2, 1 ; with a ring of eight bells the
possible changes are 40,320 in number.
Different names are given to different
combinations of changes, for which Mr.
Troyte's book on change-ringing may
be consulted.
There are different ways of chiming.
The bell may be raised with a jerk,,iso
far as to strike.upon the clapper which
remains stationary ; or a cord may
be tied to the clapper, which is thus
made to 'strike the stationary bell ; or
a hammer is arranged so as to strike
the bell outside. In the last century
"chimes" were very popular, -and
nearly every large town which had a
peal of bells in its church-tower, had
a clockwork machinery for chiming *a
tunc, usually a simple psalm-tunc, on
its bells, at certain hours of the day.
Some of these chimes are still in use.
It is . a popular error that a silvery
tone was anciently given to bells by
the addition of silver to the bell-metaL
Copper and tin' in various proportions,,
usually about 3 to 1, are the only.

BENEDICTINE

73

BENEDICTINE

metals used. The quality of the sound
depends chiefly on there being a suf
ficient quantity of metal in proportion
to the calibre of the bell, and in the
soundness of the casting.
The legal control of the bells is regu
lated by the canons of 1603. By canon
88 the churchwardens or questmen,
and their assistants, shall not suffer
the bells to be rung superstitiously
upon holidays or eves abrogated by the
book of Common Prayer, nor at any
other times, without good cause, to be
allowed by the minister of the place
and by themselves. Dr. Phillimore
•gives the opinion that although the
churchwardens may concur in the ring
ing or tolling of the bells on certain
.public and private occasions, the in-
oumbent nevertheless has so far the
control over the bells of the church
that he may prevent the churchwardens
from ringing or tolling them at undue
hours or without just cause.
Lord Stowell also gave the opinion :
¦" I think that the bells cannot be rung
without the consent of the rector ; the
,88th canon is precise on this point,
and is, I conceive, binding upon the
churchwardens" (Sir R. Phillimore,
'Ecclesiastical Law,' p. 1757).
BENEDICTINE Order of Monks.
The monastic institution introduced
into Europe in the fourth century [see
Monaehism] rapidly deteriorated. It
is the inevitable course of any religious
institution begun by its founders in ex
ceptional austerity, that when it comes
to include a multitude of less excep
tional people, it should tend to relax
its principles and reduco its actual
observances more nearly to the level of
ordinary human life. By the beginning
of the sixth century such a general de
terioration had taken place in the dis
cipline of the monasteries of Europe,
when Benedict was raised up to revive
the institution. He lived (480—540)
just in that troubled period after the
deposition of Augustulus, the last of
the Western Roman emperors, when the
Western empire was falling to pieces
under the power of the barbarians.

The merits of St. Benedict's institu
tion in the eyes of his contemporaries
were not only that he revived the ascetic
spirit, but that he developed, regulated,
and formulated it with so much practi
cal wisdom, that his Rule was adopted
throughout Europe, and continued to
be the sole monastic Rule for six cen
turies ; and when the next great revival
of monasticism took place in the
eleventh century, the majority of the
new Orders professed nothing more

Benedictine Monk, from MS. in British
Museum, Nero D. vii.
than a revival of the observance of the
old Rule, and are classed as reformed
Benedictines. i
The basis of his Rule was the three
"Evangelical precepts" as they were
called. The men of those ages be
lieved that while the life of eating and
drinking, buying and selling, marrying
and giving in marriage, was the ordi
nary life of ordinary men, yet that the
gospel had i oiuted out a higher life for
those who aimed at perfection. " All of
you be subject one to another;'' "to

BENEDICTINE

BENEDICTINE

be married is lawful, but to be un-'
married hi far better," for those who
co .ild observe this precept ; " if thou
wilt be perfect, sell all that thou hast
and give to the poor, and come and
follow Me;" "having food and rai
ment, therewith to be content." On
' such texts as these were based the three
evangelical precepts of poverty, chas
tity, and obedience, which formed the
basis of the Benedictine as of all mo
nastic Rules. To have no property, no
family, no self-will, seemed to deliver
a man from the riches, and cares, and
pleasures which are the hindrances to
the spiritual life.
A very important feature of St.
Benedict's development of the institu
tion was that he required of those who
took him as their guide a life-long
self-dedication by formal vows ; and
after the example of Samuel in the Old
Testament and of St. John Baptist in
the New, he allowed parents to dedicate
their children to this life by formal
vows. But a man cannot spend all his days
in meditation and prayer ; it is better
for his spiritual well-being that he
should have some active work to do ;
moreover, the ideal of the perfect life
required that he should live of the
labour of. his own hands. The Rule of
Benedict drew up a plan of life which
regulated the entire time of the reli
gious. Prayer was distributed over the
day and night at fixed hours ; the time
of the infrequent frugal meals was fixed,
and all ate at a common table. In
struction, meditation, reading, work,
relaxation, all had their appointed
hours ; and it was on tho wise regula
tion of these that great part of the
success of tho Rulo depended. His
contemporaries looked upon Benedict's
Rule as having a measure of inspiration.
Its success was immense. From his
mountain monastery of Monte Cassino
it spread all over Europe. The exist
ing monasteries experienced a revival
of the ascetic spirit, and adopted the
new Rule Monastic communities be
came the refuges of civilisation, as

well as of learning and religion, in
the stormy times which succeeded the
break up of the Roman Empire. They
preserved, studied, and transcribed
the works of classical and Christian
antiquity ; taught the young ; were
the historians of their times ; werecita-:
dels of order, civilisation, and religion/:
during the disorder of the middle ages.-
New monasteries were founded among
the barbarian tribes outside the limits
of the old empire, and grew into grealt
communities, who cleared the forests*,!
cultivated the land, civilised the sur
rounding barbarians. There is no great
historian of those times who does not
recognise the important part which
the monasteries played in them as the
preservers of the learning and religion
of the old Roman world, and the in
structors of the new world of modern
Europe in literature and the arts of life,
in the organisation of civilisation and
government, as well as in the doctrines
of religion and the spirit of devotion.
The following is a brief summary of
the Rule of St. Benedict, taken from
Stevens's 'History of Abbeys and
Monasteries,' vol. i. p. 163 :
He ordains that they receive into his
Order all sorts of persons without any
distinction : children, boys, youths,;-!;
the poor and the rich ; gentlemen,
peasants, and such as are born free ; the
learned and the unlearned ; laymen
and clergymen.
The children, the novices, and the
monks were to lie in separate dormi
tories. Eveiy one to make his bed
apart, divided from the others, with
hangings or a boarded partition, and
there was to be one monk to every
dormitory, to observe the behaviour
of the rest. The prior was to presidp
over the whole community, which was
to be divided into tens, over each of
which was to be a dean, and the abbot
was to have absolute power over all'
the monks, whom he was, however, itja
govern rather by his exan pie and^
prudence than by his authority. Till
abbot helped the cellarer in snot"
things as regarded their temporalities,

BENEDICTINE

75

BENEDICTINE

and the prior, deans, and masters in
those things which regarded their
spiritual concerns. All the monks
were to help in turns in the service of
the kitchen, the bakehouse, the garden,
and the other offices; and even in enter
taining strangers, who were to have
their apartments and their refectories
apart, and to have the same diet as the
monks, there being no allowance to
serve any person with flesh, upon any
pretence whatsoever, whether of dis
tinction or dignity.
As for the Divine Service, St. Bene
dict takes up eleven chapters of his
Rule to regulate the method thereof,
setting down the number of lessons,
canticles, and responses. From Novem
ber to Easter they were to rise at the
eighth hour of the night (that is, at
two in the morning). The abbot him
self was to ring to the several hours of
service, or at least to give that in
charge to some very regular father.
They were not to go to bed again after
matins, the time that remained till
clay was to be spent in reading, medi
tation, and learning the Psalms. After
Prime they went to work, in which
they were employed from the first hour
till the fourth (i. e. from six till ten),
beginning from Easter till the 1st of
October ; and after the 1st October till
Lent, the work began at the third hour
and ended at the ninth (i. e. from
nine a.m. till three p.m.). At the first
erecting of this institution no mass was
said on working days, but only on Sun
days and solemn festivals, on which all
the religious men were obliged to receive
the Holy Communion. After dinner
they read and worked again ; but if
there was any one that could not
meditate nor read, he was to do the
more work. The easiest labour was to
be given to the weak and tenderly
bred, and the hardest to such as were
stronger ; and if the monks were em
ployed without the monastery, either
at harvest or any other work, when
the bell rung for Divine Service they
were to kneel down and perform it
where they were. i

Every religious man was to have two
portions a day, and sometimes a third
of herbs, a pound of bread, and a mea
sure of wine, which contained about
three-quarters of a pint, the third part
whereof was to be laid by when they
were to sup. There were no fasting
days between Easter and Whitsuntide ;
but from Whitsuntide till the 13th
September they were to fast Wednes
days and Fridays ; and from the said
13th September until Easter every day.
The Lent fast was more rigid. During
that time tho monks mortified them
selves, retrenching something of their
food, their drink, their sleep, their con
versation, and other conveniences of
life. During both fasts they ha 1 but
one meal. On the fasts of the Order
that meal was eaten at None (i. e.
after three o'clock in the afternoon) ;
but in that of Lent, after Vespers (or
Evensong). Their abstinence from flesh, at least
from that of four-footed creatures, was
to be perpetual, and only the sick were
to be allowed any.
To the above may be added the
following notes of the Benedictine Rule
from Fosbroke's ' British Monachism, '
p. 66.
Abbot to represent Christ — to call
all his monks together in important
affairs, and afterwards adopt the advice
he thought best. Obedience without
delay ; silence ; no scurrility, idle
words, or such as excite laughter ;
humility, patience in all injuries ; mani
festation of secret faults to the abbot ;
contentment with the meanest things
and employment ; not to speak when
unasked ; to avoid laughter ; head and
eyes to be inclined downwards ; to rise
to church two hours after midnight ;
every week the Psalter to be sung
through ; to leave the church together
at a sign from the Superior. Light
in the dormitory ; to sleep clothed,
with their girdles on, the young and
old intermixed. Upon unsuccessful
admonition, and public reprehension,
excommunication to follow ; and on
failure of this corporal chastisement.

BENEDICTINE

76

BENEDICTINE

For light faults the lesser excommuni
cation, or eating alone after the others
have done ; for great faults separation
from the table, prayers, and society,
and neither himself nor his food to re
ceive the benediction ; those who joined
him or spoke to him to be themselves
excommunicated ; the abbot to send
seniors to him to persuade him to
humility and making satisfaction ; tho
whole congregation to pray for incpr-
rigibles, and if unsuccessful to proceed
to expulsion. No person expelled to
be received after the third expulsion.
¦Children to be punished by fasting or
•whipping. Loss of wine, subtraction
of their allowances, or sitting in the
place of disgrace^ for tardiness at church
or table. Prostration with the face
towards the ground without the church
gate, when the monks went to prayers,
for the excommunicated. Immediate
pardon to be sought for a fault in the
church ; faults in other places, or
breaking anything, to be spontaneously
acknowledged before . the abbot and
congregation. Novices to be tried by
denials and hard usage before admis
sion ; a year of probation ; Rule read
to them in the interim every fourth
month ; admitted by a petition laid
upon the altar, and prostration at the
feet of the monks. Parents to offer
their children by wrapping their hands
in the pall of the altar, promising to
leave nothing to them (that they might
have no temptation to leave the house) ;
and if they gave anything with them,
to reserve the care of it during their
lives. Priests requesting admission to
be tried by delays ; to sit near the
abbot, but not to exercise sacerdotal
functions without leave, and conform
to the Rule. Strange monks to be
received, and if of good behaviour to
be entreated to stay. Monks ordained
priests to be subject to the Rule and
officers, or else expelled. Precedence
according to the time of profession.
Elders to call the juniors brothers,
juniors to call the elders nonnos (a
familiar corruption of dominos), the
abbot dominus or pater. When two

monks met, the junior was to ask bene?
diction from the senior ; and when he
passed by, the junior was to rise and
offer him his neat, not to sit down till
he bade him. Abbot to be elected by
the whole society, and by plurality of
votes ; his life and prudence to be the
qualifications. Prior elected by the
abbot, deposable for disobedience. Pore.
ter to be a wise old man able to give
and receive an answer, who was to have
a cell near the gate and a junior for a
companion. If possible, to prevent
going out of the monastery, water,
a mill, garden, oven, and all other
mechanical shops to be within the
house. Monks going on a journey to
have the previous prayers of the house,
and on return to pray for pardon of
excesses on the way. Impossible things
ordered by the Superior to be humbly
represented to him ; but if he persisted,^
the assistance of God to be relied on foi
the execution of them. Not to defend
or excuse one another's faults. No
blows, or excommunication, without
the permission of the abbot. Children
might be corrected with discretion!
Mutual obedience, but no preference iof
a private person's commands to those
of the Superiors. Prostration at the
feet of the Superiors as long as they are
angry. List of Benedictine Monasteries, from
the ' Monasticon. ' (Those followed by
P. were Priories, those followed by C,
were Cells, those marked * were
Nunneries. )
Abingdon, Berks ; St. Augustine's]
Canterbury ; Bardney, Line ; * BarlW
ing, Essex ; Chertsey, Surrey ; Christ
Church, Cant. ; Durham Cath. ; Ely
Cath. ; Folkestone, Kent ; Glastonr
bury, Somerset ; St. Peter, Gloucester
Cath. ; Jarrow, Durham ; Lastinghafflt
Yorks ; Liming, Kent ; Lindisfarnl
Malmesbury, Wilts ; Peterborouf|
Cath. ; Reculver, Kent ; Rochester
Cath. ; Sherborne, Dorset ; * St. M%
dred's, Thanet; Weremouth and Jar
row, Durham ; Westminster : Whitby,
Yorks ; Winchester Cath. ; '"Worcestfl
Cath., Worcestershire ; St. Alban'sj

BENEDICTINE

77

BENEDICTINE

Herts ; Amesbury, Wilts ; Athelney,
Somerset ; Bath, Somerset ; Beverley,
Yorks ; Bodmin, Cornw. ; Bradford,
Wilts ; Cerne, Dorset ; * Chatteris,
Camb. ; Chester Cath. ; Croyland,
Line ; East Dereham, Norfolk ; Eve
sham, Worcest. ; Exeter Cath. ; Christ
Church Cath. , Oxford ; St. Germain's,
Cornwall ; Horton, Dorset ; Hyde,
Hants ; St. Ives, Hunts ; Michelney,
Somerset ; Milton Abbots, Dorset ;
Modney, Norfolk ; * Winchester, St.
Mary ; Pershore, Worcestershire ;* Poles-
worth, Warwick ; Ramsey, Hunts ;
Ripon Cath. ; * Sopwell C. , Herts ;
Spalding P. , Lincoln ; Stow, Lincoln ;
Sudbury P., Suffolk ; Tynmouth P.,
Northumb. ; Tutbury P., Staffordshire ;
Wallingford P., Berks ; Wetherall P.,
Cumb. ; Wymondham, Norfolk ; St.
Mary, York ; Aldeby P. , Norfolk ; Al-
cester, Warw. ; * Ankerwyke, Bucks ;
* Arden, Yorks ; * Arthington, Yorks ;
Bardsey, Caernarvon ; Bassell P. , Mon
mouth ; * Minchin Barrow, Somerset ;
Abergavenny P. , Monmouth ; Birken
head P., Cheshire; * Blackborough,
Norfolk ; * Black Ladies of Brewood,
Staffordsh. ; Blythe P., Notts; *Bly-
thebury, Staffordsh. ; Boxgrave P.,
Sussex; Brad well P., Bucks; * Bret-
ford, Warwicks ; St. James's P., Bris
tol, Somerset; *St. Mary Magd.,
Bristol ; Bromfield P. , Staffordsh. ;
* Bromhale, Berks ; * Nun Burnham,
Yorks ; * Bungay, Suffolk ; Kidwelly
P., Caermarthen ; Caldey, Pembroke;
Canwell P., Staffordsh.; * St. Se
pulchre, Canterbury ; * Canynton,
Somerset; Cardiff P., Glamorgan;
Cardigan P., Cardigansh. ; * Carow,
Norwich ; * Castle Hedingham, Essex ;
* Catesby, Northants ; * Cheshunt,
Herts; "Chester; * St. Clement's,
York ; * Clerkenwell, Middlesex ; St.
John's, Colchester; * Earl's ColneP.,
Essex ; Cranboum P. , Dorset ; * Dav-
ington, Kent ; Deerhurst P. , Gloucest. ;
Deeping P., Line ; * Derby ; St. Dog-
mael, Pembroke; Durham College,
Oxford; St. Martin P., Dover; Dun-
ster C, Somerset; Easebourne P.,
Sussex; Ewenny P., Glamorgan;

* Fairwell, Staffordsh. ; Farn Island
C. , Northumb. ; Faversham, Kent ;
Finchale P., Durham; "Flamstead,
Herts; Folkestone P., Kent; * Fosse,
Line ; Freston P., Line ; Godeland
C, Yorks ; Gloucester College, Oxford ;
* Godeston, Oxon ; * Grimesby, Line ;
*Haliwell, Middlesex; "Halyston,
Northumb.; Handale P., Yorks; Hat
field Regis P. , Essex ; Hedley P. ,
Yorks ; * St. Helen's, London ; * Hen-
wood, Warwicks ; Hinchingbrook,
Hunts ; Holland P. , Lane ; Hoxne
P. , Suffolk ; Humberstone, Line ;
Ickleton, Cambs ; * Ivinghoe, Bucks ;
* Kington St. Michael, Wilts ; * Lamb-
ley, Northumb. ; Lammand P., Corn
wall.; * Langley, Leicest. ; Leominster
P. , Heref. ; * Littlechurch, Kent ;
Lindisfarne, Northumb. ; * Littlemore,
Oxf. ; Suffield P., Northants; *Lym-
broke, Heref. ; Lynn P. , Norfolk ;
Ly tham P. , Lane ; * Little Maries,
Yorks ; * Little Marlow, Bucks ;
•Marrick, York; Little Malvern P.,
Worcest. ; May P. , Scotland ; * Moles-
by, Yorks ; Molycourt P. , Norfolk ;
* Monkton, Yorks; Monmouth P.,
Monmouth ; Nesham P. , Durham ; St.
* Bartholomew's, Newcastle ; Norwich
Cathedral ; St. Leonard's P. , Norwich ;
*Nun Key ling, Yorks; Oxney P.,
Northants ; Pembroke P. , Pembrokesh. ;
Penmon P., Anglesey ; Pilla P., Pemb. ;
Pilton, Devon ; * Pinley, Warwick ;
* Polleshdo, Devon ; * St. Rhadegund,
Cambridge ; Ramstede P., Sussex ; Read
ing ; Redburn O, Heref.; * Redling-
field, Suffolk ; Rindelgross C, Scotl. ;
* Rosedale, Yorks ; * Rowney, Herts ;
Rusper P., Sussex ; Sand well P.,
Staffords; Scilly O, Cornwall; Sele
P., Sussex ; * Seton, Cumb. ; Snape P.,
Suffolk ; SnelleshallP., Bucks ; "Stan-
field, Line ; * Stamford, Northants ;
St. Leonard Stamford P., Line; Stan
ley St. Leonard, Gloue ; * Studley,
Oxon ; * Stratford-at-Bow, Middlesex ;
Chepstow P., Monmouthsh. ; * S waff-
ham, Cambs ; Zallaik, Caermarth. ;
* Thetford, Norfolk ; * Thickhed,
Yorks; Totness P., Devon; Tyward-
reth P., Cornwall; Usk P., Monm. ;

BENEDICTION

78

BENEFICE

Walden, Essex ; * WallingweTIs, Notts;
Felixstow P., Suffolk ; Warkworth C,
* Wilberfosse, Yorks ; Wroxhall, War
wick ; * Wykes, Essex ; * Woolsthorp,
Northants; Yarmouth P., Norfolk;
Holy Trinity P., York; * Rumsey
Hunts, . Scilly ; Selsey, Sussex ;
* Shepy, Kent ; * Shaftesbury, Dorset ;
Tavistock, Devon ; Tewkesbury, Glou
cester ; Thorney, Cambs ; Wells Cath. ;
* Wherwell, Win. ; * Wilton, Wilts ;
Wimbourne, Wilts ; Winchcombe,
Gloucester ; Abbotsbury, Dorset ; * Ar-
methwaite, Cumberl. ; Avecot P. , War
wick ; Battle, Sussex; St. Bee's P.,
Cumb. ; Belvoir C. , Lincoln ; Binham
P., Norfolk; Brecon P., Wales;
Burgh Castle ; Burton on Trent, Staf
fordsh.; Coventry P., Cath.;' Dudel-
byre, Herefordsh. ; St. Edmundsbury,
Suffolk ; * Elstowe, Beds ; Ewias P. ,
Herefordsh.; St. Nicholas P., Exeter ;
Eye P., Suffolk ; Eynsham, Oxon ;
Hackness P., Yorks ; Hatfield Peverell
P., Essex ; St. Guthlae's P., Hereford ;
Hertford P., Hertfordsh. ; Horsham P.,
Norfolk; St. BennetofHulme, Norfolk;
Hurley P., Berks; * Kilburn,,Middlesex ;
St. Mary Magd. P., Lincoln ; * Mailing,
Kent; Great Malvern P., Worcest. ;
Mergate P., Beds ; Middlesborough P.,
Yorks; Morfield C, Shropsh. ; Beau-
lieu P., Hants.; St. Neot's P., Hunts ;
Oswestry, Shropsh. ; Penworthiam P. ,
Lancash. ; Peykirk, Northants ; * St.
Maryde Pree, Herts; St. Martin P.,
Richmond ; Rumburg C, Suffolk ;
Selby, Yorks ; Shrewsbury, Shropsh. ;
BENEDICTION, blessing. The giv
ing of a solemn blessing by one entitled
to give it, was understood to convey a
blessing on those who were in right
disposition of mind to receive it : e.g.
the priestly blessing in the temple
(Num. vi. 24) ; the paternal blessing,
as of Isaac (Gen. xxvii. 4) and Jacob
(Gen. xlviii. 9—22).
The ancient Divine service included
different forms of blessing for different
holy days and seasons ; sometimes con
tained in a book called a Benedictional.
The minor orders of the ministry
were conveyed by benediction. Monks,

nuns; hermits, recluses, &e, were
included with benediction. A pilgrim
on setting out received benedictions
Things were blessed : as altars, cleri
cal robes and insignia, bells, the fruits
of the earth ; in short, anything on
which the pious desired to have's
special blessing.
It was believed that the blessing
could be conveyed through means — a*!
the grace of healing was conveyed by'
Peter's shadow (Acts v. 45), and the
handkerchiefs which had touched Paul's
body (Acts xix. 12) ; so loaves of
blessed bread were given ; water which
had been blessed was sprinkled upon
persons, houses, beds, &e Crosses,
images, medals, beads, religious trin
kets, were blessed.
In later days the Roman Church has
invented a solemn service of Benedic
tion after Vespers ; in which the priest
takes from the altar the pyx containing
the consecrated and reserved Host, and
making the sign of the cross with it
over the kneeling congregation, pro
nounces the words of blessing,
BENEDICTIONAL. One of the ser
vice books of the ancient Churches of
France, Spain, and England, contain
ing forms of blessing pronounced by
the bishop in the mass immediately
before his receiving the eucharist, for
different Sundays and Festivals. They
are usually contained in the Ponti
fical, but sometimes in a separate boofc
The Benedictional of St. EthelwoldS
a magnificently illuminated MS. in the
possession of the Duke of Devonshire:
published, with engravings, in the
'Archseologia,' vol. xxiv. These hci%
dictions were not used in the Roman
Church. _ BENEFICE, Beneficntm, originally
signified an estate held for life on con
dition of the rendering of certain milji
tary services ; and so came to be applied
to an estate or a portion of profits, held
for life on condition of the fulfilment oj
civil or ecclesiastical duties. An eocl|
siastical benefice is the temporal endow
ment attached to any permanent office
in the Church, as rectory, vicarage,

BENEFIT OF CLERGY

79

BIBLE

deanery, prebend, or archdeaconry.
Bishoprics are not included among
benefices, because tho bishop is the
superior from whom the benefices are
held. [For the right of presentation to
benefices, see Advowson. ]
BENEFIT OF CLERGY. From the
time of the Conquest down to the
abrogation of the privileges of the
clergy by the statute 28 Henry VIII.
c. 1, a clergyman convicted of felony,
&c, could not be condemned nor
sentenced by any civil judge, but was
handed over to his Ordinary, who
inflicted such punishment as the eccle
siastical law directed ; or else admitted
him to compurgation, and if ho could
not purge himself of the charge, handed
him back to the temporal authority to
be dealt with according to the civil law.
At first it was limited to those who had
been admitted into clerical orders, and
Wore the clerical habit and tonsure ;
but in time a man's ability to read
came to be accepted as an evidence of
his clerkly character. An Act of
Parliament, 4 Henry VII. c. 13, at
length distinguishes between lay clerks
and clerks in holy orders, and only
allows the former to plead their privi
lege once, and in order that it may be
known on any subsequent occasion,
orders them to be branded on tho thumb.
The privilege was further restricted by
Acts of Parliament in 1531, 1536, 1541 ;
but was not actually abrogated till
1827 by Act 7 and 8 George IV. c. 28.
BETHLEMITE FRIARS were an
offshoot of the Dominicans, observing
the same Rule with some small peculiar
ities, and distinguished by a red star of
five rays with a blue circle in the centre,
upon the breast of the ordinary Domini
can habit. There was one English
house of the order settled in London
(Bedlam = Bethlehem) and one in
Trumpmgton Street, Cambridge.
BEVERIDGE, William, Bishop of
St. Asaph, born 1637, died 1708. Was
born at Barrow, Leicestershire. Edu
cated at St. John's, Cambridge, where
he distinguished himself by his learn

ing, especially in the Oriental lan
guages. Ordained deacon and priest
1661, and soon after appointed Vicar of
[ Ealing; 1672 chosen Rector of St.
i Peter's, Cornhill. Here his able, dili-
igent, and successful discharge of all
the duties of a parish priest made him
J and his parish a model for others. In
1674 he was made Prebendary of St.
I Paul's ;. 1681 Archdeacon of Colchester,
in which office ho was equally remark
able for the conscientious fulfilment of
I its duties, personally visiting, every
church ; 16S4 Prebendary of Canter
bury and Chaplain to William and
Mary. In 1691 he was offered the see
of Bath and Wells, from which tho
saintly Ken had been ejected for re
fusing the new oath of allegiance [see
Nonjurors], and refused to accept it
from a scruple as to its being canoni-
cally vacant. In 1704 he was conse
crated to the see of St. Asaph, in which
he showed the same pious diligence
with which he had fulfilled his previous
cures. He was only bishop for three
years, dying at the age of seventy-one,
3rd March,. 1707-8, and was buried in
St. Paul's. He was a man of extensive
and profound learning ; one of that list
of divines of the school of the English
Reformation who form the backbone
of the English Church ; one who illus
trated his primitive theology in the
primitive piety, simplicity, and labori-
ousness of his life. He left many
works, the best known of which are
his ' Exposition of the Thirty-Nino
Articles, ' ' Church Catechism Ex
plained,' 'Private Thoughts on Re
ligion, ' and his ' Sermons. '
BIBLE (to. /3i/3Am = the Books;
Biblia = the Books). From this wo
derive our word Bible, in the singular
number = the Book, for the collective
Sacred Scriptures ; but the word Bible
is not found in this distinctive meaning
in English literature till the fourteenth
century ; in earlier times it was some
times called Bibliotheca = Library.
Our business here is only with the
Bible as known in the English Church.
There are indications that the ancient

BIBLE

80

BIBLE

British Church had a Latin version of
the Bible, founded on the Old Latin,
and different from the Vulgate, peculiar
to itself. (Haddan and Stubbs. )
But the Bible of the Saxon Church,
as of all the West, was the Vulgate.
And in discussing the subject of English
versions of the Bible we must bear in
mind that Latin was for centuries the
common language of educated men ;
that most of -those who could read at
all could read Latin, and that those who
could read Latin would prefer to read
the Scriptures in the Vulgate, which
had a. great reputation, to reading it
in any translation into the vulgar
tongue. The common idea that the
Latin Bible was very little read by the
clergy .as well as the laity in the middle
ages, is sufficiently disproved by the way
in which their writings are saturated
with Biblical allusions and phrases
taken from all parts of the Bible.
In those times, however, measures
were taken to bring the principal parts
of the Bible history, and the more im
portant devotional parts of the Bible,
within the reach of the unlearned.
The poem attributed to Caedmon, the
monk of Whitby (about 680), is an epic
in form, and has in parts all the grandeur
of the ' Paradise Lost ' ; but besides an
outline of the Bible history it gives close
translations of many passages of Scrip
ture. Others after Ceedmon composed
religious poems, says Bede. Aldhelm,
Bishop of Sherborne, about 706, put
out a Saxon version of the Psalter,
which is in the Paris Library. Bede
just completed a version of St. John's
Gospel before his death in 735. There
are extant copies of the Latin Gospels
and of the Psalms, of the tenth century,
with an interlinear Saxon translation.
King Alfred at his death was engaged
on a translation of the Psalms, which he
left unfinished. iElfric, Archbishop of
York, in 1023, wrote an 'Epitome of
Scripture History,' with a translation
of many parts of the historical books.
There is a Norman-French translation
of the whole Bible of about 1260. The
Ormulum, a paraphrase of the Gospels

and Acts in the English of Henry II.,
perhaps never proceeded beyond the
original MS. of the author ; thers.is
another paraphrase of Scriptu; e of about
the same date, under the name of ' Salus.
Animi' (Sowle-hele.) There are also a
good translation of the Psalms in verse,
dated in the thirteenth century ; a good ,
prose translation by Sehorham, 1320ji!
and another of the Psalms, and also of
the Gospels and Epistles by the famous.
Richard of Hampole, who died 1349.
Tho ' Golden Legend, " printed by C'ax-
ton, also, amidst much legendary matter,
contains a paraphrase of many portions
of the Old and New Testaments.
Lyndewood, the learned lawyer and .
divine, writing 1430, implies that there
were versions of the whole Bible as well
as of parts of it made before Wiclifs.- ,.
And Sir T. More says expressly, "The
whole Bible was before Wiclifs days
by virtuous and well-learned men trans
lated into the English tongue, and .by
good and godly people with devotion
and soberness well and reverently read."
Cranmer in the preface to his Bible
says : " It is not much above a hundred
years ago since Scripture hath not been ;
accustomed to be read in the vulgar
tongue within this realm."
And Foxe (' Saxon Gospels, Dedica
tion') says, " If histories be well-.ex-
amined, we shall find both before the
Conquest and after, as well before John'
Wickliffe was born as since, the whole
body of the Scriptures by sundi*
men translated into, this- our countif
tongue."*. It is, however, right to say that some
doubt has been thrown upon these state'
ments by the non-discovery of any such|
versions, or any trace of them. **
Wiclifs Bible [see Wiclif] then is
the first translation of the whole Bihlfc
with which we are acquainted. Tip
time was ripe for the production of such
a work. By the middle of the four*
teenth century the English language-
had attained a high degree of copious?
ness, vigour, and refinement, and 44
* ' Blunt's Reformation,' p 504.

BIBLE

SI

BIBLE

English literature was coming into ex
istence. ' Piers Ploughman's Creed '
and the works of Chaucer belong to
this' century, and prove the existence
of a largo number of cultured readers
desirous of having the great- subjects
of intellectual interest put before them
in their mother tongue. Though it is
rightlycalled Wiclifs Bible, yet Nicho
las de Hereford, one of the leaders of
the Lollard party in the University of
Cambridge, translated the Old Testa
ment from Genesis to Baruch, and the
whole work was carefully revised during
Wiclifs life-time by. Purvey, who was
his friend and curate. The salient
features of Wiclifs translation are (1)
That it was taken entirely from the
Vulgate with assistance from the works
of Nicholas de Lyra ; England had to
wait another two centuries for the re
vival of the ancient learning which
made a new English translation from
the original languages practicable. (2)
Its studied homeliness of style. The
reputation of the author, as the leader
of a great religious movement, gave a
wide circulation to the Book, and the
Book contributed largely to popularise
the religious movement with which its
author was connected. It was the
errors connected with that movement,
rather than any faults in the version,
which set tho ecclesiastical authorities
in motion against the version, and led
to the famous seventh constitution of
Archbishop Arundel set forth in the
provincial synod of Canterbury 1408,
which decreed " that henceforward no
unauthorised person shall translate any
portion of Holy Scripture into English,
or any other language, under any form
of book or treatise ; neither shall any
such book or treatise, or version made
either in Wiclifs . time or since, be
read either in whole or in part, publicly
or privately, under the penalty of the
greater excommunication, till the said
translation shall be approved either by
the bishop of the diocese, or, if neces
sary, by a provincial council. "
The invention of printing at once
led to a greatly increased circulation of

the Latin Bible. Coburger of Nurem
berg, and probably other continental
printers, had established warehouses in
London for the sale of Latin Bibles as
early as 1480, and perhaps earlier.
Printed English versions soon followed.
The first was that of Tyndale [see Tyn-
dale] ; the most important feature of
which is that it was the first attempt
at an independent translation from the
original languages. Tyndale, a poor and
unknown scholar, failed to find in Eng
land the patronage which would have
given him leisure for the great work
which he aspired to produce ; he there
fore went to Hamburg, and thence to
Cologne, where the first edition of his
New Testament was printed in 1525 ;
and being obliged to flee from thence,
his publications were continued at
Worms, Antwerp, and Marburg.
The innovations in his translation
were startling, and in many places his
renderings were open to the charge of
favouring unorthodox opinions, and his
prefaces and notes were of such a tone
that it is not to be wondered at that they
were condemned by the ecclesiastical
authorities, preached against at Paul's
Cross, and burnt there by the hangman.
A second edition was bought up before
it reached England, and destroyed. But
new editions, pirated editions by other
printers, and modified editions by other
editors, were multiplied. Within the
first ten years from its publication
probably as many as fifteen distinct
editions of not less than 3000 copies
each, were printed and introduced
secretly into England in defiance of
the penalties attaching to their posses
sion (Stevens).
But the authorities both of Church
and State were aware of the import
ance of putting forth a trustworthy
English Bible, and in 1534 Convocation
petitioned the king " that the Scrip
tures might be translated into the
vulgar tongue by some honest and
learned men to be nominated by the
king, and to be delivered to the people
according to their learning" ('Wilkin's
Concil.' iii. 770). Cranmer made a

BIBLE 82
beginning by taking "an old English
translation of the New Testament,"
dividing it into nine or ten parts, and
sending these portions to various bishops
and others to make a perfect correction
thereof. "And the same course, no
question, he took with the Old Testa
ment." Meanwhile, Miles Coverdale, a friar
of the Augustine convent at Cambridge,
which was the head-quarters of the
reforming party in the University,
was connected with a new translation,
whoso history has long exercised the in
genuity of students. Mr. H. Stevens,*
a great authority on the subject, has
recently brought together evidence,
which leads him to the conclusion that
Jacob van Meteren of Antwerp, who
he thinks was the actual translator,
employed Coverdale to set forth the
new translation ; and that it was
printed at Antwerp in 1535, with a
title-page designed by Holbein. The
work had a considerable sale ; seven
distinct editions, with continual amend
ments, were published between 1539
and 1541. All the editions have wood
cut borders to title-page ; in the edition
of Nov. 1540 and subsequent editions
the arms of Cromwell, who was be
headed 28th July, 1540, are obliterated.
That Cromwell patronised the under
taking is indicated by its being dedi
cated to the king.
It was a second-hand translation, pro
fessing on the title-page to be out of the
' Douche ' (perhaps Luther's German
Version) and the Latin, and an exam
ination of the text shows that the
translator had also made some use of
Tyndale. Coverdale was a competent
scholar, and his Version a work of merit.
It was published in 1535, and, accord
ing to Mr. Stevens, it was the Bible
alluded to in one of the injunctions
issued to the clergy by Cromwell, as
Vicar-General, in 1536, ordering that
there should be provided "one book of
the whole Bible, of the largest volume,
in English, and the same set up in somo
* Stevens's ' Catalogue of the Bibles in tho
Caxton Exhibition of 1S77,' p. 38.

BIBLE
convenient place within the said
church that ye have care of, whereas
your parishioners may most commodi-
ously resort to the same and read it."
(' Wilkin's Concil.' iii. 815.)
In 1537, two years after the publica-*
tion of Coverdale's Bible, appeared
another translation under the name of
Thomas Matthew, an alias of John
Rogers, the first martyr under Queen
Mary, who was a friend of Tyndalc's.
This was printed abroad for Grafton
and Whitchurch, the king's printers,
and at Cranmer's request licensed by
Cromwell for general use. It reproduces
Tyndale's New Testament entirely, and
his Old Testament as far as 2 Chron.,
the rest being taken with occasional
modifications from Coverdale, and its
prefaces and notes are boldly in favour
of ultra-reformed views. But in a new
edition in 1539, the prefaces are sup.
pressed, and the notes systematically
toned down.
In 1539, still another translation Was
made by Richard Taverner, one of the
Canons of Wolsey's new college of
Christ Church, Oxford. He acknow
ledges his obligations to the previous
versions, without naming them ; ho
avows that the work is not one which
can be done absolutely (= completely)-
by one or two persons, but requires "a
deeper conferring of many learned
writers together, and also a jnster times,
and longer leisure," but says that ho
has used his talent as he could.
The preceding were all private ven-i
tures. But at length a Version was
produced which received the counte
nance and sanction of the authorities
of Church and State. Cromwell was
the prime mover, Coverdale the editor:
it was printed in Paris, and published
in 1539, and is the book known as the
' Great Bible ' because of its size. Its
pages are 15 x 19 inches. It is the
text of Matthew revised. In April 1540
a second revised edition was printedijn
London, with Cranmer's preface, and
under his name, and on the titles
page, "Appointed to the use of the
Churches." ' '

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83

BIBLE

The English exiles who fled to the
continent on the accession of Queen
Mary, many of whom settled at Geneva,
composed a very influential colony, who
devoted themselves with an enthusiasm
heightened by their suffering for it, to
the maintenance of the Reformed Fai.h.
Dissatisfied with the previous Versions
of the Bible, they combined to produce
still another translation, of which the
New Testament, translated by Whit-
tingham, was printed at Geneva by
Conrad Badius in 1557, and the whole
Bible in 1560. The New Testament
Was a revision of Tyndale's collated
with the ' Great Bible' The Old Testa
ment was a decided advance on the
'¦ Great' Bible,' being brought nearer to
the Hebrew. The Genevan Version was
in several respects a more popular work
than its predecessors, and for sixty
years was the most popular of all. It
was smaller and cheaper ; it, first of
all the English versions, adopted the
division into verses ; its notes were
really helpful in difficult places, and were
spiritual and evangelical in tone ; and
it was accompanied by a Bible diction
ary of considerable merit. It had other
features 'of a more strongly party com
plexion : it prefixed a calendar which
seemed purposely to ignore the Church's
order of daily lessons ; it ignored the
ancient saints' days, and introduced
the deaths of the great Reformers as
if in substitution for them. Its notes
breathed the spirit of the Swiss school,
not only in theology, but in politics.
Its circulation in England was per
mitted ; with a dedication to Queen
Elizabeth. 1 1 was the favourite version
of the Puritan party, and held its place
during the time of the ' Bishops' Bible, '
and even against the ' Authorised Ver
sion '-of James, for at least thirty years.
' But the orthodox party were not
content to leave the people no other
choice1 than tho great black letter
'Great Bible,' and the handy, useful,
attractive Genevan Book. Archbishop
Parker, with the assistance of eight
bishops, and several deans and pro
fessors, .brought out in 1568 a new

version in a magnificent folio, adorned
with copper -plate engravings and wood
cuts, known as the ' Bishops' Bible'
It was avowedly based on Cranmer's
'Gieat Bible,' but with amendments.
It never received any royal recognition,
but Convocation in 1571 ordered it to
be placed by every bishop in the hall
or large dining-room of his house,
that it might be useful to servants or
to strangers, and that it should be
placed in each cathedral, and, so far
as could conveniently be done, in all
the churches. But "of all the Ver
sions it had probably the least success.
It did not command the respect of
scholars ; and its size and cost (27*. Sd.)
were far from meeting the wants of the
people" ('Bible Diet.'). There were
therefore for a time three versions in
common use at the same time — Cran
mer's or the ' Great Bible, ' the ' Gene
van, ' and the ' Bishops'. ' Three quarto
editions of the ' Great Bible ' were
printed in 1569, and none after that
year. No edition of the ' Bishops' '
was issued after 1606.
To give a complete sketch of the
English Versions, it is convenient to
mention here the Douay Version put
forth by the Papal party. In 1568, u,
body of English Roman Catholics re
paired to the town of Douay in Flan
ders, and erected a college or seminary,
for the education of priests destined for
the reconversion of England to the
Roman obedience. The leaders of the
enterprise recognised the necessity of
meeting the many Reformed Versions
by putting forth an English Version
of their own, with critical words and
passages rendered in their sense, anil
with prefaces and notes combating the
"errors " of the other Versions. This
Romish Version of the New Testament
was put forth by the English College
at Rheims in 1582, and a second and
revised edition at Antwerp in 1600.
The Old Testament was issued by the
English College at Douay in 1609-10.
Together they have continued to be
the English Bible of the Papal party
to the present time.

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84

BIBLE

At the Hampton Court conference an
objection was made on the side of the
Puritan party to the portions of Scrip
ture in the Prayer Book (taken from
the Great Bible Version) as inaccurate,
whereupon King James expressed an
opinion in favour of a new Version.
The work was one in which the king's
learning and his theological training
were calculated to make him take an
intelligent interest, and he used his
authority to order the work to be under
taken, to enlist the services of a large
body of revisers, and to lay down the
principles of" the revision. Out of a
list of fifty-four selected scholars and
divines, forty-seven were actually en
gaged in the task ; these were divided
into six companies, four companies for
the Old Testament, and two for the
New Testament, each company being
engaged upon certain portions of the
work ; each person was to bring his own
corrections, the company to discuss
them, and having finished their work
to send it on to another company, and
so on ; differences of opinion between
two companies to be referred to a general
meeting, At the end of two years the
companies had accomplished their task.
Lastly, one person was selected from
each company, and these six editors
spent nine months in London seeing
the work through the press. The Dedi
cation to the King and the Preface
to the Reader were written by Dr.
Miles Smith. Though the Version thus
accomplished has come to be called the
" Authorised " Version, yet, in fact, it
was left to make its own way by its
own merits, and only gradually super
seded the others. Those merits have
been more and more clearly recognised
during the two and a half centuries
that it has been in use — its accuracy
as a translation, its strong idiomatic
English, its felicitous renderings, and
its musical rhythm. Jt is to be noted
that the English is not that of James's
time ; the revisers, according to their
instructions, carefully retained the
language of the earlier Versions. It
was expressly ordered that tho Version,

which was intended to be the general
Bible of the English people, should not
be weighted with prefaces and notes
which had given a party tone to some
previous Versions ; but a number of
notes were put into the margin which
need a word of explanation. Some of
these, indicated by a reference letter,
were references to parallel texts. Others,
indicated by italics, were in the nature
of notes; two- thirds of those in the Old
Testament are mere literal renderings
of the original Hebrew or Chaldee text ;
thirty-five in the New Testament are
various readings in the original Greek
text ; others have to do with the trans
lation, and are alternative renderings; a
few are explanations of proper names;
One curiosity of the new Version is
that there were two separate issues- of
it in the same year (1611), "distinct
throughout every leaf," with many
small differences, as if the text had
been finally corrected by two different
persons ; these two standard copies,
Mr. Stevens suggests, were sent to twor
different printing offices, an,d so th»
two versions continued to run on side
by side for several editions.
Notwithstanding the acknowledged
merits of the "Authorised Version,"
and the grave objections to any med
dling with a Bible which had the
venerable claim of two centuries and *
half of acceptance ; which formed a bond
of union among nearly all the various
denominations, into which our Eng
lish Christianity is unhappily divided,,
a bond of union between English speak
ing Christians scattered all over the
world ; yet the progress of Biblical schoj
larship had produced among scholars
and those acquainted with the results
of their labours, a certain amount oj
dissatisfaction with the Version. ft
was acknowledged that there were
some mistranslations which ought to
be corrected, and that the sense of the
originals might in many places be
more exactly represented ; and it was»
felt that it was the duty of the author^
ties of the Church to see that the Bible
read in Divine Service, and put into

BIBLE

85

BIBLE

the hands of the people, should be the
most accurate possible Version of the
sacred originals.
This feeling at length found authori
tative expression in a. resolution in
favour of revision passed in the Con
vocation of Canterbury in February
1870, and in a scheme for the conduct
of that revision drawn up by a Com
mittee of Convocation in May of the
same year. Two companies of divines
and scholars were formed, one for
the Old Testament, the other for the
New Testament. The co-operation of
American scholars in the work was
invited, and ultimately two com
mittees were formed in America to
act with the English companies on
the basis of the principles and rules
laid down by the Committee of Con
vocation. The English companies
also co-opted representative scholars
of the principal Nonconformist bodies,
with the view of obtaining their con
fidence in, and acceptance of, the new
revision. The general idea of the re
vision was "to introduce as few altera
tions as possible into the text of the
Authorised Version consistently with
faithfulness, " and to make no change
in the text without the final approval
of two-thirds of those present.
The New Testament was published
in 1881, after ten years of labour, and
an immense number of copies were sold
within a few weeks. But then the
voice of hostile criticism began to be
heard. It was alleged (1) that the re
visers, instead of taking the Greek
Textus Beceptus as the basis of their
work, had gone much further in the
direction of the construction of a new
Greek text than had been intended ;
that the revisers had not been selected
with a view to the construction of a
new Greek text, and were not the
scholars most competent for that work ;
and that, in fact, in the alterations
they had introduced into the Greek
text, they had adopted a theory on the
subject, and had trusted to MSS. , which
did not receive the adhesion of scholars
specially qualified to deal with that

question. (2) Every one found that
a vast number of alterations had been
made in the Authorised Version which
seemed to make very little alteration
in the sense, and therefore to be an
infraction of the principle "to make
as few alterations as possible consist
ently with faithfulness. " These altera
tions are explained and defended by
the revisers in their preface.
The Old Testament was published
in May 1885. In it the Textus Beceptus
had been adhered to, and fewer altera
tions made in the translation than in
the New Testament ; and most of these
alterations seem to have commended
themselves to the acceptance of scholars.
The new Version is not put forth
with any authority. It is left, as the
so-called Authorised Version was, to
win its way, if it can, by its intrinsic
merits into general acceptance. It is
still the subject of discussion, and it
is too early to anticipate whether it
will, like Parker's Bible, only take a
place in the series of Versions interest
ing to scholars, or whether, like the
Authorised Version, it will slowly live
down objections, and become the En
glish Bible of the new era of English
Christianity upon which in this age
we have entered.
Authorities : — Charles Anderson's
' Annals of the English Bible. ' Canon
Westcott's ' General View of the
History of the English Bible' Pre
bendary Scrivener's ' Introduction to
the Quarto Paragraph Bible,' Cam
bridge, 1873. J. Eadie's 'The En
glish Bible. ' H. Cotton's ' Rheims
and Douay. ' G. Offor's ' Preface to
Bagster's Edition of Tyndale's New
Testament.' Archdeacon Cotton's Editions of the
Bible, and parts thereof, ill English,
from 150.5 to 1850. Oxford, 1852.
Lea Wilson's Catalogue of English
Bibles, &e London, 1865.
The Bibles in the Caxton Exhibition
of 1877, by H. Stevens. London, 1878.
The British Museum Catalogue,
Article ' Bibles,' which will shortly be
printed as a separate vol.

BIDDING PRAYER

BISHOP

A List of Editions of the Holy Scrip
tures and parts thereof, printed in
America previous to 1860. E. B.
O'Callaghan. Albany, 1861.
BIDDING PRAYER. A formula of
public prayer found in the ancient
Greek liturgies, c. g. that of St. Chry-
sostom, in the Gallican liturgy, and
in our own service books, in which the
priest tells the people in detail what to
pray for, and concludes with the Lord's
prayer, in which all the previous peti
tions are supposed to be summed up.
In structure, and in the subjects intro
duced into it, the bidding prayer is near
akin to the Litany. The prayer was
said on Sunday in the procession be
fore mass in cathedral and collegiate
churches ; but in parish churches after
the gospel and offertory, usually from
the pulpit before the sermon, though
the ancient Greek custom was to preach
the sermon before the irf>OB<pil>vri<ng or
KsXtvapa. The 55th canon of 1603 directs that
before all sermons, lectures, and homi
lies (which are not delivered in the
course of Divine Service) the preachers
and jninisters shall move the people to
join with them in prayer in this form,
or to this effect, as briefly as they may,
and goes on to give a form of bidding
prayer. There are many ancient forms
extant ; it seems as if every diocese
almost had its own form, or as if they
were altered with a good deal of freedom.
In Appendix x. to Dr. Henderson's
'Manuale et Processionale ad usum
Insignis Ecclesia? Eboracensis ' (Surtees1
Society, 1874-5) are forms forbidding
prayers in English from the eleventh
century to the fifteenth ; and a six
teenth century form at the Preces in
Dominicis dicendce, at p. 123 of the vol.
Canon Simmons has given us seven
pages of notes and illustrations on
the 'York Bidding Prayers,' besides
a running commentary on those five
versions which form the second division
of his ' Lay Folks' Mass Book ' (Early
English Text Society, 1879). See
Rock, ' Church of our Fathers,-' ii. 352-
378, On Bidding the Beads ; Maskell,

'Mon. Rit.' vol. iii. ; 'The Lay Folks'
Mass Book,' printed by the Early Eng
lish Text Society.
BISHOP (fTno-Kowoc = overseer). , Of
the origin and character of bishopsi^s
the successors of the apostolic authority
and functions enough has been said in
the article on Apostolic Succession,
which see. This article deals especially
with the English bishops.
Our first evidence of the existence
of a Church here in Romano- British
times is the attendance of three dioce
san bishops of York, London, and (?)
Caerleon, together with a priest and
deacon, at the Council of Aries, a.d. 314.
Throughout the conversion of the
Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, the first mis
sionaries either were bishops when they
began their missionary work, or ob
tained consecration as bishops as soon
as their labours had resulted in the
gathering together of a Church. [Set
Saxon Period.] Notwithstanding the
influence of the monastic institution :
in the Anglo-Saxon Church, the bishops
continued to be the principal centres of
Church work, and the absolute rulers of
the Church, including the monasteriesi;»
down to the Norman Conquest.
The Norman kings introduced the
practice of using bishops in affairs of
Government, or rather of paying men
engaged in the affairs of the civil govern^
ment by promoting them to Church
preferments, including bishoprics. .,.
_ It may be useful to note that tho
bishops of the middle ages came'from
three different sources. Some were tho
younger sons of royal and noble houses,
who were put by the influence of their
families, often at an early age, into these
great offices in the Church. Henry of
Winchester was a grandson of the
Conqueror ; Robert of Worcester a son
of Earl Robert of Gloucester ; Hugh de
Puiset of Durham and St. William of
York were nephews of King, Stephen.:
Henry II. gave York to his son ; Henry.
III. obtained Canterbury for Jiis wifeis
uncle, and Worcester for his halfi
brother. Fulk Basset, Bishop of Lon,
don, was a temporal baron ; the Cacfc

BISHOP

87

BISHOP

lupes were bishops of Hereford and
Worcester ; Arundel a son of the Earl ;
Beaufort a son of John of Gaunt ; Pole
was a nephew of Henry VIII. In the
thirteenth century many names of noble
houses appear in the list of prelates.
No doubt it was the dignity and
wealth of the sees which led to such
appointments, but many of the men so
appointed turned out admirable bishops.
Another class were men of ability who
rose to office in the civil administration
of the country, as what we should now
call Secretaries of State, Lord Chancel
lors, Ambassadors, Judges, &c. These
were all clerics to begin with ; it was
in the ranks of the Church only that
men could find the education and
training to fit them for such employ
ments ; and the benefices of the Church
were used to supply them with an
income, their routine spiritual func
tions being for the most part fulfilled
by deputy, though in some cases, as
Wykeham, Chichele, Waynflete, they
made ¦ admirable bishops, and made a
munificent use of the revenues they had
acquired. In later days the king applied
to Rome for a cardinalate, with its
princely dignity and revenues, as the
fitting reward of a great minister like
a Richelieu, a Ximenes, a Beaton, or a
Wolsey. In the reign of Henry VII.
meritorious service became the chief
title to promotion. Williams, Lord
Keeper under Charles I., was the last
great episcopal State official ; and was
virtually minister. Atterbury was
perhaps the last who aspired to such
a position. Others of the great prelates of those
ages were men who had risen to emi
nence by their learning and piety, as
St. Hugh and Grosseteste of Lincoln,
Killwardby, Peckham, and Bradwar-
dine, Archbishops of Canterbury.
Some of these had been monks and
friars, and continued to wear ' their -
monks' frock and to keep their rule
amidst the magnificence of their epis
copal state. Not that all the episcopal
friars had risen to dignity solely for
their spiritual qualities ; for some of

them had been employed by the sove
reigns in affairs of state, and partly for
this reason, backed doubtless by the
interest of their powerful communities,
they had obtained the customary pre
ferment. In forming a judgment upon these
classes of prelates, we must bear in
mind that the estimate of the proper
sphere of clerical action was wider
in those days ' than in these. The pro
gress of what is called civilisation tends
to subdivide work in this as in other
spheres. In those days the wise
government of the people, the pure
administration of justice, the promotion
of peace and prosperity on the wider
scale of national life, were regarded as
ends to which a Churchman, who had
special qualifications for work on such
a scale, might devote his time and
talents as properly as to the govern
ment of a see, a monastery or a parish.
Or to put the case from the other point
of view, in those days men thought it
no disadvantage that those who were
to direct the great currents of the
nation's life, should have received the
spiritual training of the cloister as
well as the intellectual training of the
schools ; and should have learnt to
look at their work for the State with
the eyes of men who had been trained
to see everything from the standpoint
of religious truth, and to act on religious
principles and motives.
As a matter of fact, the Ministers of
State, Judges, Ambassadors, of these
Middle Ages were usually clerics. In
the latter part of Edward III. (1371),
Parliament, dissatisfied with the Go
vernment generally, petitioned for lay
Ministers, and Wykeham, the Chan
cellor, and Brantingham, the Treasurer,
resigned. John of Gaunt, at the head
of the Barons' party in the Ministry
of Richard II., succeeded for a time in
forming a Government which consisted
entirely of laymen, because in avowed
opposition to the power of the Church ;
but the list of lay administrators down
to the Reformation would be a very
short one.

BISHOP, COSTUME OF 88 BISHOP, COSTUME OF

BISHOP, COSTUME OF. The every
day costume of a bishop before the
Reformation period was a chimere (a
long gown very much like a modern
cassock), and over that a rochet, which
was like a scanty surplice with a narrow
sleeve gathered into a band at the
wrist. Over this he might sometimes
wear the fur choir amys, like a short
cloak with hood. In Parliament and on
certain occasions of ceremonial he wore
a cope over the other robes, mitre and
gloves ; and, in his own diocese only,
his pastoral staff was borne before him.
AVhen he celebrated Holy Communion
he wore crossed shoes, chimere, alb (or
rochet), sometimes dalmatic, chasuble,
gloves, mitre, and pastoral staff.
In the wood-cut from the monumental
brass of Bishop Goodrich of Ely are seen
the full vestments of a bishop at the
celebration of the Holy Eucharist, viz.
embroidered shoes, alb with orfrey in
front, over that the sub-deacon's tunicle ;
then the fringed ends of the stole ; the
embroidered deacon's dalmatic is suffi
ciently conspicuous ; over that the
chasuble ; what looks like a stiff
collar to the chasuble is really the
embroidered border of the amice, whose
linen folds can also be discerned in
front ; the maniple hangs over the left
arm, the hands are gloved, the left
hand holds the crosier with its infula,
his right hand holds a book, probably
the gospels, and also the Great Seal as
the badge of his office of Chancellor, his
head is crowned with the jewelled mitre.
The Episcopal costume during the
progress of the Reformation and down
to modern times has some special in
terest ; one curious illustration of it
exists in the British Museum Library.
A second edition of the Great or Cran
mer's Bible of a.d. 1540 was printed
at the cost of Antony Marler, haber
dasher ; one copy of it was printed
on vellum, and the engraved frontis
piece was illuminated with colours, for
a presentation copy to the King Henry
VIII. This frontispiece, so far as need
be described for the present purpose,
represents the king sitting on his throne

and giving the Bible to one of a group
of bishops, who is identified in the en
graving as Cranmer by his armorial
bearings placed at his feet. Lower
down in the picture Cranmer gives the
Bible to a Doctor of Divinity ; and
lower still the Doctor is represented in
the pulpit preaching the new Bible to
the people. Cranmer is represented in
a red chimere down to the feet, over
that a rochet, with a rather tight sleeve
gathered to a band at the wrist, reach
ing a little below the knee, and showing
a little of the red chimere at the neck ;
round the neck is a black scarf (the
furred amys) reaching a little below
the waist, and his mitre is placed at
his feet. The Doctor of Divinity wears
the red gown with full hanging sleeve, ¦
of his degree, a surplice, a tippet and
hood, and a square cap on his head.*
The verso of the title-page to Cran
mer's 'Catechismus,' w:hicli was pub
lished in first year of the reign of
Edward VI., 1548, has a somewhat
similar picture, after Holbein, of the
young king on his throne, with a group
of bishops and clergy on his right ana
of nobles on his left. The bishops here
wear copes and mitres, and beside them
are their pastoral staves.
From the records in the Heralds'
College we learn that the bishops wore
cope and mitre at the coronation of
* There is acurious circumstance about tbia
painting which seems not to have been noticed
by the bibliographers. The first edition
of the Great Bible was printed in 1539, and
in the engraved frontispiece Cranmer and a
group of bishops and doctors are on the right
of the king ; Cromwell, the Vicar-General,
and a group of councillors (?) on his left;.
Cranmer and Cromwell being identified by :
their shields of arms placed at their feet.
But Cromwell was disgraced and executed
July 28, 1540, and in subsequent editions of
the Bible his shield of arms has been cut out
of the block from which the frontispiece is
engraved, leaving a circular blank space.
In this coloured copy, the illuminator ha«
painted in instead of Cromwell a different
person in different costume ; and has painted
over the blank circle where his arms were,
and for the sake of uniformity has painted
out Cranmer's arms also. I am indebted to
R. B. Graves, Esq., of the British Museum,
for pointing this out to me.

Goodrich, Bishop of Ely.

BISHOP, COSTUME OF

90

BISHOP, COSTUME OF

Edward VI., Elizabeth, and probably
other sovereigns down to George III.,
and the cope at subsequent coronations
down to that of her present Majesty.
Bishops are commonly represented in

mitre was borne on a cushion, and
the pastoral staff, as insignia of the
office of the deceased. The mitres and
crosiers, of gilt metal, of Bishop Morley,
who died 1654, and of Bishop Mews,

Frontispiece of the " Great Bible.'

their monumental effigies in cope and
mitre with pastoral staff, down to the
date of Hoadley of. "Winchester, who
died in 1761. At the funeral of bishops
from the Restoration down to 1724 ;
(e. g. at the funeral of Dr. Linde- !
say, Archbishop of Armagh) the gilt '

1706, are suspended on the pillars of
Winchester Cathedral.
After the Reformation the chimere
was made gradually fuller and of black
satin, and the sleeves of the rochet
were also made fuller until they as
sumed their present shapj, and wen

BISHOPS, ELECTION OF 91 BISHOPS, ELECTION OF

gathered by a band at the wrist so as
to leave a becoming- ruffle. Some of
the bishops wear purple gloves with a
gold fringe, down to the present day.
BISHOPS, ELECTION OF. In the
Anglo-Saxon Church bishops were no
doubt nominally elected by the clergy,
with the approval of the laity, accord
ing to the canons, but practically the
Kings with the counsel of their Witan,
which included the leading men both
ecclesiastical and lay, selected the
man whom they thought fittest ; in
some cases a strong-willed king made
the nomination without consulting any
one ; and no doubt all concerned accepted
the nomination and went through the
proper forms. There were very good
reasons for such a mode of appoint
ment, and for the concurrence of all
parties in it. For the bishop held a
position of great influence and au
thority ; he was a large landowner, a.
coadjutor of the sheriff in the adminis
tration of justice, a member of the
"Witan ( = the great Council or Parlia
ment), and one of the foremost of the
royal advisers ; the laity were as much
interested, in one way, in securing the
right man for bishop, as the clergy were
in another way. Especially the posi
tion of Archbishop of Canterbury was
one of such national importance, that
the selection was thought to be of
sufficient moment to engage the serious
consideration of the king and the
Witan. Towards the close of the
Saxon period the king exercised the
right, which afterwards became the
subject of so much controversy, of
investing the bishop-elect with the
ring and staff. It is clear also from
the case of Stigand, that the king and
his Witan exercised the power of de
posing a bishop. On the other hand,
probably owing to the number of foreign
ecclesiastics now in the kingdom, refer
ences to the Court of Rome became
far more frequent. For an archbishop
to go to Rome for his pallium was
nothing new ; but now we hear _ of
bishops going to Rome for consecration
-or confirmation, and of the Roman

Court claiming at least a veto on the
nomination of the king (Freeman,
' Norman Conquest,' II. 66). William
the Conqueror nominated direct to the
sees and abbeys, and it must be' ac
knowledged that his appointments were
guided by consideration for the well-
being of the Church and nation. It
must be understood that the proper
forms of canonical election were not
omitted. The frequent abuse of Church patron
age by royal and noble patrons led to
the effort of the Hildebrandine party
to reassert for the clergy and people
their ancient canonical rights. But the
Crown had good reason for asserting
some voice in the appointment, on the
ground of the temporal estates of the
sees, and of the coercive jurisdiction
given to the bishops. In England the
question was fought out between Arch
bishop Anselm on the one side and
King William Rufus and (after hi3
death) King Henry I. on the other ;
and resulted in a compromise ; that
the chapter of the vacant cathedral, as
representing the clergy, should receive
the king's congi d'elire, or leave to
elect, and should then proceed to a free
election ; but that the election should
have the royal assent, and that the new
bishop should do homage and swear
allegiance on account of the tempor
alities of his see. In fact the king
still continued to use his influence with
the chapter in favour of particular per
sons, and the need of his assent gave him
still greater power over the appoint
ments. King John, after the signing
of the great charter, gave the Church a
special charter, in which he conceded
the right of free election ; but the Crown
in fact not only exercised its influence
in recommending particular men to the
chapter for election, but in a very short
time the Crown accompanied the congi
d'elire with a formal letter missive
nominating the person whom the Crown
recommended for election.
But the right conceded to the popes
of confirmation gave them a concur
rent power of which they were, not slow

BISHOPS, ELECTION OF

92

BISHOPS, ELECTION OF

to avail themselves. All contested
elections had to be referred to Rome ;
all vacancies which occurred in Rome
the Pope assumed the privilege of filling
up by his own nomination. So that it
became a common thing for the Pope
to declare an election void, and to
nominate to the vacancy. And it must
in justice be said that in a large pro
portion of these appointments the Pope
gave the see a better man than it would
otherwise have had ; for among these
Papal appointments were such men as
Langton, Kilwardby, &e
Henry VIII. (by the Act 25 Henry
VIII. e 20) added the following con
ditions : " That if the dean and chapter
did not elect within twelve days after
the receipt of the conge d'elire and letter
missive, the Crown should nominate
and present by letters patent, under
the great seal, such person as it shall
think convenient. " And that if the
dean and chapter do not elect the
person named in the letter missive ... or
if any of them admit or do anything
contrary to the Act, they shall incur
the penalties of the .statute of Praemu
nire, i. c. outlawry, imprisonment, and
confiscation. The king also asserted the
right of the Crown to give or withhold
from bishops the exercise of coercive
jurisdiction, by issuing an inhibition to
the archbishop suspending all ecclesi
astical jurisdiction during tho king's
pleasure, while Cromwell, as tho king's
vicar-general, made his visitation of
the monasteries, and by recalling the
inhibition when the visitation was
done. The Government of Edward VI. swept
away the recognition of the privilege
of the clergy and people in the election
of bishops, contained in the conge
d'elire and other forms, and boldly re
vived the theory of William I., that the
bishoprics were absolutely in the royal
patronage : the Act of Edward VI. c. 2,
says :¦ "Forasmuch as the elections of
archbishops and bishops by the deans
and chapters be as well to the long
delay as to the great cost and charges
of such persons as the king giveth any

archbishopric or bishopric unto.; and
whereas the said elections be in very deed
no elections, but only by'a writ of congi
d'elire have colours, shadows, or pre
tences of elections, serving, neverthe
less, to no purpose ; and seeming also
derogatory and prejudicial to the king's
prerogative royal, to whom only apper-
taineth the collation and gift of all
archbishoprics and bishoprics ; it is en
acted that henceforth no congi d'elire
be granted, nor election by the dean and
chapter be made, but that the king by
his letters patent may collate," &e
The Government of Edward VI.
made a still further assertion of the
rights of the Crown over the bishops in
the exercise of their office. Granting that
the spiritual character and authority of
a bishop came from God, but taking for
granted that his legal right to exercise in
this kingdom any kind of authorityjjr
jurisdiction came from- the Crown, the
king issued commissions to the bishops,
revocable at pleasure, giving them au
thority to exercise their office ; so that
they were practically always at hk
mercy. It has been of late maintainej
by some writers that the chief reason
why these two kings held the bishops
thus tied up and at their mercy, and
held the Convocations bound hand and
foot in a similar way, was their fear
for the stability of the Reformation!
the sympathies of several of the bishops
and of many of the clergy were opposed
to some of the extreme measures of the
Reform ; there were violent oscillations
of opinion as it was ; there were popular
discontents which broke out into rebel
lion ; and the royal counsellors (it is
suggested) thought this firm grasp of
the civil power necessary to save the
kingdom from convulsions still more
dangerous. _ Elizabeth fell back upon the old rela
tions of the Crown and the Church, as
modified by Act 25, Henry VIII. c. 20,
issuing a letter patent, together with
the congi d'elire, nominating the person
recommended for election, but leavinj
to the bishop his ancient canonic?
jurisdiction without limitation; and

BISHOPS IN PARLIAMENT 93 BISHOPS IN PARLIAMENT

so the question of the appointment of
bishops has continued to the present
clay. [See Royal Supremacy, Confirm
ation of Bishops.]
BISHOPS IN PARLIAMENT. Under
the Saxon kings the bishops were sum
moned to the Witena-gemot (Parlia
ment) as bishops. William the Con
queror turned their temporal possessions
into baronies, subject to the tenure and
duties of knights' service, and some
writers say that since then the bishops
have been summoned to Parliament in
respect of their baronies ; but Lord
Hale (as quoted in Warburton's ' Alli
ance of Church and State,' p. 131)
says : ' ' The bishops sit in the House of
Peers by usage and custom ; which I
therefore call usage because they had
it not by express charter, for then we
•should find some Neither had they it
by tenure ; for regularly their tenure
was in free alms and not per baroniam ;
and therefore it is clear they were
not barons in respect of their posses
sions, but their possessions were called
baronies because they were the posses
sions of customary barons. Besides, it
is evident that the writ of summons
usually went electa et confirmato (to a
bishop when elected and. confirmed),
before any restitution of the tempor
alities ; so that their possessions were
not the cause of their summons.
Neither are they barons by prescription,
for it is evident that as well the lately
created bishops as Gloucester and Oxon,
&e, had been in Parliament, and yet
elected within time of memoiy, and
without any special words in the elec
tion thereof to entitle them to it. So
that it is a privilege by usage annexed
to the Episcopal dignity within the
realm ; not to their order which they
acquire by consecration ; nor to their
persons, for in respect of their persons
they are not barons ; nor to be tried as
barons ; but by their incorporation and
dignity episcopal."
On the erection of the new sees of
Ripon and Manchester in 1836, it
seemed good to the Government to
make provision that the number of

bishops sitting in the House of Lords
should not be increased beyond the
existing number of twenty-four. And
the object was effected in this way :
that the Archbishops of Canterbury
and York, and the Bishops of Lon
don, Durham, and Winchester should
always sit in Parliament ; but that
with all other bishops, on the vacancy
of the See, the newly-elected bishop
shall not have a seat in Parliament,
but the oldest by consecration of the
bishops who have not seats in Parlia
ment shall be summoned by writ to
make up tho number of twenty-four
spiritual peers. [See Diocese, Arch
bishop.] The Bishop's Palace. Tho Bishop
had a principal official residence ad
joining the cathedral, and often com
municating with one of the transepts
by a covered passage. Ruins of some
of them still remain, and here and
there some portion has escaped large
enough to prove that they were on a
scale of size and architectural character
appropriate to the rank and wealth of
the bishops of those days. At Hereford
there are portions of a Norman hall ;
at Chichester an early English chapel
and later gate ; at Exeter an early
English chapel ; considerable remains
at Lincoln and St. Davids ; Wells pre
serves a thirteenth century hall, an
early decorated chapel, a tower and
fortified walls ; Durham a noble hall
of the fourteenth century ; at Ely
there is a grand gallery of the fifteenth
century ; Salisbury preserves a fifteenth
century hall and chapel.
Besides their palace at the cathedral
town, the bishops had also houses on
their manors, which were often castles
and fortified country houses, as Fara-
ham Castle, which is still a residence
house of Winchester, Hartlebury of
Worcester, Fulham of London.
Many of the bishops had also a
palace in London, as Lambeth is still
the London palace of the Archbishop
of Canterbury ; Ely Chapel in Hatton
Garden was the chapel of the Bishop
of Ely's town house. Several bishops

BISHOP'S THRONE

94 BREAKING OF THE BREAD

still' have modern official residences in
London. London House (Winchester
House was sold in 1874) in. St. James's
: Square, Ely House in Sackville Street.
BISHOP'S THRONE, [ice Cathedra.]
BLASPHEMY, St. Augustine de
fines to be the speaking of evil words
against God. It is not only a canoni
cal offence, subjecting tho offender to
(ecclesiastical censures, but under all
Christian governments it has been an
offence punishable by the common law.
¦ ¦ BONHOMMES, order of monks. This
was a small order of the Augustinian
rule, of little repute in England, where
it had only two houses — Esserug in
Bucks, and Edindon in Wilts : these,
however, Were reckoned among the
greater abbeys. They wore a blue
habit ; the superiors of their house
were styled rectors, and the head of
the Order was styled president.
BOOK OF SPORTS. [See under Ches
ter, Diocese of.]
. BRASSES, MONUMENTAL. [See
Sepulchral Monuments.] About the
middle of the thirteenth century came
in the fashion of inlaying the slab of
stone which covered a grave with
plates of brass on which were engraved
the effigy of the deceased, with an in
scription on a narrow fillet round the
margin of the stone or on a plate under
his feet, or sometimes the effigy is
placed within an ornamental canopy,
and shields of arms are placed at the
corners of the slab. Sometimes such
brass memorials were elevated on an
altar tomb, but more frequently the
slab formed part of the pavement of the
church ; and very frequently the slab
was of dark Purbeck marble, whose
dark glossy surface formed a suitable
background for the memorial devices of
burnished brass.
There are a few examples, and those
very large, about 10ft. by 5, and of
the very finest design and workman
ship, in, which the whole design is
engraved on one unbroken plate of
brass, which leaves only a margin of
the dark marble in which it is inlaid ;
as that of Abbot Delamere at St. Al

bans, 1360,* of Adam de Walsokne,
1349, and of Robert Blanche, 1376,.at
Lynn ; of Alan Fleming at Newark,
and a smaller of the same kind of.a
priest at North Minims, Warwickshire.
But usually the effigy, canopy, shields,
&e , are cut out and inlaid separately
in their matrices in the marble.
The'earliest known example of these
elegant and interesting memorialsriis
of 1247, but the earliest actually exist
ing are those of Sir John d'Abernoun
(1277) at Stoke d'Abernoun, Surreyi; ,
of Sir Roger de Trumpington (1289);
at Trumpington, near Cambridge*. &c.
They are usually in a very perfect state
of preservation, the hardness of the
material and the bold and deep lines of
the engraving having withstood the
wear and tear of centuries ; and they
supply a very interesting series of cos
tumes, noble, military, ecclesiastical, '
and secular. The effigy of Bishop
Goodrich, under Bishop, Costume of,
is from his monumental brass.
This class of monument continued in
use to a late date, so late as the seven?
teenth century, and some of the lato
examples are very curious, giving ns
pictures of gentlemen and ladies of so
late a date as the time of James I. and
Charles : e. g. at Faulkbourn, Essex, a
brass on an altar-tomb of a lady of the
Fortescue family in the costume of Elizas
beth ; at Clifton, Notts, a gentleman
of the ancient family of that name in
the breeches and short cloak of James
I., and a lady of the same period, drawn
with great delicacy and artistic skill.
There are several important books do*
voted to these brasses, especially the
fine work of Messrs. Waller, the ' Monu
mental Brasses' of C. Boutcll, the
later and more complete work of Haines ;
nearly all the finest examples will be
found engraved in one or other of these ,
books. "BREAKING OF THE BREAD,"
THE. The earliest name given to the
celebration of Holy Communion, ¦ as
in Acts ii. 42. The fracture of the
* The figure of an Abbot under Vestmeiitl
is the efBgy taken from this grand design, r;

BREVIARY ,

95

BRIDGETTINE

Bread, which symbolized the death of
Christ, was made so prominent a part
of the ceremonial as to give its name to
the whole service. This seems to be in
the mind of the Prayer-Book, when it
requires special arrangement to be made
by tho celebrant, ' ' that he may with the
more readiness and decency break the
Bread before the people, and take the
Cup into his hands." This name was,
however, soon superseded by others,
as Eucharist, Mass, Communion, &e,
which see.
BREVIARY. One of the old Service
Books [see Hours] which, in its full
and settled state, say from the twelfth
and thirteenth centuries, contained the
whole offices of the Canonical Hours
throughout the year ; of the great festi
vals, the Saints' days, the Sundays, and
the week days. These were arranged
under their respective days, with rubrics
directing to certain prayers, hymns,
or psalms, which occurred frequently,
or to the psalter, which formed a por
tion of the volume. The bulk of the
book led to its being often divided in
quarto into two volumes for summer
and winter, or in smaller size into four
volumes, for spring, summer, autumn,
and winter. The last settlement of
the Roman Breviary was by Pope Pius
V. in 1568 A. D. The English title
for it was in Latin, Portiforium, which
Professor Skeat points out is the exact
equivalent of. the English- French word
Porthors — the book which the priest
carried abroad; the best MSS. of
Chaucer spell the word Porthors ; but
after a while the word became softened
into Porthos, Portos, Portuis, Portuass.
BRIDGETTINE nuns, as they were
usually called, from Bridget of Sweden,
who founded, them A. D. 1363, were
more formally called the female Order
of Our Saviour. They followed the
Augustinian rale with some variations.
Their houses were double houses for
nuns and monks, ruled by an abbess.
The men's half of the convent con
sisted of thirteen priests and four
gospellers, who were to be deacons, or
priests if they chose, and eight servants.

There were never to be more than
twenty-five brethren and sixty sisters.
The abbess was elected by the convent,
and the confessor out of tho thirteen
priests, who were obedient to the
abbess, and the sisters and lay brothers
to him. The thirteen priests alone said
the divine service, and did no secular
work. Some of their churches (in
Sweden) were double churches, i. e. they
had a nave divided into two stories, both
looking into one chancel ; in others
the nave was divided into two aisles,
separated from one another by a grille
or iron screen. There was a direct
entrance into the church from the
men's side, and another from the
women's side. No monastery was to
be inhabited till fully built, and they
could live peacefully and quietly. No
private property was allowed. Those
who entered the house after the first
foundation were to bring with them
sufficient to maintain them in good
and bad times ; and when the numbers
were complete, and they had revenues
enough to furnish meat and drink
annually, no more was necessary to be
brought in. All surplus money and
food, and old clothes, were to be given
to the poor, and on this account no
visitors were allowed except in special
eases. They were not to build splendid
or unnecessary buildings. Nuns were
not to be admitted till eighteen, and
priests and brothers till twenty-five
years of age. Labour was required at
times not devoted to divine service,
and the fruits of it were to be given to
the poor. The bishop was to be the
visitor. In the house a grave was to
be constantly open, which the abbess
and convent were to visit daily and
say prayer over it, also a coffin at
the entrance of the church, that they
might be constantly reminded of death.
Their habit was a black robe, white
wimple and veil, the veil having a
black band across the forehead ( ' Monas-
ticon '). Tanner, however, says it was a
tunic of coarse grey woollen, and cloak
of the same ; and that the nuns had on
their veils five small pieces of red cloth

BRIDGETT1NE

90

BROAD CHURCH

to represent the five wounds of our
Saviour ; the priests a red cross on the
breast, with a white circle in the
middle to represent the Host ; the
deacons a white circle with four tongues
in red cloth ; and the lay or serving
brethren » white cross and five red
pieces to represent the wounds.
The Order had only one house in
England. Henry V. on his accession
to the throne founded two religious
houses, the last monasteries which
were founded in England. One was
a house of Carthusians called ' ' Beth
lehem," at Sheen, near Richmond ;
the other the Brigettine nunnery of
"Syon," on the opposite side of the
river at Isloworth. Syon was largely
endowed, the revenues at the dissolu
tion being reckoned at £1731, equal
to about £20,000 of our money ; and
the monastery had a great reputation.
The ' Myrroure of our Lady ' is a book
written for them, containing a trans
lation and explanation of the ' ' Mass "
and "Hours," as used by the " Ladyes
of Syon ; " and is very interesting for
the information it supplies on the state
of religious thought and feeling at the
close of the Reformation period. It
has been recently (1873) published by
the Early English Text Society.
, On the dissolution the ladies kept
together, and retired to Desmond in
Flanders. They were reinstated in
their house for a short period by Mary.
When ejected again by Elizabeth they
still kept together, and after, some
wandering from place to place finally
settled at Lisbon in 1594, where they
have existed as a religious community
of English ladies ever since. They still
retain the keys of their ancient house,
and until recently retained some vest
ments and other relics, which are now
in the possession of the Earl of Shrews
bury. They have in recent times tried
to re-establish a house in England, at
Spetesbury ; but the real home of the
representatives of the ancient Briget-
tines of Syon House is still at Lisbon.
A monumental brass of Agnes Jordan ,
who was abbess at the time of the dis

solution, still remains in the church of
Denham, Bucks.
BRIEF. A Royal letter which was
sent to the bishops, and by them to
their clergy, authorizing and desiring
the collection of alms in church during
time of divine service, for some specified
object. These Briefs were issued by
the Government of its own motion, or
were obtained from the Government
from time to time by the promoters of
charitable objects ; c. g. we find Briefs
issued for collections towards such
objects as the rebuilding of St. Paul's
after the Fire of London, the redemp-
tion of English slaves taken by the
Algerine pitate3 ; for training minis
ters for the Protestant churches abroad ;
for a fire in Drury Lane, &c. It was
complained that a large proportion of
the money thus collected was absorbed
by the expenses of collection. These
abuses were regulated by a statute of
the 4th year of Queen Anne, and again
by a statute of the 9th of George IV.
The great Church societies at one time
derived their revenues chiefly from the
produce of these Briefs ; but in 1853 the
Government for the time having de
clined to issue them, they have ever
since remained in abeyance. Some of
the bishops issue pastoral letters, in
viting their clergy to recommend certain
objects to the liberality of their people
for objects for which formerly the
Crown would probably have issued a
Brief ; and the clergy make appeals to
Church people from the pulpit at their
own discretion.
BRIEF, PAPAL. [See Bull.]
BRITISH CHURCH. [See Romano,
British Church, and Celtic Church.]
BROAD CHUECH. A modern " school
of thought," which takes its origin in
a natural reaction against the dispro
portions and extravagances of the other
two, the "High" and "Low." We
associate with its origin the honoured
names of Thomas Arnold and Frederick
Demson Maurice. It was, perhaps,
first clearly defined in a famous article
in the ' Edinburgh Review ' (Oct. 1853),
by Conybeare. Its special character-

BUCER

97

BULL

istic is a protest against forcing opinions,
or particular interpretations of Holy
Scripture, upon unwilling intellects ;
and against the assumption of authority
in matters of religion, where no true
ground for that authority can be shown.
The adherents of this school attach
comparatively little value to religious
observances, and lay the greatest pos
sible stress upon the performance of
duty, and the cultivation of the virtues
of benevolence, justice, truth, purity.
As regards the Divine Founder of our
faith, while the Low Churchman insists
'chiefly upon His atonement for sin, and
the HighChurchmanon His Intercession
in heaven, the Broad Churchman thinks
of Him chiefly as our Great Example.
The dangers of the School are pal
pable : its tendency is to represent
Belief as a thing comparatively unim
portant, in comparison with action ;
and so to fall away into disparage
ment of the Church's Creeds, and ulti
mately of the revealed word itself.
And thus while the leakage of the
"Low" School has been in the direc
tion of Geneva, and that of the " High "
towards Rome, that of the "Broad"
has been, and is, to scepticism and
infidelity. These three schools represent three
different classes of mind, all of which
naturally have, and must have, their
place in the Catholic Church ; and they
need not be considered as antagonistic.
Every Churchman has u, natural tend-
encyto one in preference to the others ;
but it many-sided man may be " an
Evangelical .High Churchman, with
Broad sympathies." — R. T.
BUCER, Martin, a native of Alsace,
was first a Dominican Friar, then
adopted the tenets of the Reformers,
first those of Luther, then preferred
those of Zwingle ; but the special charac
teristic of his career as a Reformer was
his endeavour to reconcile these two
"schools of thought." Declining to
agree to the truce between the Church
and the Protestant party called the
Interim, he was subject to some hard
ships, when Cranmer invited him to

England, and sent him to Cambridge
as Regius Professor of Theology. In
the time of King Edward. VI., his views
were so exactly those of the government
that he was in high favour at Court,
and exercised a considerable influence
upon the ecclesiastical policy of that
reign. In Queen Mary's reign his
remains were burnt and his tomb de
stroyed ; but it was set up again by
order of Queen Elizabeth.
BULL, George, Bishop of St. David's,
born 1634, died 1709. His father, on '
the occasion of his baptism, dedicated
him to the ministry of the Church.
He was educated at the schools of Wells
and Tiverton, and at Exeter College,
Oxford. In 1649, refusing the "En
gagement" to the Commonwealth [see
Great Rebellion], he left the university
and continued his studies in retirement
under his private tutor. At the age of
twenty-one he was ordained deacon and
priest the same day, by Skinner, the
ejected Bishop of Oxford, who dispensed
with the canons in consideration of the
distressed condition of the Church at
the time. He accepted the benefice of
St. George's, near Bristol, and in 1658
that of Suddington St. Mary, an inter
esting example of the way in which a
very few of the Episcopalian clergy, by
the presentation and protection of inr
fluential patrons, were able to hold
benefices, and to feed their flocks with
sound teaching, even during the period
of the Commonwealth. An anecdote
is told of him, that being called in to
baptise the child of a dissenter in his
parish, he used the Prayer- Book office
for Baptism, which he had learned by
heart. After the ceremony his parish
ioner thanked him for his services, and
remarked with how much greater edifi
cation they prayed who depended upon
the Spirit of God to find them words
suited to the occasion, than they who
were tied up to a form of words, and
that if he had not made the sign of the
cross, no one could have raised an objec
tion to his ministration. Whereupon
Mr. Bull showed him the Office for
Baptism, which had thus extorted

BULL, PAPAL

BURIAL

his approbation ; and by this, and fur
ther instruction,, turned his parishioner
into a good churchman.
The year after he had come to Sud-
dington he was made privy to a plan of
an insurrection in favour of Charles II.,
and his house was chosen as one of the
meeting-places of those concerned in
the design. In 1685 he was presented
'to Avening in Gloucestershire ; and in
1686 to the Archdeaconry of Llandaff.
It was not till he was in his seventy-
first year that he was offered, and, yield
ing to the persuasions of some in au
thority in the Church, accepted the
see of St. David's, which he held four
years, dying 17th September, 1709.
His fame rests upon his writings,
which display a vast and accurate
knowledge of Scripture and the Fathers ;
especially upon his Defensio pro Sym-
bolo Niccsno, 'Defence of the Nicene
Creed,' which had a European reput
ation. He must be placed in. the
foremost rank of English divines.
BULL, PAPAL, from the Latin Bulla,
a boss. A public document issued by
the Pope in the most solemn form, en-
'grossed on parchment, and having the
Pope's great seal in lead attached. The
document takes the name of Bull from
the great seal (bulla) which authenti
cates it. If the document relates to
justice the seal is suspended by a cord
of leather, if it relates to a grant of
favour the cord is of silk. In order to
do honour to some great person to whom
the document relates, or in honour of
the importance of the subject to which
it relates, the seal is sometimes of gold ;
thus the Bull by which Leo X. con-
farred on Henry VIII. the title of De
fender of the Faith had a golden seal.
These documents are distinguished by
their first few words, as the Bull In
Ccena Domini, the Bull Unigenitus.
William I. forbade any Bull to be
promulgated in England without his
permission. An Act of Parliament
(25 Henry VIII. c. 21), confirmed by
another in 1536, enacted that no further
Bulls should run in England.
A Brief is a papal document of less

general importance than the above ;
is written in different characters, and
signed only with the Pope's signet ring.
BURIAL. Mode of burial. The
Romans burned their dead, and col
lected the ashes into an urn ; this
urn, together with several smaller
vessels of earthenware or glass con
taining the ornaments of the deceased,
unguents, &c. , were buried in a group at
a very slight depth in the earth. Their
cemeteries were always outside the
town, and usually adjoined a principal
road. A large cemetery near Colchester
has been carefully explored, and has
yielded stores of information. (See
' Transactions of the Essex Archaeo
logical Society. ')
The Britons during if not before the
Roman occupation seem to have also
burnt their dead, and collected the
ashes into an urn, and buried it, raising
a tumulus over it, and adding fresh
interments on the same tumulus,'' with
a corresponding increase to its base or
to its height.
The heathen Saxons buried their dead
with their weapons or ornaments, and
with earthenware vases which perhaps
contained corn, &e Saxon burial-
grounds have been found in which the
graves lie side by side and row after row.
Sometimes, perhaps in the case of dis
tinguished persons, mounds of earth
were heaped over the grave, the mound
often containing several interments,
perhaps of the same family.
The Jews always buried their dead,
and the Christian Church seems univers
ally to have adopted this custom, look
ing upon the body, which had been the
temple of the Holy Ghost (1 Cor. iii.
16, and vi. 19), as deserving of reverent
usage to the last ; and they placed it
in the earth with religious ceremonies.
There is some evidence for believing
that in Romano-British times the Chris
tian dead were still buried in the ancient
cemeteries. There is evidence that about the
year 750 spaces of ground adjoining
churches were enclosed and consecrated
for burial. (3 Phill. Rep. 349, Lord

BURIAL SERVICE

99

BURNET

Stowell.) By a canon of the ninth
century every grave was to be esteemed
sacred, and to be adorned with the sign
of the Cross, and was not to be trampled
upon (Maskell, ' Mon. Rit. ,' I. ccxcvii. ).
But the religious feeling led in turn to
the desire to lay the dead round about
the church where they had worshipped
while living ; and one step further in
the same direction led to the burial of
a bishop within his cathedral church,
a priest within his parish church, a
founder or great benefactor* in the
church which he had founded or bene
fited ; and lastly, any distinguished
person came to be honoured with burial
within the church. Gregory the Great
gave as a reason for desiring to be
buried within the precincts of the
church, that friends and neighbours,
beholding their sepulchres when they
came up to church, would be moved to
pray for them. A canon, of date earlier
than Edward the Confessor, recites that
such had been the custom in past times,
and restricts it in future, "unless the
person be a priest or some holy man,
who by the merits of his past life
might deserve such a peculiar favour."
Archbishop Lanfranc seems to have
been the first to introduce the fashion
of burial in crypts under the chancel,
or under the altar, when he rebuilt the
church at Canterbury, about 1075 ; and
the pernicious custom continued to
spread, until it was forbidden by Act
of Parliament in our own generation.
The Act 10 and 11. Vict. 65; made
provision for the gradual disuse of
churchyards for burial, and the forma
tion of extra-mural cemeteries. [See
Funeral Customs.]
BURIAL SERVICE. In ancient
times excommunicate persons were not
to receive Christian burial, heretics,
persons not receiving the holy sacra
ment at least at Easter, persons killed
• A monumental arch is not unfrequently
found in the thickness of the church wall,
over a gravestone on the ground level, visible
sometimes inside, sometimes outside the
church ; such graves are believed to be those
of founders of the particular part of the
church under which they lie.

in duels, tilts, and tournaments. [See
R. Phillimore, p. 858.]
By the present canon Christian burial
is refused to excommunicates, unless some
man is able to testify of his repentance ;
and by the rubric, in addition to the
excommunicate, persons unbaptised, and
persons who have laid violent hands
upon themselves. With respect to the
last it may be observed, that the ancient
canons except the case where the
suicide was not of right mind. Who
is to be the judge of his state of mind %
The law makes provision for this by an
inquisition before the coroner ; and the
clergyman -is bound by the verdict of
the coroner's jury.
Anciently, every one dying in the
parish had a common law right of in
terment in the parish churchyard ; and
the incumbent of the parish was the
person required, ¦ and the only person
entitled, to perform the burial service.
By accepting the baptism of dissenters
as lay baptism, and accepting lay bap
tism as valid, though irregular, the
clergy were able to make no difficulty
of burying their dissenting parishioners ;
and dissenters (who also very commonly
resort to the parish church for mar
riage) had no objection to bury their
friends in the parish churchyard, with
the solemn service of the Church.
Recently the dissenting ministers made
it a grievance that they should not be
allowed to perform the funeral service
of deceased members of their congre
gations in the churchyard. A strenu
ous agitation on one side, and a spirit
of conciliation on the other, led to the
passing of an Act of Parliament which
legalises this invasion of the rights of
the clergy in their own churchyards.
BURNET, Gilbert, Bishop of Salis
bury, died 1715, was born in Scot
land, 18th September, 1643, his father
being an Episcopalian puritan, his
mother a presbyterian ; was educated
at Aberdeen ; ordained 1665 by the
Bishop of Edinburgh, and presented to
Saltoun ; in 1669 was elected professor
of divinity at Glasgow, and was noted
for the moderation of his views between

BURNET

100

BUTLER

the'Episcopal and Presbyterian parties.
In 1662 he published his ' Vindication of
the Authority, Constitution, and Laws
of the Church and State of Scotland, '
which was esteemed so great a service
at the crisis that he was offered a
Scotch bishopric, which he declined.
In 1637 he came to London, preached
before King Charles 1 1., and was named
one of his chaplains, and was also in
favour with the Duke of York, after
wards James II. He soon after, how
ever, was accused of opposition to the
Court interest, and lost favour. He
resolved to settle in London, and in
1675, notwithstanding the opposition
of the Court, was appointed, by Sir
Harbottle Grimstone, Master of the
Rolls, Preacher at the Rolls Chapel,
also Lecturer at St. Clement's, and be
came a very popular preacher. Soon
after this he wrote the ' History of the
Reformation of the Church of England, '
which, appearing at such a crisis, at
once secured a great reputation for its
author, and he became mixed up with
the stormy politics of the time. In
1683 he wrote several works which pro
voked the resentment of the English
Court, which deprived him of his pre
ferments. On the accession of James
II. he left England, and after travel
ling for some time, was invited to the
Hague, and taken into the counsels of
the Prince of Orange, and had a con
siderable share in the intrigues which
ended in placing his patron on the
throne of England. When the Prince
of Orange landed in England, Burnet
accompanied him as his Chaplain, and
drew up the "Association for pursuing
the ends of his Highness's Declaration. "
King William had not been many days
on the throne before he rewarded
Burnet's services with the vacant see of
Salisbury (31st March, 1689). The
Bishop of Salisbury took a large part
in the ecclesiastical politics of the reign
of William, and may be regarded as the
founder, certainly as the great champion,
of the Low Church party. He was put
forward by the Court party to propose
the succession of the House of Hanover,

a measure which he had advocated
before the Revolution ; and he made
himself prominent by a 'Pastoral
Letter ' to his Diocese, in which he
founded the right of William to the
oath of allegiance of the clergy and
others on the right of conquest — an
assumption so offensive to a large part
of the nation, that three years after
wards the ' Pastoral Letter ' was ordered
to be burnt by the common hangman.
His 'Exposition of the Thirty -nine
Articles,' published in 1699, was cen
sured by the Lower House of Con
vocation in 1701. His influence in
ecclesiastical questions is shown, by
his appointment after the death of the
Queen, in whose hands during her life
time Church promotions had been left
by the king, as one of the ecclesiastical
commissioners entrusted with the
recommendation to vacant benefices in
the king's gift.
It is difficult to do justice to such a
character ; the ability, moderation, and
virtues which gave such weight to his
ecclesiastical and political action are
overlooked by some in their dislike of
his ecclesiastical and political prin
ciples ; while to those who sympathise
with his principles, they throw per
haps an exaggerated lustre on his '
abilities and virtues. His private life
seems to have been a model of good
sense and piety : he was an able and
diligent bishop, and spent his revenues
upon his see ; he stood high in the
estimation of his contemporaries for
his political ability. Some of his works,
especially ' The History of the Reform
ation ' and ' The Thirty-nine Articles,'
are still standard works. He can
hardly be denied a high place among
the great names of a very important
period of the national history.
BUTLER, Joseph, Bishop of Durham,
born 1692, died 1752, author of the
'Analogy,' was born at Wantage, his
father being a tradesman in that town ;
educated at the grammar-school there,
and sent to a dissenting academy, with
a view to being trained for the Presby;
terian dissenting ministry. While here

CAEDMON

101

CALAMY, EDMUND

he wrote anonymously some letters to
Dr. S. Clarke on his work on the
'Being and Attributes of God,' which
showed great acuteness and depth of
thought. His study of divinity led
him to determine to enter into the
Church, and he was accordingly re
moved to Oriel College, Oxford (1712).
In 1718 he was appointed Preacher at
the Rolls ; 1722 Rector of Haughton ;
1725 Rector of Stanhope, where, having
given up the Rolls, he devoted himself
to the work of a parish priest. Mr.
Seeker having mentioned his name to
• Queen Caroline as one who ought not
to be left in a country parish, answered,
she thought he had been dead, and
asked Archbishop Blackburn if he was
not dead? "No, Madam," he re
plied, " but he is buried." In 1733 he
was made a Prebendary of Rochester ;
1736 Clerk of the Closet to Queen
Caroline. In that year he published
the famous 'Analogy of Religion,
Natural and Revealed, to the Constitu
tion and Order of Nature.' On this
work his reputation stands firm as one
of the highest class of thinkers. His
' Sermons ' and his charge on ' External
Religion ' have not so popular a reputa
tion, but are quite worthy of his fame.
He was consecrated to the See of
Bristol, 3rd December, 1738, and held
the Deanery of St. Paul's with it from
1740 till his translation to Hereford,
1746 ; his last translation was to
Durham, 1750. In these offices he
acquired the character of a primitive
and somewhat ascetic piety, and of a
munificent and able prelate. Fifteen
years after his death an anonymous
pamphlet calumniated him by the
statement that he had died in the
communion of Rome. It made some
noise at the time, but is only worth
mentioning now in order to say that
the story was completely- exposed and
confuted as soon as it appeared.

CAEDMON. The earliest English
poet, about A.B. 670. All that we know

of him is told us by Bede (' Eccl. Hist.,'
iv. 24), that he was an unlearned lay
brother of the monastery of St. Hilda
at Whitby ; that he had attained an
advanced age, when in his sleep a man
desired him to sing. "What must I
sing?" " Sing of the Creation. " He
sang, and next morning remembered
the words and repeated them. All
recognised a Divine gift of poetry.
Hilda made him a monk, and had him
taught the Bible story, which-he versi
fied in his native tongue.
A MS. of the end of the eleventh
century, which once belonged to Arch
bishop Usher, and which is now in the
Bodleian Library at Oxford, corresponds
with Bede's description, and was be
lieved to be the great poem of Caedmon,
or a later rendering of it. This is pub
lished in the ' Arehseologia,' xxiv. 329.
It is now believed to be a collection of
poems by different authors, some per
haps by Caedmon ; and is a remarkable
monument of a native school of poetry
at that early age.
CiENOBITE (koiVoc, common, and
j3iog, life), persons living an ascetic
religious life in company with others,
as opposed to the solitary ascetic re
ligious life of the ancient and mediaeval
hermits and recluses.
CALAMY, EDMUND, born 1661, died
1666, was the son of a London citizen ;
educated at Pembroke, Cambridge ;
chaplain to Felton, Bishop of Ely, and
Vicar of St. Mary, Swaffham Priory.
After the bishop's death (1626) Calamy
was elected one of the lecturers of
Bury St. Edmunds, where he continued
for ten years ; at the end of that time
Bishop Wren's Articles and the Book of
Sports seem to have determined him
to take a bolder line ; publicly apolo
gising for his past conformity, he be
came an active member of the Puritan
party, and the Earl of Essex, who
patronised the party, gave him the
Rectory of Rochford, in Essex. In 1639
he was elected Minister of St. Mary,
Aldermanbury, which brought him to
London. Here his ability made him
a leader among his party ; and the

CALAMY, EDMUND

102

CALENDAR

violent bcok, ' Smectymnuus, ' * of which
he was one of the joint authors, against
Episcopacy, exercised a considerable in
fluence in strengthening the opposition
to the Church. In 1641 Calamy was
made a member of the Parliament's
Irish Committee of Religion, and also a
member of the Westminster Assembly of
Divines. He was one of the most influ
ential of the Presbyterian divines of the
Parliamentary period ; and one of the
most steady upholders of Presbytery
against the Church and the Sectaries.
Under the usurpation of Cromwell he
was passive. When the Restoration was
determined upon he was one of the
Presbyterian divines who went to the
Hague to negotiate with Charles II.,
was appointed one of the king's chap
lains, and offered the See of Coventry
and Lichfield, if he should see his way
to accept the settlement of the Church
which should be arranged. The en
deavours of the Nonconformists having
failed to obtain the alterations in the
Church which they desired, Calamy
was one of -those who resigned his
benefice rather than accept the settle
ment of the Act of Uniformity. [See
Great Rebellion.] He continued to
attend his parish church ; and on one
occasion, when the preacher failed to
appear, was induced by some of the
principal persons present to mount the
pulpit and supply his place ; for which
offence against the laws he was com
mitted to Newgate on the Lord Mayor's
warrant ; but a few days afterwards was
discharged from custody by the king.
He lived to see the fire of London, and
received such a shock from the scene
that he survived it only two months,
dying 29th October, 1666, leaving be
hind him the reputation of one of the
most pious, learned, and able men of
that unhappy time. He left one son,
Edmund, who was also one of the
ejected ministers, and became the
minister of a Dissenting meeting in
London ; and another son, Benjamin,
who was Vicar of St. Lawrence Jury,
and Prebendary of St. Paul's.
* So called from tho initial letters of the
writers' names.

CALENDAR, THE. The Christian
Churches accepted the Civil Calendar
of the countries in which they existed.
The western Churches accepted the
Julian Calendar, which began 45 B.C.
of the Christian JEra,, and of which
an explanation will be found in
Smith's 'Diet, of Greek and Roman
Antiquities, ' and in several of the books
referred to below. Into this Calendar
the churches introduced the great
Festivals of the Church, and the Com
memoration Days of Saints ; which
gradually spread over the year, until
at length they occupied every day of the
year, so as to form a complete Eccle
siastical Calendar. It continued to be
the practice to use the Civil calendar
in dating formal public instruments;
but other records and private documents
were usually dated by the Festival or
Saint's day of the Ecclesiastical Calen
dar. In mediaeval chronicles many
Sundays are distinguished solely by the
names of the anthems or introits sung
on them ; thus, from Roger de Hove-
den, " on the Lord's Day before
Lcetare Jerusalem is sung ; " in one of
the St. Cross Hospital Charters, "on
the morrow of the Sunday in which
Cantate Domino is sung."
Thus every great Church came to have
its own Ecclesiastical Calendar, but it
was only gradually that the great days
of these Ecclesiastical Calendars were
brought into general agreement. For
example, it was not until the fourth
century that the day for the observance
of Easter, upon which several other
days before and after it depend, was
generally agreed upon by the great
Churches of the East and West ; and
this general agreement was disturbed
again when the more correct cycle of
Victorius Aquitanus was adopted by
the Western Churches of the continent,
while the isolated Celtic Churches con
tinued to use the old mode of reckon*
ing, known as that of Sulpicius Severus ;
and it was not until the Council of
Whitby that the Celtic Churches of
Northumbria accepted .the reformed,
reckoning ; the Welsh churches about

CALENDAR

103

CALENDAR

704. About the middle of the fourth
centuiy the Feast of the Nativity, until
then commemorated by all on the
6th January, was fixed to the 25th
December. Origen names, as generally observed
in his time, the Lord's Day, Good
Friday, Easter, and Pentecost. No
others are named by Tertullian. The
Apostolic Constitutions name Ascension
Day ; Epiphanius complains that it is
not duly appreciated ; Chrysostom has
a sermon on it ; Augustine speaks of
it as universal and of antiquity. A
day in commemoration of SS. Peter and
Paul was general as early as the third
century. In the Lectionary (Comes) of
Jerome some apostles are named as
having days of commemoration, with
St. John the Baptist and St. Michael ;
and the Sacramentary of Gregory has
collects for all the apostles ; also for the
Conversion of St. Paul, though that
festival was not generally observed till
the twelfth century. The Purification
is named by Jerome, and has a collect
in the Sacramentary of Gelasius ; the
Annunciation was observed in the fifth
century ; All Saints' day was instituted
in the seventh century ; St. Barnabas
day is named for the first time by Bede
in the tenth century ; Trinity Sunday
was the latest of the great festivals.
It bad been introduced earlier, but was
not fixed till the 13th century. It is
said that Thomas Becket fixed it to
the present date, being that on which
he was consecrated archbishop- [See
Trinity Sunday.]
To these general festivals each Church
added its own illustrious bishops, saints,
and martyrs, so that the calendar of
each diocese might, and often did, con
tain some local saints whose fame had
not been wide enough to obtain recog
nition in the calendars of other dioceses.
Even in the same country, or diocese,
when the calendar had become over
filled with names, some might be in
serted and others omitted in the calen
dar prefixed to a particular book of
offices in consideration of the Ohurch
or community for whose use the book

was made : e.g. the calendars for
Benedictine communities would have
all the Benedictine saints ; the Domi
nicans theirs ; each monastery even
would have its peculiar calendar of its
benefactors and others to be commem
orated ; cities and guilds would have
their patron saints, and their local and
special saints and days of observance,
which would find a place only in the
office books of that city, or the mass-
book written for that guild-priest.
Our Christian era is according to the
calculation of Dionysius Exiguus, who
in 533 a.d. first introduced the system
of writing the words anno domini with
any Christian year of the Incarnation.
The point of time which he assigned to.
1 anno domini was the year of Rome,
754 ; but he made a mistake in his cal
culation. It was known that our Lord
was born in the twenty-eighth year of
the reign of Augustus ; Dionysius
reckoned this twenty-eighth year from
the year of Rome 727, the year in
which the emperor took the name of
Augustus, instead of reckoning the
twenty-eighth year from the Battle of
Actium, 723, on which the era of the
Roman Emperor was anciently made
to begin ; and thus Dionysius made a
mistake of four years in his calculation.
Our Lord was born four years earlier
than his reckoning; that is to say,
our Lord was born four years before
the year 1 anno domini; or, in other
words, the year 1 anno domini is the
fourth year of our Lord's life.
The Christian era of Dionysius is
said to have been generally adopted in
England in the ninth century, for by
a canon of the Council of Celchyth
(27th July, 816), it was ordained that
all bishops should date their acts from
the year of the Incarnation of our
Saviour. The system of commencing
the year on the 25th of March was
observed in various countries during
several centuries ; and in England, where
it was known as the English legal year;
it was in use till 1757 A.D., after which
date the year in England was reckoned
from the 1st of January. At the same

CALENDAR

104

CALENDAR

time, the error which had gradually
accumulated by the fact that the year
is not exactly 365 days, but 365 and a
quarter nearly, was corrected by omit
ting eleven days from the reckoning,
and accounting tho day after September
2, 1752, as September 14. At the
same time it was ordered, in order to
correct the error in future, that a whole
day should be added to every fourth
year by giving twenty-nine days to
February. This still left a slight error
of excess, so that it was further enacted
that the years 1800, 1900, 2100, 2200,
2300, and any other hundredth year of
our Lord, except only every fourth
hundredth year, whereof the year 2000
shall be the first, shall be taken to be
a common year of 365 days only. The
old style is called the Julian, the new
style is called the Gregorian.
Further, the method of computing
the full moons used by the Church of
England, according to which Easter was
fixed, being erroneous, a calendar and
new tables and rules for the finding of
Easter were given, and it was enacted
that they should supersede the old
tables. As for the fixed feast days, it
was enacted that they should be kept
on the same respective nominal days
marked in the new Calendar on which
they were formerly kept and observed.
(J. J. Bond's ' Handy Book of Rules
and Tables for Verifying Dates,' &e
London, 1875.)
The calendars prefixed to the MS.
books of ' Hours of the B. V. M. , ' besides
being beautifully written and illumin
ated with ornamental borders, are very
commonly illustrated with miniatures :
(1) a series of the signs of the Zodiac ;
(2) a series of the Occupations of the
Months, viz. January, man in hall
warming himself at the fire ; February,
digging ; March, pruning ; April,
hawking ; May, lady making garlands ;
June, sheep-shearing ; July, mowing ;
August, reaping ; September, sowing ;
October, treading grapes in vat ; No
vember, beating down acorns for swine ;
December, pig-killing. They are not
always the same. The early printed

calendars often give, instead of the
occupations of the months, a series of
illustrations of the life of man. January,
boys playing ; February, boy at school ;
March, young man hunting ; April, two
lovers ; May, man on horseback ; June,
marrying ; July, has family ; August,
engaged in trade (sometimes as mer
chant, sometimes as farmer) ; Septem
ber, in rags ; October, with wife and
children ; November, sometimes sick
in bed, sometimes on crutches ; De
cember, death seizing him. In others
of the early printed calendars the Dance
of Death is a favourite subject, intro
duced into the ornamental borders of
the pages. (3) A picture of the prin
cipal Ecclesiastical Festival or Saint's
day of the month. (4) On the lower
margin are often grotesque subjects, or
pictures representing some popular
mediaeval story.
At a later date the calendar often
had a special feature based upon the
popular belief that different constel
lations presided over different portions
of the human frame, and that the age
of the moon had to do with the bene
ficial administration of certain medi
cines ; and this feature is found in
almanacks down to a very recent
date. Various contrivances were adopted to
put the calendar easily within reach at
all times. The curious Clog Almanack
is a square staff of wood, which has its
edges cut in notches for the days^ and
curious symbols on the faces to represent
the Festivals and Saints' days : some of
these were short and could be hung by
a thong to a nail in some convenient
place ; some were long enough to form a
walking staff, so that the owner could
conveniently carry it about with him.
The British Museum has some folded
calendars, composed of a piece of parch
ment curiously folded so as to present
twelve compartments, on which the
calendar of the months is written,
exactly in the way in which it is carved
in the log almanacks. One of these
folded calendars is enclosed in a cover
of red velvet, and has an ear by

CANON

105

CANONS, HONORARY

which it could be suspended to the
girdle. *
A great deal of interesting and curious
information on the popular customs and
superstitions connected with the days
of the calendar, with ancient calendars
from the tenth to the fifteenth centuries,
may be found in the ' Medii iEvi Kalen-
darium,' by R. T. Hampson. See also

of secular, or convent of regular, clergy.
[See Cathedral Chapter.]
An Act of Parliament, 3 & 4 Vict.
c. 113, on the recommendation of the
Ecclesiastical Commission, withdrew
their endowments from the majority of
the cathedral canonries, leaving only
four endowed canonries in each cathe
dral (with certain exceptions), and ap-

Bishop and Canons, from Richard II. 's ' Book of Hours,' British Museum.

the 'Chronology of History,' by Sir
Hams Nicolas, London, a.d. 1858 ;
'Handy Book for Verifying Dates,' J.
J. Bond, London, a.d. 1875 ; and article
on Calendar in Smith's ' Dictionary of
Christian Antiquity.'
CANON (Canonicus, one of the rule).
The title of a member of a cathedral
chapter ; or of an Augustinian College
* These are the references by which they
may be found : Sloane 807 and 966 ; Addi
tional 17,367, 17,358, 2250 ; Cotton viii. 26.

propriated their revenues to increasing
the endowments of small livings, &c.
[See Ecclesiastical Commission.]
CANONS, HONORARY, When the
number of cathedral canons was dimin
ished in 1840, by the Act of 3 & 4 Vict.
c. 113, to four (with some exceptions)
in each cathedral, it was enacted that
' ' whereas it is expedient that all bishops
should be empowered to confer distinc
tions of honour upon deserving clergy
men," honorary canonries to the number

CANON LAW

106

CANON LAW

of twenty-four shall be founded in each
cathedral, and the holders shall be
styled honorary canons, and shall be ¦
entitled to stalls, and to take rank in the
cathedral church next after the canons.
CANON LAW, i. e. the Law of the
Church. The Canon Law is contained
in a volume under the title 'Corpus
Juris Canonici,' which consists of rules
taken in some instances from Scrip
ture and the writings of the Fathers,
of the ordinances of general and pro
vincial Councils, and of the decrees
of popes. It is divided into Decrees
and Decretals, to which are added the
Clementines and Extravagants. The
Decrees are the most ancient. The
Decretals, comprised in three volumes,
were arranged at different periods, and
published by different popes, until at
length they were brought into the state
in which they now stand in the ' Corpus
Juris Canonici.' The Clementines are
of a similar character, and take their
title from the fact that they were col
lected by Pope Clement V., though
published by Pope John XXII. The
Extravagants are twenty constitutions
of John XXII., so-called because they
are not methodically arranged, but
vagantur extra corpus collectionum
Canonum. Other extravagants were
collected at a subsequent period. All
these various documents constitute at
the present moment the Canon Law of
the Church of Rome.
About the middle of the twelfth
century Gratian reduced the mass of
matter, which existed up to his time,
into a convenient text-book of Canon
Law under the name of the Deeretum,
. which displaced all the older collections
of Canon Law, and became the manual
not only for canonists, but also for
the scholastic theologians, who for the
most part derived all their knowledge
of Fathers and Councils from it. Gra
tian accepted in good faith the forge
ries of the 'Liber Pontiflcalis' of the
Isidorian Decretals, and all the crop of
spurious documents brought forward at
different times and accepted by an
.uncritical age, so that his work was "a

medley not of simple, but complicated
and multiplied forgeries, rich in mater
rials containing the germ of future
developments, and cutting deep in their
consequences into both the civil and
ecclesiastical lifeof the west" (The 'Pope
and the Council,' by Janus, p. 148).
The body of Roman Canon Law never
obtained as a whole in the English
Church, but only such parts of it
as were accepted by the Provincial
Synods, from Langton, 1206, to Chi-
chele, 1443. These Constitutions were
accepted by the Convocation of York,
1463. Bishop Lyndewood, a learned
Canonist, collected and arranged these
Constitutions ; and the ' Commentaries''
of John of Ayton and the 'Digest' of
Bishop Lyndewod were the text-books
of English Canon Law, used in the
Ecclesiastical Courts down to the Re
formation. By the Act of 25 Hen. VIII. c. 19
the Canon Law was confirmed, in so far
as it was not repugnant to the royal
prerogative and the rights and customs
of the kingdom, until some measures
should be taken for its revision ; and
the king was empowered, by the advice
of his council, to appoint thirty-two
persons to compile such ecclesiastical;
laws as should be thought by him and
his council and them, convenient to be
practised in all the spiritual courts of
the realm ; the powers conveyed by the
Act were limited to three years. Two
years elapsed without the appointment
of Commissioners. In 1541, a Royal
Commission was issued to Cranmer,
Peter Martyr, and six others-; practi
cally it appears that the Archbishop
and Peter Martyr took the whole 'work
upon themselves, employing Dr. Had
don to express their determinations in
proper language. They had not, how
ever, finished their task before the, ex
piration of their powers, and the king
died before the lapse could be amended.
The work was taken up again under
the authority of Parliament in Edward
VI. 's reign ; but again the king's death
left the work unfinished. In the reign
of Elizabeth, Archbishop Parker again

CANON, MINOR

107

CANTERBURY

took up the scheme, revised the work
of Cranmer and his assistants, and
caused it to be published under the
title of ' Reformatio Legum Ecclesias-
ticarum,' but again it made no progress ;
the Government were not in favour
of it. It has been republished by Dr.
Cardwell, at the Oxford Press, 1850.
Therefore the ancient Canon Law
still remains in force, except so far as
it is limited by the proviso of 25 Henry
VIII. c. 19, or by subsequent legislation.
The canons of 1603 made a number of
decrees which seemed needed to regulate
the Church of that period, but many of
them are now obsolete, and "after the
decision of Lord Hardwick in Croft and
Middleton, it may perhaps be doubted
whether all these canons could be en
forced" (Sir B. Phillimore). A com
mittee of Convocation drafted a new
body of canons, but they have not as
yet even been discussed by the Houses.
CANON, MINOR. [See Cathedral
Chapter.] CANONICAL OBEDIENCE is the
same thing as lawful obedience, the
law in question being the canons of
the Church. " Lawful obedience " may
mean either (1) obedience in those
things which the law prescribes ; or
(2) obedience in all things which are
not contrary to the law. The special
rules of the monastic orders required
the latter obedience of all monies and
nuns to their superior. The former
obedience is that which the secular
clergy are bound by oath to pay to
their bishop. But before and beyond
all positive canons, there is an in
definite paternal authority inherent in
the office of the bishop, which implies
a corresponding indefinite filial obedi
ence on the part of the clergy.
CANTERBURY, ARCHBISHOP OF.
[See Archbishop of Canterbury.]
CANTERBURY, DIOCESE OF. The
fact must be — though ever so briefly —
stated, that the south-east corner of
the island was a flourishing portion
of the Roman province of Britannia
Prima, with its fortified ports at
Lymne, Dover, Richborough, Reculver,

and Rochester, of which Reculver was
the principal port of entrance from the
Continent ; and its fortified central
town of Canterbury ; and that there
are remarkable evidences of the exist
ence of Christianity in this corner of the
land in the two churches at Canterbury
mentioned by Bede, and in the con
siderable existing remains of a Roman
church in Dover castle. Bede (Bk.
I. chap, xxvii.) speaks, besides, of
Augustine being allowed to ' ' build or
repair churches in all places. " One of
these Roman churches at Canterbury
had been repaired, and was used for
Christian worship by Bertha, the
Christian wife of King Ethelbert, before
Augustine and his monks arrived on
their evangelising mission from Rome.
For the story of the conversion of
Ethelbert, and the general acquiescence
of the Kentish men in the acceptance
of the new religion, see Augustine.
Augustine obtained from Ethelbert
a gift of another ruined Roman church
outside the city of Canterbury, and
repaired it for his cathedral. Professor
Willis has recovered traces of this
earliest cathedral, which show that it
was a small church of the usual
Basilican type.
Augustine was a monk, and his
companions were all monks ; out of
the forty there were perhaps only four
or five priests. It was a monastery
which he founded in the city for his
cathedral (under the name of Christ
Church), and the plan of mission work
which he pursued was the same adopted
by the Celtic missionaries in the North
of England, which was indeed the re
cognised mode of evangelising the bar
barous tribes outside the empire ; viz.
that of founding monasteries in various
places as centres of Christian teaching
and example. The second monastery
of St. Peter and St. Paul (afterwards
of St. Augustine), outside Canterbury,
was not ready for consecration till after
his death.
Great part of Kent was in those days
wild and unreclaimed land ; the great
forest of Andred co ered a large portion

CANTERBURY

108

CANTERBURY

of West Kent ; the range of hills which
runs east and west through the centre
. of the county still bears the name of
the Weald (i. e. the wild land) of Kent ;
great woods spread beyond Canterbury
to the north ; and the borders of Rom-
ney Marsh, then only partially re
claimed from tho sea, were also fringed
with woods. It was part of the business
of the monks of this early period to
devote themselves to the reclamation
and settlement of such wild lands.
The endowment of the monasteries by
successive benefactors with estates
which included large tracts of these
waste lands, afterwards brought into
cultivation by the monks and their
tenants, was the origin of the wealth
of the Church in Kent. King Eadbald
founded the monastery at Dover about
620, and about ten years afterwards he
founded and endowed a monastery and
nunnery at Folkestone for his daughter
Eanswitha, who became its first abbess.
Three years afterwards Ethelburga, the
widowed queen of Eadwin of North
umbria, returning to her native king
dom, obtained of her brother Eadbald
a gift of one of his estates at Lyminge,
and there founded another double
house of monks and nuns, whose
foundations yet remain ; and these two
Were the first nunneries founded in
England. The nunnery of Minster, in
Sheppey, was founded by Sexburga,
tho wife of Earconberht, towards the
close of the seventh century, and a
little later Ermenburga, another royal
princess, founded the nunnery of
Minster, in Thanet. Another royal
residence at Reculver was transformed
into a monastery in 669. These monas
teries, all founded within a century of
Augustine's advent, were throughout
the Saxon period the great centres of
evangelisation throughout Kent. They
introduced not only Christianity, but
learning ; not only religion and learn
ing, but agricultural skill and enter
prise ; they set tho example of clear
ing the forest, draining the marshes,
and tilling the land ; people multiplied
on their estates, villages were built for

their tenants, churches were erected
for their use. Nearly all these earliest
foundations became in time ineorpor-a
ated into the church of Canterbury,
and this gave the bishop a vast influ-
ence throughout his diocese.
The first five bishops, Augustine,
Laurentius, Mellitus, Justus, and
Honorius, were Italians. On the death
of the latter, in 654, Deusdedit, a
native Kentishman notwithstanding
his Latin name, succeeded ; and -on his
death, 667, Theodore of Tarsus began
a, new chapter of the history. Until
Theodore, the influence of the Bishops
of Canterbury had not extended far
beyond their, own diocese. They had,
however, done one remarkable thing.
Mellitus had subdivided the see by
the consecration of Justus as a sort
of suffragan bishop, having his see at
Rochester, for a sub-kingdom of Jutes
who occupied the north-west corner of
Kent. For centuries the same depend
ent relations of the Bishop of Rochester
to the archbishop bore witness to this
origin ; and to this day the bishop is
the archbishop's official cross-bearer.
It is not necessary here to detail the
history of Theodore's great episcopate ;
it is part of the general history of the
Church. [See Saxon Period.] He
was more Primate of England 'than
Bishop of Kent, though his educa
tional establishments in Kent, and his
diocesan work generally, no doubt,
gave an impulse to the local religibjs
prosperity. He gathered the scattered
Churches of the Heptarchy into a
united Church of England, acknow
ledging Canterbury as the primatial
see ; reconciled the Celtic School to tho
acceptance of the Continental customs*;
introduced a subdivision of the sees;
gave an impulse to the spread- - of the
parochial system ; and regulated jtht
system of Church discipline which? was
so marked a feature of the religious life
of the Anglo-Saxon period.
"After him came an almost un
broken succession of monastic primates.
Brihtwald, who had been Abbot of
Reculver ; Tatwyn, who had been »

CANTERBURY

109

CANTERBURY

priest in a monastery in Mercia ;
Nothelm ; Cuthbert, who had been
Abbot of Lyminge ; Bregwyn ; Lambert,
or Ianbert, previously Abbot of St.
Augustine ; Athelard, Abbot of Malmes
bury ; Wilfred, a monk of Canterbury ;
Ceolnoth ; iEthelred, a monk of Christ-
church — bishops of whom little more
than their names survive ; whose in
fluence was far more felt in the diocese
than in the primacy.
" The Danish invasions had seriously
crippled the power of the see at this
period ; and the long incumbency of
Plegmund, the first to break the
monastic succession, though favourable
to learning (for he had been Alfred's
instructor), appears to have been fatally
influenced by the unsettled state of
the country, the destruction of the
inhabitants, and the ruin of their
property, which these sudden descents
upon so unprotected a coast brought
with them.
"From this time we find the sub
jection of Kent to the Kings of Wessex
makes itself felt in the appointments
to the primatial see. Bishops of other
sees are elevated to the primacy, bring
ing with them more extended views,
and less of the mere diocesan character.
Athelm and Wulfelm, both Bishops of
Wells ; Odo, Bishop of Sherborne ;
Elsin, Bishop of Winchester, were suc
cessively translated to Canterbury, and
prepared the way for Dunstan, who, by
his incorporation of the smaller monas
teries of Kent with the great founda
tion of which he was the head, gave to
the see a great increase of power and
influence, and whose twenty-eight years'
primacy gave him time to bring his
genius to bear upon every part of
England. "
"The absorption of the kingdom of
Kent, first into that of Mercia in the
time of Coenulf, and later into that of
Egbert (823), and its complete in
corporation Into the empire of Cnut *
* The murder of Archbishop Elphege, after
the sacking and burning of Canterbury, in
1012, marks the close of the Danish disturb
ance of this part of the country.

(1017), extended the power of the
Primacy ; the archbishop gravitated,
more and more towards the centre of
civil government ; for the Primate of
the English Church was the first, the
most wealthy and powerful subject,
and by virtue of his office the chief
adviser of the Crown. "
Lanfranc was, like Theodore, brought
into the archiepiscopate expressly to be
Primate of all England, rather than to
be Bishop of Kent ; and henceforward
the duties of the primacy forced the
archbishops into this wider relation to
the Church and kingdom at large, and
threw their diocesan administration
into the background. Still that
diocesan administration, though over
shadowed by their greater work, was
by no means neglected.
Lanfranc set himself earnestly to
rebuild his cathedral, lying in the
ashes of the fire of _ 1067 a.d., and to
reorganise its constitution. He con
verted the cathedral chapter into a
convent of Benedictine monks, and
gave them statutes which modified the
Rule of the Order to adapt it to the
circumstances of the metropolitical
Church, and included a Consuetudinary
which minutely prescribes the ritual of
the cathedral during the whole year of
services, and the mode of life of the
inmates of the monastery, both clerical
and lay. He effected a division of the,
common property of the see between
the archbishop and the monks, and'
proceeded to build houses of residence
on the manors assigned to himself.
Besides his estates in Kent, the arch
bishop had manors in other counties ;
his separate income made him one of
the wealthiest of the nobles. It is
difficult to realise the vast extent of
the property and the influence of the
Church of, Canterbury at this period
without filling up an outline map of
the county, as Mr. Farley t has done,
with the ecclesiastical manors, and thus
presenting at a single glance the rela
tions of the Church with the county
t 'Weald of Kent,' vol. i. p. 275.

CANTERBURY

110

CANTERBURY

generally. The great feudal holders
.under the Crown are only twelve in
number ; of these six are ecclesiastical,
and six are private holders, and the
estates of the private holders represent
but a small district of the county
compared with the property of the
Church. Only 177 churches are mentioned
in the Domesday survey of Kent,
but they were actually much - more
numerous. It is conjectured by Mr.
Jenkins that "only those churches
which were founded on the greater
manors, and represent what were later
termed 'advowsons appendant,'- are
mentioned in Domesday ; the churches
in towns, which rather represent 'ad
vowsons in gross,' being either un-
mentioned, or only alluded to when
they paid some rent or due to the
manor." In one or two rare instances
"lesser churches" and chapels are
mentioned, as the ecclesiolce of Port-
ling, and the "three chapels" of Dart-
ford ; and some such smaller churches
or chapels probably existed wherever
there was a settled population. In the
following cases more than one church
existed : Hoo, near Rochester, had six ;
Folkestone (the town and hundred)
eight ; Dover and Lyminge, three
each ; Dartford, a church and three
chapels ; Aylesford, Orpington, Monk-
ton, Eastchurch in Sheppey, two each.
The history of Lanfranc, and of his
successor Anselm, belong rather to the
general history of the Church of Eng
land than to that of the diocese of
Kent [they will be found under their
names] ; of the connection of Anselm
with his diocese very little is known.
Indeed, the history of the diocese is
almost a blank (the registers of the
diocese earlier than 1279 being lost)
down to the primacy of Peckham. It
may be mentioned that Lanfranc found
ed the monastery of regular Canons of
St. Gregory, and two hospitals for
pilgrims at Canterbury ; Odo, Bishop
of Bayeux, a house of Regular Canons
at Dover ; in 1137 Abbot Hugh of
St. Augustine's founded the Hospital

of St. Lawrence; in 1140 Robert de
Vere the Clugniac Priory of Monks'
Horton ; Anselm is said to have
founded the nunnery of St. Sepulchre,
near Canterbury, about 1100 ; and King
Stephen the monastery of Faversharrwa
Of the nine years' episcopate of
Becket, which fills so great a place in.
the general history of the Church of
England, only two and a half years
were spent in Canterbury, and these
are barren of incident. In truth, the
duties of the Primacy had long alien
ated the archbishops from their see,
and the cathedral city was a mere
provincial city, of no greater import
ance than its position as the chief town
of Kent, and the presence of its two
wealthy monasteries, might give it.
All through the twelfth century
there was a great controversy going on
between the monastery of St. Augustine
and the archbishops. The great monas
tery of St. Augustine had come to rank
as the first of English religious houses,
and second only to Monte Cassino in
all Western Christendom. The great
abbacy claimed to be independent -of
the archbishop's authority and juris*
diction, and indeed of all secular
authority also. Both sides appealed
to the popes, who acted with their-
usual policy, sided now with one, now
with the other, and so kept both in
a condition of profitable dependence.
The monks of Christ Church sided with
the archbishop against the rival house,
but at the same time had their own
quarrel with him. "It seems," -says
John of Salisbury, during Becket's
exile, " as if hatred of their archbishops
were an inheritance of the monks of
Canterbury. When Anselm was twice
banished for righteousness' sake they
never bestowed any consolation upon
him ; they despised Ralph, they hated
William ; they laid snares for TheobaW,
and now without a cause they insatiably
persecute Thomas."
The episcopate of Baldwin (118M
1191) was more important in the annal
of the diocese. He was a Cisternal?
monk "of the best sort," says the

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Bishop of Chester ; "a man who lived
but little for the world, and that to
make it better." He seems to have
formed, with the encouragement of
King Henry III., the deliberate design
of driving the monastic institution
back within its proper sphere, and of
reinvigorating the organisation of the
bishops and secular clergy, and restoring
to them the efficient pastoral care of
the people. With this view he pro
posed to found a new church of Secular
Canons at Hackington, a mile distant
from Christ Church cathedral, to which
he intended to remove his episcopal
see. It is said that he had induced
all the bishops whose sees were in
monastic churches to agree to convert
their convents into Colleges of Seculars.
Bishop Arnulf actually carried out this
design at Coventry, but a few years
later was obliged to restore the monks.
He proposed, further, to appropriate
the canonries in his own new founda
tion to the bishops of his province, to
give to them the right of election of
the archbishop, and so, on the whole,
to impress a new character on the
organisation of the Church of England.
The monks of Christ Church, of course,
opposed the scheme ; the popes re
garded it with natural disfavour, and
at length pronounced against it. A
subsequent plan of the archbishop's for
building his new church on the lately
acquired manor of Lambeth was simi
larly opposed. The archbishop, who
was too gentle and unworldly to con
tend with his opponents, at length
escaped them by assuming the staff
and scrip of a pilgrim to the Holy
Land, where his death delivered him
from all his perplexities.
To his successor, Hubert Walter
(1193 — 1205), the archbishopric was
only one of the honours and emolu
ments of the most powerful statesman
of the reigns of Richard and John.
Langton (1207 — 1229) was rather a
, cardinal legate and primate than a
Bishop of Kent. St. Edmund (Rich)
(1234—1245) possessed all the qualities
' of a saintly bishop, and would have

effected a great revival and reform, not
only in his diocese, but throughout
England, but his episcopate had fallen
upon evil days. His every attempt at
reform was frustrated by the resistance
which he met with. ' ' That the king,
the barons, the lay people, some or all
of them, should be in opposition to
him, might neither surprise nor grieve
him ; but the bishops were unfriendly ;
his own chapter disliked his asceticism ;
the legate went against him in every
thing ; and worst desolation of all,
the very occupant of the holy see
seemed little inclined to support him,
if the King or the Crown party were
to be in anything offended or resisted. "
The archbishop's reforming action was
finally overruled by the advent of
Cardinal Otho as legate, and his tenure
of his see made insupportable. In
1240 he retired to Pontigny, and died
there after two years of voluntary
exile. As soon as he was dead his
virtues were recognised ; and four
years afterwards, at the Council of
Lyons, the English Episcopate formally
applied for, and obtained, his canonis
ation.* Boniface of Savoy (1245—
1273) owed his elevation to the fact
that he was the uncle of Queen Eleanor,
he was regarded as the chief of the
foreign favourites who at that time
preyed on the wealth of England.
Richard Kilwardby (1273-1279), nomin
ated by the pope, was a Dominican
friar, a great divine, and a zealous
bishop. After five years he was pro
moted to the Cardinalate and recalled
to Rome, whither he carried the regis
ters of the see- of Canterbury, which
have never been recovered. On his
death the pope,t Nicolas IV., who was
himself a Franciscan, nominated to the
* His 'Speculum Ecclesife' is a kind of
manual of Christian doctrine, and a very-
interesting example of the best teaching of
the period.
t In five out of the seven vacancies which
took place during this century, the popes,
under one pretext or another, set aside the
men who had been elected, and filled the
primacy with their own nominees. The two
exceptions are Boniface and Winchelsea.

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vacant see John Peckham (1279 — 1 294),
the Provincial Superior of the Order
in England. "Brother John," as his
contemporaries continued facetiously
to call him, was a man of ability in
secular as well as ecclesiastical affairs ;
a zealous and diligent bishop as well as
an able primate, who regulated the
affairs and maintained the discipline of
his diocese with a firm hand.
The list of archbishops given at the
end of this article, and the lives of
some of the most distinguished of
them which are given under their
names (Lanfranc, Anselm, Langton,
Arundel, Cranmer, Parker, Grindal,
Laud), makes it unnecessary to do
more than make a brief note of Brad-
wardine's reputation as an evangelical
theologian ; of Simon of Sudbury's
murder on Tower Hill by Wat Tyler's
mob ; of the princely greatness of
Courtenay, and Arundel, and Bouchier;
and of the munificence of Chicheley.
The register of Peckham gives a
view of the state of the archbishops
as great proprietors, vrith the Earl of
Gloucester as their tenant for Tun-
bridge castle and town, and holding
the office of their great -Seneschal ;
Bertram de Criol, Bartholomew de
Valoigns, William de Montecamero,
Alexander de Baliol, and many other
lords and knights as their tenants ;
and of the way in which they passed,
with a great retinue, from one to
another of the manor houses of the
see ; from Lyminge to Wingham, thence
to Charing, to Cranbrook, to Mayfield,
to London and Mortlake, to Otford, to
Maidstone, to Tarring, to Chartham and
Teynham, and so again to Lambeth
and Mortlake. An account of the
taxation of the archbishop's manors
in Winchelsea's Register gives the
value of those in Kent (viz. Westgate,
Reculver, Westhalimote, Wingham,
Bishopsbourne, Petham and Waltham,
Dale, Lyminge, Saltwood, Bocton,
Teynham, Northfleet, Aldington, Char
ing, Maidstone, Otford, Bexley, Wro-
tham, Gillingham), at £1499 15s. 8d.
To these are added the manors in the

diocese of London, valued at
£128 19s. 8%d. ; in Winchester dio
cese, £65 Os. Orf. ; in Chichester,
£354 Os. Q\d. ; the whole sum upon
which the archbishop was taxed amount
ing therefore to £1903 8s. 1%d. War
ham spent a very large sum in rebuild
ing the see house at Otford, and. he
and his successor, Cranmer, made it
their chief residence when not at
Lambeth. Warham's' visitation record
gives a very complete and interesting
view of the state of the religious houses
and their inmates, and of the parish
churches and clergy, just before the
Reformation. It was in Warham's
primacy that the tragedy of the "Holy
Maid of Kent" happened. In 1525
Elizabeth Barton professed to hold
conference with the Blessed Virgin
Mary, to whom the neighbouring
chapel of Court-at-Street in Lymne
was dedicated, and to utter prophecies.
She was encouraged by the rector of
the parish (Aldington), and believed in
by the people. At length the matter
attracted so much attention that the
archbishop appointed a Commission to
inquire into it ; they attended a service
in the chapel with many of the gentry
of the neighbourhood, and a great
gathering of near 3000 of the coinmqa
people. The Commission reported am
biguously. Soon after the archbishoj
appointed the "Holy Maid" to a
vacant place in the Convent of St.
Sepulchre in Canterbury, where she
continued to see visions and utter
prophecies. When the project of the
king's divorce was noised abroad, the
nun's prophecies began to assume, a
dangerous character ; for she predicted
the king's speedy death if he did not
abandon his purpose. The suspicion
arose that the nun was a mere tool in
the hands of a political party ; her
predictions were calculated to excite
the popular passions against the king,
and might be considered as incitingio
a fanatical attempt upon his life. The
nun and all who had been mixed up
with the affair were arrested. Eliza
beth Barton herself, Edward Booking,

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113

CANTERBURY

and Richard Dering, monks of Christ
Church, Richard Master (?), rector of
Aldington, Henry Golde, rector of
Aldermanbury, and Richard Risby,
gent., were executed at Tyburn; while
Bishop Fisher and others were found
guilty of misprision of treason, and
adjudged to forfeit their estates, and
be imprisoned during the king's plea
sure. Perhaps it was only Warham's
death which prevented his being in
cluded in the accusation.
The history of Cranmer belongs to
the history of the Church rather than
of the diocese. The history of the
diocese during the Reformation period
consists chiefly in an account of the
suppression of the religious houses,
the "refoundation of the cathedral es
tablishment, and the plundering of
the estates of the archbishop. In
the first suppression, of houses of
less than £200 income, the following
were included: — The Abbey of West
Langdon, the Priories of Folkestone,
Dover, Bilsington, St. Gregory Can
terbury, St. Rhadegund, Cambwell,
Hoi-ton, Hedcorne, Mottenden, Ayles-
ford, Newenden, and Sandwich, with
several lesser foundations in Canter
bury, and the Nunnery of Minster in
Sheppy. The list of the greater founda
tions which were one by one surren
dered to the king is as follows : — Christ
Church and St. Augustine's, Canter
bury ; the Priory of Faversham, the
Abbey of Boxley, and the Nunneries of
Mailing and St. Sepulchre, Canterbury.
Dartford Nunnery, and Leeds Priory ;
the Commanderies of the Hospitallers
at West Peckham and South Wingfield.
Afterwards came the suppression of all
colleges, chantries, free chapels, hos
pitals and guilds, which had not hither
to surrendered ; including Eastbridge ;
Maynard's and Northgate Hospitals in
Canterbury, Harbledown, Hythe, St.
Bartholomew's, Sandwich ; St. Laurence
and St. Margaret's, Canterbury ; the
Maison Dieu, Dover ; the Hospitals of
Manington, Sevenoke, Bridgar, Maid
stone, Wingham, Cobham, and Wye.
The suppressed chantries and freo

chapels were :— Ash, Bapchild, Chid-
dingstone, Cranbrooke, Heme, Horton,
Kirby, Maidstone, East Mailing, Orp
ington, Penhurst, , Pepenbury, Petham,
(Deepdene Chantry), Reculver, Sand
wich St. Peter, Sevenoke, Sittingbourne,
and Teynham. Christ Church was re
tained as the cathedral church, though
the monastic buildings were ruined, and
out of its property was founded a new
cathedral establishment of canons, &e
The see of Canterbury was despoiled
by the king of some of its best manors :,
Aldington, Lyminge, Saltwood, and
Croydon, with all their dependencies
in the Marsh and Weald. The histories
of Cranmer and Pole belong to the
general history of the Church ; it need
only be noted in passing, that on tho
death of Edward VI., Kent supplied
the principal materials for Wyatt's. in
surrection against the succession of
Mary. Parker, like Theodore and
Lanfranc, was called to the primacy
in order that he might reorganise the
whole Church, and his episcopate has
left little mark on the history of the
see. His second visitation, made in
157.3, gives, however, a picture of the
condition of the diocese just before his
death, which illustrates the condition
of the Church at large in the genera
tion subsequent to the Reformation.
"In thirty-eight important parishes,
the clergy were absolutely non-resident.
In six there was either no minister
whatever, or the churches were vacant.
In four the clergy maintained a kind of
half residence. In several there were
only deacons, in others only readers:
In some cases two, in one case even
three, parishes had a single minister
between them. Other churches had
only occasional services." The visita
tion gives a remarkable proof of the
rarity of preaching : four sermons a-year
was the statutable requirement, but
many did not receive even this scant
measure. "In Goodneston it is comr
plained that they have not their, ordi
nary sermons. In Crundel there is the
same complaint, and also at Ickham
and Whitstable At Tilmanstone the

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114

CANTERBURY

parishioners had only had three sermons
since the previous visitation. At Worth
they had had no sermons for two years ;
at Seasalter and at Westbere none for
a twelvemonth. At Ewell they were
somewhat more fortunate, for they had
one during the year ; the same liberal
measure was given also at Chapel-le-
Ferne. Even Saltwood was destitute of
its quarterly sermons, while Wootton was
fortunate in having two. Stanford had
had none for a twelvemonth, while Pad-
dlesworth had had one during the same
period, a privation which is charged to
the farmer of the rectory, as it is in
several other places. At Leysdown they
had one sermon a-year ; while Bapchild,
more fortunate, could boast of three.
Kingsdown had no sermons all the year
round, and was only served by a reader.
Bobbing and Stockbury, Badlesmere
and Sheldwick had but one sermon in
the year ; Debbing again none. Brasted
remembered none since the last visit
ation ; while at Marden, the zealous
parishioners, being deprived of preach
ing through the absenteeism of the
vicar, procured a preacher for them
selves. At Newenden the people could
not get their 'ordinary sermons' be
cause 'the vicar could get none to
preach them.' Other parishes made
the like complaint, and the form
in which they were made indicate
clearly the sense the inhabitants felt of
this great privation." "A singular
feature of this visitation is the con
stant complaint that the clergy use
'common' instead of 'wafer bread.'
The lack of the Paraphrase of Erasmus
Is constantly complained of; and the
curate at Wye is charged with 'not
coming down to read the Bible in the
middle of the church according to the
injunctions. ' Chancels and parsonages
are constantly reported as being in a state
of disrepair, and often falling down.
Surplices are wanted in many churches."
Of the state of the diocese generally,
Mr. Jenkins says, that it was "a dis
grace to the Reformation, and a miser
able contrast to that which it presented
in the days of Archbishop Warham."

The effect of Elizabeth's dislike to
married bishops is curiously shown in
the fact that the Elizabethan bishops
were not accustomed to have their wives
and families living with them in their
episcopal houses. Parker purchased a
house at Beakesbourne for his wife and
family to reside in when he took up his
abode there, and also a house called
Duke's Place, near Lambeth Palace,
for their accommodation during his
residence there.
Whitgift was a great benefactor to
the diocese, having recovered many of
the 'possessions of the see, and reduce!'
the over taxation from which it had
suffered ; he used his augmented means
in the endowments of vicarages , and
stipends of curates, and built and en
dowed a hospital at Croydon.
Abbot is said to have been "extremely
remiss in regard to the fabrics of the
churches and chapels, and the neglected
state both of these and of the services
which were held in them, left a legacy
of disorder to his successor, the reduc
ing of which to order helped to swell
Laud's unpopularity. "
Besides Laud's general policy for' the-
establishment of sound doctrine and
reverent ritual, he took some stops
peculiar to his own diocese. Dutch
and French congregations at Canter
bury in the crypt of the cathedral, and
at Maidstone and Sandwich, had en
joyed complete toleration from the time
of Edward VI. Laud endeavoured to
limit this anomaly of " Presbytery con
fronting Episcopacy, and a common
wealth in the midst of a monarchy,"
under the sanction of the king and'thB
archbishop, by requiring that the prayers •
used in these congregations should he
translations from the English Liturgy 5,
and further that the toleration of theso
separate congregations should be re
stricted to foreigners, but that the
children of foreigners born in England
should be required to attend their parish
churches. The case of the three foreign
churches was published by John Bul-
teel, the minister of the Walloon Church
at Canterbury, in 1645".

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115

CANTERBURY

The history of the diocese since the
¦Restoration presents no features which
need be noticed here. It may, how
ever, be right to note that, in later
times the administration of the diocese
has not been allowed to suffer on ac
count of the wider interests of the
Primacy, and that in this diocese, as in
all the other dioceses of England, not
withstanding all the negligence of the
past, the external organisation of the
Church is in better order, and its
spiritual ministrations more zealous and
effective in tho present generation than
at any previous period in the long his
tory through which the reader has been
carried from Augustine downwards.
It will be observed that since the
formation of the subdivision of Roches
ter, the diocese has not needed or un
dergone any further subdivision.
The diocese consists of the larger part
of Kent, and portions of Surrey and
Sussex: population, 653,269; 2 arch
deaconries, Canterbury and Maidstone ;
20 deaneries ; 421 benefices.
(See Rev. Canon Jennings's ' Canter
bury, ' in the S. P. C. K. series of Diocesan
Histories, to which this article is largely
indebted; 'Memorials of Canterbury,'
by Dean Stanley ; 'Life of Becket,' by
Canon C. I. Robertson.)
List of Archbishops op Canter
bury, AND DATE OP ACCESSION
AND OP DEATH : —

ACQESSION.

DEATH.

A.D.

A.D.

Augustine

... 597

604

Lauren tius

... 604

619

Mellitus

... 619

624

Justus

... 624

627

Honorius

... 627

653

Deusdedit

... 655

664

Theodore

... 668

690

Brihtwald

... 693

731

Tatwin

... 731

734

Nothelm

... 735

740

Cuthbert

... 736

758

Bregwin

... 759

765

Jaenbert

... 766

790

Ethelhard

... 793

805

Wulfred

... -805

832

Feologild CeolnothEthelred PlegmundAthelm Wulfhelm ...
Odo DunstanEthelgar
Siric Elfric
Elphege LivingEthelnothEadsigeRobert
Stigand Lanfranc
Anselm Ralph d'Escures
William de Corbeuil
TheobaldThomas a Becket
RichardBaldwinHubert Fitzwalter
Stephen Langton
Richard Grant
Edmund Rich
Boniface ....
Richard Kilwardby
John Peckham
Robert Winchelsey
Walter Reynolds
Simon Mepeham
John Stratford
Thomas Bradwardine
Simon Islip
Simon Langham
William Whittlesey
Simon Sudbury
William Courtenay
Thomas Arundel
Roger Walden
Thomas Arundel
Henry Chicheley
John Stafford
John Kemp
Thomas Bouchier
John Morton
Henry Dean

ACCESSION. DEATH.
A.D. A.D.
832 833870890914 923
942960

832870889914923 942959988

990 994
995 1005
1005 1012
1013 1020
1020 1038
1038 1050
1051 1070
10521070
1093 11141123
11391162117411851193
1207122912341245
1273127912941313 13281333
1349 1349
1366 1368
1375 1381
1397 1398 1399
1414 1443
145214541486 1501

CARMELITES

1

ACCESSION.

A.D.

William Warham

1503

Thomas Cranmer

1533

Reignald Pole

1556

Matthew Parker

1559

Edmund Grindal

1576

JohnWhitgift

1583

Richard Bancroft

1604

George Abbot

1611

William Laud

1633

William Juxon

1660

Gilbert Sheldon

1663

William Sancroft

1678

John Tillotson

1691

Thomas Tenison

1695

William Wake

1716

John Potter

1737

Thomas Herring

1747

Matthew Hutton

1757

Thomas Seeker

1758

Frederick Cornwallis

1768

John Moore

1783

Charles Manners Sutton

1805

William Howley

1828

John Bird Sumner ...

1848

Charles Thomas Longley

1862

Archibald Campbell Tait

1868

Edward White Benson

1883

116 CAROLS, CHRISTMAS

CARMELITES. An order of friars
so called from Mount Carmel, their
original seat ; popularly called White
Friars, from the colour of their habit.
Sir John de Vesci and Sir Richard
Grey, being Crusaders in the Holy
Land, in the thirteenth century, as
cended Mount Carmel, and found there
a body of Religious claiming to be the
successors of Elijah, and living accord
ing to a rule lately given them by
Albert, Patriarch of Jerusalem, based
on that of St. Basil. The romantic
incident interested them ; they brought
some of them back to England with
them, and established them at Aln
wick, Northumberland, and at Ayles-
ford, Kent. Thence they spread over
England, and into other countries of
Europe, but were always most nume
rous here. Their organisation differed
from that of the other orders of friars
[see Friars] in some particulars. While
they had a common refectory, and ate

in common, they had separate cells,
the prior's cell being near the entrance".
They were required to remain in their
cells engaged in meditation, except
that they might at fit times meditate
in church,, and might stay and walk
freely in the cloister. The church was
in the middle of the cells. They kept
the canonical hours ; they ate no flesh
except when it was ordered for the
sick ; kept silence after compline till
prime ; at other times they might talk
moderately. In 1245 they held their
first general chapter in England, at
Aylesford, and elected Simon Stock,
a native of Kent, as their general. ,In
1290 they changed their habit to a
brown frock and scapulary with a white
mantle. It never rose to be an in
fluential order. They had about forty
houses in England : Coventry ; Lott>
don ; Oxford ; Aylesford ; Holme,
Northumberland; Stamford ; Hitchin;
Maldon, Essex ; Sandwich ; Not
tingham ; Canterbury ; Newenden,
Kent ; Ipswich ; Norwich ; Back-
ney, Gloucestershire ; Lynn, Norfolk.
There were no female houses of the
order. CAROLS, CHRISTMAS. The name of
Carol can be traced as far back as the
seventh century, where, in St. Ouen's
' Life of St. Eligius, Bishop of Noyon,'
written about the year 672, carols are
classed with balls, dances, diabolical
songs, and solstices. In the Celtic-
Cornish dialect there are Christmas
carols which were written and sung
while the tongue was yet a living
speech, and this must have been before
the reign of Queen Elizabeth at least.
Philologists affirm that the diction of
some of these carols carries their origin
into a remote antiquity. There is a
Breton song as old as the fifth century
very like a carol. There is a carol in
the Anglo-Norman dialect still pre'
served in the British Museum (MS:
Reg. 16), but "this is convivial rather
than religious. By this we infer that
the term carol was used for songs other
than those upon the Nativity at that
early date, Later we find that this is

CAROLS, CHRISTMAS

117

CAROLS, CHRISTMAS

distinctly the ease. The song in the
Towneley Mysteries ' beginning —
"Herkyn, hyrdes, awake, gyf loving ye
shalle,
He is borne for your sake, Lorde perpctu-
alle,
He is comen to take and rawnson you alle,
Youre sorrowe to slake,, Kyng imperialle
He behestys.
That Chyld is borne,
At Bethlehem this morne,
Ye shalle fynde Hym beforne Betwix two bestys "
is certainly as old as the fourteenth
century. There is also a song in the
nature of a carol in the Coventry pageant
of the Shearmen and Tailors, belonging
to the fifteenth century, "Lulla, thou
littel tine' child," in which the cruelty
of the decree of Herod is referred to,
The music of this song has been pre
served. There is one of the time of
Henry VI., having two sets of words,
one sacred and one secular. The
sacred words begin thus : —
"Nowell, nowell, nowell, nowell,
This is the salutation of the Aungell Gab-
ryell. "
A note appended runs thus —
" This is the tewyn for the song foloying,
yf so be that ye wyll have another tewyn, it
may be at your plesure, for I have set all the
song."The "song foloying" is in praise of
"good ale," and it is intended as a
parody on ' ' Nowell. " The ' ' tewyn, " or
melody, is very quaint and archaic.
Some of the early carols are in Maca
ronic verse, a mixture of Latin with
the ordinary speech — as, for instance,
in the hymn written in the reign of
Henry VIII.:—
" Now make us ioye in this feste,
In quo Xtus natus est,
A patre unigenitus
iii song maydens cam till us,
Syng we to hym and say wel come,
Veni Redemptor gentium."
About the time of Henry VIII. there
seems to have arisen two distinct forms
of carols, the one grave in style, the
other more lively in measure, festive
in character, and familiar in allusions.
The former, probably, sung in churches,
or through the streets in solemn pro

cession, or from house to house ; the
latter inside the house, ' ' at the latter
end of a sea-coal fire." In the reign
of Queen Elizabeth the practice of
singing carols was a well-established,
custom. The ballad poets contributed
largely to the stores of carols of all
sorts. The carol beginning —
"All you that are to mirth inclined,"
was written by Thomas Deloney, about
1590. In the reign of James I. carols
were in high repute. As Puritanism
gained power and influence the singing
of carols at Christmas was looked upon
with an eye of disfavour. There were
some members of the rising party who
defended their use among poor ignorant
people as being " oftentimes taken with
a song that will flye a sermon. " Another
said "Christmasse kariles, if they be
such as are fit for the time and of holy
and sober composures, and used with
Christian sobriety and piety, they are
not unlawful, and. may be profitable if
they be sung with grace in the heart. "
However, in 1642 the singing of carols
was voted superstitious, and, further,
the Parliament directed "that no ob
servation shall be had of the five-and-
twentieth day of December, commonly
called Christmas Day, nor any solemnity
used or exercised in churches upon that
day in respect thereof." The Scottish
Parliament, nearly a century before, in
1555, had suppressed Christmas by
authority. Still the observance of
Christmas was kept up in remote coun
try places, and the singing of carols
seems never to have been without a
witness from time to time. William
Hone, in his 'Ancient Mysteries,' gives
a list of 89 carols he had collected, all
of which were annually kept in print
by the ballad printers. Out of this.
list Mr. W. S. Fortey, the representa
tive of the old Catnach Press, Seven
Dials, prints only fourteen, Mr. H.
Parker Such, of the Borough, Mr.
Taylor, of Brick-lane, Spitalfields, and
the broadside printers throughout the"
country, only add some half-a-dozen
other carols to Mr. Fortey's list. Hone's.

CAROLS, CHRISTMAS

118

CARTHUSIAN

lament in the year 1823 that no one
had attempted a collection of these
fugitive pieces brought into existence
the books of Davies Gilbert, William
Sandys, Dr. Rimbault, John Wallace
Fyfe, W. H. Husk, Joshua Sylvester
(John Camden Hotten), and ultimately
those of Helmore, Sedding, A. H.
Brown, the Rev. R. Chope, and Stainer
and Bramley. These books of carols
contain new as well as old adaptations
from old English relics, translations
from the French, Breton, Spanish,
German, and Dutch. There are many
carols of both ancient and modern date
in the Welsh tongue, few of which
have been printed. The carols of Ire
land differ in no degree from those of
England ; but, for reasons already
alluded to, probably, carols are rarely
printed in Scotland, or if they are,
copies do not find their way south.
The earliest English printed collection
known was that of Wynkyn de Worde
in 1531, only one leaf of which is pre
served in the Bodleian Library of Ox
ford. There are two carols on this
precious leaf, one of which, ' A Caroll
brynging in the Bore's Heed,' is still
sung annually in a modified form at
Queen's College, Oxford, on Christmas
Eve. The subjects of many of the
religious carols are drawn from the
Apocryphal New Testament, such as
those beginning, 'Joseph was an old
man,' commonly called 'The Cherry
Tree Carol,' from the chief incident of
the poem — the cherry tree bowing down
its topmost branches laden with ripest
fruit to satisfy the longing of the Virgin
Mary ; the carol, 'As I passed by a
river side,' in which the roasted fowl
crows at the banquet table to testify to
the birth of the King whom Herod
could not destroy ; ' I saw three ships
come sailing in,' 'What is this which
is but one ; ' 'As it fell out one May
morning,' in which the child-Christ's
first sorrow is described ; ' Saint Stephen
was an holy man,' and many others,
including those which tell of the mar
riage of the Virgin with Joseph ; ' the
budding of the rod,' and like Apoc

ryphal matters. The source whence a
great number has been taken is, of
course, the sacred narrative. Some of
the comments and allusions speak' of
other originals than English. Thus,
Longfellow's, ' I hear along the street,'
and one or two others, are translations
from the Breton dialect. The tunes to
which the carols are set may be traced
in some cases to the old Church modes,
to some of the early chorales, to ballad
tunes, dance melodies, and things of
like import. The festive carols are
many. They are probably of greater
antiquity than the religious carols. It
is not difficult to find in their perform
ance some reference to the practices
observed at the time of the Roman
Saturnalia, the winter festivals of the
Druids, and the Gothic or Scandinavian ;
feast of Yule. The Anglo-Norman
carol of the thirteenth century, alluded
to above, makes no allusion to the
Nativity, but enlarges upon the cus
tomary hospitality of the time, and
ends with the words 'Wassail' and
'Drinkhail,' the usual Saxon toasts.
There is a large number of carols to the
holly and the ivy, more or less pagan
in their allusions ; the people's rever
ence for these shrubs, and their con
nection with Christmas, based upon
tradition, was too wide and deep to he
wholly uprooted. The revival of carol-
singing in churches during the last few
years has called forth a number of very
beautiful verses, wedded to equally
beautiful music. " (Extracted frcm an
article in 'The Lute,' by W. A.
Barrett. )
CARTHUSIAN order of monks was
founded by Bruno, a monk of Cologne,
at Chartreux (whose Latin name was
Carthusium), among the rocky hills
near Grenoble. They were brought
into England by King Henry II. in tho
year 1180 or 1181 a.d., at Witham,
Somerset, and other houses. In some
respects it was a revival of the system
of the old Egyptian Laura, in which
the -religious were hermits occupying
separate cells grouped around the
church. For the domestic buildings of

CARTHUSIAN

119

CARTHUSIAN

a Carthusian monastery consisted of
separate cells opening upon the cloister
court, each cell consisting of two rooms,
a sitting-room and bed-room, the latter
sometimes forming an upper storey,
and a little garden; but besides the
church of the community in which
they worshipped together, a Carthusian
house had also a refectory in which
they dined in common. The prior's
cell was near the entrance. In the

Carthusian Monk. (After Hollar.)
Grand Chartreuse, and in other early
foundations of the order, there were
two distinct houses, each with its
church and all requisite buildings .; one
for the monks, the other for the lay-
brethren. In after times the separation
into two communities was not adhered
to. (Migne's ' Patrologia,' vol. cliii. col.
668 note.) Bruno adopted the Bene
dictine Rule as the basis of his insti
tution, with some modifications. This
was the most severe of all the Benedic

tine orders : to the strictest observance
of the Benedictine Rule was added
almost perpetual silence ; flesh was
forbidden even to the sick ; their food
was limited to one meal of pulse, bread
and water daily. Some other of their
peculiar observances are indicated in
the following brief notes of their
Rule :—
Always to sit in a recollected atti
tude. To say private prayer at the
altar once a day. Not to leave church
from matins to lauds. Daily from
matins to tierce was occupied in spiritual
exercises ; from tierce to sext, and from
sext to nones in manual labour, which
was to be accompanied by brief prayers ;
from vespers to nones either manual
labour or reading. Not to go into
another's cell" without licence. If one
went into another's cell he Was to be
asked if he had the prior's leave ; if not,
not to be allowed to stay. Hours not
said in church were said in cell, and if
a brother happened to be engaged there
they said them together. To leave
another's cell after compline. No
letters to be received. Not to leave
the cell, except to confession or con
ference, without prior's licence. „ No
food to be kept in the cell except raw
herbs and fruit. Every one to have, two
books to read, and writing materials.
In chapter no talking. In refectory,
dining bareheaded, drinking with both
hands, bowing to those who brought
or removed anything. No speech in
fratry, cloister, or church. Conversa
tion after nones from November 1st to
Easter of the customs of the order j
afterwards of the gospels.
It is remarkable that this, the
strictest of the monastic rules, has, even
to the present day, been only slightly
modified ; and that it seems always to
have been actually observed with greater
strictness than any of the milder rules.
The order was numerous on the con
tinent, but only nine houses of it were
ever established in England, viz. the
first at Witham in Somerset, founded
by King Henry II. [see 'Life of St.
Hugh of Lincoln '] ; the others at

CARTHUSIAN'

120

CATECHISING

Henton, Somerset ; Charter House,
London •; Beauvale, Notts ; St. Anne,
Coventry ; Kingston upon Hull ;
Mountgrace, Yorkshire ; Epworth,
Lincolnshire ; Shene, Surrey.
' The principal of these was the Charter
House, London (a corruption of the
name of the parent house Charlreux),
which at the dissolution was bought
by Thomas Sutton, and turned into a
school. Their houses were usually
small, consisting of a prior and twelve
monks, with a few lay brethren. But
the house which Henry V., on his
accession to the throne, founded ad
joining the royal palace at Sheen
(= Richmond), was for forty monks,
and amply endowed. There were few
nunneries of the order, none in England.
The Carthusian priory at Mount-
grace in Yorkshire still remains in a
very perfect condition, as an example
of their architectural arrangement. It
has two courts : that to the south was
surrounded by the refectory and cloisters
and other conventual buildings, which
appear to have been of a plain solid
kind of structure ; that on the north
is surrounded by two walls of hewn
stone ten or twelve feet high, and
about thirty to forty feet apart ; between
these walls the broken cells may be
seen in a few places. They were low-
built cottages, containing two or three
small rooms on the ground floor only,
each with its little garden, lighted with
a smaller and a larger window in the
side wall, and provided with a low
door at the back, opposite to which is
another low door in the outer wall.
Beside the door into the court -was a
little -hatch, through which the monk
received food, which was so contrived
with an angle in tho wall that it could
not be seen through.
In some of the older houses there
were two classes of monks — Ccenobites,
with a common dormitory and refectory,
and Anchorites : these two divisions
were called the upper and the lower
monastery ; and this may have been
the case at Mountgrace. A plan of
¦the Chartreux of Clermont, in Viollet

le Due's 'Dictionary of Architecture,'
shows the cloister court surrounded
by about twenty cells. Each " cell " is
in fact a small, square, walled enclo-'
sure, containing a little house and
garden ; the house consists of three-
rooms in one corner of the enclosure,
In the middle of the west side of the
cloister court is the chapel, whose five-
sided apsidal sanctuary projects into
the court. In a small outer court on
the west is the prior's cell, which is
like the others, and a building for the
entertainment of guests.
The habit of this order was a white
cassock and hood, and over the cassock
a white scapulary, which was » long
piece of cloth, with a hole in the middle
through which the head was passed, so
that it hung before and behind, and
was slightly connected by a narrow
band at the sides ; it was like a loose
upper tunic slit up at the sides. Instead
of the usual monastic tonsure, they
shaved the head entirely.
CATECHISING (Karr,xiZo>). The
mode of teaching by question and
answer. The Church of England has
from very early times followed^ the
method of teaching her people' the
chief truths of their religion, as con
tained in the Creed, the Lord's Prayer
and the Ten Commandments, by pub
lic catechising. Mr. Maskell ('Mon.
Rit.' II. xlvi. xlvii.) refers to several
Constitutions between 1257 and 1370
ordering it ; and he shows that before
the Conquest (816—1033) the like
duty had been enjoined on parents and
sponsors. These formulae, with other
instructions and devotions in the
mother tongue, were contained in the
the Primer. [See Primer.]
An injunction of Ed. VI. in 1547,
again enforced the ancient custom of
reciting them from the pulpit after the
gospel every holy day "when they
have no sermon .... to the intent
that the people may learn the same by
heart ; " and required that the clergy
should catechise on them in Lent.
The first Prayer Book of Edw. VI,
1548, contained a rubric requiring the

CATECHISM

121

CATHEDRA

curate of every parish, once in six weeks
at least, on some Sunday or holy day,
for half an hour before evensong, to
instruct and catechise on some part of
the Catechism ; and required parents
to cause their unconfirmed children,
servants, and apprentices to attend.
The 50th canon of 1603 contains a
similar direction, and inflicts penalties
on any minister neglecting this duty :
a sharp rebuke tho first time, the second
time suspension, and the third time
excommunication. The rubrics now
at the end of the Catechism contain
the substance of the same directions.
CATECHISM. At the Reformation,
as a part of the plan then adopted for
giving the people at large an intelligent
apprehension of the Christian religion,
a catechism was drawn up under the
supervision of Cranmer, and inserted
in the Office for Confirmation, to be
learnt by the catechumens. The
Catechism was nearly identical, so far
as it went, with that which now stands
in our Prayer Books, but it only ex
tended as far as the explanation of the
Lord's Prayer. The latter part, on the
Sacraments, by Bishop Overall, was
added after the Hampton Court Con
ference. CATECHUMEN, from the Greek
KaTrjxbvfitvoq, participle of Karn^si",
which means one who is receiving in
struction in the first rudiments of any
art or science ; viz. in its ecclesiastical
use, in the rudiments of the Christian
Religion, in preparation for baptism.
From about the third to about the end
of the fifth century, when the heathen
were coming over in great numbers to
the Church, it was thought good, in
order to prevent a hasty and indis
criminate admission of people destitute
of sufficient knowledge of the Christian
religion, or of right dispositions, to
place all such candidates for baptism
under a systematic course of instruction
and preparation ; they were regularly
admitted by laying on of hands and
prayer into the class or order of
Catechumens, and allowed to attend
divine s -rvice up to a certain point in

it, occupying a place, not in the nave
of the church among the faithful, but
at the extreme west end.
The Baptismal Service of the me
diaeval Church bore traces of this
ancient discipline ; it began with an
"Order for making of Catechumens,"
according to which the infant (or
adult) was received at the door of the
church, with exorcism, the sign of the
cross, putting salt into the mouth, and
prayer ; then the minister took the
child by the hand and brought it into
church as a Catechumen, and proceeded
with the " Order for Baptism."
" Persons of riper years " who desire
to be baptised are still carefully in
structed in the rudiments of Christian
knowledge, and examined as to their
dispositions of mind, and are not ad
mitted to the sacrament until the
parish priest is satisfied on these
points, and during this preparation are
Catechumens. CATHEDRA, Ka9i Spa, a chair : the
official chair, e.g. of a professor in his
school, of the president of any society :
thus the official chair of a bishop in
the chief church of his diocese (Bishop-
stool, See). In the Basilican churches,
from the third century downwards, the
bishop's chair, or throne, was a stone
seat with sides, in the centre of the
eastern apse, and his presbyters were
seated on stone benches following the
semicircular line of the apse on each
side of him.* This arrangement has
been brought to light by recent altera
tions at Norwich Cathedral. In the
thirteenth century it became usual to
place the stalls of the clergy against the
north and south sides of the choir, re
turning along the west side, and then
a special raised stall with a lofty canopy
was placed at the east end of the stalls
.on the south side for the bishop's
throne. t This is now? the arrange-
* The seats of the abbot and monks in the
chapter-house of a monastery were similarly
arranged. t At Durham it is of stone, date c. 1350 ;
usually it is of wood.
t At Llandaff, where there was no dean, the

CATHEDRAL

122

CATHEDRAL

ment in most, if not all, of our English
cathedrals. The bishop's chair was a symbol of
his jurisdiction. When he travelled
about his diocese an ornamented mov
able seat called a Fald stool (? folding
stool) was carried with him ; and at
visitations, ordinations, &e, was placed
in front of the altar, where he sat (as
in the Basilica) facing the people.
CATHEDRAL. Adjective from cathe
dra = the bishop's official chair. When
used alone it implies the cathedral
church ; that church in a diocese in
which the bishop's chair is placed. It
began to be so called about the tenth
century ; previous to that time it was
called the mother church, because it
was (usually) the first church erected,
round which the parish churches of the
diocese gradually grew up, and held to it
at first the relation of dependent chapels.
There is nothing special in the mag
nitude, plan, or arrangement of a
cathedral church ; it might be small or
large, of one plan or another, a secular
church or the church of a monastic
community : what constitutes it a
cathedral church is that the bishop's
chair is placed in it. In fact, in the
subdivision of dioceses, in modern as
well as in ancient times, the bishop of
the severed portion of an old diocese
has had a monastic church (Carlisle,
Ely, Peterborough, &e), or a collegiate
church (Ripon, Manchester, Southwell),
or merely a parish church (Truro,
Liverpool, Newcastle) assigned as the
titular church of the new diocese, and
the placing of his chair in it constituted
it a cathedral church. For architectural
information, therefore, the reader is
referred to the article Architecture ; but
there are some points of interest with
respect to the plan, &e, of churches,
whether cathedral or other, which may
conveniently be put together under this
head.

bishop sat in the stall elsewhere appropriated
to the dean, viz. the first on the right hand
on entering the choir from the west. The
Bishops of Durham, Ely, and Carlisle also
anciently sat in the abbot's stall.

Bede's description of the churches
built by Wilfred at Hexham and Ripon
shows that they were of hewn stone,.
with arcades and upper galleries. The
description of Romsey Abbey Church
in the time of Dunstan seems to indi
cate a church with arches and transepts,,
and a central and western tower. The
cathedral which Ethelwold built at
Winchester was a Basilica with north
and south arcades, an eastern apse, with
the east end raised on a confessio or
crypt, and a western court ; the number
of ' ' chapels with sacred altars " was
such as to distract the visitor. His
successor Elphege added a five-storey
tower with open windows, which seems
like a description of an ordinary Italia®
campanile. The account of the burning
of St. Augustine's cathedral at Canter
bury shows that it was a Basiliea with
apses at both the east and west ends,
a sacrarium raised on a crypt, and two
flanking towers ; about A.d. 750 Arch
bishop Cuthbert added a detached
baptistry on the north-east, nearly
touching the church. Professor Willis
considered that we have sufficient data
to show what the ancient church was.
Edward the Confessor introduced,
and the Conquest speedily spread over
England, the Norman plan and style
of building, which was not only better
in detail, but more grandiose in its
conceptions. The most important
change which it introduced was in the
plan of a great church, and which
affected its whole outline. The Norman
architects took a Latin cross as their
plan ; retained the eastern apse, raised
the boldly projecting transepts to a
height equal to that of the body of the
church-; marked the intersection of the
roofs with a broad massive tower ; car
ried the nave westward to an unpre-,
cedented length ; and often flanked the ,
western facade with two subordinate
towers. This cruciform plan composed
an architectural group of a grandevuv
and picturesque effect which at once*
superseded the Basilican type, and has
retained its hold on the taste of North
ern Europe ever since.

CATHEDRAL

123

CATHEDRAL

The Norman period was a time of
great architectural works, during which
nearly every cathedral was rebuilt on a
grand scale, and the abbey churches on
a scale still grander. Of the old cathe
drals of England all but six, St. Paul's,
Wells, Lichfield, York, Ripon, and
Salisbury, still exhibit more or less of
Norman work or influence. Durham,
Chichester, Gloucester, Hereford, Nor
wich, Oxford, Peterborough are strictly
Norman buildings, with later additions.
Tho nave and transepts of Ely, the nave
of Rochester, the transepts of Win
chester, the transeptal towers of
Exeter, are grand and characteristic
specimens of Norman work.
But if the Norman period was a
great building age it was succeeded by
one still greater. ' ' The thirteenth cen
tury as a building epoch is perhaps the
most brilliant in the whole history of
architecture . . . whether we look to
the extent of the buildings executed,
their wonderful variety and instructive
elegance, the daring imagination that
conceived them, or the power of poetry
and lofty religious feeling that is ex
pressed in every feature and every part
of them."
The monastic period had culminated
in the previous century ; the energy of
the people in the thirteenth century
was devoted to the elevation of the
civic life of the nation, and their re
ligious enthusiasm showed itself in the
aggrandisement of the cathedrals which
were the expression of active as con
trasted with contemplative religion.
The form which the development of
the great churches took at this period
(independently of matters of detail
in style) was in lengthening them east
ward. The short eastern limb, with
its semi-circular apse, of the Norman
church, was superseded by a new con
struction of much greater length, often
including a second and lesser transept.
Into the western portion of this new
structure the choir was removed out
of the central tower ; the clergy were
removed from their bench in the apse
into canopied stalls arranged along its

north and south sides, and west end ; a
throne for the bishop being placed at
the east end of the choir stalls on the
south side. Eastward of the choir was
the sacrarium with the altar. Behind
the altar, space was usually left for the
shrine of the great local saint. Chapels
to other saints were arranged in the
transepts and choir aisles ; and fre
quently a large lady chapel was added,
opening from the east end of the
church, and extending its length still
further eastward ; sometimes the lady
chapel was a detached building, paral
lel with the choir, on the north. The
result of this lengthening of tho
churches was that the English cathe
drals have a greater length in propor
tion to their wi,dth (five or six times
their width) than any other buildings
in the world ; and this peculiarity has
added more to the sublimity of effect
which characterises our cathedrals than
any other principle* The total length
of Ely is 560 feet, of Winchester 520,
of Canterbury- 525 ; they are probably
the longest churches in existence, ex
cept only at St. Peter's Rome.
Among the characteristics of the
great churches of the thirteenth century
period we find that the crypt and apse
of the Norman period are disused, and
that the east end terminates with a
square end. The chief modifications
in ground plan and arrangement were
completed by the middle of the thir
teenth century. Rebuildings were in
progress in most of our cathedrals
during the two following centuries, and,
being always in the style of their
period, they add greatly to the archi
tectural variety and historical interest
of the fabrics ; but they were unat
tended by any broad general modifica
tions of plan and arrangement. It
needs some, knowledge of ecclesiastical
antiquities,' and some exercise of the
imagination, to picture to the mind's
eye what one of these ancient cathe
drals was, while the treasures of art
and of historical interest, with which
centuries of devotion had enriched them,
* Ferguson, ( Hist, of Architecture.'

CATHEDRAL'

124

CATHEDRAL

were yet uninjured ; when all the
windows were filled with painted glass,
and the roofs and walls judiciously

chapels built up here and there within£
the aisles and transepts, were each an
architectural gem,; when the monu-

Salisbury Cathedral.

illuminated with painting and gilding ;
when the shrine still stood behind the
high altar, rich with jewels ; and the
chapels of the apse, and tho chantry

ments of bishops and canons, of nobles
and knights were uninjured ; and mitrS;
and crosier, helmet, sword and ban«
ner, hung over their" tombs ; when n

CATHEDRAL CHAPTER 125 CATHEDRAL CHAPTER

numerous clergy celebrated a worship,
in which gold and silver vessels, em
broidered vestments, twinkling lights,
music, incense, flowers, lent to religion
all the solemn attractiveness which art
could give ; and crowds of worshippers
augmented the awe and devotion by
the sympathy of numbers. The vast
building which enclosed within it this
variety of objects of historic interest
and religious devotion, the slow accu
mulation of centuries, left ample room
in its nave and transepts for the great
procession to sweep through its aisles ;
for hundreds of clergy in its choir ; and
for the worshipping population of the
city, or the pilgrims from a whole dio
cese ; all, chapels, monuments, shrines,
priests and people, looking small beside
the bulk of the great columns, and
lowly beneath the sublime height of
the vaulted roof. ' The Architecture
of the English Cathedral' — Venables.
' History of Architecture ' — Ferguson.
' Dictionnaire de 1' Architecture ' — Viol-
let le Due
A ground plan of Salisbury Cathedral
is given on the preceding page as an
example of a complete cathedral plan
of the thirteenth century, unaffected
by additions and modifications. [V is
the Chapter House.]
CATHEDRAL CHAPTER (Capitu-
lum). The body corporate of clergy at
tached to a cathedral. In monasteries
the monks adjourned every day after
Prime to an adjoining apartment where
a chapter of the Rule was read and ex
pounded ; hence, this apartment came
to be called the chapter-house. The
same name was applied to the apart
ment in which the bishop and canons
of a cathedral assembled in council ;
and thus the body of the cathedral
clergy entitled to sit in this council
came to be called the chapter.
History of Cathedral Chapters. — In
the conversion of the " Saxon Hep
tarchy " there was, at first, only one
bishop in each kingdom,' who estab
lished himself at the place assigned to
him by the king ; there his first care
was to build his church, and set up

the divinei worship, and his second to
establish schools of learning.
The bishop and his clergy lived
together as one family. Augustine
of Hippo had long before set the
example of a bishop and his clergy
living in common. Nearly, if not
absolutely, all the first bishops of
the English, both of the Italian and
Celtic schools, had been trained in
religious communities, and were used
to the common life ; and the circum
stances in which they were made it
convenient that the whole missionary
staff should live together. Accord
ingly in every kingdom the bishop
and his clergy lived together ; the
bishop administering the revenues of
the Church, regulating the common
life of the family, and arranging the
duties of its members, at his discre
tion, but not without taking counsel
with his clergy.
While some of the clergy continued
at head-quarters, engaged in devotion,
study, and education, others were sent
out on missionary tours to the towns
and villages, and returned again to
head-quarters. But at length, when congregations
of believers had been gathered in the
towns and villages, some of the clergy
became permanently settled there, and
were practically, though never form
ally, excluded from the community of
clergy which still lived with the bishop
at the cathedral town. In the same
way, when other churches were built
in the cathedral town and had their
own priests, resident in their own
houses, they practically ceased to form
part of that central body of clergy who
served the cathedral and its institu
tions and lived in common with the
bishop. Not that it was an indispens
able rule that the cathedral clergy
should eat in the refectory and sleep in
the dormitory ; there were often some
who on account of health, age, mar
riage, or other sufficient reason, were
allowed to live in their separate houses,
and had a separate allowance from the
common fund.

CATHEDRAL CHAPTER

126

CATHEDRAL CHAPTER

Originally all the clergy were termed
canonici, canons ; but the term was
gradually restricted to this body of
cathedral clergy.
In the eighth century, Chrodegang,
Bishop of Metz, the great Chancellor
of Charles Martel, in order to secure
better discipline among the clergy of
his cathedral, organised them into a
community ; adapting the Rule of St.
Benedict, which was then being pressed
upon all the monasteries, to the circum
stances of the body of secular clergy
forming the staff of a cathedral. They
had » uniform dress, a common dwell
ing, a common table and dormitory,
observed the hours of prayer, but did
not vow poverty and obedience ; and
the bishop could make exceptions at
his discretion. This rule was adopted
by other cathedrals ; it was sanctioned
for general use by the Council of Aix-
la-Chapelle, 816 a.d. ; and set a pattern
of cathedral organisation which, with
modifications, was largely followed, not
only on the Continent, but also in
England — first at Exeter about 1040.
In England, in several instances the
bishop, being himself a monk, required
his clergy to take the monastic vows
and live by the Benedictine Rule ; in
some cases, as Winchester and Wor
cester, the anomaly continued perma
nent, in others the cathedral staff was
restored to the condition of secular
canons. It was the absolute power of
the bishops over the common property,
and their absolute authority in the
regulation of the lives of their clergy,
which made these arbitrary changes
possible. No new bishoprics were founded as a
result of the Norman Conquest ; the
religious feeling of the Norman kings
and nobles ran strongly in favour of
the reformed monastic orders which
had lately sprung up on the Continent ;
but some of the existing sees were
-transferred to more important centres *
* East Angles, the bishoprics of Elmham
and Dunwich were consolidated and trans
ferred to Thetford (1066), and finally to
Norwich (1081). West Saxons, the bishoprics

of social life ; the cathedrals were
everywhere rebuilt on a grander, scale,
and in the more dignified Norman style
of plan and design ; and the cathedral
bodies were reconstituted on the basis
of the capitular reforms of Chrodegang.
As one result of the corporate life thus
given them (whose development was
favoured by the frequent — in some
cases habitual — non-residence of the
bishop), before the end of the eleventh
century there were signs that the cathe
dral chapters were beginning to obtain
a greater independence. One great
step towards it was the division of the
cathedral property into definite propor
tions, and the assigning of one portion '
to the bishop and another to the chap-'.
ter ; another was the appointment of
one of the chapter, elected by them
selves, as prefect or dean to represent
the bishop's authority during his ab
sences. The appointment of irremov
able dignitaries to fill the great offices
of the cathedral, with separate revenues,
gave still further stability to the posk
tion of the chapter. Another important. •
step in the same direction was tho
creation of prebends — i.e. the assigning
of separate portions of the cathedral
endowment to individual canons, t We
may conveniently illustrate the process
in the case of York. Thomas of Bay-
eux, the first Norman archbishop, first
forced the Rule of Chrodegang upon his
canons ; then cast it aside and consti
tuted the chapter as (with little change)
it now exists. He divided the property
of the Church into three parts : (1) the
separate estates of the archbishop ; (2)
the common fund of the chapter ; (3)
the third part he divided into pre
bends, assigning one to each canon.
of Sherburne and Wilton were consolidated
at Old Sarum (1075), and finally removed to
Salisbury (1218). Mercia, the bishoprics of
Leicester and Lindsey were consolidated at
Sidnacester, and the see removed to Lincoln
(1067). South Saxons, Selsey transferred to
Chichester (107p). [See Diocese.]
t The prebends consisted in many cases of
tho glebe, great tithes and other endowments
of livings which had been " appropriated'tto
the cathedral.

CATHEDRAL CHAPTER

127

CATHEDRAL CHAPTER

By the end of the twelfth century
the cathedral bodies, nineteen innumber
(exclusive of the Isle of Man), had
received the settled constitutions which
they retained down to the Reforma
tion. Winchester and Worcester re
tained the Benedictine rule, which had
been introduced into those cathedrals
by Bishops iEthelwold and Oswald,
in the time of King Edgar -and Arch
bishop Dunstan. Canterbury, Durham,
Rochester, and Norwich were also Bene
dictine monasteries. The following were
secular canons, viz. York, London,
Lincoln, Lichfield, Hereford, Wells,
Salisbury, Exeter, Chichester, together
with the four Welsh dioceses, St. David,
Llandaff, Bangor, and St. Asaph. Two
bishops had each two sees, viz. Bath
and Wells, and Lichfield and Coventry ;
and in each case the church of the
chief see (Wells and Lichfield) was of
secular canons, and of the subordinate
see (Bath and Coventry) a monastery
of Benedictine monks. The bishopric
of Ely was founded in 1109 in the
grand monastery of St. Etheldreda ; and
the bishopric of Carlisle in 1133, in the
house of Austin Canons there ; and
there were no further subdivisions of
dioceses or transfers of sees down to the
Reformation. '
The chapters, once definitely con
stituted, speedily began to acquire new
rights. About the eighth century the
chapter obtained ¦ the exclusive right of
being the bishop's council. Other rights
followed upon this, e. g. that of ad
ministering the diocese during a vacancy
of the see. The right of electing the
bishop, to the exclusion of the rest of
the clergy of the diocese, and of the
com-provincial bishops, dates from the
thirteenth century. The chapters soon
began to assert independence of the
bishop ; the dean, originally appointed
to represent the bishop's authority
during his absence, usurped the bishop's
authority in the chapter ; Grostete,
Bishop of Lincoln in the thirteenth
century, in insisting on his right to
''visit" the. chapter of Jiis cathedral,
said that he was contending for the

dropped rights of all the bishops in
England. The Constitution of the Cathedrals
of the " Old Foundation." The mem
bers of each cathedral are as follows :
— Bishop, dean, precentor, chancellor,
treasurer, archdeacons, canons, vicars,
and other officers. The four cathedrals
in Wales do not appear to have re
ceived so complete a constitution : the
dean was wanting at St. David's and
Llandaff; so late as 1218 the property
of the chapter was undivided from the
bishopric and not divided into separate
estates for the canons, but their general
features correspond to those of the
English cathedrals.
The bishop is a member of tho body,
takes part in divine service, confers all
the dignities, except the deanery, de
cides controversies, enacts statutes with
the advice and concurrence of the dean
and chapter. The dean and chapter are
only as a body amenable to the bishop,
the offences of individual members are
corrected by the dean. The dean,
elected by the chapter, took part in
divine service, had cure of -souls in the
precincts, archidiaconal authority over
the churches of the cathedral city, and
over churches annexed to prebends.
" What appertains to the office of dean
is but slightly laid down in law." He
gradually assumed that place with re
spect to the chapter which belonged
originally to the bishop (Benson, p. 41).
The precentor had regulation of all
persons and things relating to the
divine service. The chancellor had
charge of the department of theology,
and learning in general, the preaching,
schools of architecture, music, grammar,
divinity, library (Benson, p. 29). The
treasurer was the guardian of the fabric,
furniture, and ornaments of the church. *
The archdeacons, who in the former
period seem to have been attached to
the bishop as his assistants at home and
abroad, without any distinct sphere of
* At Lincoln he had charge of a dispen
sary, whose medicine niches still surround
the walls of an apartment in the cathedral
(Benson's, Archbishop of Canterbury, ' Cathe
dral,' p. 35). '

CATHEDRAL CHAPTER 128 CATHEDRAL CHAPTER

jurisdiction, began soon after the Con
quest to have each a certain province
with duties similar to those which they
exercise at this time. The canons con
sisted of presbyters, deacons, and sub-
deacons, each prebendal stall "being
annexed to one of those three orders of
the ministry ; and a certain number of
each order, as the services of the Church
then required, were enjoined to be
always resident together.
Each canon was bound to maintain a
vicar skilled in music to assist in the
services. This seems to be the origin
of the minor canons.
Another remarkable feature in the
administration of cathedrals during this
period, was the chapter council in which
the bishop presided over the whole
capitular body, and with their advice
and assistance, framed regulations for
the cathedral church and other parts of
diocesan government.
We have still to relate how this
council came to be, in some cases, re
stricted to a portion only of the canons.
The number of canons in a chapter
was considerable, ranging from the
eighteen of Exeter to the fifty-four of
Lincoln. But when the canons became
prebendaries, many of them were glad
to go and reside upon their prebends,
and the dignity of the cathedral was
diminished by the habitual absence of
so many of its canons. To induce
residence, the common fund of the
chapter was divided among the canons
in proportion to their length of residence.
Then.it was found that the continual
residence of the greater part of the
canons, whose presence was not actually
heeded, considerably reduced the emolu
ments of the dignitaries and others
whose continual residence was necessaiy
to the efficient performance of the
various cathedral duties ; and new
regulations were made dividing the
canons into residentiaries and non-
residentiaries. In some cathedrals only
the" dignitaries were allowed to be
residentiaries ; in others, a certain
number of other canons were nom
inated by the dean, or co-opted

by the residentiaries, as residentiary
canons. Gradually in most cathedrals
the residentiaries drew to themselves
the whole authority of the chapter.
The name canon came also to.be re
stricted to these residentiaries, while
the rest of the canons were styled pre
bendaries. At York the non-residen-
tiaries retained their right, and are still
summoned to every meeting of the
chapter. The Constitution of the Cathedrals of
the " New Foundation." — When Henry
VIII. suppressed the monasteries,, there
were eight of them which were cathe
dral churches, viz. : Christ Church,
Canterbury, Durham,* Carlisle, Ely,,*
Norwich, Rochester, Winchester, and
Worcester. The churches were pre
served, and the constitution of the
cathedral body was changed into the
form of a dean and canons, the highest
number of canons in any chapter being
twelve and the lowest four.
At the same time the king founded
five new bishoprics at Bristol, Chester,
Gloucester, Oxford, and Peterborough,
endowed with the whole or part of the
possessions of the respective monasteries
in those places. The principal features
of the statutes of the new foundation,
as contrasted with the old, are (1) in
the old conventual cathedrals, the
chapter is still an independent body*
and the bishop has no rights except of
a seat in the church, and a right of
visitation. (2) In the newly erected
bishoprics the bishop is made a member
of the chapter. In the Elizabethan
statutes of Ely, this feature of the
primitive relations of the bishop, and
his chapter is still more pointedly
insisted upon, "that Christ's . Holy
Gospel may be diligently and purely
preached by learned and grave men,
who after the example of the primitive
Church may assist the bishop as his
presbytery in all weightier matters."
_ In the new chapters there is only one
dignitary, the dean,, who is appomte,d
* The statutes of Durham were revised
temp. Philip and Mars'- ; those of Ely, taini
Elizabeth. a

CATHEDRAL CHAPTER 129 CATHEDRAL CHAPTER

by the Crown. The other necessary
officers are filled by the canons ; the
precentor is always a minor canon.
The archdeacons are not by their office
members of the chapter. The dean
and chapter have a common property
and no separate estates. There is no
distinction of residentiaries and non-
residentiaries ;. all duties are shared
equally. A body of minor canons and
another body of lay clerks are charged
with the performance of the services.
In the revision of the whole machinery
of the Church in the present century, to
adapt it to the increased population
and changed circumstances of the times,
the cathedrals have been unfortunate.
It was assumed that they had no im
portant place in the active life of the
Church at large, but were only mag
nificent churches where a stately service
was kept up, and whose offices afforded
positions of dignified retirement as
rewards for good service in the past, or
positions of leisure for literary men.
Accordingly a commission . was issued
in 1835 under William IV.. whose
recommendations were embodied in
statutes in the early part of the reign
of Queen Victoria, whose general idea
was to cut down the cathedral establish
ments to the minimum, and devote
their surplus revenues to the better
endowment of old, and formation of
new parochial benefices.
The principal results of these changes
have been to reduce the- number of
canonries with emoluments attached to
them to four in each cathedral ; with
several exceptions where an extra one
or two canonries have been left to
form an endowment for archdeacons or
professors. The non-residentiary canons
of the old foundation are retained as
honorary canonries in the appointment
of the bishop. The number of minor
canonries has been reduced so that in
no case are there more than six or less
than two. The incomes of these offices
have been reduced to a very small
sum. A more pleasant fact to record is the
establishment of new bishoprics, and

the foundation of new cathedral estab
lishments, which have taken place in
the present reign.
The First Report of the Ecclesiastical
Commission in 1836,. recommended the
union of Gloucester and Bristol ; and
the formation of two new dioceses in the,
province of York, where the population
had greatly increased, and new towns of
large size had sprung up, viz. at Ripon
and Manchester. Ripon was accord
ingly at once constituted a bishop's
see, and Manchester was constituted
the year after, viz. in 1837.
Again the Government was induced
to introduce and carry an enabling Act
(39 & 40 Vict. u. 54), allowing the founr
dation of six new sees, when the capital
sums for their endowment, at the rate
of £74,500, should have been provided
by voluntary contributions, viz. at St,
Albans, Truro, Newcastle, Southwell,
Liverpool, Wakefield. St. Albans and
Truro were at once constituted in 1877.
Newcastle and Liverpool followed in
1882, and Southwell in 1884. In each
of these new sees, archdeacons were
assigned, and endowments for the arch
deacons provided, and until a dean and
chapter shall have been created, the
bishop was empowered to nominate
honorary canons not to exceed twenty-
four in number, and to make regulations
respecting such honorary canons.
An Act was also passed in 1884, to
permit of the reconstitution of Bristol
as a, separate diocese, . so ,soon as the
proper arrangements can be made.
Bede's 'Ecclesiastical History,' &c.
Bishop of Chester (Stubbs), Preface
to the ' Epistoke Cantuarienses for Can
terbury ' ; and Preface to vol. iv. of
' Roger of Hovenden, for York. '
E. A. Freeman, ' Essay on Cathedrals
of the Old Foundation ' ; ' History of
Wells Cathedral.'
Archbishop of Canterbury (Benson),
'The Cathedral.'
First Report of Ecclesiastical Com-.
missioners. Commissioners' Reports'for
1854, vol. xxv., gives specimen statutes'
of the different kinds of foundation,
viz. of Salisbury, of Old Fo.undation ;

CATHEDRAL CLOSE

130

CATHEDRAL CLOSE

of Lichfield, as revised and adapted at
the reformation ; of Ely, of the Con
ventual Foundation ; and of Chester of
the new Foundation of Henry VIII.
CATHEDRAL CLOSE. The staff of
a cathedral church required numerous
subsidiary buildings ; and in describing
them it is necessary first to distinguish
between cathedrals of the old founda
tion, served by secular canons, and
cathedrals served by monks.
A cathedral served by monks was
really a Benedictine monastery, whose
church had the see of a bishop within
it ; the subsidiary buildings were the
usual buildings of a Benedictine monas
tery, grouped around a cloister in the
angle formed by the nave and tran
sept of the church ; and these will
be found described under the word
monastery. It is the group of buildings irregu
larly disposed around a cathedral
church served by seculars which we
have to describe. Plere a cloister was
not a necessity. Salisbury only had
a perfect one with a, covered arcade
round all four sides. York, Lichfield,
and three of the Welsh cathedrals, viz.
Bangor, St. Asaph, and Llandaff, never
had a cloister at all. Chichester, Here
ford, Wells, Exeter, St. David's, had
no north walk. Lincoln cloister was
small. Old St. Paul's had a second
cloister on the north, In two stories,
called the Pardon Churchyard, with
the Dance of Death painted on its
walls. A chapter-house was a necessary
appendage, and whereas in a monas
tery the# chapter-house is always
(except at Exeter and Worcester) a
rectangular building, and is always
placed on the east side of the cloisters,
divided only by a passage or narrow
chamber from the transept, in cathe
drals of the old foundation the chapter
house is always a polygonal * building,
and is placed as local convenience sug
gested. At Exeter, Salisbury, Lin-
* Decagonal at Lincoln, Hereford, Old St.
Paul's, Lichfield : octagonal at York, Salis
bury, Wells.

coin, and Hereford, it was on the east
side of the cloister ; at York, Wells,
and Lichfield it was a detached build
ing, connected with the church by a
covered way ; at Llandaff it opened from
the presbytery; at St. Paul's it stood
in the middle of the garth ; at Chiches
ter, Bangor, St. Asaph, and St. David's,
it was an upper chamber.
The bishop had a Palace near the
Cathedral. [See Bishop's Palace.] The
dignitaries — Dean, Precentor, Chan
cellor, and Treasurer — had each his
official house, called respectively the
Deanery, Chantry or Precentory, Chan
cery, and Treasury. The archdeacons'
and other residentiaries had each their
separate houses, not arranged on any
plan, but distributed according to local
convenience. Each house was in plan
and architectural character like a
wealthy gentleman's house of the period,
with its hall and chamber, chapel, &c.
There was sometimes also a lodging for
the accommodation of the non-resi
dentiary canons during their temporary-
residence. Some of the ancient houses
of the close remain at Lincoln, Chiches
ter, Exeter, and Wells.
For the vicars-choral, who fbrnrf
a body corporate, there was usually
a special enclosed court with its own
entrance-gate, lined on each side with
small separate houses, with a common
hall and kitchen and chapel. The finest
remaining examples are at Wells and
Hereford ; other good examples at
Chichester and York ; and some remains
at Lincoln and Lichfield.
Every cathedral had a number of
chantry chapels within it founded for
the maintenance of perpetual prayers
for particular people and their families,
Some of these chantries were served by
one priest, but others were wealthy
foundations which provided for a
number of priests, who were incor
porated into an independent college,
with their own property and. statutes,
and who had a house in the precincts
of the cathedral. There was a college
of fourteen priests at Wells ; at Lincoln
therewere three such colleges,, of .which

CATHEDRAL CLOSE

131

CEADDA

the Burghersh Chantry House still
remains. Remains of these chantry
houses exist also at Chichester, Exeter,
York. The choristers also with their master
had a school-house in the precincts.
It still remains to add to this com
plex organisation, and to this variety
of religious ideas, that a recluse some
times occupied a cell adjoining the
cathedral church ; as at Peterborough
a cell adjoining the Lady Chapel ; at
Durham a cell approached by a stair
from the north aisle ; at Norwich a
gallery still existing in the north choir
wall communicated with the Sanc
tuary men's chamber, which before the
fifteenth century was the relic chapel
of St. Osyth, and occupied by a recluse.*
Every cathedral (as indeed every
church and churchyard) had right of
sanctuary, and had to make some pro
vision for the people who took sanc
tuary in it. At Norwich, the above
extract indicates that it was an upper
chamber. At some of the more famous
places of sanctuary, as at Westminster,
the sanctuary buildings assumed the
dimensions of a little town, filled with
refugees from justice ; some of them
unfortunate, some criminal, who added
a strange element to the little world
within the cathedral close. [See
Sanctuary.] The cathedral church and all these
subsidiary buildings occupied an irre
gular area which was often — as at
Exeter, Wells, St. David's, Lincoln,
St. Paul's, Lichfield — enclosed within
a lofty wall, with gates, of which
one or more were gate-towers whose
chambers formed the court and prison
of the chapter "jurisdiction ; but not
always, e. g. Hereford, Bangor, St.
Asaph, and Llandaff were never walled.
There was a constable of the close
whose duty was to see that the gates
were closed at a certain hour.
Article on Cathedral Closes in ' Build
ing News,' March 3, 1874. Plans of
Oxford (Austin Canons Regular), Lin-
• ' Interior of a Gothic Minster,' by Rev.
if. E. C. Walcott.

coin (Secular Canons), Peterborough
(Benedictine), in 'Building News,'
Feb. 8, 1878. St. David's, Lichfield,
Exeter, Wells, Hereford, in ' Building
News,' Nov. 21, 1879. Gloucester
and Winchester, both Benedictine, in
'Building News,' Dec. 26, 1879.
CATHOLIC APOSTOLIC CHURCH.
[See Irvingites.]
CEADDA (popularly Chadd), founder
of the See of Lichfield ; died, 672 ; one
of four brothers, all missionary priests
of Lindisfarne, of whom Cedd, Bishop
of the East Saxons, was another. He
was educated in Ireland, and was a
brother of Lindisfarne under Aidan.
In 664 he succeeded to his brother
Cedd's Abbey of Lastingham, the year
of the Great Council at Whitby. At
that council Wilfrid was nominated
Bishop of Lindisfarne, and went to
France to seek consecration ; being
absent a long while, King Oswy sent
Ceadda to Kent to be consecrated Bishop
of the Church of York. His biographer,
in the 'Dictionary of Christian Bio
graphy,' suggests that it was Oswy's
intention not to supersede Wilfrid, but
to divide the kingdom into two sees, to
leave Wilfrid at Lindisfarne, and place
Ceadda at York.
On arriving in Kent Ceadda found
Deusdedit was dead and the see vacant ;
he therefore turned aside to Wessex to
seek consecration there, and there Wina,
assisted by two British bishops (pro
bably of Devon and Cornwall), conferred
consecration upon him (probably 665).
Wilfrid on his return resented the con
secration of Ceadda, and retired to his
monastery at Ripon. When Archbishop
Theodore made his visitation of the
kingdom (667), for some unknown
reason, perhaps because he considered
the see already filled by Wilfrid's con
secration, he pronounced Ceadda's con
secration to have been irregular. Ceadda
meekly resigned, and retired to his
monastery of Lastingham, and Wilfrid
assumed the rule of the Northumbrian
Church, with his See at York. In tho
same year, the See of Mercia becom
ing vacant by Jaruman's death, King

CEDD

132 CELIBACY OF THE CLERGY

Wulfhere desired Theodore to nomin
ate a new bishop, and Theodore sent
Ceadda to be Bishop of Mercia (669).
He first fixed the Mercian see at Lich
field. In his character and labours he
was a worthy imitator of the apostolic
piety and simplicity of his master,
Aidan. A copy of the Gospels, said to
have belonged to him, is still preserved
in the Chapter Library at Lichfield.
CEDD, Bishop of the East Saxons,
died 664. He was a Northumbrian,
one of four brothers, all priests, of
whom another was Ceadda, Bishop of
the Mercians. In 653 Peada, son of
Penda, visiting his sister, who was
married to Alchfrith, son of Oswin
King of Northumbria, was converted
to the Christian faith ; and on his
return took four priests with him, of
whom one was Cedd, to preach to his
people. But Sigebert, King of Essex,
in a visit to the Northumbrian Court
soon after, was also converted ; and
Oswin recalled Cedd and sent him with
a companion to preach among the East
Saxons. Having made many converts
among them, Cedd received consecra
tion at the hands of Finan, Bishop of
Lindisfarne, and two others, probably
Celtic bishops (a.d. 654) ; and con
tinued a successful work, making Tila-
berg (Tilbury) and Ithanacester (Otho-
na, Bradwell-on-the-Sea)'the centres of
his work. A curious illustration of
the Church customs of the time is that
Athelwold, King of Deira, through
Caelin, another of the four brothers,
presented Cedd with a site for a
monastery at Lastingham in Yorkshire.
Cedd built and dedicated the monastery,
and appointed the fourth of the brothers,
Cynebil, to rule it in his own absence.
Cedd was present at the important
Synod at Whitby, and acted as inter
preter between the opposite schools in
the discussion of the questions of Easter
and the Tonsure ; he himself was con
vinced by the arguments in favour of
the Catholic usages. He died shortly
after, on a. visit to his monastery of
Lastingham, which he bequeathed to
his brother Ceadda.

CELIBACY OF THE CLERGY. The
estate of celibacy was held in high es
timation among Christians from a very
early period. Church virgins and
widows, monks and nuns, in taking
vows of celibacy, were considered to( he
embracing a higher mode of life ; but
it was always regarded as a special
vocation, to be enforced upon nobody.
As early as the third century the
adoption of this mode of life by the
clergy generally had its advocates ;
but in the Western Church there
was no attempt ¦ to enforce it upon the
clergy till the eleventh century. Then
it formed part of the grand scheme of
Hildebrand (Gregory VII.) for the re
organisation of the Church, and was
required by a canon of the fourth Lat-
eran Council. There were probably
practical as well as sentimental reasons
which led the Reforming party in the
Roman Church in the eleventh century
to adopt the policy of enforcing celibacy
upon the clergy, (a) The tendency of
the times, was to make civil benefices
[see Benefice] hereditary, with a merely
perfunctory performance of the services
for which the benefice had originally
been conferred. The same tendency
was showing itself in church benefices.
Bishops secured the succession to their
sees for their sons. In Saxon times
married hereditary abbots held the
estates of English abbeys, e. g. the
Provostship of the monastery of Hex
ham in the 9th and 10th centuries was
hereditary for several generations. ; We
find a Welsh archdeaconry descending
from father to son and grandson. The
rectory of Whalley, Lancashire, con
tinued to descend from father to son for
centuries. Rectories were regardedias
a provision for a son of the family.
The highest dignities were sometimes
conferred upon boys, and a locum teneia
put in to fulfil the duties till the boy
should be old enough to be legally
presented to the office. The actual
possessors of these benefices had
often taken only some minor order,
in order to make themselves legally
capable of holding a benefice,,, ana

CELIBACY OF THE CLERGY 133 CELIBACY OF THE CLERGY

employed another to fulfil all its duties.
There was great danger that the pro
perty of the Church would thus become
virtually secularised ; and to prevent
this was one reason for pressing the
celibacy of the clergy as a point of
Church reform. (/3) It was honestly
believed that it would be for the wel
fare of the Church that the clergy
should be kept free from the cost and
cares of a family, and so be at liberty
to devote the property of the Church,
as well as their own undivided energies,
to the welfare of the people, (y) No
doubt the reform of the monastic order
at this period had produced a general
veneration for the ascetic life, and led
to a widespread feeling that it behoved
the secular clergy to embrace the prin
ciples of that higher life of which the
monks had set them the example. The
three vows of poverty, celibacy, and
obedience formed the. basis of what
was called the "Religious" life; and
the object of the reforming party was
to lead the clergy to model their life
upon them. Pope Gregory VII. made
a decree of universal clerical celibacy,
and the popes from that time made
persistent endeavours to enforce it.
Many of the clergy, strong in the right
of a thousand years, resisted the new
ordinance, and it was only gradually
that it was forced upon them. In
England the feeling of the Church was
strongly against it, and the English
clergy continued as a body to be a
married clergy for many years, success
fully resisting the endeavours of ultra
montane archbishops and bishops to
coerce them into celibacy. In 1107
the pope relaxed the canon disabling
clergymen's sons in England from hold
ing preferments, on the ground that the
greater and most valuable part of the
clergy here were such. And long after
the dignified clergy had been compelled
to conform to the growing feeling on
the subject the parochial clergy con
tinued to marry. *
* His steward reports to Bishop E. Neville
of Chichester [1224—1245] that the Vicar of
Mundham keeps two wives ; he pretends to

But all through the Middle Ages there
was a general compromise which it
seems right to mention. We frequently
hear it cited as a proof of the immor
ality of the mediaeval clergy, that so
many of them, with very little disguise,
had " concubines. " This was the com
promise. The priest did not, like a
monk, take a vow of celibacy ; the re
quirement of celibacy was not a divine
law, and he did not feel bound in con
science to obey it ; it was only an
ecclesiastical regulation, and he took
leave to evade the canon. Often he
was really married. Such a marriage
was not void in itself ; it was voidable
if brought before the Ecclesiastical
Court ; but he had taken his precau
tions in that case ; the marriage had
been irregularly performed in some
particular, or so performed that it was
incapable of legal proof. In many
cases the clergy entered into relations
which were not legal marriages, but
which were something like the mor
ganatic marriages of German princes,
illegal, derogatory, not conferring on
wife and children the status and rights
of a legal wife and children, but still
not in the eyes of society immoral and
disreputable. It must be borne in mind that very
many rectors and vicars only took
minor orders, to enable them to hold a
benefice, but never said, or were quali
fied to say, a mass, or hear a confession,
or preach a sermon ; they lived like
laymen in other respects, and their
quasi-marriage did not much shock the
religious feeling of their time. It must
be admitted that some clergymen of all
orders, from cardinals downwards, had
women living in their houses who were
not presented to the world as wives,
and children who passed as nephews
and nieces. Warham, the last unre-
formed Archbishop of Canterbury, is
said to have had a wife who was not
secluded from the knowledge and society
of his friends ; Cranmer certainly mar
ried the niece of Osiander before he
have a Papal dispensation. (Stephens's ' Me
morials of the South Saxon See,' p. SO.)

CELIBACY OF THE CLERGY 134

CELTIC CHURCH

was archbishop, and did not sever his
ties with her after he became arch
bishop. And it is clear that these
relations were not regarded as disgrace
ful ; in fact, the common sense of man
kind gives easy absolution for the
breach of inequitable laws.
All this is said in explanation of the
real facts and complexion of the case.
It is not for a moment to be doubted
that the ambiguity of such relations,
at the best, laid open those who entered
into them to just censure ; must have
lowered their own moral tone, and that of
those connected with them. It is not
denied that enforced celibacy, and the
loose notions encouraged by such ir
regular connections as those described
above, led to a considerable amount of
profligacy, which admits of no excuse or
palliation. But these explanations
show that the mediaeval clergy were not
so given up to shameless immorality and
monstrous hypocrisy as the frequent inu-
endoes of contemporary writers would,
without explanation, seem to imply.
By the time of the Reformation
the idea that the clergy ought to be
celibates had gained such hold — espe
cially on the minds of the laity — that
the freedom to marry was not conceded
to the clergy without opposition and
dislike. After bishops and clergy in
the early years of the Reformation had
married wives, or avowed the , wives
they had previously married, the Act
of Six Articles required them to put
them away on pain of serious penalties.
Permission was given to the clergy
to marry by the ecclesiastical authori
ties in the first year of Edward VI.,
and this was confirmed by an Act of
Parliament in the following year
(1548-9), whose preamble, however,
still affirms " that it is better for priests
and other ministers of the Church to
live chaste and without marriage,
whereby they might better attend to
the ministry of the Gospel and be
less distracted with secular cares."
Elizabeth retained the traditional dis
like of a married clergy. Cecil had
difficulty in persuading her to consent

to the marriage of the clergy ; she did
issue an injunction that no head or
member of any college or cathedral
should bring a wife or any other woman
within the precincts of it, to abide in
the same, on pain of forfeiture of all
ecclesiastical promotions. When Parker
remonstrated against the injunction she
declared that she repented of having
given bishoprics to any married men,
and held out obscure threats of further
reaction. The Elizabethan bishops
did not usually have their wives and
families living with them in their,
episcopal houses. [See Bishop Forties's'
' Exposition of the Thirty-nine Articles,*
Art. 32.]
CELTIC CHURCH, THE. There are
so many links of connection between
the Celtic Church and the early history
of the Church in England, that it seems
necessary to give at least a brief out
line of it.
Towards the close of the period of the
Roman occupation of Britain, viz. , in
the year 397, Ninian, a Briton, pene
trated to the district of country extend
ing along the north shore of the Solway
Frith. He had been regularly instructed
at Rome in the faith and mysteries of
the truth, and had also studied with St..
Martin of Tours, and had been raised
(perhaps in Gaul, like St. Patrick at a
later period) to the dignity of bishop.
He brought with him companions, by
whose help he built a church of stshe,
with ah adjoining monastery. Its white
walls were so striking in a country
where the ordinary houses were wattle,
and the best buildings of wood, as to
gain for it the name of the White House,
Candida Casa, subsequently Withern.
The Candida Casa was the centre from
which Christianity spread far and wide,
and its monastic institution exercised
a powerful influence over the religions
life of the Celtic Church for centuries.
After Christianising the inhabitants
of the neighbouring country from the
Solway to the Grampians, St. Ninian
crossed the Irish Sea, and according to
the most ancient authorities, was the
first who introduced the Faith among

CELTIC CHURCH

135

CELTIC CHURCH

the wild tribes who inhabited the sister
island. From the ' Chronicle of Prosper' we
learn that in 430 Palladius was ordained
bishop by Pope Celestine and sent to
Ireland, with twelve companions. His
mission, however, terminated at the
end of a year, either by his flight or
martyrdom, without leaving any per
manent result.
The historical darkness is brightened
in the fifth century, by two contem
porary documents, both of which are
declared by the most recent authorities
to be undoubtedly genuine : (1) ' A
Catalogue of the Saints in Ireland, ' and
the ' Litany of Angus the Culdee ' : and
<2)-the ' Confession of St. Patrick,' with
his ' Epistle to Coroticus. ' St. Patrick,
whose birth name was Succath, was born
of Christian parentage, his father Cal-
purnius being a deacon, and his grand
father Potitus, a priest. Calpurnius
is also said to have been a Decurio —
that is, a magistrate of a provincial
Roman town — the Saint was born pro
bably about A.D. 387, at Bannaven, of
Tabernia, which is said by the best
authorities' to have been probably the
place now called Kirkpatrick, between
Dumbarton and Glasgow, the country
in which Ninian had laboured, and
where the Candida Casa was still a great
school of religious life. At the age of
sixteen, he was carried off by Irish ma
rauders to Ireland, and spent seven
years there in captivity. On making
his escape, he resolved to return to
preach the gospel to the people among
whom he had been a slave. It seems
certain that he went to the monastery
of St. Martin, at Tours, afterwards
studied with Germanus at Auxerre, and
then visited the famous school of Lerins.
He was, in all probability, ordained
deacon and priest in Gaul, and went to
labour among the Irish. On the failure
of Palladius, Patrick, now forty-five
years of age, was consecrated bishop,
probably also in Gaul ; and sailed with
twelve companions,* to the work for
• For many centuries it was common for a
chief and twelve companions to be sent to

which he had been during twenty years
preparing himself. He says, in his
' Epistle to Coroticus,' that as he was
constituted the Bishop of Ireland, he
founded churches wherever he could
obtain a grant of land from the chief of
a tribe, and placed in each a bishop
ordained by himself alone,t with one
or more presbyters under him. 'The
Catalogue of the Saints,' speaking of
the clergy of the time, says, that they
had " one Head, Christ ; and one chief,
Patricius ; and that they were all
bishops, famous and holy, and full of
the Holy" Ghost, three hundred and
fifty in number," which statement is
confirmed by Angus the Culdee, who
adds that the Saint also ordained three
hundred presbyters. After the Saint's
death, however, about a.d 465, his
work seems to have languished. The
' Catalogue of the Saints ' clearly marks
three different periods during the cen
tury and a half dating from and in
cluding the time of St. Patrick. Dur
ing the first the agency at work was a
secular clergy, with a large proportion of
bishops, scattered amongst the tribes.
In the second period all this agency
seems to have disappeared, and there
is instead a number of monasteries and
a monastic clergy. This is succeeded
by a third period, whose strongly^
marked characteristic is an eremitical
clergy, each living alone in his cell and
chapel, yet ministering to the people
round about them. The Irish saints
of the second order are represented in
their legendary lives as going to Britain,-
and especially to St. David, for their
religious training. Finian, one of
these Irish saints, after spending thirty-
years in Britain, chiefly in the monas
tery of St. David's, and having had the,
instructions of three eminent Welsh-
fathers, St. Cadoc, St. David, and
Gildas the historian, at length re-
undertake the foundation of any new Chris
tian work, after the example of the Lord
and His Apostles.
t Consecration by a single bishop was
the common practice of the Celtic Church.
Though irregular, according to the Canon of
Nicsea, it was undoubtedly valid.

CELTIC CHURCH

136

CELTIC CHURCH

turned to Ireland, " with several of the
religious Britains," whom legendary
story calls ' ' the twelve Apostles of Ire
land " ; and there founded the great
monastery of Clonard in Meath. His
success was rapid and extraordinary.
His central monastery ultimately num
bered 3000 inmates. Well-trained mis
sionaries went forth from it and founded
other monasteries. All these commu
nities received large numbers of the
native youth for education. And thus
a single generation was enough to con
vert the mass of the people into intelli
gent and settled Christians. The monas
tic institution which thus established
the Church in Ireland, gave a peculiar
form to its whole ecclesiastical organis
ation. The monastery was the centre of
all ecclesiastical work, and the abbot
was the head of the monastery. Some
of the members of the monastery were
consecrated bishops for the perform
ance of the necessary episcopal func
tions, and many of them were priests ;
but both bishops and priests were mem
bers of the monastic body, and the
abbot was in a sense the Superior
of the whole community, and practi
cally the director of the work of the
Church. Sometimes the abbot was
himself bishop and abbot — after the
pattern of St. Martin — but generally
the abbot was only in priest's orders,
so that a presbyter-abbot directed the
labours of the bishops and priests of
the community.
In the middle of the sixth century,
the monastery of Clonard above-men
tioned numbered among its inmates
Columba, a young man of the family of
a chief of a tribe among the Donegal
mountains. In the year 563, at the
age of forty-two, he set forth with the
usual twelve companions to undertake
missionary work on the west coast of
Scotland. The country north of the
Frith of Clyde had long been Christian.
About sixty years before, an Irish chief
tain had led a considerable body of fol
lowers across the sea, and had founded
a Christian kingdom in what is now
Argyleshire. Columba directed his

mission to the Picts, who inhabited the
country between these two Christian
kingdoms. He obtained a concession of
the little island of Hii (Latinised -into
Iona), off the coast of the country to
which his mission was directed, and
here he proceeded to build his church
and monastery.
In its constitution it was the same
as the other Irish monasteries of the
period, with a presbyter abbot, but
with a bishop or bishops among the
brethren, whose superiority in ecclesis- -
astical order and whose peculiar func
tions were fully recognised. The build
ings of the new monastery were also,
like those to which Columba and his
companions were accustomed, of timber
and wattles. Adamnan, who was abbot
of the house, speaks of "themonas-
terium or monastery proper, in terms,
which show that it had a refectory
of considerable size, in which was a fire
place and a vessel of water. He men
tions the hospitium or guest-chamber,
which was wattled, and the other houses
or cells of the monks, with the plateria
or little court which they surrounded ;
and he indicates that these monastic
buildings were constructed of wood.
He repeatedly mentions the church,
with its exedra or side chamber, and
terms it an oratorium, which shows that
it was a Diurlhech, or oak building. He
frequently alludes to the house or cell
occupied by Columba himself, which,
he says, was built of planks, and placed
on the highest part of the ground."
(Skene's 'Celtic Scotland,' ii. 96.) He
also mentions the barn, and the kiln,
and by the incidental mention of a
mill-stone indicates that there was. a
mill. The whole of the buildings were
enclosed with a vallum or earthen
rampart. " The members of this monastery ;
were termed brethren. They took »>
solemn monastic vow on bended knees
in the oratorium, and were tonsured
from ear to ear — that is, the forepart of
the head was made bare, and the hair
was allowed to grow only on the back
part of the head. They consisted flf

CELTIC CHURCH

137

CELTIC CHURCH

three classes : those of advanced years
and tried devotedness were called
seniors, and their principal duty was
to attend to the religious services of
the Church, to reading the Scriptures
and transcribing them. Those who
were stronger and fitter for labour,
were termed the working brothers.
Their stated labour was agriculture
and the tending of the cattle, and
probably the service within the mon
astery in the preparation of food, and
•the manufacture of the various articles
required for personal and domestic use.
Among these Adamnan mentions the
pincerna or butler, and the pistor or
baker, who was a Saxon. The third
class consisted of the youths who were
under instruction, and were termed
alumni or pupils. The dress of the
monks consisted of a white tunica, or
under-garment, over which they wore
a Camilla, consisting of a body and
hood made of wool, and of the natural
colour of the material. With regard
to divine worship, Adamnan does not
specifically mention a daily service,
but the recitation of the Psalter is so
frequently alluded to as an important
part of the service, that a part of the
day was probably given to it, though
the working brethren were exempt.
But the principal service was unques
tionably the celebration of the Eu
charist, which took place on the Lord's
Day, and on the stated festivals of the

Church ; as well as on such particular
occasions as the abbot may have ap
pointed. It is termed by Adamnan,
' the Sacred Mysteries of the Eucharist, '
or ' the Mysteries of the Sacred Obla
tion. ' The priest standing before the
altar consecrated the elements. When
several priests were present one was
selected, who might invite u brother
presbyter to break the bread with him
in token of equality. When a bishop
officiated he broke the bread alone, in
token of his superior office One very
important feature of this monastic
system was the penitential discipline
to which the monks were subjected "
(Skene's ' Celtic Scotland,' ii. p.
101). It was from this monastery in tho
time of Abbot Segenius, the fourth suc
cessor of Columba, that St. Aidan went
forth, and founding a new monastery
at Lindisfarne, made it the centre of
the conversion of Northumbria, and
not only so, but the source from which
missionaries went out to the conversion
of the East Saxons and Mercians, as
will appear in the summary of the
Saxon period of the history.
' Culdees of the British Isles as they
appear in History,' by Rev. Dr. Reeves ;
Adamnan's ' Life of Columba,' by Rev.
Dr. Reeves ; ' On the Churches of the
British Confession,' by A. W. Haddaii
in the ' Christian Remembrancer ' ;
' Celtic Scotland,' W. F. Skene.

CBNTTTRT. A.D. IV.

397

V.

410
c 430
c 432
c465

VI.

563
596

VII.

617

CHRONOLOGY OF THE CELTIC CHURCH.

Ninian founds Candida Casa.
The Romans abandon Britain.
Palladius sent as Bishop to Ireland.
St. Patrick goes as Bishop to Ireland.
Death of St. Patrick.
Finian returns to Ireland, and founds Clonard.
Columba founds monastery at Iona.
[Augustin and his missionaries came from Rome. ]
Oswald and his brother, the sons of jEthelfrid of Northum
bria, on the slaughter of their father and usurpation of

CENSUS

138

CHALICE

CiiNTUBY. A.D. VII.

VIII.

625
633635 053

6 til
665

716

his kingdom by Edwin of Deira, flee to Iona and are
converted there.
[Edwin married to Ethelberga of Kent, converted by
Paulinus, Bishop of York.]
In the battle of Heafenfield Oswald reconquers Northumbria;
sends to Iona for teachers.
Aidan founds a monastery at Lindisfarne.
Mercia converted by Ceadda and others (See at Ripon, after
wards at Lichfield).
East Saxons recovered to the faith by Cedd.
Oswy King of Northumbria adopts the Roman Easter, &c. '
Oswy of Northumbria and Egbert of Kent, on the death of
Deusdedit Archbishop of Canterbury, concur in sending
Wighard to Rome for consecration as Archbishop. On
his death there, Theodore of Tarsus is, with their consent,
consecrated.
The monks of Iona begin to observe the canonical Easter, &c.

CENSUS, RELIGIOUS. [See Dis
senters, Numbers of.]
CEREMONIES. [See Rites.]
CHALICE (calyx, cup), the cup used
in the consecration and administra
tion of the Holy Communion. We
cannot doubt that from the first days
of the Church the most handsome and
costly cup and salver obtainable would,
out of natural reverence for the sacra
ment, be used in the celebration of the
Eucharist ; nor that vessels would be
early set aside and reserved for that
sacred use only. Church history sup
plies us with several indications that
the Churches early possessed a very
considerable value of church plate in
the form of cups, patens, lamps, candle
sticks, &e, enough to tempt the cu
pidity of the enemies of the Church.
When churches were multiplied, and
existed in poor villages, the church
vessels there were such as could be ob
tained, and sometimes were of wood,
horn, tin, glass, as well as of the precious
metals. The Council of Rheims in 847, how
ever, decreed that the chalices, if not of
gold, should be wholly of silver, tin
being allowed only in cases where the
precious metals could not be had, and
other materials being altogether forbid
den. Stephen Langton, in his ' Consti

tutions ' of 1206, prescribes silver, the
commentator in Lyndewode adding vel
aurcum, or of gold. Inventories of the
vessels existing in various churches bo-
fore the Reformation, and those taken at
the time of the Reformation, show that
the churches had gradually accumulated
gold and silver and precious stones in
the form of shrines, images, reliquaries,
book-covers, crosses, mitres, vestments,
sacramental vessels, pyxes, &c, to a
very considerable value. The commis
sioners of Henry VIII. and Edward VI,
visited all the monastic and collegiate
churches, and despoiled them of the
most valuable portions of their plate,
jewels, ornaments and vestments, which
were confiscated to the king's use.
The seizure of the parish plate was
not decided upon till the last year
of King Edward VI., and probably
then only partially carried out ; but
on the accession of Elizabeth the
injunctions of Edward were reissued
almost verbatim, and the Visitation
Articles based on them made enquiry
about the church plate. But it is pro
bable that much of the plate of the
parish churches disappeared through;
the rapacity of the local people of in
fluence ; the patron seized some things,
and the churchwardens sold others, to
save the church rates ; others were

CHALICE

139

CHALICE

stolen ; they were stated in the re
turns to have "disappeared." When
all was done, however, at least one
chalice and paten were left to each
church. But these also disappeared
under the discouragement by the bishops
of the continued use of the old chalices,
and tho requirement of larger com
munion cups in their place ; e.g. in 1569
Archbishop Parker's 'Visitation Ar
ticles ' ask, " Whether they do minister
in any prophane cups, bowles, dishes,
or chalices heretofore used at masse, or
els in a decent communion cuppe pro
vided and kept for the same purpose
only; " and Archbishop Grindal, in 1576,
enquires in his 'Visitation Articles,'
' ' Whether you have in your parish
churches and chapels a fair and comely
communion cup of silver, and a cover
of silver for the same, which may
serve also for the ministration of the
bread." The fate of the old chalices
and patens under these directions is in
dicated in such rubrics as these : among
the parochial payments of St. Andrew,
Holborn in London in 1558, " Paido for
the exchaunge of two chalices with the
covers, weighing xxxii oz. halfe, for a
communion cup waying xxx oz. and
halfe, the exchaunge with the odd oz.
at xiiijs. viijd."
Mr. Cripps says that after extensive
enquiry he can find not more than half-
a-dozen chalices of earlier date than the
Reformation. The finest of these are at
Wivelisoombe, Somerset, Bishop Fox's
chalice at Corpus Christi College, Ox
ford, and Sir Thomas Pope's chalice at
Trinity College; Oxford. Of the com
munion cup with its cover, of the reign
of Edward VI., there are still fewer
examples than of the earlier ones ; there
is one of 1548-9 at St. Lawrence, Jewry,
two at St. Margaret's, Westminster, of
1551-2, and others of the same date at
Hunstanton and at Totness. They
are all of the same type, of which an
engraving is given by Mr. Cripps, p.
1 50. There are a multitude of examples
of the cups with cover produced in the
first year of Elizabeth, very similar to
the above, with a cover serving as a

paten. Another common 16th century
chalice was a. handsome tall hannap,
or drinking cup, ornamented with re-
poussi work, with a conical cover
similarly ornamented, and often sur
mounted by a statuette or other finial.
But they are to be found of all sizes,
and of all shapes, from the little silver
mug of village churches to the tall cup
capable of holding a quart of wine of
the great parishes. "It is interesting
to find examples, and fine examples
too, of each successive fashion of drink
ing cups amongst the ancient posses
sions of our parish churches. It may
perhaps be thought by some at the
present day inappropriate to use such
vessels for the sacred purpose to which
their owners had intended to dedicate
them ; but surely they should be care
fully treasured and preserved instead
of exchanged, as they often are, for
articles of modern design which cannot
be thought of without a shudder . . .
They have an interest and value of their
own," and ought to be preserved as
historical relics, even if others are pro
vided for ordinary use. "Many of
them are made of the very same silver
as the ancient chalices which they re
placed — vessels which had perchance
belonged to these parishes from time
immemorial. It is to be feared that
they are constantly parted with for
the mere price of -the silver by those
who are ignorant or regardless of the
curious historical associations which
surround these ancient and interesting
relics. " At the commencement of the
eighteenth century cups were made
very upright and always perfectly
plain. It was an ancient custom to place a
chalice and paten, the symbols of his
office, upon the breast of a priest in his
coffin. William of Bleys, 1229 a.d.,
ordered that a parish should, in addition
to the sacred vessels for use, have also an
unconsecrated chalice, which might be of
tin, for burial with the priest (Wilkins,
i. 623). Several examples of these
mortuary chalices buried with a priest
have been found and preserved : one of

CHANCEL

140

CHANCEL

pewter, with its paten, of the thirteenth
century, at Cheam, Surrey ; two silver
ones at Salisbury, &c.
About thirty years ago, with the re
vival of Gothic art, it became the
fashion to imitate the earlier chalices.
[See Paten.]
Woodcuts of the earlier examples
herein mentioned ; also a table of the
hall marks and maker's marks, by which
the date of old plate may be ascertained,
will be found in ' Old English Plate,' by
W. J. Cripps. London : Murray, 1881,
from which this article is summarised.
CHANCEL (from Cancelli, screens).
In the Basilican churches, the area
was divided into various spaces appro
priated to different persons, not in
direct imitation of the five spaces of
the temple — holy of holies, holy place,
court of the priests, court of Israel,
court of the Gentiles — but in recol
lection of them. Thus the eastern
apse contained the altar, with the clergy
seated in the semicircle behind it.
-Westward of it a space of the same
width was raised above the floor of
the basilica, and protected by pierced
screens ; this was called the chancel,
and was reserved for the use of the
clergy who read the Scriptures and
sang the service. From the pulpit on
each side the Epistle, Gospel, and other
things were said. About the eleventh
century the sides of the chancel began
to be enclosed with high walls or solid
wood screens ; the pulpits were re
moved to the north-west and south
west corners, and ultimately were
merged in a roodloft over a lofty pierced
screen at the west of the chancel.
But in the typical parish church
of this country we find a modified
arrangement. It consists of two dis
tinct buildings, one on the east, which
we call the chancel, another to west
ward of it, which we call the nave ;
the former shorter, narrower, lower
than the other ; opening into one an
other by an arch through the common
wall, which we call the chancel arch,
which throws the two buildings into
one for purposes of worship. What is

also very remarkable is, that the two
buildings are two different properties ;
the chancel is the property of the
rector, and he is legally liable "to keep
it in repair ; the nave is the property
of the parishioners, who are liable to
keep it in repair. These facts point
clearly to a different origin of the. two ¦
parts of the church. In some very'
early examples of this type of church,
the opening between the chancer and:
the nave is not larger than a door, as
at Perranzabulo, Cornwall (engraved
in the ' Journal of the Archajol. Insti
tute,' II. 228), and St. Ebbs, North-
umberland. The large chancel-arch'
seems to be an improvement of later'
date. In the absence of any other explan-'
ation of these peculiarities, the follow
ing conjecture may be worth consider-'
ation. In the Eastern churches the
part of the church in which the
Eucharist is consecrated is divided from
the rest of the church by a screen, and'
during the consecration a veil hides
the act from the congregation. The
priest and deacon stand on each side
of the sacrarium arch ; and the people'
come up one by one and communicate1
standing. The Celtic Church, in its-
limited intercourse with the Continent,1
had retained many old-fashioned cus
toms which had been modified elsewhere'
in the West. The oratories of the Celtic1
hermit saints were the beginnings of
many of the churches ; the priest cele
brated the Eucharist at the altar, in
his cell, or oratory, and perhaps com
municated his little flock at the door,'
after the ancient fashion still observed1'
by the Eastern churches. In many'
places in England, in Saxon times, it-
would seem that the people had an
enclosed ground -for their religious as
semblies, which was called the church
yard, long before a church was built
within it to shelter the congregation
from the weather. But is it not pro
bable that a small building was soon
erected to give the altar and the officK
atirig priest and his service such shelter
from the elements as the dignity of the

CHANTRY

141

CHANTRY

service absolutely demanded ; and that
where a parish had been formed, the
parson was held liable' to erect such
building ; while it was left to the people,
as soon as they pleased* to erect for
their own convenience a shelter for
themselves, abutting on the west end
of this chapel, and opening into it ?
In the case of impropriate benefices
the lay rector is liable for the repair
of the chancel, and has a right to a
seat in it ; his right to erect monuments
in it, and that without payment of
fee, seems to have been often claimed,
and often allowed to go by default.
But notwithstanding these rights of the
rector in the chancel, and the parish
ioners in the nave, the incumbent of
the parish, whether rector or vicar,
has freehold rights in the whole church
and churchyard.
The building which we have called
the chancel is divided into two portions ;
the eastern part of it is usually raised
one or more steps above the general
level, and is screened off by a low screen
commonly called the altar-rails ; within
stands the altar, and there the altar
services are performed. It is sometimes
called the Sanctuary or Sacrarium. In
the other part of the chancel are placed
the reading-desk or prayer-desk, from
which the daily services are said ; and
here are frequently now seated, in
benches which look north and south,
those who are trained to lead the sing
ing of the congregation ; this portion
of the building is hence frequently
called the Choir.
CHANTRY. A foundation for the
singing of masses for the well-being of an
individual or family, or other specified
persons. In primitive times at a funeral, there
was usually a celebration of the Holy
Communion, in which, at the place of
the commemoration of the faithful de
parted, after the 'recital of the usual
roll of names of saints, bishops, &e,
special mention was made of the de-
- ceased. -This led to the practice of pro
viding' for other celebrations on behalf
of a deceased person at the times when

it was the custom to bear them spe
cially in mind, e. g. on the following
Sunday, at the end of a month (the
"month's mind "), and at the end of a
•year. In and after the 13th century;
sometimes provision was made for such
a celebration every day for thirty days
after the burial (a "Trental"), or for
a longer period. After the beginning of
the fifteenth century, very few religious
houses were founded, but instead de
votional munificence began to flow in
the direction of the founding of chan
tries. Wealthy persons left an endow
ment for one or more priests to celebrate
daily in perpetuity, on their own behalf,
and that of their family, "and of all
Christian souls."
Chantry chapels for these services
were most frequently formed within
existing churches ; in great minster
churches the side chapels were used
for this purpose, or little chapels were
erected in convenient places, at the
ends of aisles, against the east walls
of the transepts, on the west side of
the rood-screen, between the columns
of the great arcades. The chapel was
often built so as to enclose the tomb of
the founder ; in the Marney Chapel at
Layer Marney, Essex, the altar is at
tached to the west end of the founder's
tomb. In parish churches, a portion of
the church — especially the east end of
an aisle — was screened off with traceried
wooden screens into a chapel ; some
times an addition was built to the
church, opening into it, to afford room
for a chantry chapel ; in such cases the
chapel was usually also the burial-place
of the founder and his family. The
churches of the large and wealthy towns
had sometimes ten or twelve such
chantries. Sometimes a chantry was endowed
for more than one priest, for example,
the Burghersh Chantry, at Lincoln, had
several priests "who formed a corporate
body, with a house of residence within
the close, which still remains. Richard
III. commenced the foundation of a
chantry of one hundred chaplains in
York Cathedral ; six altars were erected,

CHANTRY

142

CHANTRY

and the chantry house was begun, when
the king's death on Bosworth Field
put an end to the magnificent design.
(' York Fabric Rolls,' p. 87 note.)
Other duties 'besides that of saying
prayers were sometimes assigned to the

B.D., orM.A. at the least, and (leave
being given) to deliver every year
eight sermons in as many neighbouring
churches : in another case, the chantry
priest, being an M.A., was required,
before entering his chantry, to reside

Tewkesbury Abbey. The "Warwick Chapel.

chantry priests : e. g. in the case of
chantries at St. Mary, Maldon, and
Little Bentley, Essex, the foundation
deed required them to help the parish
priest in his cure of souls ; in one case,
Romford, the priest is required to be a

two years at Cambridge and attend the
Divinity schools, that he might be the
better able to disseminate the word of
God among Christian people ; one of
his duties, after he had entered upon;
his office, being to preach in various

CHAPEL

143

CHAPEL

churches, by license of the bishop and
leave of the incumbents, during Lent.
It is sufficiently clear that the founding
of chantries was sometimes used as a
means of increasing the clerical staff
of a town, and of establishing what, in
subsequent times, were called Lecture
ships. So also, pious people desiring to
provide a chapel of ease for any neigh
bourhood, found it most convenient to
do so by building and endowing it as
a chantry ; because this mode evaded
the legal difficulties in the way of sub
dividing a parish and building a new
parish church ; for any man might build
a chantry without leave of the bishop ;
though in the latter part of the me
diaeval period, the statute of mortmain
required the king's license for an en
dowment. The building was often a
complete church of the usual plan, and
at a distance from "the parish church,
as at Woodstock, at Foulness Island,
and Coggeshall, Essex.
In the spoliation of the Church at the
Reformation, the chantry endowments
were among the last to be seized. An
Act of Parliament (37 Henry VIII.
e. 4) gave the King power at any time
to issue commissions to seize them and
take them into his possession. ¦ This
being in the last year of Henry VIII. ,
many were left untouched, but another
Act, 1 Edw. VI. cap. 14, gave the re
mainder to the King. In the case of
some of those which were at a distance
from the parish church, and served as
chapels of ease to important towns,
the inhabitants purchased the fabric of
the grantee, and raised among them
selves a stipend for the maintenance
of the customary ministrations among
them. This was the case at Billericay,
Essex, which was not re-endowed until
the present generation.
CHAPEL. Du Cange says, and in
the absence of a more probable sugges
tion the unlikely etymology is gener
ally accepted, that the word is derived
from the little cape (capella) of St.
Martin which the kings of France used
to take with them in time of war,
together with other relics, and which

was kept in the tent in which Divine
service was said, and which was thence
called the capella, or chapel. A building
dedicated to Divine service, and hav
ing an altar, which is not a cathedral
or parish church, or the church of an
abbey or priory. As (1) the domestic
chapel within the precincts of the
house of a nobleman, bishop, or others
entitled to have such a chapel. (2)
The chapel attached to colleges, hos
pitals, &c. (3) Chapels of ease, built
for the convenience of parishioners at
an inconvenient distance from their
parish church. (4) Parochial chapels,
which have a minister of their own
independent of the incumbent of the
mother church, with all parochial rights
as to sacraments, and made exempt
from episcopal jurisdiction, &c. (5)
Free chapels, such as were founded by
kings. (6) Chantry chapels [see Chan
try]. (7) The name has of late been
assumed by Dissenters for their places
of worship ; it is perhaps an illegal
assumption of the title, but, inasmuch
as it seems intended to imply that their
purpose is to supplement the religious
provision made by the parish church,
is not an unfriendly assumption.
The Chapels in Cathedrals and mon
asteries arose out of the veneration
for saintly relics. These were sought
after eagerly by every great church.
In the sixth century altars were erected
over them, at which service was occa
sionally said ; chapels were constructed
within or in connection with the church
to contain them; sometimes in the crypt,
in the triforial galleries and upper cham
bers of towers and porches.
Domestic Chapels. Every nobleman
and gentleman of a certain rank had a
chapel in his house for the convenience
of his household, and a clerical staff pro
portioned to his rank and wealth. In
royal houses and those of great nobles
the chapel was often a church-like
building in one of the court-yards, and
the chaplains were organised on a col
legiate basis, with a dean and canons,
clerks, singing men and boys, whose resi
dences were sometimes arranged round

CHAPLAINS

144

CHAPTER-HOUSE

a little quadrangle with its cloister, ad
joining the chapel. St. George's Chapel
in Windsor Castle is a very beautiful and
complete example ; but the great nobles
had their chapel establishments on a
proportionate scale. The chapel was
often a large apartment engaged in the
general plan of the house, but easily
identified in ancient castles and manor-
houses by its orientation, windows, pis
cina, &e, and sometimes the adjoining
apartment of the chaplain can also be
identified. In many cases there is a
gallery in the western half of the
chapel, on a level with the upper floor
of the main building, which was occu
pied by the family, while the servants
occupied the floor. These chapels were
thoroughly furnished with all the
requisite appliances and usual orna
ments of Divine service, with a splen
dour proportioned to the rank and
wealth of the master of the house.
In great houses, besides the general
chapel, there was often a small oratory,
in later times called a closet, for the
private use of the lord, and sometimes
another for the lady, each with its altar,
and a chaplain to serve it daily. *
The name was applied not only to the
building or apartment within a noble
man or gentleman's house consecrated
to Divine service, but also to the staff
of clergymen and others maintained
for the performance of the clerical
duties of the chapel and household.
The "chapel" of the fifth Earl of
Northumberland (a.d. 1477 — 1527) con
sisted of a dean and ten priests, eleven
singing men and six boys.
CHAPLAINS. Certain persons have
a legal right to nominate one or more
clerks in holy orders to be their chap
lains, as the king and nobility, the
archbishops and bishops, sheriffs of
counties. A nobleman's chaplain has
certain privileges of exemption from
episcopal visitation, &c. In the period
preceding the Reformation, wealthy
private persons very commonly had a
* Authorities : ' Parker's Domestic Archi
tecture ' ; ' Scenes and Characters of the
Middle Ages.'

chaplain in their houses. A statute
of Henry VIII. put some limit to this
possession of chaplains, and defined
how many might be retained by differ
ent ranks : an archbishop might have
eight ; a duke or bishop, six ; marquis
or earl, five ; viscount, four ; baron,
three, &c. The sovereign has forty-
eight, besides the royal establishments
at Westminster, Windsor, the Tower,
&e Certain public institutions also,
as the House of Commons, jails, work
houses, hospitals, lunatic asylums,
cemeteries. Tha army and navy are
also served by chaplains, of whom some
are stationary at the forts, garrisons,
and dockyards ; some accompany the
regiments or ships as part of their staff,
The army chaplains have at their head
a chaplain-general, who acts as a kind
of archdeacon of the army. The navy
has no such officer, but its chaplains are
governed by the Queen's regulations
and the Admiralty instructions, and
are under the jurisdiction of the Bishop
of London ?
CHAPTER. [See Cathedral Chap
ter.] CHAPTER-HOUSE. Every monas
tery and cathedral had its chapter
house, so-called because in it tho com
munity assembled eveiy day after Prime
to hear a chapter of the Rule read and
expounded. Here also the disciplinary
and business meetings of the com
munity were held. The monastic
chapter-houses were usually rectangu
lar halls, except Westminster polygonal,
Worcester circular, and Thornton octa
gonal, separated only by a narrow
sacristy or passage from the transept
of the church. They were often large
enough to be divided by arcades- into,
a centre and aisles, as at Tintern,
Netley, Fountains, Beaulieu, Jorvaulx,,
Buildwas, were very ornamentally built,
and were approached from the east side
of the cloister by a, richly-ornamented
arch and vestibule. Seats.were arranged
against the walls for the monks, and %
raised seat on a dais at the east end for
the abbot, and a lectern in the middle
from which certain things were read,

CHASUBLE

145

CHESTER

( ' Scenes and Characters of the Middle
Ages,' p. 77.)
The chapter - houses of cathedrals
served by Augustinian canons (except
Exeter) were polygonal in plan (of
eight or nine sides), with a pyramidal
roof, groined internally, the groining
springing from a central pillar. They
were very remarkable and picturesque
buildings. When the chapter-house is
not immediately accessible from the
cloister, a covered way is erected to it
from the cloister, or direct from the
church, as at York, Wells, Lichfield,
Southwell. [See Cathedral Close.]
CHASUBLE. In the fourth century
a new upper garment gradually came
into fashion throughout the Roman
world, which superseded the ancient
pallium, as that had superseded the
toga. The new garment, called in the
East tfrnvoXiov, and in the West planeta,
was at first a circular piece of cloth
with a slit in the middle, through which
the head was passed, and it fell in folds
about the person down to below the
knee. When it went out of fashion in
civil use * it continued to be used by
the clergy, and by the end of the fifth
century was almost universally used as
a distinctive clerical vestment. At
first it was worn by all orders of the
clergy, even by acolytes ; but after a
time its use was restricted to the two
highest orders, bishops and priests, both
in the East and West, and seems to have
been used out of doors as well as in all
their ministrations. In the ninth cen
tury it began to be called Casula, a little
house (whence the English chasuble).
When people began to invent sym
bolical meanings for everything con
nected with religion, Germanus of
Constantinople in the eighth century
says that it is a symbol of our Lord's
humanity ; Amalarius of Metz in the
ninth said it means good works ; Alcuin
in the tenth made it signify charity,
and from that time forward charity came
to be its recognised meaning.
We have no contemporary illustra-
* It still survives in common use in Spanish
South America under the name of poncho.

tions of the chasuble as worn in the
English Church until the 10th century ;
but it was doubtless worn by the British
and English clergy as by their brethren
on the Continent of Europe, as seen in
Marriott's 'Vestments of the Church,'
and in Parker's ' Photographs of the
Mosaics of Rome. ' The general shape
of the vestment underwent changes of
fashion. In the times before the Norman
Conquest it was large and full, as in the
Benedictional of St. Ethelwold, tenth
century (' Archseologia,' vol. xxiv.) ;
but about the middle of the eleventh
century it was cut narrower at the sides,
and longer behind than before, as in the
representation of Archbishop Stigand
in the Bayeux tapestry and of Odo of
Bayeux on his seal. In the thirteenth,
fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries they
were pointed oval in shape. At the
Reformation the English Church again
modified its shape : in the monument
of Archbishop Sandys, f a.d. 1588,, at
Southwell, and of Bishop Vesey,J a.d.
1547, at Sutton Coldfield, it is repre
sented short in front and long behind ;
in the brass of Dr. John Sperhawke,§
A.D. 1474, at Hitchen, Herts, it is of
the primitive circular shape.
The use of the chasuble (in the belief
that it is authorised by the ' ornaments
rubric') has been revived in several
churches. It was probably first restored
in the Church of St. Thomas the
Martyr, Oxford, about 1857. [See
Vestments, Clerical.]
CHESTER, DIOCESE OF. Chester
was the see of a bishop for a very short
period in the twelfth century ; Bishop
Peter, the first Norman Bishop of Lich
field, having, in 1075, at the time that
the Council of London directed the
removal of sees to the larger towns,
removed his see from Lichfield to Ches
ter ; but his successor, Bishop Robert
(1086 — 1117), transferred the see again
to Coventry. For that brief period the
Monastic Church of St. John Baptist
was the cathedral church. The suc-
t 'Art Journal for 1S75,' p. 85.
J Dugdale's ' Warwickshire,' ii. 917.
§ Haines's ' Monumental Brasses.'

CHESTER

145

CHESTER

ceeding Bishops of Coventry and Lich
field occasionally called themselves
Bishops of Chester, but had no see
there.¦ After an interval of four hundred
years Chester again became the see
of a bishop, being chosen for one of
the new dioceses which Henry VIII.
founded, 1541, at the Reformation. It
was made up of the Archdeaconry of
Richmond, a large portion of the North
Riding, and some of the West Riding,
-all taken out of the diocese of York ;
and of a few parishes of Flint and
Denbigh. The Abbey church of St.
Werburgh at Chester was assigned as
the cathedral church with a dean and
six prebendaries and other officials ; for
the endowment of the see were set aside
the revenues of the Archdeaconry of
Chester, the Prebend of Bolton, the
manors of Abbots Cotton and Weston,
rents in Christleton, &e out of the
Abbey of St. Werburgh, houses which
had belonged to Chester nunnery, and
a number of rectories and advowsons.
:But in 1546 this fair endowment was
retracted, and a few rectories substi
tuted, amounting in all to £15 9s. 9d.
The Archdeacons of Richmond had
always maintained rural deans, who
were accountable to themselves alone,
and were removable at pleasure. The
office was now renewed in the other
parts of Chester diocese, only it was
made lifelong, and by 1594 had ex
tended over the whole diocese
The first bishop- was John Bird, who
besides being Abbot of Chester had
been a suffragan of Lichfield (1537),
and subsequently Bishop of Bangor
(1539). Deprived of Chester on the
accession of Mary, he afterwards con
formed, and was employed as a suffragan
¦by Bishop Bonner of London.*
After Bird come Coates (1554 —
1555) ; Downham (1561—1579) ; Chad-
derton (1579—1595), who was also
Warden of Manchester, and made it
his headquarters, making the collegiate
* Several other abbots and priors were
similarly transformed into bishops and
deans.

church a centre of life and evangelic
power. Sir Orlando Bridgeman (the son of
Bishop John Bridgeman) supplemented
the scanty revenues of the see by con
veying the Rectory of Wigan to a body
of trustees, with instructions to present
to it the Bishops of Chester, to hold
in eommendam if they should think fit.
Thomas Morton, bishop from 1616
to 1619, when he was translated to
Lichfield, was the author of the ' Book
of Sports.' Himself an ascetic, a pro
found theologian, and able controver-
salist, he had reproved the mode in
which some of the people in his diocese
carried on sports on Sundays. Just
then King James passing through Lan
cashire rather discountenanced what he
thought the bishop's overstraitnesstj
but some of the courtiers making an
unseemly noise in the churchyard duui
ing the time the king was attending
service, he was convinced that Sunday
sports at least needed regulation, and
asked M»rton to draw up a set of
"limitations" which the king might
issue in a proclamation on the subject.
He proposed six : unlawful games not
to be used ; bear and bull-baiting inter
ludes, and bowling, were not to be prac
tised by the meaner people lest they
should interfere with archery ; non-
church-goers not to play at all ; and
no one might sport in service hours ;
every person to go to his own parish
church, and every parish to have its
recreation. To these rules the king
added a seventh, that no weapons were
to be carried during the sports. The
king embodied these limitations in a
proclamation, 24th May, 1618, and
issued them as the ' Book of Sports.'
Among the later bishops may he
noted Brian Walton (1660—1662), tho
author of the ' Polyglot Bible ; ' John
Wilkins (1668—1672), the astronomer
and mechanist ; John Pearson (1673—
1680), the author of the ' Exposition of
the Creed. ' Many of the tenants of the
see only held it for a year or two as a
stepping-stone to higher preferment,
for in 1824 the revenue was only

CHESTER LE STREET

147

CHICHELEY

£1700 a-yoar ; Bishop Blomfield (1824
— 1828) held the Rectory of Bishopsgate
in commendam with it. Under the
operation of the Ecclesiastical Com
mission it was raised to £4500. The
diocese now consists of the entire
county of Chester, and portions of ad
jacent counties : population, 646,031 ;
2 archdeaconries, viz. Chester and
Macclesfield ; 10 rural deaneries ; 255
parishes. CHESTER LE STREET, DIOCESE
OF. [See Cuthbert, Saint.]
CHESTS, CHURCH. Two kinds of
strong boxes or safes are used in
churches, one for keeping documents
in, and the other for receiving dona
tions of money. Sometimes one chest
serves both purposes, as at Climping in
Sussex, where there is a small partition
at one end and a slit above for dropping
coins through. Alms-chests have been
described elsewhere. [See Alms-chest.]
The earliest form of church chest is a
box or trunk, hollowed out of a solid
log of wood, and resting on the ground.
The lid is secured generally by three
separate hinge-straps, staples, and pad
locks, or by two separate hasps and a
bar passing over them and fixed with
a third padlock, so that in either case
the use of three keys, one of which is
kept by the incumbent, and the other
two by the churchwardens, are required
to open it. Chests claiming to be of
Norman date, except upon the ground
of the rudeness of their construction,
are unknown.
There are many examples of thirteenth
century chests ; these are formed of
boards and supported upon legs. The
legs are made by extending the cross-
pieces at each end of the front and
back, and not by extending the two
ends : the hinges are also of peculiar
construction. In later times the fronts
were panelled, and ornamented with
elaborate carving and ironwork, cor
responding in style with the other
architectural details of the period. The
Early English chests are very long in
proportion to the other dimensions, but
in later times the length was reduced.

A ring is often provided at each end for
lifting. Authorities :— Syer Cuming in 'Jour
nal British Archaeological Association,'
vol. xxviii, p. 226 ; ' Archaeologia Cam-
brensis,' 1868, p. 197 ; 'Journal British
Archaeological Association,' vol. xxii.
p. 272 ; ' Parker's Glossary ' ; ' Ham
Anastatic Drawing Society's Annual,'
vol. 1878.— J. R. A.
CHICHELEY, Henry, Archbishop of
Canterbury, born 1362, died 1443, is
an example of the statesman bishops
of the Middle Ages. He was born at
Higham Ferrers ; educated in Wyke-
ham's new school at Winchester, and
at his New College at Oxford, where he
studied civil and canon law. From
1392 to 1407 he can be traced through
a number of preferments, several con
ferred by Richard Melford, Bishop of
Salisbury. On that prelate's death he
came into the service of King Henry
IV., who sent him on an embassy to
Pope Innocent VII., on another to the
Court of France, and on a third to
Pope Gregory XII. , who nominated him
to the See of St. David's (1408), which
happened to fall during his residence at
Rome. Next year he was sent, with
Hallam, Bishop of Salisbury, and Chil-
lingdon, Prior of Canterbury, to repre
sent England in the Council of Pisa. On
May 1410 he was again sent with others
on an embassy to France to negotiate a
peace. In 1414, on the death of Arun
del, Chicheley succeeded him as Arch
bishop of Canterbury. When he came
to the see he soon had to exert all his
talents and influence to save the reve
nues of the Church, which the Commons
were urging the king to seize for the
expenses of the French War. Chicheley
induced the clergy to grant large sub
sidies, and with these succeeded in
parrying the attack of the Commons.
In 1422 he began to take proceedings
against the Lollards, but apparently
without the severities which Arundel
had employed. At the same time, he
stoutly opposed the encroachments of
the Court of Rome. He used his large
revenues with a munificence of which

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several of his predecessors had set an
example, building and endowing a col
legiate church at Higham Ferrers, his
birth-place, which still remains ; and
All Souls College at Oxford. In 1442,
being nearly eighty years old, he applied
to the pope for an indulgence to resign
his see ; but before the Court of Rome
had found time to reply, death brought
him his release. 12th April, 1443.
CHICHESTER, DIOCESE OF. The
Saxon Chronicle notes that a.d. 477,
a party of Saxons under vElla and his
three sons, Cymen, Wlencing, and
Cissa, came in three ships, and landed
on the southern coast at a place
named after one of the sons, Cymenes-
ora (Keynor or Selsey), and there they
slew the Welsh (i.e. Britons), and some
they drove in flight unto the wood that
is called "Andredealeah," the great
forest which stretched for one hundred
and twenty miles from east to west,
and thirty miles from north to south,
through Hampshire, Sussex, and part
of Kent. Again, eight years after
(485), iElla fought against the Britons
near the banks of the Mearcraedes-
burna (possibly Seaford), and the battle
is represented in traditions gathered by
a later writer to have been obstinately-
fought, and to have had a doubtful
result. Again, after six years (491), in
consequence, it is said, of the arrival
of reinforcements of adventurers, iElla
and Cissa laid siege to Anderida. It de
fied their assault, and was only taken
at length by famine, and the Saxons
"slew all that dwelt therein, so that
not even one Briton was left." Thus,
these Saxon adventurers became pos
sessed of the long tract of country
between the South Downs and the sea,
with the Roman city of Regnum near
its western end, and the city of
Anderida near its eastern end ; and
founded a kingdom there, which, to
distinguish it from the other indepen
dent settlements of their kindred, was
called that of the South Saxons. Reg
num, receiving the name of one of the
three sons of "iElla, was called Cissa-
Ceaster, the Chester or fortified town

of Cissa, which in time was' softened
on men's tongues into the modern
Chichester. The ruins of Anderida
still exist at Pevensey.
Two hundred years pass over before
anything more is told in history of this
little isolated kingdom. In the middle
of the seventh century we learn that
a Christian of Irish descent named
Dicul lived in a little monastery at
Bosham surrounded by woods and water,
with five or six companions, "serving
the Lord in humility and poverty."
But "no one," says Bede, "cared to
emulate their life, or listen to their
teaching. "
The first religious impression made.
upon the South Saxons was by Wilfrid
of York, who being banished from
Northumbria [see York, Diocese of],
found his way to this southern kingdom,
on whose shores he had on a former
occasion been stranded and had a narrow
escape from a party of Saxon wreckers.
iEthelwealh the king was a Chris
tian, and had married a Christian wife,, '
and they welcomed Wilfrid at their
royal village of Selsey, and gave him
a tract of land for his support. It
contained eighty-seven families of cul
tivators, among whom were two hundred
and fifty slaves of both sexes ; these
the bishop enfranchised and baptized,
and so made a good beginning of the
South Saxon conversion. He built
a church at Selsey, and dedicated it
to St. Peter ; and set to work in
earnest to Christianise the people.
About three years after this, Cead-"
walla of Wessex conquered Sussex.:
(685), and the Isle of Wight, and Kent
He was converted by Wilfrid, and con
firmed him in the possession of his
church. But two years after Ceadwalla
resigned his crown, and went on pil
grimage to Rome, and died there, and
Wilfrid returned to Northumbria, and
was restored to his see of York. He
appointed no successor, and the over
sight of the Church fell naturally under
the Bishop of the West Saxons, whose
see was at Winchester.
Ina, who succeeded Ceadwalla,

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resolved, with his Witan, to divide the
diocese, making Sherborne the seat of
a new bishop for the western half of
Wessex, leaving the eastern half to
Winchester ; four years afterwards he
revived the see of Selsey for the sub-
kingdom of the South Saxons, after
an interval of about twenty-five years ;
Eadbert, the head of the community
which still occupied Wilfrid's church
at Selsey, was consecrated (709) to
the see.
From this time, with occasional in
tervals of suspension, the see of Selsey
was regularly occupied by a succession
of twenty -two bishops, covering a space
of nearly three hundred and seventy
years, at the end of which the see was
transplanted to Chichester. During
this period the materials for the history
of the diocese are exceedingly meagre.
Of the bishops themselves we know
little more than the names, which are
gathered from their signatures to char
ters. These charters, however, are in
teresting, as many of them are grants
of land for the building of churches
or founding of monasteries, and show
the gradual progress of the Church.
Space only permits a note that one of
the earliest (if not the earliest) of
the ecclesiastical foundations in the
South Saxon kingdom, was at Old
Mailing near Lewes, when Ealdulf the
Ealderman, in the time of King
jEthelwealh and Bishop Wilfrid,
founded a church dedicated to St.
Michael, which afterwards became a
collegiate church, and was transferred
to the see of Canterbury. Steyning
was founded at a very early period by
St. Cuthman ; the fame of his sanctity
attracted pilgrims to his shrine, and
thus the town of Steyning arose around
it. In 692 Nothelm, King of the
Saxons, gave his sister Nothgitha
thirty-eight hides of land at Selsey, Al-
dingbourne, Genstedegate and Mund-
ham, for building a church and monas
tery. In 714 and 725 King Nunna
gave lands to the monastery of Selsey.
In 765 King Osmund grants twelve
hides of land at Ferring, at the request

of his Earl Walhere, for the building
of a monastery thereon. In 770 the
same king, at the prayer " of my Count
Warbald and his wife Tidburh," grants
fifteen hides of land for the endowment
of the church of the blessed apostle
St. Peter, at Hanefield. About 774
King ^Ethelbert gives eighteen hides
of land to a venerable man named
Diozsan for the erection of a monastery
at Wystringes (Wittering).
There is no record of any special
depredations committed by the Danes
at Selsey, or any other ecclesiastical
foundation in Sussex. They attacked
Chichester in 895, but were put to
flight and many of their ships taken.
The only Saxon prelate of the period
who seems to need notice is iEthelgar,
who had been trained at Glastonbury,
and who was eminent for his learning
and good discipline. He did not, how
ever, displace the secular canons at
Selsey. After eight years here, he was
translated to Canterbury to succeed
Dunstan. The site of the old cathedral at
Selsey, with its surrounding buildings,
has long since been overwhelmed by
the sea ; where the little fleet of fish
ing boats now anchors is still called
the Bishop's Park.
It may be noted that the see pos
sesses several examples of Saxon archi
tecture in its churches, all of them
perhaps not earlier than the eleventh
century, i. e. of the reigns of Canute
and Edward the Confessor, e. g. Bos-
ham, Worth, Woolbeding, St. Olave
Chichester, Selham, Bishopstone,
Sompting, Burwash, and Jevington.
The Domesday survey of the county
names only ninety-two churches, of
which seven are described as Ecclesiolw,
chapels ; but the survey, which was
made for fiscal purposes, appears only
to mention those churches which were
endowed with land liable to taxation ;
hence there is no record of churches
at Chichester or Lewes, where we know
they must have existed ; the total
number may be roughly estimated at
about one hundred and fifty.

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CHICHESTER

At the Council of London, when
Archbishop Stigand was deposed,
Ethelric, Bishop of Selsey, was also
deposed as having been consecrated,
and therefore irregularly, by Stigand,
and one of the king's chaplains of the
same name as the deposed archbishop
was put into his see. At the Council
of London, 1075, the see was trans
lated from Selsey to the more important
town of Chichester. A church dedi
cated to St. Peter existed in the city,
with a convent of nuns attached to it ;
and it would seem that the nuns were
removed, and that the bishop's see was
.placed in St. Peter's Church. It may
be inferred that the inhabitants had
some rights in the church, for down
to the fifteenth century part of the
cathedral nave was used as the parish
¦church of St. Peter's parish ; at a later
period, probably after Henry VIII.,
the north transept was adapted to that
purpose, and continued to be so used
till the present parish church was built
in 1853.
The third Norman Bishop, Ralph
Luffa (1091—1125), was the founder
of the present cathedral, a cross church
with a low central and two western
towers, the greater part of which can
still be traced, a plain and massive
structure, with no chevron or billet
moulding to its arches, no sculpture
to ornament the cushion-capitals of its
columns. Bishop Hilary (1147 — 1167)
played a busy part in the transactions
of his time. He founded and endowed
the offices of Treasurer and Chancellor
in the cathedral ; the Precentorship was
founded about the same time. Bishop
Ralph is said to have already founded
the deanery, so that the cathedral now
possessed the four dignities which
existed in all the cathedrals of the old
foundations. [See Cathedral] He en
deavoured strenuously to assert his
jurisdiction over Battle Abbey, but the
abbey maintained its independence.
In the seventh year of Bishop Seffrid's
episcopacy (1180—1204) the cathedral
was damaged by fire ; the east end was
extended further eastward, the cleres

tory of the church was reconstructed;
the flat roofs replaced by stone-
vaulting, and other repairs and alter
ations were made. The work was
finished by his successor, Simon of
Wells (1204—1207), and the " beauti
ful and lovable church, as we now
see it, in its delightful blending and
contrast of severe massive Norman
with the finest graceful beginnings of
Early English architecture, is mainly
what Bishops Seffrid and Simon of
Wells made it." Bishop Simon held
some office in the Exchequer, and seems
to have been in favour with King John,
who, before his quarrel with the Church,
conferred valuable privileges and im
munities on the see and chapter.
Bishop Ranulph of Warham (1217)
enriched the see by the bequest of
manor-houses in London, and other
property. Bishop Ralph Neville
(1224 — 1244), the most eminent states
man bishop of the see — he was sixteen
years Chancellor — heightened the cen
tral tower, and perhaps rebuilt the
north-west tower, and constructed
most of the side chapels of the nave<
He built himself a house in London,
in the street which was called after
him, Chancellor's Lane, afterwards
contracted into Chancery Lane. His
house afterwards became the Inn of the
Earl of Lincoln, and at length became
the Inn of Court, known as Lincoln's
Inn ; part of the estate still belongs
to the see, and is known as "The
Chichester Rents." A series of letters,
brought to light in 1841, from Bishop
Ralph's steward in Sussex to his
lord in London, show in a very vivid
way the details of country-life in the
middle of the thirteenth century, and
the way in which a business-like
absentee bishop watched over the man
agement of the property of his distant
see. Richard of Wych (1245—1253) is
the Chichester example of the saintly
bishop of the Middle Ages. Mr.
Stevens* gives a very interesting
* In the Chichester volume of the S.P.C.K.
series of Diocesan Histories, pp. 61—72. ,

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CHICHESTER

sketch of his life, which is too long for
extract. At his first coming to the
see, the king refused to give him the
property of the bishopric, and the good
bishop visited much of his diocese on
foot, living on the hospitality of his
clergy. When he did receive his reve
nues he was lavish in his charities. A
body of statutes which he drew up for
his diocese throws much light on the
condition of the clergy at the period.
Two customs which affected the laity
also may be mentioned here :
Incumbents of parishes were to see
that such members of their flock as
were able should repair to the cathe
dral on Easter Day or Whit Sunday,
and make their offering in the Mother
Church of the diocese. Those who
lived too far off to visit Chichester,
might worship at Lewes or Hastings,
provided their offerings were forwarded
to the cathedral. These annual con
tributions to the fabric were long known
as "St. Richard's Pence." When he
had been canonised, and his shrine at
Chichester became a popular object of
pilgrimage, Bishop Storey in 1478 found
it necessary to draw up some rules to
prevent confusion among the multi
tudes who flocked thither from all parts
of the diocese on the saint's day, which
was April 3. The pilgrims had been
accustomed to carry long painted
wands, and in their struggles for pre
cedence had freely used these wands
on each other's heads and shoulders.
Bishop Storey therefore directed that
the pilgrims should carry banners and
crosses instead of wands, and that
members of the several parishes should
march up reverently from the west
door in a prescribed order, of which
notice was to be given by the incum
bents in their churches on the Sunday
preceding the festival.
The two great monasteries of the
diocese were Battle Abbey, whose altar
was placed on the spot in which
Harold's standard had stood during
the battle which gave Duke William
the crown and kingdom of England ;
and the Clugniac Priory founded at

Lewes by William de Warrenne and
his wife Gundrada, the daughter of
Matilda by her marriage with Gerbod
of Flanders before she became the wife
of the Conqueror.
There were a considerable number of
smaller houses, with an unusual pro-1
portion of alien priories, which were
little more than cells placed by Norman
abbeys on estates given to them here.'
The Earl of Mortain gave estates, and
three churches to the Abbey of Grestein
near Honfleur (founded by his father,
and of which he was a great benefactor),,
which built a priory at Wilmington.
William of Braose (in 1075) gave four
churches to the Abbey of St. Florentius,
of Saumur, on condition that they
should found a priory at Sele near his
castle of Bramber ; the parishioners
worshipped in the priory church. He
had previously founded a cell of the
same abbey on his patrimonial estate
in Normandy. Robert de Haia (about
1120) founded a priory at Boxgrove,
and made it a cell to the Abbey of
L'Essaie in Normandy, of which he was
the patron. The founder and his de
scendants bestowed lands and several
churches upon this priory. The Cis
tercians had a house at Robertsbridge,
founded in 1176. The old Saxon
foundation of Steyning was granted by-
Edward the Confessor to the Abbey of
Fecamp. There were two houses of
Praemonstratensian Canons, at Dure-
ford (about 1160), and Bayham (about
1200). Several houses of Augustinian
Canons at Miehelham (about 1225) ;,
Pynham, near Arundel ; Tortington,
near Arundel ; Hardham, Shulbrede,
Holy Trinity Hastings. Three Bene
dictine nunneries at Lyminster, Rusper;
and Eseborne. The Templars had two
preceptories, Sadelscombe and Shipley ;.
the Hospitallers a house at Poling ;
Collegiate churches of Secular Canons.
at South Mailing, Bosham, St. Mary-
in-the-Castle Hastings, and Arundel.
A large number of hospitals : two at
Chichester, two at Lewes, one each at
Hastings, Bramber, Buxted, Pevensey,
Pleyden, Seaford, Shoreham, Rye, and,

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CHILLINGWORTH

probably many more. ' There were
houses of Franciscan Friars in Chiches
ter, Lewes, and Winchelsea, and of
Dominicans at these towns, and also at
Arundel. The will of St. Richard leaves
small sums to Friar Humphry the re
cluse at Pagham, to the female recluses
at Houghton, Slopham, and Hardham,
all in the diocese. So late as 1402,
Thomas Belle, Rector of Aldringham,
obtained the bishop's leave to resign
his rectory and build himself a recluse's
cell in which he might pass the rest
of his life. It was a room 29 feet by
24, having access to the chapel of the
Blessed Virgin on the north side of the
church. In the Reformation period Bishop
Sampson (1536 — 1543) fell under sus
picion as an advocate not only of
Romish doctrines, but of the papal
authority, and was committed to the
Tower in 1539 ; but on the fall of
Cromwell in the following year he was
released and continued at Chichester
two years more, .till in 1543 he was
translated to Lichfield and Coventry.
George Daye (1543 — 1552) who suc
ceeded him also found himself unable
to escape the dangers of the time. He
was one of the more moderate school
of reformers, who tried first to arrest
the progress of change, and then re
luctantly conformed when resistance
had proved fruitless. But at last he
reached the limits of compliance when
he was required to "pluck down the
altars," and in place of them "set up
a table in some convenient place of the
chancel within every church or chapel
to serve for the ministration of the
blessed communion." He replied that
"he could not conform his conscience
to do what he was by tho said letter
commanded." He explained to Secre
tary Cecil that he " stycked not att form
situation or matter (as stone or wood)
the whereof the altar was made, but
I thentoke, as I now take, those things
to be indifferent. But the command
ment which was gyven to me to take
downe all altars within my diocese,
and in the lieu of them to "sett up a

table" implying in itselffe (as stateu,
a playne abolyshment of the altare
(bothe the name and the thinge) from
the use and ministration of the Holy
Communion, I coulde not with my
conscience then execute" He was
committed to the Fleet Prison, in com
pany with Heath of Worcester, Dec.
1550, and they were both tried and
deposed, Sept. 1551. John Scory was
put into the see, but in two years' time
the death of Mary and the accession
of Elizabeth displaced Scory, and Daye
regained his see, and held it till 1557.
Some of the returns made to the
Articles of Enquiry at the first visita
tion of Bishop Thomas Beckley (1585—
1596) have been preserved among the
episcopal records, and much curious
information may be gleaned from them
touching the condition of the churches
and the character of the clergy and
their flocks. On the whole they indi
cate the prevalence of much slovenliness
in the manner of performing the Divine
Services, and especially in the manner
of administering the Holy Communion ;
and many of the churches were in a
disgraceful state of untidiness and di
lapidation. There is evidence that a
considerable number of persons con
tinued to be attached totheunreformed
religion, and either refused conformity,
or conformed in such a way as showed
their distaste.
The diocese now includes the entire
county of Sussex with a small part of
Kent: population, 489,550; two arch
deaconries, Chichester and Lewes ;
25 deaneries ; 370 benefices.
CHILLINGWORTH, William, born
1602, died 1644. Born at Oxford, his
father being a citizen, and afterwards
mayor, of that city. Laud, then Fellow
of St. John's, was his godfather ; he was
educated at Trinity College. At that
time, as in this, Rome was making
great efforts for the ' ' conversion " of
England, and several Jesuits were em
ployed in this attempt upon the young
men at Oxford. Chillingworth was
thus converted by the Jesuit Fisher,
the special consideration which weighed

CHILLINGWORTH

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CHRISM

with him being the necessity of a liv
ing infallible authority on matters of
faith. Fisher sent his disciple to the
college of St. Omers. Laud, who was
by that time Bishop of London, wrote
to him, argued with him, and set him
upon a new enquiry into the claims
of Rome, the result of which was,
that he found the Jesuit's claim of in
fallibility for the pope untenable, and
returned to the English Church. This
involved him in a series of controversies
with the champions of Rome, which he
conducted with such skill and power
in disputation that his writings exer
cised a considerable influence on the
public mind at a time when it was
greatly engaged with the questions in
dispute between the two Churches.
His ' The Religion of Protestants a safe
way to Salvation' is his best known
work, and speedily went through many
editions. But the character of his mind
led him to question everything, and to
find difficulties everywhere. At first
he would not accept Church preferment
because he could not conscientiously
subscribe to the Prayer Book ; then
he found himself able to subscribe on
the theory that the sense and intent of
subscription was a subscription of peace
and union, not of belief or assent. His
great abilities and reputation led to his
preferment to the Chancellorship of
Salisbury with the Prebend of Brix-
worth, and the mastership of Wigston's
Hospital, Leicestershire. On the break
ing out of the Civil War he took the
Royalist side, and being taken prisoner
in Arundel Castle when (9 Dee, 1643)
it surrendered to Waller, was removed to
Chichester, where, after a short illness,
aggravated by hardships and' mortifica
tion, he died, and was buried in the
cathedral. Clarendon sums up his
character thus: "He was a man of
so great a subtlety of understanding,
and so rare a temper in debate, that as
it was impossible to provoke him into
' any passion, so it was very difficult to
keep a man's self from being a little
discomposed by his sharpness and quick
ness of argument, and instances in

which he had a rare facility, and a great
advantage over all the men I ever knew.
He had spent all his younger time in
disputation, and had arrived to so great
a mastery as he was inferior to no man
in those skirmishes ; but he had, with
his notable perfection in this exercise,
contracted such an irresolution and
habit of doubting, that by degrees he
grew confident of nothing, and a sceptic,
at least, in the greatest mysteries of
faith." Tillotson, however, defends
him from this charge, which was very
generally brought against him. "I
know not how it comes to pass,'' he
says ; ' ' but so it is, that every one that
offers to give a reasonable account of
his faith, and so establish religion upon
rational principles, is, presently branded
for a Socinian, of which we have a sad
instance in that incomparable person,
Mr. Chillingworth, the glory of this
age and nation ; who, for no other cause
that I know of than his worthy and
successful attempt to make the Christian
religion reasonable, and to discover
those firm and solid foundations upon
which our faith is built, has been re
quited with this black and odious cha
racter." The Archbishop's defence,
however, is quite consistent with what
was generally believed to be the truth,
that Chillingworth's rationalism, un
balanced by respect for authority, led
him into views which, to say the least,
were very unorthodox. Clarendon's
further words are pleasanter words with
which to conclude. ' ' He was void of
all kind of vice, and endued with many
notable virtues ; of a very public heart,
and an indefatigable desire to do good. "
CHRISM. Oil which had been blessed
by the bishop was used in three differ
ent ceremonies of the ancient Church :
in baptism, confirmation, and the visit
ation of the sick. Parish priests were
required to obtain the two chrisms, for
baptism and for visitation, every year
(probably they often did so through the
archdeacon or rural dean) ; they were
to keep the two chrisms separate ; and
at the end of the year to burn what
was left and obtain a new supply. In

CHRISTMAS DAY

154

CHURCH, THE

4

the Greek Church priests are permitted
to confirm also, with chrism which has
been blessed by the bishop.
CHRISTMAS DAY. The day of the
Birth of our Lord and Saviour Jesus
Christ. From a very early period a
festival season of twelve days, known
by the general name of the Epiphany,
was celebrated in the Church of Christ ;
the first day of the festival being
specially in commemoration of the Na
tivity, as His first manifestation in the
flesh ; and the last day being dedicated
to the memory of His Baptism, as the
great manifestation, when by the fore
told sign of the dove descending and
lighting upon Him, He was manifested
to John Baptist, and through him to
the world, as the Messiah, and by 'the
Voice from heaven as the Beloved Son.
Clemens Alexandrinus mentions the
festival of the Nativity. All the collec
tions of sermons of the great Fathers con
tain sermons for this festival. Decrees
of emperors and canons of the Church
show that it was observed as a day of
rest from labour and of divine service.
Falling about the time of the mid
winter festival of our Anglo-Saxqjn fore
fathers, the domestic festivities of the
one were joined with the religious ob
servances of the other, and so made the
Christmas festival the one more gener
ally and elaborately observed than all
the rest.
CHURCH. It is derived, according
to Skeat, from xvpiaKov, which " occurs
in the Canon of the sixth Council, and
Zonaras, in commenting on the passage,
says that the name of Kvpiaxov for
' Church ' was frequently used. " Skeat
quotes from an Old English Homily,
"Chireche. . . is cleped on boc " (called
in the book) hiridka, i. e. dominical. —
[E. M.] The Russian form (Tserkov)
is doubtless derived from the same word;
but iKKhnaia was the Greek word for the
place of religious assembly which was
generally adopted into the native lan
guage, as in the names of many Welsh
villages compounded with .Eglwys, and
in other parts of the country as Ec-
cles, Ecclesfleld, Eccleshall, Eccleston.

For an account of the architecture o|.
churches see Architecture ; for some
particulars of the plan, &c. of the'
greater churches see Cathedral. Also
see Classified Table of Articles at the
beginning of this book.
CHURCH ALES. [See Ales.]
CHURCH, THE. Though this work
is limited to the Church of England,
and cannot properly enter into details
about the Church before it was planted
in England, or digress into matters
which are peculiar to other branches
of the Church, yet it seems right to
sketch its descent (though ever so
slightly), through the primitive Church
up to the Divine Institution, lest^its
origin should seem to the unnistoiiGiJs,
reader as vague as if it had come out
of a cloud ; and also to say something
of its relations to the other portions of
the Church, so as not to leave the im
pression that the Church of England.is
an insular institution disconnected from
the rest of Christendom.
On the day of Pentecost, the apostles
and other disciples, men and women,
were assembled in the Upper Room,
when the Holy Ghost came upon them;
and the Church of Christ began to be.
St. Peter preached the first sermon to the
multitude which came together ; and,:
convinced by his argument, they asked,
" What shall we do ? " And Peter re
plied : " Repent, and be baptised, every
one of you,, in the name of Jesus Christ,
for the remission of sins, and ye shall
receive the gift of the Holy Ghost ; for
the promise is to you and to your
children, and to all that are afar off,
even as many as the Lord our God shall
call." "And as many as gladly re
ceived His word were baptised, and
there were added to them (i.e. to the
120, to the existing body of the
Church) 3000 souls. " " And the Lord
added to the Church daily (in the same
way, viz. by baptism) those who were
brought into the way of salvation."
The Acts of the Apostles shows how the
Church embraced Jews, Samaritans,
Proselytes, Gentiles ; how it extended
to the three great races, the Jewish,.

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CHURCH, THE

¦the Greek, the Roman. Looking at it,
as the New Testament as a whole pre
sents it, it is one external organisation,
extending into all the world, but
everywhere under the supreme rule of
the Apostolate ; with its minor minis
ters, its laws, its customs, its revenues ;
an imperium in imperio.
In the last book of the New Testa
ment we seem to see St. John the
Apostle acting as a kind of Archbishop
of the seven Churches of the chief cities
of the Proconsular province of Asia.
One of those Churches was that of
Smyrna, of which St. Polycarp, a dis
ciple of St. John, was the angel or
bishop. The preachers of the Gospel followed
the usual routes of commercial inter
course. The cities of Asia had an
ancient direct commercial intercourse
with Marseilles, in the south of Gaul.
The rivers were the great highways
into the interior of the countries ; and
so merchants and travellers and mis
sionaries who had come from the East
.to Marseilles, thence ascended the
river Rhone as far as Lyons, a' new
commercial emporium not far from the
old Roman city of Vienne. Here, in
the middle of the second century, we
find a Church which appears to have
been newly established, and which
sends an account of its fortunes to the
Church of Smyrna as if it were the
mother Church from which it had
come'. Pothinus was ,its bishop, the
famous Irenaeus was its priest, and
Secundus its deacon. From this centre
the Church spread in the neighbouring
country, but not much further north
than Lyons.
In the middle of the third century a
great missionary effort carried the
•Church over the northern half of
Gaul ; and there is every reason to
believe that it was an extension of the
unexpended force of this movement
which crossed the Channel, and planted
the Church in Britain. There may
have been individual Christians here
before that time, but there is no
evidence of the existence of an organ

ised Church. [See Roman British
Church.] When the Roman Emperor abandoned
Britain as a province of the Empire,
and withdrew the government and the
army, the hapless inhabitants were left
an easy prey to the barbarous pirates
of the opposite coasts of the German
ocean, who gradually founded seven
kingdoms in England, driving the
British race, with their clergy, before
them into Cornwall, and Wales, and
Cumbria. Then came the conversion
of these Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, by a
number of different independent mis
sions of. different origin. Archbishop
Theodore of Tarsus united the Churches
of the Heptarchy into one Church under
the leadership of the see of Canterbury ;
dioceses were subdivided ; parishes
formed ; and Christianity prevailed.
[See Saxon Period.] Since the time
of the Emperor Charles the Great
(Charlemagne) the right of patriarchal
visitation over the western Empire
had been conceded to the See of
Rome. England was outside the Em
pire of Charlemagne, and the Anglo-
Saxon Church, while looking up with
great veneration to the grand city and
See of the AVestern world, lay outside
its patriarchal jurisdiction. But on
the Norman Conquest, William I.
brought the English Church within
the sphere of this continental organisa-
ation, and sought the interference of
the Bishop of Rome in the solution of
the difficulties in which he found this
Church involved, especially in respect
of the validity of the consecration of
Archbishop Stigand. For two cen
turies the abuses of Church patronage
by kings and nobles placed the force of
popular opinion on the side of the
popes, who claimed by virtue of their
patriarchal authority to visit the
Churches and reform these abuses.
But the popes in turn put forth unten
able claims, and abused their power by
unconstitutional interference with the
rights of patrons and of national
Churches, and the popular opinion
turned against their encroachments*

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CHURCH, THE

and the national sovereigns and
Churches were able to resist them.
At last, in the sixteenth pentury, the
strong feeling in favour of reform could
no longer be restrained or evaded.
The Church of England, in alliance
with the Crown, in a strictly constitu
tional way, declared that the Bishops
of Rome had not by Divine right any
authority over the Crown or Church of
England, and that neither Church nor
King would longer submit to its
usurped and abused power ; and pro
ceeded to a general measure of self-
reform. So great a constitutional
change was not effected without counter
balancing disadvantages. The work of
destruction was easy, and was carried
too far, for the results furnished prey
to an exhausted exchequer and ra
pacious courtiers. The work of con
struction was difficult and costly, and
was very partially accomplished. The
assertion of the independence of the
Church of England led to excesses in
the assumption of independent thought
and action, and to the division of our
English Christianity by the formation
of sects.
In the time of the Long Parliament
and the Commonwealth the sects ob
tained the upper hand, and the Church
was proscribed and persecuted. After
twenty years of painful experiences the
nation enthusiastically reinstated the
Monarchy and the Church. The policy
of William III. discouraged the Church ;
while it encouraged the sects, legalised
their position, and gave them special
privileges. The failure of the Church, under
all its disadvantages, to provide for
the spiritual wants of the rapidly in
creasing population encouraged the
growth of the Nonconformist bodies
in the latter part of last century and
the beginning of this. At length, in
the early part of this century, the
Church began to apply herself in earnest
to the work of Church extension. The
result has been a very remarkable
revival of religion and a very rapid
extension of the Church ; and the

forces at work have not yet by ai^
means expended their energy. The
results may be to some extent measured
by the addition of eight new Sees to
the Episcopate, of about 8000 to the
number of the clergy, by the addition
of Sisterhoods and lay readers to the
working staff of the Church ; by the
forty millions or more which have been
spent in the last fifty years on Church
building and restbration ; the provision
of 2,400,000 school places in the
primary schools of the Church, and the
maintenance of a very high standard of
education in them ; by the creation of
a Colonial Episcopate, numbering 75
bishops ; by well-filled churches and
earnest worshippers ; by a thousand
benevolent enterprises ; by the general
elevation of the religious life of the
nation. The Church of which we have been
speaking is the Church of Pentecost,
the one Holy Catholic Apostolic Church
of the Creed ; the historical Church.
There have at frequent periods of history
been other organised bodies of Chris
tians which claimed to be Churches,
either to the exclusion of this historical
Church, or together with it ; and there
have been times and places when it
was very difficult for the unlearned
and uncritical believer to distinguish
the true from the false Church. But
as a fact of history, the schismatical
bodies have died out, some speedily,
some only after centuries of existence ;
while the historic Church has main
tained continuous existence as an ex
ternal organisation. So at the present
time in England we see a great number
of organised bodies of Christians claim
ing to be Churches, some of which have
existed as organised bodies since the
reign of Elizabeth, the majority of
them only for a few years. In the
midst of them we see the historic
Church of England, tracing its descent
from the Apostolic ¦ body down to the
present day. The diseases of erroneous
doctrines and superstitions have in
certain ages corrupted it, but by the
vitality of its Divine constitution it

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157

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¦thas thrown them off, and developed
into pure vigorous health again. It
has been in various relations towards
the State, from the docile pupilage of
Saxon kings and parliaments to the
jealous tyranny of Henry VIII. and
Edward VI. ; from the triumph of the
Church when Henry II. submitted to
discipline at the tomb of Becket, to
tho persecution of the Church by the
Long Parliament and the Common
wealth. It has survived the changes
and chances of the past ; if we may
judge of the future by the past, it
will survive the chances and changes
of the future of the nation. Amidst
the distraction of conflicting sects it
affords the only possible rallying-point
for our English Christianity. Amidst
the profound political changes which
seem to be impending, it may be that
the great stable Institution, whose
constitution, laws and customs are
independent of politics, may form the
bulwark of civilised society.
The Church of England has been in
various relations with the rest of the
Church, from the federal equality of
British times, the resentful endurance
of the mediaeval usurpations of the
Roman See, the isolation of its reformed
status, to its present position of a new
(virtual) patriarchate of the English-
speaking peoples, extending from
America to China, from Britain to
Tasmania. It has long since been
suggested that the peculiar character
and position of this Church raise the
conjecture that she may be destined
in God's good providence to supply a
missing link which might reunite
divided Christendom. On one hand,
possessing Apostolical descent and
constitution ; based doctrinally on the
Scriptures, the General Councils and the
Fathers ; on the other hand, welcoming
modem politics, science and philoso
phy ; maintaining freedom of thought
and the rights of the individual con
science ; and lastly, possessing the
leadership of that widely-spreading
and rapidly-growing Anglican Com
munion, which promises before long,

by sheer weight of numbers and poli
tical importance, to shift the centre of
gravity of Christendom from Rome to
Canterbury. If only our separated English breth
ren, recognising the grandeur of the
possible future, would unite, not merely
in sentiment but in organisation, this
union would heal the paralysis which
prevents the English Government from
using its power and influence efficiently
in the sphere of religious action both
at home and abroad ; and it seems as
if the world might witness, within a
century, an extension of Christianity
as wide as that of the first age,
numerically greater a thousand times
than the age of the conversion of
the barbarian supplanters of the Em
pire. Our Lord's words seem to
imply that the world's recognition of
His Divine mission is related to the
visible unity of the Church : ' ' Neither
pray I for these alone, but for them
also which shall believe on Me through
their word ; that they all may be one ;
as thou, Father, art in Me, and I in
Thee, that they may be one in Us,
that the world may believe that Thou
hast sent Me " (John xvii. 20).
CHURCH AND STATE. It is quite
conceivable that the government of a
country, perceiving that it was for the
welfare of the people to make provision
for religious ministrations among them,
might organise a machinery for the
purpose ; just as governments organise
a machinery of judges and police for
the maintenance of order and the ad
ministration of justice. In such a
case the government would invent
such machinery as it thought most
efficient, and would dictate their duties
to the religious officials employed
under it.
But that is not the history of the
establishment of religion in this or
in any other country ; and such a
State establishment of religion would
not be a part of the (historical) Church
of Christ. The existing religious or
ganisation in the countries of Christen
dom has been primarily the work of

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the Church rather than of the several
States. The Church is a body founded
by the Lord Jesus Christ, with an
organisation, officers, laws, and in
stitutions of its own, independent of
earthly governments. As a fact of
history the Spiritual Empire of Christ
began about the same time as the
Roman Empire began (that is to say,
our Lord was born in the reign of
Augustus), and within three hundred
years spread its spiritual organisation
all over the Empire, and far and wide
beyond the boundaries of the Empire,
before at length the Emperor Constan-
tine was converted and the Imperial
Government became Christian.
There are three different relations in
which the Church may stand towards
the civil government, and they are all
three illustrated in the history of the
relations of the Church to the Empire
in the first three centuries. (1) The
State may be hostile to the Church,
and persecute it, more or less, as Mar
cus Aurelius, Decius, and Valerian
did, believing it to be a mischievous
superstition. (2) The State may be
neutral, whether the neutrality be
friendly as with Alexander Severus and
Diocletian in his earlier years, or un
friendly as with Hadrian and Max-
imian. Or (3) the State may consider
it a duty to protect the Church, and to
give to it such immunities and privi
leges as will aid it in fulfilling its duties
to the people, as with Constantine and
his successors. When the State takes
up the latter relation to the Church,
and lends the aid of the civil power
for the enforcement of the regulations
of the Church, i. e. when the State
gives coercive jurisdiction to the Church
Courts, we may perhaps describe the
Church as established in that country.
It is soon found that the mainten
ance of a satisfactory alliance between
the State and the Church involves
fundamental principles of government ;
that the reconciliation of the theoreti
cal rights of the Church and the State
is obscure ; and that it is difficult in
practice to prevent the encroachment

of one upon the province of the other.
The two powers work together with
more or less friction, till in course of
time they find by experience a practi
cal modus vivendi; or some serious
disagreement leads to a general ' dis
cussion of their relations and the con
clusion of a formal concordat between
them. The line of argument in favour of
an intimate alliance between the Church
and the State from the Old Testament
may be briefly indicated : — •
The Church, in the sense of an or
ganised body of men taken out of the
rest of mankind and brought into
special relations with God, began with
Abraham ; and more definitely it began
on the day that he and his family were
initiated into this special covenant by
the rite of circumcision. But it was
not only his family, in the narrower
sense, but his whole tribe, who were,
by God's express direction, admitted
into the Church together with him;
His tribe, men, women, and children,
probably numbered at that time about
two thousand souls. The whole tribe
was formed into a Church, and Abra
ham was at once its King and its
Priest. The Church and State were
identical. When God reorganised the twelve
tribes into a united nation and Church,
He gave them a theocratic constitution.
The legislation was based upon religion ;
the civil law was loaded with minute
and burdensome regulations which
were intended for the preservation of
religion ; the religious regulations were
part of the law of the State, and
were to be enforced by the civil power.
Nay, what we call the civil power was
placed in the hands of a hereditary
priesthood. Moses and Joshua wielded
an extraordinary authority, something
like the dictatorial power in Rome ;
the succeeding Judges were extraordi
nary officers, outside the settled con
stitution, raised up from time to time
as deliverers in some great emergency ;
but the normal administration of jus
tice, so far as it was not paternally .

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administered by the father of the
family and the chief of the tribe, was
in the hands of the sacred tribe.
The royal power was an innovation
upon the constitution which God had
given to His people. The good kings
exerted their power and authority to
build, repair, and cleanse the temple ; to
add to the splendour of the worship ;
to preserve religion by example and
precept ; and enforce obedience to the
law by rewards and punishment. (See
the conduct of Jehoshaphat, 2 Chron.
xvii. ; of Hezekiah, Ibid. xxxi. ; of
Josiah, Ibid, xxxiv. ; and the decree
of Artaxerxes, with Ezra's approbation
of it, Ezra vii.) But the king did not
attempt to alter the law, and the priests
and Levites were still its authoritative
exponents, and probably its ordinary
administrators. When the nation was restored after
its Babylonian exile, it was reconsti
tuted on the original theocratic basis ;
and in its constitution, undisturbed by
judge or king, the ecclesiastical cha
racter becomes very apparent. The
new Israel was under the protection
and suzerainty, first, of the Persian and
afterwards of the Greek kings, but it
was really ruled by its High Priest
under the ancient Mosaic law ; until
the Romans made Herod king.
The great principles which we gather
from the Old Testament are, that re
ligion ought to constitute the basis of
national life ; that national unity of
religion is according to the will of God ;
that the revealed will of God ought to
be taken as the basis of all legislation
and administration ; that it is the duty
of the civil power to care for the due
worship of God and the promotion of
true religion among the people.
AVhen we come to the Christian
Church, we have not in the New
Testament Scriptures any such com
plete Divine code of laws, any such
complete history of God's Church and
commonwealth, as we have in the Old
Testament. The documents all belong
to the early stage of the organisation
of the kingdom of Christ. But we

carry over the great principles of the
old dispensation into the new ; we
have the germs of the organisation of
the Church in the New Testament,
and history tells us how those germs
grew under the guiding hand of God
into the full organisation of the Divine
Kingdom. Bearing this in mind we may follow
the history ; and we need not extend
our view beyond the Roman Empire
In the 260 years between the begin
ning of the Church and the conversion
of Constantine, the Church had grown
from the 120 disciples in the Upper
Room, until it had formed an organised
network of Churches which extended
all over the Empire ; it had risen from
the lower classes of society up into the
highest ; it had erected large churches
in a handsome style of architecture in
many of the great cities of the Empire.
During this period of 260 years we
have illustrations of almost every pos
sible sort of relation between the State
and the Church. One Emperor is con
temptuous and indifferent ; another
thinks the Christians bad citizens, and
punishes them ; another recognises that
the Christians are good and virtuous
subjects, and favours them. Diocle
tian thinks Christianity a danger to
the Empire, and tries to torture it out
of existence ; Constantine recognises in
it a new Divine principle, capable of
restoring unity and moral vigour to the
Roman world, and throws the whole
weight of his influence and authority
on its side.
It must be observed that it was
not an inorganic Christianity which
Constantine * had to deal with, which
he could mould to fit into existing insti
tutions, or modify to suit the spirit of
the times.
The kingdom of Christ was an organ
ised community almost as old as the
Empire ; with laws divinely given ; a
hierarchy of officials claiming Divine
authority; revenues largely and will
ingly contributed under a sense of
• Constantine the Great. S. P. C. K.

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Divine obligation ; commanding the
allegiance of a very large minority of
the population. Constantine seems to
have apprehended the situation with
great perspicacity, and to have adopted
from the first sound principles in rela
tion to the Church. He tolerated the
continuance of heathenism, but with
drew his favour from it. He began to
remould the legislation of the Empire,
so as to bring it into harmony with
the principles of Christianity. He did
not scruple to make his influence and
authority felt in ecclesiastical affairs ;
but his action was so carefully restrained
and limited as to show that the due
limits of his action had been carefully
studied, by himself on one side, and by
his ecclesiastical advisers on the other,
and that he desired not to step beyond
his proper province— though in some
instances he did overpass it. The
Churches had been ruined, and their
possessions confiscated by his predeces
sors ; he restored what could be re
covered, and gave money for rebuild
ing the edifices, and presents to the
clergy to compensate them for their
sufferings ; but he left the maintenance
of the Church generally to the volun
tary contributions of its own members.
He permitted the Church assemblies to
make laws, and to decide ecclesiastical
cases, and made it his care to see that
these laws were observed, and these
decisions enforced. His policy estab
lished a precedent for the relations
between the Christian State and the
Church in the Empire both East and
West for succeeding generations.
But the relations between the State
and the Church in the Anglo-Saxon
kingdoms grew out of totally dissimilar
circumstances, and took a different
form. The Anglo-Saxons were semi-
barbarians, who were rapidly growing
out of the rude heathenism which they
had received from their forefathers ;
and were beginning to aspire to the
higher civilisation which the other
barbarians, the Franks for example,
were rapidly acquiring by their contact
with the Roman civilisation of which

they had made themselves masters.
The Christian teachers who came to
them offered not merely the Christian
religion, but offered also that civilisa
tion of the old world in which they
had grown up. The kings and nobles
of the English kingdoms accepted the
Christian teachers as their masters,
not only in religion and learning, but
as their advisers and assistants in the
art of government, in the making of
laws, in the administration of justice,
in agriculture, in the arts of life. The
bishop and some of the leading clergy
sat with the king in the AVitan ; the
bishop sat with the sheriff on the seat
of justice ; the learned clerks . were
employed in civil affairs. Legislation
was based upon the Christian law as
the Church represented it, and em
braced matters of Christian discipline,
as well as matters of civil law and
criminal justice. In short, there grew
up out of the circumstances a mixed
constitution, in which Church and
State acted together, without any
anxious care to distinguish their re
spective provinces. The king and his
nobles and people accepted Christianity
as a part of civilisation, and civilisation
as a part of Christianity ; and frankly
accepted the Church as their teacher
and helper in both ; and found no need
to guard their civil rights where there
was no attempt to encroach upon them.
Tho Church entered into the work of
civilisation as a part of the work of
evangelisation ; and felt no need to
guard its spiritual rights where there
was no desire to trespass upon them.
Very likely each trespassed at times
beyond the line of its theoretical pro
vince. The Witan sometimes took part
in the making of canons, and tho
bishops administered criminal law.
But while the king was the unques
tioned head of all his people, including'
the bishops and clergy, from the point
of view of the civil government ; from
the point of view of the spiritual
government the bishop was the un
questioned spiritual head of all the ;
people, including the king. The :

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Church and the State, like husband
and wife, were one ; with separate
rights, which there was no need to
discuss or define, observed sufficiently
well in practice, with a little give and
take, and occasional friction, but a very
satisfactory modus vivendi on the whole.
The more scientific definition and
division of the ¦ civil and ecclesiastical
provinces of the national life made by
William the Conqueror is mentioned
in its place [See Ecclesiastical Courts. ]
The further definition and assertion
of the rights of the Crown, made at
the time of the Reformation, is also
mentioned in its place. [See Royal
Supremacy.] In the present day, now that a large
minority of the people have withdrawn
from the Church, the question of
further modification has arisen ; and
the position taken up by those who
oppose the ancient relations between
Church and State is, that the State,
in the face of rival Christian bodies,
ought to sever itself from all of them.
There is no doubt that the relations
between the Church and the State are
at present strained and unsatisfactory,
and that the Church is in some respects
hampered by these relations ; but if
the ancient relations were altogether
severed, the Church would lose much
in prestige, and would perform her
ministrations among the people under
disadvantages. But the prospect to the State of
the result of such a severance of its
ancient relations with religion is still
more grave. Already legislation has
taken place which puts the law of
the land in collision with the law of
the Church, and further legislation in
the same direction is threatened. It
is probable that this divergence would
rapidly increase after a formal severance
of relations between the State and the
Church. This abandonment of the law
of Christ, as witnessed by the historic
Church of Christ, would be for the
State a distinct step backwards in the
progress of civilisation, and is to be
resisted by the good citizen.

It is to be doubted how long the
State could maintain an attitude of
non-interference with the Church.
Disestablishment would at once stimu
late the Church into vigorous organised
action ; the Church would be driven
into jealous care of its political in
terests ; would be found to be so power
ful a body, that Government would be
compelled to take account of it ; and
either to enter into some new kind of
friendly compact, or to take up an
attitude of coercion, which might lead
to the gravest results.
It is probable that none would be
more disappointed with the results of
disestablishment than those who are
especially seeking to bring it to pass.
Is their desire for political power !
But disestablishment would make the
Church what she is not now, a united
political party, eager, instead of reluc
tant, as she is now, to use her power
for political purposes. Is their desire
for religious equality ? But it is certain
that the inequality between her and
the other religious bodies would be only
emphasised by it. The Church would
be driven to a more emphatic assertion
of spiritual claims which are totally
independent of the question of her
relations to the State. She would be
driven into greater exclusiveness. The
result would be political strifes and
social heart-burnings, compared with
which our present condition is one of
forbearance and goodwill.
It may be that the divided state of
religion among us compels a constitu
tional and representative government
to assume this attitude of abstention
from religious action, and neutrality
towards all religious denominations ;
and if so, it is one of the strongest illus
trations of the evils of our religious
divisions that it paralyses the religious
action of the nation as a nation repre
sented by its Government ; leads it to
take a neutral attitude towards God ;
and compels it to abstain from helping
religion at all, because it can take
no such action which would not be
opposed by a strong minority of tha

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162

CHURCH AND STATE

people. If the divisions of our English
Christianity have made this a logical
necessity, it is a very strong condemna
tion of those divisions.
The following thoughtful statement
on the abstract question of the rela
tions of Church and State is from the
Bishop of Chester's (Stubbs) ' Consti
tutional History ' : —
"The careful study of history sug
gests many problems for which it sup
plies no solution. None of these is
more easy to state, or more difficult to
handle, than the great question of the
proper relation between Church and
State. It may be taken for granted
that, between the extreme claims made
by the advocates of the-two, there can
never be even an approximate recon
ciliation. The claims of both are very
deeply rooted,, and the roots of both lie
in the best parts of human nature ;
neither can do violence to, or claim
complete supremacy over, the other,
without crushing something which is
precious. Nor will^ any universal for
mula be possible so long as different
nations and Churches are in different
stages of development, even if for the
highest forms of Church and State such
a formal concordat be practicable. A
perfect solution of the problem involves
the old question of the identity between
the good man and the good citizen as
well as the modern ideal of a free
Church within a free State. Religion,
morality, and law overlap one another
in almost every region of human action ;
they approach their common subject
matter from different points, and legis
late for it with different sanctions.
The idea of perfect harmony between
them seems to imply an amount of
subordination which is scarcely com
patible with freedom ; the idea of com
plete disjunction implies either the
certainty of conflict in some, if not all,
parts of the common field of work, or
the abdication on the one part or on
the other of some duty which accord
ing to its own ideal it is bound to
fulfil. The Church, for instance, can
not engross the work of education

without some danger to liberty ; the
State cannot engross it without some
dangsr to religion ; the work of the
Church without liberty loses half its
value ; the State without religion does
only half its work. And this is only
an illustration of what is true through
out. The individual conscience, the
spiritual aspiration, the moral system,
the legal enactment, will never, in a
world of mixed character, work con
sistently or harmoniously on all pointsii
For the historian, who is content to
view men as they are and appear to
be, not as they ought to be or are
capable of becoming, it is no dereliction;
of duty if he declines to lay down any
definition of the ideal relations between
Church and State. He may honestly
and perhaps wisely express that he
regards the indeterminateness and in-
determinability of those relations as
one of the points in which religion
teaches him to see a trial of his faith
incident to a state of probation. The
practical statesman too may content
himself with assuming the existence
of an ideal towards which he may ap
proximate, without the hope of realis
ing it ; trying to deal equitably, but
conscious all the time that theoretical
considerations will not solve the prac
tical problem. Even the philosopher
may admit that there are departments
of life and action in which the working
of two different laws may be traced,
and yet any exact harmonising of their
respective courses must be left for a
distant future and altered condition of
existence. Nor does our perplexity end here.
Even if it were possible that in a single
state, of homogeneous population, and a
fair level of property and education, the
relations of religious morality and law
could be adjusted, so that a perfectly
national Church could be organised,'
and a system of co-operation work
smoothly and harmoniously, the fact
remains, that religion and morality are
not matters of nationality. The Chris
tian religion is a historical and catholic
religion ; and a perfect adjustmentisof

CHURCH FURNITURE

163

CHURCH FURNITURE

relations with foreign Churches would
seem to be a necessary adjunct to
the perfect constitution of the single
communion at home. In the middle
ages of European history, the influence
of the Roman Church was directed to
some such end. The claim of supremacy
made for the See of Rome, a claim
which its modern advocates urge as
vehemently as if it were part of the
Christian creed, was a practical asser
tion that such an adjustment was pos
sible. But whether it be possible or
no in a changed state of society, the
sober judgment of history determines
that, as the world is at present moved
and governed, perfect ecclesiastical
unity is, like a perfect adjustment
between Church and State, an ideal to
be aimed at rather than hoped for."
(Stubbs's 'Const. Hist.' iii. 308.)
CHURCH FURNITURE. A Consti
tution of Walter Gray, Archbishop of
York, a.d. 1250, enumerates the things
necessary for the performance of Divine
service, to be provided by the parish
ioners. A chalice, missal, the princi
pal vestments of the church, viz.
chasuble, white albe, amice, stole,
maniple, zone ; and other vestments for
the deacon ; with three towels and
corporals, according to the wealthiness
of the parishioners and of the church ;
with a principal cope of silk for the
principal feasts, with two others for
rilling the choir in the feasts above-
mentioned ; a processional cross, and
another for the dead ; a bier for the
dead ; a vessel for blessed water ; an
osculatorium ; a candelabrum for the
paschal candle ; a thurible ; a lantern
with a small bell ; a Lenten veil and
two candelabra for the taper-bearers ;
ought to be found by the parishioners.
Of books, a Legenda, Antiphoner,
Gradual, Psalter, Troper, Ordinal,
Missal, Manual ; a frontal to the great
altar ; three surplices ; an honest pyx
for the Corpus Christi ; banners for
Rogations ; great bells with their
ropes ; a holy font with a lock ; a
chrismatory ; images in the church ;
a principal image in the chancel (of the

saint to whom the church is dedicated) ;
the reparation of books and vestments
as often as they ought to be repaired ;
and with all the above vessels in the
church ; the repair of the nave and the
fabric of the same, with a bell-turret,
inside and out, with glass windows ; a
fence to the cemetery ; with all that
is known to pertain to the nave and
other things.
A Constitution of Winchelsea, Arch
bishop of Canterbury, a.d. 1305,
also gives, a similar list of things re
quired in the various services of the
Church which the parishioners were
required to provide. ' ' The parishioners
shall find at their own charges these
several things following : a Legend, an
Antiphonal, a Gradual, a Psalter, a
Troper, an Ordinal, a Missal, a Manual ;
the principal vestment (}), with a
chasuble ; a dalmatic or tunic, with a
choral cope (2), and all its appendages ;
a frontal for the great altar (3), with
three towels (*), three surplices, one
rochet (5), a cross for processions, cross
for the dead (6), a censer, a lanthorn ('),
a hand-bell, to be carried before tho
body of Christ in the visitation of the
sick, a pix for the body of Christ, a
decent veil for Lent (8), banners for
the rogations (9), a vessel for the blessed
water, an osculatory, a candlestick for
the taper at Easter (10), a font with a
lock and key (u), the images in the
church, the chief image in the chan
cel (12), the reparation of the body of
the church within and without, as well
in the images as in the glass windows,
the reparation of books and vestments
whenever they shall need " (Lindwood,
251). Most of these things will- be
found explained under their titles ; we
append notes on others :
I1) Principal vestment, that is, the
best cope, to be worn on the principal
feasts. (2) Choral cope, the quire cope, to
be worn by the priest in saying the
Hours. Its appendages were the amyt
or amyss, alb, girdle, maniple, and
stole. (3) Frontal, the ornamental cloth

CHURCH FURNITURE

164

CHURCH RATES

covering the front of the altar — the
great altar in the chancel, as distin
guished from the smaller altars in the
church. (4) Three towels, probably one the
fair linen cloth to cover the mensa of
the altar at the celebration ; and the
others the corporalia, the smaller cloths,
of which one was placed beneath the
chalice and paten, and the other used
to cover them.
(5) Three surplices, for the use of
the three ministers — priest, deacon,
and sub-deacon. Bochet, a scantier
sleeveless surplice, probably for the use
of the acolyte or clerk.
(6) Cross for processions, a metal
cross mounted, on a wooden or metal
pole, to be carried at the head of the
processions. Cross for the dead, per
haps to be laid on the body when
brought into church.
(') Lanthorn, sometimes ornamental
in shape, and carried on a pole before
the Fix, a brass vessel shaped like a
cup, with a cover, containing the re
served consecrated bread, as it was
carried through the streets to some sick
or dying person. The' hand-bell was
rung at the same time to give notice to
the passers-by.
(s) A veil for Lent, in which the
crucifix upon the rood-beam was
shrouded, in token of mourning, during
the season of Lent. *
(9) Banners for the rogations. On
the rogation days banners were carried
at the head of the processions. [See
Rogation Days.]
(10) The taper at Easter, a lofty
ornamental taper, called the paschal
candle, was set up in the chancel, a
symbol of Christ the Light of the
world. It was blessed on Holy Satur
day, the deacon singing the hymn
Exultet. (See illustration of eleventh
century in Rock's ' Church of Our
Fathers,' vol. i. p. 212.)
(n) Font with lock and key. The
water of the font (with a little salt in
it to prevent corruption) was blessed
* See illustrations in Rock's ' Church of
Our Fathers,' vol. ii., part 3, p. 224.

once a year at Easter. The font had a
cover, which was kept locked to pre
vent desecration of the water;
(u) The images, probably those on
the rood-beam, viz. of Christ crucified,
with St. Mary and St. John. The
chief image, probably of the patron
saint. (Sir R. Phillimore. )
CHURCH RATES. In ancient times,
while the rector was liable for the re
pair of the chancel, the parishioners
were liable for the repair of the nave,
the maintenance of the fences, &c, of
the churchyard, the maintenance of
the things necessary for the Divine
service [see preceding article, Church
Furniture], also for the bread and wine
needed for the Holy Communion. It
was the duty of the churchwardens to
estimate the amount needed for these
purposes, and, together with the par
ishioners duly assembled in vestry, to
make and levy a rate for such amount.
The once famous Braintree Church-rate
case decided that the majority of the
parishioners might, under the law of the
land, refuse a rate, the question whether
the recusants were punishable in the
Ecclesiastical Court being left open.
At length Parliament was induced, in
the year 1868, to pass an Act (31 &
32 Vict., c. 109) which rendered a com
pulsory Church rate illegal, but pro
vided, in rather an obscure manner, for
a voluntary Church rate, clothed with
some of the characteristics of the old
law. The result is, that no one is
legally liable to maintain the fabrics of
the churches and churchyards, or to
provide the things necessary for the
performance of the Divine service.
In the case of All Saints Church,
Lambeth, the church being in a con
dition dangerous to the passers-by, the
Metropolitan Board of AVorks required
the incumbent to repair ; and on his
refusal, proceeded to execute the neces
sary repairs, and to summon him,
under a clause of an Act of Parliament,
to repay to them the amount. The
magistrate, however, before whom the
case was brought, held that the incum
bent was not liable for the repfir

CHURCHING

165

CHURCHWARDENS

of the building, and dismissed the
case. CHURCHING of Women. The Mo
saic Law, which required a woman at
a definite time after the birth of a child
to go up to the Temple and offer a
sacrifice for her purification from the
ceremonial uncleanness thereby con-
- tracted, was probably connected with
the doctrine of original sin. In the
Christian dispensation no such idea of
ceremonial uncleanness, or religious dis
qualification, attaches to child-birth ;
but the natural fitness of a woman
going to return thanks to God for the
twofold blessing of safe deliverance
from a perilous crisis, and of the gift of
offspring, seems to have led to the con
tinuance of the custom in the Christian
Church. Very ancient offices for the
occasion are to be found in the rituals
of both the Eastern and Western
Churches. The office underwent little
alteration in the several revisions of our
Prayer Book. The principal changes
were in the place where the woman was
to kneel. In the ante-Reformation
office it was at tho church door ; in the
first Reformed book at the quire door ;
in the second Reformed book at the
place where the table standeth ; in
1661, as in our present book, "in some
convenient place as hath been accus
tomed, or where the ordinary shall
direct." The direction in the rubric that she'
shall be " decently apparelled " is ex
plained by the statement given by the
archbishop and divers bishops to the
judges who consulted them in a case
tried in the reign of James I., when
they certified that it was the ancient
usage of the Church of England for
women who came to be churched to be
covered with a [white] veil. It so con
tinued down to the latter part of the
seventeenth century. She was to offer
"accustomed offerings," which are ex
plained to be a due to the priest offered
on the altar. And it is declared by the
rubric to be "convenient," i.e. fit
ting and proper, that, if there be a
communion, she receive the Holy

Communion at the time of the
churching. CHURCHWARDENS. An office so
ancient that we have no account of
its origin. Their primary office pro
bably was to take care of the church
and its goods on behalf of the par
ishioners ; and the churchwardens of
a parish are a legal corporation for
that purpose. In course of time tho
duties of synods-men or quest-men was
added to their office, viz. the duty of
assisting to maintain the moral disci
pline of the parish by inspecting the
morals and behaviour of the parish
ioners, and presenting to the bishop
at his visitations, heretics and other
irregular persons. Lord Stowell says :
" I conceive that their duties were
originally confined to the care of the
ecclesiastical property of the parish,
over which they exercise a discretionary
power for certain purposes. In other
respects, it is an office of observation
and complaint, but not of control, with
respect to Divine worship ; so it is laid
down in Ayliffe in one of the best
dissertations on the duties of church
wardens, and in the canons of 1591.
In these it is observed that the church
wardens are appointed to provide the
furniture of the church, the bread and
wine of the Holy Sacrament, the sur
plice, and the books necessary for the
performance of Divine worship, and
such as are directed by law ; but it
is the minister who has the use. If,
indeed, he errs in this respect, it is
just matter of complaint, which the
churchwardens are bound to attend
to, but the law would not oblige
them to complain if they had a power
themselves to redress the abuse. In
the service the churchwardens have
nothing to do but to collect the alms
at the offertory ; and they may refuse
the admission of strange preachers into
the pulpit ; for this purpose they are
authorised by the canon, but how?
(Canon 50 of 1603.) AVhen letters of
ordination are produced their authority
ceases. Again, if the minister intro
duces any irregularity into the service,

CHURCHYARD

166

CHURCHYARD

they have no authority to interfere, but
they may complain to the Ordinary of
his conduct." They have only the
custody of the church under the minis
ter. As the freehold of the church is
vested in the incumbent, there is no
doubt that he has a right to the
custody of the keys of the church,
subject to the granting admission to
the churchwardens for purposes con
nected with the due execution of their
office. If the minister refuses access
to the church on fitting occasion, he
will be set right on application and
complaint to higher authorities. They
have the care of a benefice during a
vacancy. The general mode of appointing
churchwardens is at a meeting of the
parishioners duly summoned in the
vestry in Easter week. It is then
the duty of the incumbent and the
¦parishioners to agree upon two persons
to serve the office of churchwarden ;
and the usual mode of arriving at an
agreement is that the incumbent nomi
nates one, and the parishioners elect the
¦other. The persons so nominated are
on due summons to attend a visitation
of the archdeacon, and there take the
oath of office. They only hold office
for one year, except they be chosen
again in like manner (Can. 89, 1603).
But they shall be reputed to continue
and be in office until the new church
wardens that shall succeed them shall
be sworn (Sir R. Phillimore, 'Eecl.
Law,' p. 1837, &e).
CHURCHYARD. Many churchyards
have a history of their own, stretching
further back than the foundation of the
first church which was built within
them. That is to say, some church
yards w^ere places appropriated to the
religious assemblies of the people, and
Divine service was performed in them
in the open air, before any church was
built there for the greater honour of
the Divine service, and the greater con
venience of the people. It is expressly
stated in the life of St. Willebald (' Acta
SS. Ord. Benedict,' sec. iii. part 2),
"that it was the ancient custom of the

Saxon nation on the estates of some of
their nobles and great men, to erect,
not a church, but the sign of the holy
cross, dedicated to God, beautifully and
honourably adorned and exalted on
high for the common use of daily
prayer." So again, "it was a custom
with St. Kentigern to erect a cross in
any place where he had converted the
people, and where he had been staying
for a time " (' The Sculptured Stones of
Scotland '). The plot of ground with
the cross of wood or stone in the
midst, formed the open air church of
the village, before a timber church was
erected in it.
Prayer and preaching could be car
ried on well enough round such a cross;
and for the celebration of Holy Com
munion it was the custom of itinerating
ecclesiastics to carry sacred vessels, and
a portable altar slab which could
be placed upon any convenient table.
Bede mentions two priests of the Eng
lish nation who. " went into the province
of the old Saxons to try whether they
could there gain any to Christ by preach
ing," and "the barbarians finding them
to be of another religion by their con
tinual prayer and singing of psalms
and hymns, and by their daily offering
the sacrifice of the daily oblation— for
they had with them sacred Vessels,
and a consecrated table for an altar
— began to grow jealous of them."
These portable altars are known to
have been in general use. [See Altar,
Portable.] In some cases it might
probably be that the place where they
had been accustomed to assemble for
religious rites in anti-Christian times
would still be the most convenient and
suitable for their assembly for the rites '
of their new religion. If this were '
abandoned, the site of the hamlet's j
place of meeting would probably be
generally determined by the conveni
ence of the Thane, which would he
for the convenience of the greater part
of the people also ; for the house carles
of the Thane would form a considerable
proportion of the population of a Saxon
manor, and the hall would form the

CHURCHYARD

167

CHURCHYARD

common centre of the freemen, and
villeins and serfs, who completed the
population of the manor.
It is a curious peculiarity of the sites
of our country churchyards, that they
are in a great majority of cases on the
north side of the village, and on the
north side of the road that leads to
them. There is also a superstition
among the old-fashioned peasantry,
that the north side of the churchyard
itself is less sacred than the remainder
of the consecrated ground. It is still
the rule in country churchyards, that
the north side is unoccupied by graves,
where the fulness of the rest of the
ground has not made it necessary to use
every available space. "To be buried
there," say the translators of Durandus,
" is, in the language of the Eastern coun
ties, to be buried ' out of sanctuary ; '
and the spot is appropriated to suicides,
unbaptised persons, and excommuni
cates. A particular portion of the
churchyard is, in Devonshire, set apart
for the second class, and called the
Chrisomer. Where the contrary is
the case, it may be worth enquiring
how far it arises from the accidental
position of the churchyard cross on the
north side. "
The magnitude of the churchyard is
not a fixed quantity ; in the German
name for it, "God's Acre," acre only
means field, not our measure of that
name. ' The Laws of Howel Dha ' (Book
X. ch. xi. sec. 1) say, "the dimensions
of the acre of a lawful session (open air
court of justice) is a legal erw, and the
same is the area of a churchyard, " which
is an evidence that the place of religious
assembly was defined and marked off
from profane uses. ' The Venedotian
Code ' (Book II. ch. x. .see 8) says- the
measure of the burying-ground is a
legal erw in length with its end to
the churchyard, and that circling the
churchyard is to be its compass, which
looks as if the burying-ground was an
outer belt surrounding the churchyard.
In several other Welsh laws there is
mention of the churchyard and burial-
ground as if they were different things.

This leads us finally to examine the
etymology of the word churchyard.
At first sight it is natural to suppose
that the first half of the word, church,
refers to the material structure, and
that churchyard therefore means the
yard in which a church stands. But
it has been seen that a plot of ground
where the people used to meet for
worship was called a churchyard before
any church was built within it. In
these cases church must have referred
to the living body, the Ecclesia. The
area in which a "lawful session" was
held would naturally be called the
" session yard ; " the area in which the
Church was accustomed to meet for
worship, would similarly be called the
' ' churchyard ; " or the open air church.
There is reason to believe that some of
these churchyards continued without
churches so late as the Norman Con
quest. This is perhaps the clue to the
explanation of the following canon,
which Wilkins, i. p. 267, gives under
date 994 a.d.
' 'Antiquas erat mos in his regionibus,
mortuos homines frequenter in ecclesiis
sepelire, et loca, quae ad Dei ministe-
rium sanctificata et consecrata ' erant
ad offerendum, ipsi facere ccemeteria.
Jam nolumus abhinc, ut aliquis in
ecclesia sepeliatur, nisi sit vir sacerdo-
talis ordinis, aut et'iam tarn Justus
laicus, ut sciatur quod vivus propter
meritum vitae suae talem locum corpus
suum ibi reponendi promeruerit. No
lumus tamen ut corpora, quae prius in
ecclesia sepulta erant, ejiciantur, sed
tumuli, ubi appareant, ut utrum horum
(eligatur) vel profundius ilia in terra
sepeliantur, vel transitus super ea fiat,
et saqualiter ac convenienter cum eccle
sia? pavimento condantur, ut nullus
tumulus videatur. Si autem in aliquo
loco tot tumuli sunt, ut hoc difficile
sit factu, sinant loca ilia ccemeteria
esse, et auferatur altare inde,_ et in pu-
rum locum ponatur, et ibi ecclesiaa
sint, ubi Deo reverenter et pure offerre
possit." The latter part may mean that if
the open-air place in which the people

CHURCHYARD

168

CHURCHYARD

have been accustomed to assemble for
Divine worship be very much occupied
with grave-mounds, it may be better
not to level them, but to leave that
place to be used as a cemetery, and to
select some other place for worship.
It is unreasonable to suppose that the
floor of a building was heaped all over
with grave-mounds ; still more un
reasonable to suppose it easier to re
build the church than to level the floor.
CHURCHYARD, CUSTOMS IN CON
NECTION WITH. The churchyard was
sometimes used for other than religious
purposes. It is not perhaps repugnant
to our ideas of the sacredness of the
place that it should have been used as
a court of justice. When, the bishop
sat with the sheriff, and lawyers were
reckoned among clerics, and the admin
istration of "true justice and judg
ment" was regarded as having a re-
' ligious character, the use of the church
or churchyard as the court might
seem no irreverent use of the house of
God ; rather it might seem a specially
, fitting place for a court of justice ;
since its religious character might in
cline witnesses to truth, persecutors
to mercy, litigants to peace, and judges
to justice. " And there is evidence of
this in the 'Ancient Laws and Institutes
of Wales' (Book IV. ch. iv. sec. 31).
" Relics are not necessary in cases
carried on in the church or in the
- ehurchyard, because it is the place of
-relics." To understand this it is ne
cessary to look back to sec. 30, from
which it appears that it was not un
usual for the party to a suit to bring
relics into court upon which to put
. his opponent on oath in a way calcu
lated to ensure his truthfulness. The
' opposite party might not retort, and
require the importer of the relics to
; guarantee his own veracity by the same
solemn sanction which he imposed.
But after the suit was over the relics
were to be free to all present, probably
for oaths or for curative applications.
Section 57 of the same code again
alludes to the holding of courts in
churches and churchyards.

In later times the ecclesiastical au
thorities discouraged the holding of
secular pleas in churches and church
yards, and prohibitions will be found
scattered through the canons, e. g. one
of, the canons of a synod held at Exe
ter, 1287 a.d., says, " Let not markets,
sales, or secular pleas be held in church
yards" (Wilkins, 'Concilia,' II., 140).
But the fact that successive canons
forbid it shows that the practice con
tinued notwithstanding the canons,;
and of this. there is positive evidence,-
e.g. in the 'York Fabric Rolls,', p.
256, there is a presentation under date
1472 from the parish of Helmsley-et-
Samforthbrig : " They say that all the
parishioners there hold pleas and other
temporal meetings (plebisitum et alias
ordinaciones temporales) in the church
and churchyard."
But the churchyards were also: some
times used for less defensible purposes,
viz. for the holding of sales, markets, •
and fairs. So early as the fourth cen
tury St. Basil mentions as one abuse
of the great church festivals that "men
kept markets at these times and places
under colour of making better provi
sion for the feasts which were cele
brated thereat." The canon of the
Exeter Synod already quoted prohibits
" markets and sales " as well as " secu
lar pleas " to beheld in the churchyard
The constitutions of Cardinal. Otto-
bon strictly prohibit "that in any of
the churches of our jurisdiction, any
one shall hold a market of any kind
of vendibles, or shall presume to conr
duct any sale ; strictly enjoining upon
all archbishops, bishops, and other pre
lates of the Church that they cause
this wholesome statute to be inviolably
observed on pain of ecclesiastical cen
sures. " But this degree of strictness
was clearly in advance of popular opin
ion and general habits, and the prac
tice continued in spite of repeated
canons. So late as 1519 the church
wardens of Ricale in Yorkshire *¦ pre
sent to the ordinary that "pedlars
* ' York Fabric Kolls,' p. 255.

CHURCHYARD

169

CHURCHYARD

come on festival days into the porch of
the church, and there sell their mer
chandise." Sometimes the chapmen
congregated in such numbers that the
gathering assumed the proportions of
a weekly market. For example, among
the presentations in 1416 is one from
St. Michael-le-Belfry in the city of
York,* which states that " the parish
ioners say that a common market of
vendibles is held in the churchyard
on Sundays and holidays, and divers
things, and goods, and rushes, are
exposed there for sale, and horses stand
over the bodies of the dead there
buried and defile the graves, to the
great dishonour and manifest hindrance
of divine worship, on account of the
clamour of those who stand about."
Annual fairs also were sometimes
held in churchyards, particularly where
there was some object of pilgrimage
which attracted crowds for the period
of" some anniversary. The crowds of
pilgrims who came on such an occasion
came with very mixed motives ; it was
a religious pilgrimage, but it was also
a holiday excursion. [See Pilgrimage.]
When they had paid their devotion to
the relics, they needed to eat and
drink ; and they were not averse to
spend tho rest of the day in amuse
ment ; and it was a good opportunity
in those days when there were no vil
lage shops, and towns were far distant,
to make purchases at the chapmen's
stalls. Accordingly minstrels and jug
glers and the like came to afford amuse
ment, and the dealers set up their
stalls, and made the pilgrimage a fair.
Indeed in such cases the ecclesiastical
authorities made a good profit by let
ting stall-space to the dealers and ex
acting a toll for leave to sell ; and if
the churchyard were — as it often would
be — the most convenient locality for
the staUs, they allowed them there.
Another use commonly made of the
churchyard was as a place of public re
creation for the people, especially on
Sundays and holidays. Before the Re-
* ' York Fabric Bolls,' p. 248.

formation people observed Sundays and
festivals in a way which makes us still
call any day of leisure and recreation
a "holiday ;" they observed them all
much as Christmas-day is now observed;
they went to matins and mass in the
morning, and thought it no sin to spend
the rest of the day in innocent re
creation. There are numerous canons
against the use of the churchyard for
these recreations, e. g. the synod of
Exeter already quoted (1287 A. D. ) says :
" We strictly enjoin on parish priests'
that they publicly proclaim in their
churches that no one presume to carry
on combats, dances, or other improper
sports in the churchyards, especially
on the eves of feasts of the saints ; or
stage plays or farces (ludos thealrales
et ludibriorum speetacula), by which
the honour of the churches is defiled
and sacred ordinances despised " (Wil-
kins, ' Concilia,' II. 170). Warlike ex
ercises were among the favourite pas
times of our forefathers: we find another
prohibition of them in the church
yard in the ' Institutions ' of Adam de
Orleton, Bishop of Winchester, a.d.
1334 : "Let not tournaments (hastilu-
dia) be practiced in the churchyard."
What the other "foolish sports " were
may be learnt from the ' York Fabric
Roils.' Thus, under Salton, a.d. 1472,
"it is ordered, by the consent of the
parishioners, that no one use improper
and prohibited sports within the church
yard, as, for example, wrestling, or
pilopedali vel manualc, under penalty
of twopence forfeit. The ordinance
seems to have been disregarded or to
have had only a temporary effect, for
some fifty years after occurs a com
plaint under " Salton-cum-Brawle,
1519 : improper games are used within
the churchyard, as pililudes pedales et
manuales;" in the presentation from
Penyston, where the same complaint
occurs, the English equivalents of the
barbarous Latin words are given, viz.
"tutts and handball." This time a
graver penalty than the twopence for
feit which the parishioners agreed
on is threatened by the ecclesiastical,

CIBORIUM

170

CISTERCIAN

authorities, to whom the complaint is
made — "Let them desist on pain of
excommunication. "
Considering the way in which people
were thus occupied in marketing and
feasting, in tutt ball and dancing, in
wrestling and spear-play, it is not
surprising to meet with injunctions
against quarrelling in the churchyard.
In the ' Ancient Laws and Institutions
.of Wales' (Book IX. ch. xi. sec. 37),
it is said : " Whoever shall wrangle
with another in court, or in a church
yard, or church, or in a palace, is
liable to a fine. " In the ' York Fabric
Rolls' (p. 257), Bole, 1472 a.d., "it is
ordered by the consent of the parish
ioners that if it happen that any one
hereafter quarrel in the church or
churchyard, he or she shall forfeit a
pound of wax." In days when men
went about armed with sword and
dagger, it was sure to happen that the
hasty quarrel would sometimes lead to
stroke of sword or stab of dagger with
out heed to the sacred character of the
place, or to the fact that it aggravated
the assault into a sacrilege. That the
churchyard was frequently the scene of
bloodshed, is evident from the frequent
notice in the Episcopal registers of
commissions to reconcile churchyards
which had been desecrated by blood
shed in them.
It is curious that the practices above
mentioned had not become so obsolete
in the seventeenth century as to make
it unnecessary to guard against them
by the canons of 1603 : " The church
wardens or questmen and their assist
ants shall suffer no plays, feasts,
banquets, suppers, church ales, drink-
ings [see Church Ales], temporal courts
or leetsj lay-juries, musters, or other
profane usage to be kept in the church,
chapel, or churchyard. "
[This article is condensed from papers
in the ' Churchman's Family Magazine '
for 1863, p. 163 ; and 1865, p. 419.]
CIBORIUM (a vessel in which to
keep food, cibus). Rock ('Church of
our Fathers,' I. 198) calls the canopy
over the altar by this name ; but it is

commonly used as synonymous with
Pyx [which see].
CISTESCIAH Order of monks.
One of the reformed Benedictine orders,
founded in 1098 by-Robert de Thierry,
Abbot of Citeaux, from which house
(Latinised into Cistercium) the order
took its name. Stephen Harding, fan
Englishman, the third abbot, brought
the order into some repute ; but it was
the fame of St. Bernard, who joined it
in 1113, to which the speedy and wide
spread of the order is to be specially
attributed. From him they were some
times called Bernardines. Within
twenty-five years it had sent out 60,000
monks to occupy new houses from the
Tiber to the Volga, from Mancanarez
to the Baltic. It was introduced into
England at Waverley in Surrey in 1128.
The Cistercians professed to observe
the rule of St. Benedict with rigid
exactness, only that somo of the hours
which were devoted by the Benedictines
to study and reading were occupied 'by
the Cistercians in manual labour. They
affected a severe simplicity; their
houses and churches were to be simple,
with no lofty towers, no carvings or
representations of saints except the
crucifix. They observed tho Hours
strictly at the proper time, not accu
mulating them ( i. e. saying two or more
together), as was customary ; when at
work in the field they suspended their
occupation, and said the Hours where
they happened to be. The furniture of
their houses and churches was to be of
like simplicity — candlesticks of iron,
napkins of coarse cloth, chasubles of
fustian, the cross of wood, and only
the chalice might be of precious
metal. The amount of their manual
labour precluded the Cistercian from
becoming a learned order, though they
did, in spite of disadvantages, produce
a few men distinguished in literature.
St. Bernard, the last of the Fathers,
who was perhaps the most famous and
influential man of his time, was the
great saint of the order. They were
excellent farmers and horticulturists,
and are said in early times to have

CISTERCIAN

171

CISTERCIAN

almost monopolised the wool trade of
the country. They changed the colour
of the Benedictine habit, wearing a
"white gown and hood over a white
•cassock and scapular ; when they went
beyond the precincts of the monastery
they wore a black cloak, and from the
icolour of their habit were popularly
called White Monks. The wood-cut,
from a fourteenth century MS. (Vitel-
lius, A. 13) in the British Museum,

Cistercian Monks. (British Museum,
Vitel. A. 13.)
represents a group of Cistercian monks
(holding the hands crossed and con
cealed by the sleeve was an attitude of
humility). Their monasteries included
some of the largest and finest in the
kingdom, whose very ruins — as at
Fountains, Netley, Tintern — fill the
mind with admiration and regret. They
chose low and secluded sites ; there is
a general uniformity in the arrangement
of the cloister- buildings, as will be seen
by a comparison of several of their plans.
The church is always a cross church
with aisles. In England it has always
a square east end, except at Croxden,
¦ which is circular with five radiating

chapels ; at Dore the square eastern
limb is surrounded on three sides by
chapels ; always three chapels on the
east side of each transept. The cloister
court is almost always on the south side,
in the angle of the nave and transept.
Next to the church is a narrow apart
ment, sometimes passage, sometimes
sacristy ; next to that the chapter-house,
nearly always rectangular, and groined
on four or six pillars ;. next to that
another narrow apartment, sometimes a
room, sometimes a passage, and very
often a second of these small apartments
whose use is not determined ; next
comes the fratry, which, though always
entered from the cloister, extends far
beyond it - southward. Over the fratry
is the dormitory, over the chapter house
and the small apartments on each side
of it is the scriptorium, and there is
usually a winding stair on the south of
the choir by means of which the monks
could pass from their dormitory through
the scriptorium, and down the stair into
church for their night services with
out having to go into the open air.
In the middle of the south side of the
cloister is the .entrance to the refectory,
which extends southward with its long
axis north and south ; on the east side
of it the kitchen ; on the west side
offices fill up that side of the cloister.
On the west runs a long building,
sometimes of very great length, of two
stories, which formed the hall or refec
tory and domitory of the conversi or
lay brothers, i.e. the servants and
labourers of the community. Nearly
all these domestic buildings were groined
in two aisles, with a row of columns
down the middle. There were many
other buildings distributed as conveni
ence and the nature of the ground
required. [See Monastery. ]
Mr. E. Sharpe's work on ' Cistercian
Architecture' gives many interesting,
details of the ground plans, eleva
tions, and architectural features of the
houses of this order. Viollet le Due's
' Dictionnaire de V Architecture,' vol. i.
p. 271, gives a bird's-eye view of Clair-
vaux as restored, which helps very

CISTERCIAN

172

CISTERCIAN

much to a realisation of the original
condition of our English houses.
It will be interesting to many to have
a sketch of the occupations of a monastic
day. We take that of the Cistercian
order as an example, which would re-
¦quire a little modification for other
orders. Monastic Life. — The day of a
Cistercian was spent in something like
the following way. At midnight a few-
blows on the bell roused him from sleep,
and he took his place ready clothed
at the foot of his bed, or at the door
of his cubicle, and fell into his place
in the procession as it moved slowly
up the dimly-lighted dormitory, down
the winding stair which led into the
south-west corner of the transept, and so
to his stall in the choir, to sing the mid
night lauds. Should he fall asleep in
the service he would wake up to find a
lantern placed on the desk before him
by the officer whose duty it was to
make the round of the choir for this
purpose, with its light shining full in
his face, and it would be his duty to
take the lantern and resume the search
till he found some other drowsy brother,
and could put the lantern down be
fore his face and return to his own
stall. After lauds he might return to rest
until the six o'clock bell summoned him
to church again for the office of prime.
¦Prime * being duly sung, the whole
convent went in procession through the
nave and cloister into the chapter
house, where each took his proper place
on the raised benches along the sides.
All waited till the abbot had reached
his chair on the dais, then all descended
one step and bowed to the abbot, he
jeturned their salutation, and all took
their seats. A chapter of the rule was
read from the desk, and the abbot, or
in his absence the prior, delivered a
sermon upon it ; then from another book
was read the names of brethren, bene
factors, and persons received into the
fraternity of the house, whose decease
• In summer chapter was held after prime,
but in winter after terce.

had happened on that day of the year,
and the convent said a prayer for their
souls, and the souls of all the faithful
departed. Then members of the con
vent who had been guilty of breaches
of the rule went and knelt in the middle
of the hall and confessed their fault, e.g.
that they had fallen asleep at lauds,
and the abbot gave them pardonjon
that slight penance, or assigned some
appropriate penance for graver faults. >
After chapter the monks dispersed to
their duties — the hedomadarius to his
housekeeping cares, the cellarer to his
business and his accounts, the master
of the novices to his lecture, the hos
pitaller to the care of, his guests, the
infirmerer to his sick, and the bulk of
the monks to their digging and pruning
in the garden and orchard, or to their
work in the fields. When the bell rang
for terce, those who were within the
precincts went to sing the office in
church, those who were afield suspended
their labour, formed a group, and stood
and sung their office where they were,
and went to work again.
At noon came the office of sext, and
afterwards dinner. [See Refectory.]
After dinner recreation, i.e. reading or
conversation, or sauntering round the
cloister, or sitting in the sunshine on
its stone bench till nones. After nones
labour again till vespers ; and after
vespers, collation — which consisted of
some light refreshment, bread and fruit,
and a cup of wine and water. After
collation, compline ; and after compline,
silence and bed.
In 26th Henty^VIII. there were
75 Cistercian houjp, of which 36 were
among the greateWnfonasteries, besides
26 nunneries. Of the latter only one
had more than £200 a-year ; besides
these, various cells which were little
more than granges. The following is
a list of their houses ; those marked *
are nunneries.
Waverley, Surrey, 1128 ; Furness,
Lane. ; Rushen, Isle of Man ; Neath,
Glamorgan ; Basingwerk, Flints. ;
Tintern, Monmouth ; Rivaux, Yorks ;
Fountains, Yorks ; Quarr, Isle cf

CISTERCIAN

173

CLARKE

Wight ; Combermere, Cheshire j Ga-
rendon, Leicester.; Swineshoad, Lin
coln ; Calder, Cumb. ; Byland, Yorks ;
Build was, Salop ; St. Mary, Dublin ;
Bitlesden, Bucks ; Wardon, Beds ;
Ford, Devon ; Buckfastleigh, Devon ;
Mplsa or Meaux, Yorks ; Newminster,
Northumb. ; Thame, Oxon ; Bordesley,
Worcest. ; Louth Park, Line ; Kirk-
stead, Line ; Kingswood, Wilts ;
Pipewell, Northants ; Stoneleigh,
Warwick ; Coggeshall, Essex ; Reves-
by, Line. ; Cumbyre, Radnorsh. ; Box-
ley, Kent ; * Sunningthwaite, Yorks ;
Esseholt, Yorks ; Woburn, Beds ;
Mereval, Warwick ; * Hampole,
Yorks ; Vaudey (de Valle Dei), Line ;
Swine, Yorks ; Bruerne, Oxon ; Roche,
Yorks ; * Basedale, Yorks ; Sallay or
Sawley, Yorks ; Rufford, Notts ; Saw-
trey, Hunts ; Kirkstall, Yorks ; Dore,
Herts ; Sibton, Suffolk ; Stanley,
Wilts ; Jervaux, Yorks ; Greenfield,
. Line ; Combe, Warwick ; Flexley (or
Dene), Gloucest. ; Whitehand, Caerm. ;
Holm Cultram, Cumb. ; * Tarent,
Dorset ; Titley, Essex ; Dieulacres,
Stafford ; Clynorock Vaur, Caernarvon ;
Strata Florida, Cardiff ; * Leghorn,
Line ; Strat Margel, Montgom. ; Stan-
law, Cheshire ; Whalley, Lane ; *Nun
Appleton, Yorks ; *Codenham, Yorks ;
Bindon, Dorset ; Croxden, Stafford ; *
Kildholm, Yorks ; Robert's Bridge,
Sussex ; *Wyckham, Yorks ; Conway,
Caernarv. ; Colham, Line ; Dunkes-
well, Devon ; Beaulieu, Hants ; Med-
menham, Bucks ; Grace Dieu, Mon
mouth ; Hayles, Glou. ; Newenham,
Devon ; Netley, Hants ; Rewley,
Oxon ; Vale Royal, Cheshire ; Buck-
land, Devon ; Hilton, Stafford ; St.
Mary Graces, or Eastminster, London ;
De Valle Cruris ; *Gokwell, Line ;
Winteneye, Hants ; *Heyninges, Line ;
Stixwould, Line ; Caerleon, Mon
mouth ; Lantarnam, Monmouth ;
*Sewardesby, Northants ; *Brewood,
Salop ; Clyde, Somerset ; Horewell,
Warwick ; Bleatarn, Westmor. ;
*Llanlugan, Montgom. ; *Cokehill,
Worcest. ; *Whiston, Worcest. ; *Kirk-
lees, Yorks; Margan, Glamorgan;

Kinner, Merioneth ; *Marham, Nor
folk ; *Ellerton, Yorks ; St. Bernard's
College, Oxon.
, CITY. A town becomes entitled to
' the rank of a city when it is the chief
town of a county, and also the see of a
bishop. Thus the towns which have
been designated as the see towns of the
bishoprics recently created as St. Al
ban's, Truro, and Newcastle, have
subsequently been created cities by
order in council.
CLARKE, Dr. Samuel, born 1675,
died 1729, was'tho son of Edward Clarke,
Alderman of and M. P. for Norwich ;,
was educated at the Free School there,
and at Caius College, Cambridge, where
he distinguished himself in mathematics
and natural philosophy, and by his.
knowledge of Oriental languages.. On his
ordination he became chaplain to Bishop-
Moore, who presented him to Drayton
and to one of the Norwich parishes.
In 1704 he preached the Boyle lectures
on ' The Being and Attributes of God ; '
and being appointed again for the
following year, preached on the ' Evi
dences of Naturaland Revealed Religion. '
The first series especially had a great
reputation, and gave rise to a consider
able amount of public discussion. In
1709 he was appointed Rector of St.
James's, Westminster ; in 1712 pub
lished his ' Scripture Doctrine of the
Trinity,' which made evident that his
views on the subject were Arian. Tho
Lower House of Convocation censured
the book ; the Upper House, anxious to
prevent public discussion of the mys
tery, accepted an ambiguous retracta
tion, with which the Lower House ex
pressed its dissatisfaction, and the
matter was allowed to drop. About
1718 Clarke published a hymn-book
for St. James's, in which he had altered
the usual form of the Doxology thus :
" To God, through Christ. His only Son,
Immortal glory be," &c.
The Society for Promoting Christian
Knowledge inadvertently adopted and
circulated the book, whereupon the
Bishop of London warned his clergy'

CLERESTORY

174

CLERGY

agiinst its use. In 1724 he was made
Master of Wigston's Hospital ; but it
was understood that his objection to
subscription to the- Prayer Book stood
in the way of his promotion to the
higher dignity which his favour at
Court would probably otherwise have
brought him. He died 17th May,
1729. He was a voluminous author,
writing editions of the classics, divinity,
natural philosophy, and mathematics.
He was a man of great natural genius
and learning, of true piety, shrinking
from the controversy which his opinions
Erovoked ; but undoubtedly one of the
not of able men who at that period
were unorthodox on some of the funda
mental doctrines of the faith.
CLERESTORY (clear or light story).
Where a church has a body and
aisles, the aisles have often a lean-to
roof, which necessitates low side-walls,
and these low walls do not allow of
windows tall enough to give enough
light to the body of the church ; this
defect is supplied by carrying the walls
of the body of the church a story
higher, and piercing these upper walls
with windows, which light up the
timber-work of the roof, and diffuse
light through the church in the most
advantageous way. This upper story
pierced with windows is called the
clerestory. The architectural effect of
this grouping of the body and aisles,
both internal and external, adds greatly
to the dignity and beauty of the build
ing. Sometimes in late fifteenth cen
tury churches the windows of the cle
restory are almost continuous, and
when filled with the beautiful stained
glass of that period give a very rich
internal effect.
CLERGY, from KXijpoc, a lot or por
tion ; either because they are the lot
or portion of the Lord (Ps. lxiv. 3),
or because the Lord is their lot or in
heritance (Num. xviii. 20 ; Josh. xiii.
14) ; a collective noun meaning the
collective body of clerks of a parish,
diocese, province, kingdom ; or the col
lective body of ordained men of all
orders as distinguished from the laity.

The word is often used inaccurately!
for clergymen, as '.'there were two'
clergy present " for two clergymen, or
two of the clergy.
"It is evident unto all men dili
gently reading the Holy Scripture and
ancient authors that from the apostles'
time there have been these orders of
ministers in Christ's Church ; bishops,
priests, and deacons," which were called
the Sacred Orders. In later but still
very early times, others engaged in the
service of the Church were solemnly
admitted to their offices with a service
of benediction, and were considered
as minor orders of the clergy. The
mediaeval Church recognised the follow
ing minor orders — subdeacon, acolyte,-
exorcist, reader, ostiary. [See Minor
Orders.] The pretensions of the See of Rome
in the eleventh century led to the
promulgation of a theory in the twelfth
century on the subject of the Sacred
Orders, viz. that bishops and priests
are of the same order ; with the object
of isolating the pope from other bishops,
and raising him to a solitary supremacy,
it was convenient thus to lower the
bishops to the status of arch-priests.-
But it is abundantlyclear that for athou-
sand years the whole Church regarded
the Bishop of Rome as a bishop among
bishops, all equal as regards order,
whatever precedence or authority arising
from his position as Bishop of the
capital city of the Empire might be
claimed by and conceded to the Bishop
of Rome ; and the Church regarded
the episcopate as a distinct order
higher than that of the priesthood,
having distinctive spiritual functions
exclusively inherent in it.
It may be necessary to distinguish,
between orders, and offices and digni
ties ; the orders of the clergy are those
enumerated above, and are permanent ;
the offices and dignities are such as
cardinal, archbishop, deacon, arch
deacon, rector, vicar, and are acci
dental. From the beginning of the foundation
of the Church of England in Anglo-

CLERGY

175

CLERGY

Saxon times down to the thirteenth
century, there were two distinct classes
of clergy, the Regulars, i.e. those who
were living under monastic rule, and
who were not necessarily in holy orders,
and the Seculars, i.e. those who were
living not in the cloister, but in the
world, and fulfilling parochial or other
duties among the people. After the
middle of the thirteenth century there
'was a third class of the clergy, viz. the
friars. The monks are described under
the words Monachism, Monastery, Con
vent, Benedictine, &e The friars
under the words Friar, Dominican,
Franciscan, &c. The present article is
on the secular clergy.
The secular clergy may be divided
into the bishop and cathedral digni
taries, the rectors and vicars, and the
chantry priests, chaplains, and others.
The cathedral clergy have been no
ticed under the word Cathedral. This
article addresses itself especially to
some explanation of the condition and
circumstances of the rest of the clergy.
At first the whole body of the clergy
lived together with the bishop at his
cathedral, town, or village ; but grad
ually groups of the clergy were settled
in other centres of evangelisation to
the neighbouring country ; or churches
were built by the territorial magnates on
their estates, and single clergymen were
stationed there as permanent pastors.
By the time of the. Norman Conquest
the whole country had been divided
into parishes ; and in each (speaking
generally) a. rector was maintained,
living in his rectory house, supported
by the tithes and offerings of his people ;
and the mutual rights and duties of
bishop, rector, and people had long
since been arranged ; and these rights
and duties had received the sanction.
of the law of the land.
The rectories were for the most part
"family livings," and therefore it is
probable that in many parishes the
rector was a relative of the lord of the
manor, an arrangement which at least
gave him an hereditary and permanent
interest in the well-being of the people.

They were not generally a learned
clergy, but they seem to have attended
to their parochial duties. They were
generally a married clergy, and did not
affect the ascetic life which was proper
to the monks ; they ate and drank like
other people, farmed their glebes, and
spent a good deal of their leisure per
haps in hawking and hunting — as in
deed bishops themselves did down to
the time of Charles I.
After the Norman Conquest a great
change gradually came over the con
dition of the clergy having parochial
cures. Many of the livings— in pro
cess of time about a third of the whole
number — were appropriated to monas
teries, prebends, &e. [see Appropriate
Benefice], and instead of a well-to-do
resident rector, for many years the
parishioners had no one to look after
them but a curate put in charge by
the impropriator at a poor stipend.
In the thirteenth century the bishops
were able to effect an improvement in
these impropriate livings by requiring
the impropriator to endow a perpetual
vicar ; but even then the bulk of the
tithe was paid away from the parish,
and the vicar was left to represent the
Church and fulfil its duties and per
form its charities on a comparatively
small income.
Another evil was the absenteeism
of rectors ; livings were held in plu
rality. In the thirteenth century the
Pope claimed to over-rule the rights
of patrons, and to- present to bene
fices, the result being that shortly
all the best benefices in England were
held by Italians, who never came near
their livings, but put curates into them.
The extent to which the system of
pluralities was carried seems almost
incredible, one man sometimes holding
400 or 500 benefices.
Another great abuse was that men
were allowed to hold rectories who
were only in minor orders, setting
both canon law and episcopal discipline
at defiance. In the fourteenth cen
tury perhaps half the" rectories in
England were thus held by men

CLERGY

176

CLERGY

often presented before of age to be
ordained, then taking only the first
order, which entitled' them to hold
a benefice, and steadily refusing to
qualify themselves to fulfil any of the
spiritual duties of their cure, to ad
minister the sacrament of the altar, or
hear confessions, or even to baptise ;
they contracted quasi-marriages [see
Celibacy], and lived the life of lay
men, maintaining a stipendiary curate
to perform the duties of the cure.
Another evil grew out of the last
two, that of the farming of benefices ;
it was a trade especially followed by
the monasteries. The ecclesiastical
dues were rigidly exacted, while the
spiritual duties of the parish were sup
plied at the lowest possible cost, and
therefore usually of the worst quality ;
and there seems to have been no pro
vision made in the bargain for the main
tenance of the charities of the parish.
It is clear that a considerable num
ber of unbeneficed priests were needed
under such a system to supply these
parishes, and that the position and
emolument were such as to make it
probable that they would only be
accepted by poor men.
Besides the rectors and vicars and
parish priests, there was another class
of clergymen who gradually became
very numerous, viz. the chantry priests.
By the time of the Reformation there
was perhaps hardly a church in the
kingdom which had not one or more
chantries founded in it, for the main
tenance of a chantry priest to say mass
daily for the souls' health of the founder
and his family. The churches of large
and wealthy towns had several such
chantries, the cathedrals and minster
churches still more
Less wealthy people left money for
a certain definite number of masses
to be said on their behalf, or a certain
sum to be expended in masses to the
best advantage; The friars tried to
secure these masses for their convents ',
but there were also many priests who
earned a precarious livelihood by under
taking these memorial masses.

Next there were the chaplains. -It
may be that it was the unsatisfactory;
state of the Church— with many
bishops occupied as Secretaries of
State, judges, and ambassadors, with
absentee and acolyte rectors, with
poor unlearned curates — which led
people in the latter part of the pre-
reformation period to try to make
some better spiritual provision for
themselves by the large employment,.'
of chaplains. In the .towns the various
trade corporations maintained a guild
priest ; other guilds were founded on
a charitable and religious basis, which
also had their special priest. Every
nobleman had his chapels in his various
houses, and a staff of clerics ; and in
the latter part of the pre-reformation
period nearly every country gentleman,
and many wealthy merchants and
traders, had adopted the custom of
maintaining a priest in their house- (
hold, to take special care of the
spiritual well-being of themselves and .
their families. A thoughtful con
sideration of the inevitable results of
such a condition of things will show
that the abuses in the working of the
machinery of the Church cried aloud
for a thorough administrative reform
ation. *
Throughout the history of the
Church of England the clergy, drawn
from all classes of the people, have
sympathised with the people, and have
defended the liberties and aided in the
elevation of the people. They put a
a stop to the traffic in English slaves,
and encouraged the manumission" of
serfs ; they set bounds to the tyranny
of kings and the licence of nobles;
they offered education to the lowest
classes, and assisted those who had
the qualities for it to rise in the service
of Church and State to the highest
places ; to this day they are the fore
most promoters of the education of the
* For the changes wrought in the status of
the clergy by the Reformation ; and for their
sufferings, ejection, and restoration at the
time of the Great Rebellion, see under those
wordB.

CLERGY

177

CLOISTER

people, and of every institution for pro
moting their weU-being ; for the Church
is Christ's great agency for promot
' ing the physical, mental, moral, and
spiritual well-being and advancement
- of the people ; and the clergy only
recognise the spirit of their calling in
thus taking up with heart and soul the
interests not of this class or of that,
but the interests of all those for whom
Christ died.
The following paragraph is from the
Bishop of Chester's ' Constitutional
History of England ' : —
The clergy, ' ' by their vindication of
their liberties, showed the nation that
other liberties might be vindicated as
well, and that there are bounds to the
power and violence of princes. They
had fought the battles of the people in
fighting their own. From them, too,
as subjects, and hot merely as church
men, the first movement towards
national action had come. They had
bound up the wounds of the perishing
State at the accession of Henry II.;
they had furnished the first if not
the only champions of freedom in the
royal councils, where St. Thomas, St.
Hugh, and Archbishop Geoffrey had
had courage to speak when the barons
were silent. They had, on the other
side, not, it may be fairly allowed,
without neglecting their spiritual work,
laboured hard to reduce the business
of government to something like the
order, which the great ecclesiastical or
ganisation of the West impressed on
every branch of its administration.
What the Church had borrowed from
the Empire in this respect it paid back
with tenfold interest to the rising State
system of Europe. And this was
especially the case in England. We
have seen that the Anglo-Saxon Church
made possible and opened the way to
national unity ; it was the common
Church which combined Norman and
Englishman in one service, when law
and language, land tenure and political
influence would have made them tw6
races of lords and slaves. It was the
"action of Lanfranc and Anselm that

formed the strongest link between the
witenagemot of the Confessor and the
court and council of the Conqueror
and his sons. It was the hard and
systematic work of Roger of Salisbury
that gave order to the Exchequer and
the curia. The work of Becket as
Chancellor is thrown into the shade by
his later history, but he certainly was
Henry's right hand in the initial re
forms of the reign. Hubert Walter,
the administrator of Henry's system
under Richard and John, completed
the fabric of strong government by
means of law, and Stephen Langton,
who deserves more than any other
person the credit of undoing the mis
chief that arose from that system,
maintaining the law by making the
national will the basis of the strength
of government, were both represent
ative men of the English Church"
( ' Const. Hist.,' I. 707). [See Secular
Clergy.] CLOISTER. An enclosed space. The
principle of the monastic life was seclu
sion from the world ; the cloister was
the enclosure within which a monastic
community passed its life. It was '
nearly always in the angle formed by
the nave and transept of the church,
sometimes on the north side, more fre
quently on the south side of the church.
The buildings necessary for the ac
commodation of the monks, the chapter
house, scriptorum, refectory, dormitory,
were entered from the cloister, and had
no other entrances (except the church).
It is most probable that the idea of
the cloister with its surrounding build
ings is borrowed from the plan of an
ancient house with its central court.
In an ancient house in warm climates
a good deal of the life of the family
was passed in the cool shadows and
pure air of this summer parlour ; and
so probably it came to pass that a
good deal of the life of the monks was
passed in the cloister. Only, as in
warm climates, a covered colonnade
was erected on one or more sides of
the court for the sake of shade, in
England the colonnade served for

CLOISTER

178

CLOISTER

shelter from the rain, and was often
glazed to give protection from the cold.
These covered margins of the court
were sometimes only roofed with a pent
house of timber. The stone corbels
which carried the timber Toof at

They Were used for exercise and
conversation at certain hours ; but they
were also used for what would now
be called lectures, by the prior . to
a group of monks, or by the master
of the novices to his scholars ; and in

Cloisters, Norwich Cathedral.

Boaulieu may still be seen. And this
may account for the fact that no very
early examples remain ; there is only
one Early English example, at Salis
bury ; one of early decorated date,
Norwich ; the rest are of later date ;
they are all highly ornamented, and are
altogether very striking and beautiful.

the north ambulatory (as at Durham,
Gloucester, and Beaulieu) little wooden
closets were put up as studies ; the
east ambulatory, says Peter de Bloia,
was used for the prelections, and tho
west ambulatory for the novices. On
the south side, as at Westminster,
Wells, Chester, Peterborough, and

CLOSE

179

CLUGNIAC

Gloucester, there was sometimes a
lavatory, a kind of sink of stone,
divided into compartments, in which
the monks might wash before going into
the refectory ; at Gloucester it is made
aa important architectural feature, pro
jecting into the cloister garth beyond
the general line of the ambulatory ;
at Durham it was a detached building
in the garth. At Winchester, until a
comparatively late period, the scholars
used to study in the cloisters in summer
time. The interior space was laid down
with grass, and planted with trees and
flowers, and sometimes had a fountain
in the centre, as at Durham and Ches
ter. At Peterborough it was called
the Laurel Court ; at Wells the Palm
Court ; at Chichester and Winchester
the Paradise ; at Chester the "Sprice,"
which is perhaps a corruption of Para
dise. Both the inner enclosure and the
surrounding ambulatories were used for
the interment of the monks.
This peaceful garden,, surrounded by
its glorious architectural groups, undis
turbed except by the rustle of the trees,
the murmur of the fountain, and the
caw of the rooks which harboured in
the minster towers, must have been a
perfect realisation of the seclusion from
the worldly passions which raged out
side, and of the incentives to - calm
meditation, which. the cultured mind
and high-wrought spiritual tone of the
monk desired.
CLOSE, Cathedral. The enclosed
area which , contained a cathedral and
its subsidiary buildings, to the exclusion
of all others. [See Cathedral Close.]
CLUGNIAC Order of Monks. So-
called because it was founded (a.d.
927) at Clugny in Burgundy, by Abbot
Odo, who revived in his monastery
there a strict observance of the spirit
of the Benedictine rule, but with some
modifications in its outward observ
ances ; the most important of these
was that the Clugniac rule excused the
brethren from the manual labour which
formed so large a feature of the Bene
dictine regulation, and required them
to devote these hours to. study instead.

They became the least ascetic of the
Benedictine family of monks. The
order was first introduced into Eng
land in a.d. 1077, at Lewes, in Sussex,
by William de Warrenne and his wife
Gundrada, a daughter of William the
Conqueror, whose bodies, enclosed in
lead coffins, were recently discovered
there ; but it never became very popular
in England. Until the fourteenth cen
tury they were all priories dependent on
the parent house of Clugny, received
their priors from Clugny, had their
novices professed at Clugny, their dis
putes appealed to Ohigny, contained
more foreign than English monks, and
sent large portions of their surplus reve
nues to Clugny. Hence they were often
seized during war between England and
France as alien priories. The prior of
Lewes was the High Chamberlain, and
often the Vicar-General of the abbot
of Clugny. But in the fourteenth cen
tury many of them were naturalised
and,, discharged from subjection to
Clugny, and Bermondsey was raised
into an Abbey. The Clugniacs re
tained the Benedictine habit. At
Cowfold, Sussex, still remains a monu
mental brass of Thomas Nelond, who
was Prior of Lewes at his death in a. d.
1433, in which he is, represented in
the habit of his order. *
A plan of Wenlock Priory Church
and conventual buildings is given in
the ' Building News for 1875,' p. 65.
The greater part of the Clugniac
houses were founded from the reign of
William I. to that of Henry II. ; the
first, Lewes, was founded 1077 ; the last,
Stevesholm, in Norfolk, 1222. The
' Monasticon ' gives an account of forty-
two houses, exclusive of three cells,
whose existence is not very distinctly
described. The following is a list of
them ; those marked * were Nunneries :
Lewes, Sussex ; Prittlewell, Essex ;
Farleigh, Wilts ; Monk's Horton, Kent ;
Stanesgate, Essex ; .Clifford, Herts ;
Castleacre, Norfolk ; Mendham, Suf
folk ; Bromholm, Norfolk ; Normans-

* Engraved in Boutell's
Brasses.'

' Monumental

COADJUTOR BISHOPS

180

COLET

beech, Norfolk ; Stevesholm, Norfolk ;
Wenlock, Salop ; Dudley, Worcester ;
Bermondsey, Surrey ; St. James,
Derby ; St. James, Exeter ; Lenton,
Notts ; Pontefract, Yorks ; Monk
Bretton, Yorks ; Thetford, Norfolk ;
Little Horkesley, Essex ; Wangford,
Suffolk ; Montacute, Somerset ; Cars-
well, Devon ; St. Syriae or Karrock,
Cornwall ; Malpas, Monmouth ; Holme,
Dorset ; Daventre, Northants ; St.
Andrew, Northampton ; Barnstable,
Devon ; Tykford, Bucks ; * De la Pre,
Northants. COADJUTOR BISHOPS. Anciently
the bishop was considered to be wedded
to his Church, and the union to be
indissoluble. Should the bishop need
assistance, he might have a suffragan ;
should he become so infirm as to
be incapable of fulfilling his duty, he
might have a coadjutor, with or with
out the right of succession. The im
portance of an active bishop to the
vigorous life of a great diocese in
such days as ours led to the creation
of a plan by which an aged bishop
might retire from his work with a just
consideration for the interests and dig
nity of the out-going bishop, and of the
in-coming bishop, and of the diocese.
It was not the least important act of
Bishop Blomfield, of London, that at
the close of an unusually active epis
copate, his petition for retirement led,
in 1869, to the passing of a general Act,
called the Bishop's Resignation Act
(32 & 33 Vict, e 111), "to provide for
the relief of archbishops and bishops
who, by reason of age or of any mental
or bodily infirmity, may be perma
nently incapacitated from the due per
formance of their episcopal duties."
The provisions of the Act are briefly —
that the Crown in council, if satisfied
of the incapacity of a bishop, and that
he has canonically resigned, shall de
clare the see vacant, and it shall be
filled up in the usual manner. The
retiring bishop shall retain his rank,
style, and privilege, and shall be en
titled to a pension of one-third of his
former income, or of the sum of £2000

if the one-third of his former income
be less than that sum. Thev coadjutor
bishop shall be elected and consecrated''
to the see in the usual manner.
Bishop Blomfield of London and
Bishop Jacobson of Chester have re
tired under the Act.
COLET, John,. Dean of St. Paul's,
born 1466, died 1579, eldest son of Sir
Henry Colet,,Kt., twice Lord Mayor of
London ; educated at Magdalen College,'
Oxford. His preferments are an in
stance of one of the great abuses of tho
Middle Ages, for while still veTy young,
and only an acolyte, he was made
Rector of Denington, Suffolk, after
wards Rector of Thurning, Hants. In
1493 he travelled into France and Italy,
where he made the acquaintance of
Erasmus and other men of learning,
and took the opportunity to improve
himself in Greek, which was then little
known in England. While abroad
preferments still accumulated to him ;
he was made Prebendary of York and
Canon of St. Martin's le Grand. On
his return in 1497 he was ordained
deacon, and retired to Oxford, where
he improved his acquaintance with
Erasmus, who was living there, into an
intimate friendship. It is probable
that this friendship influenced his re
ligious views, for, like Erasmus, he made
himself notorious for his animadver
sions on the abuses and superstitions of
the Church, and for his dislike of the
monastic system ; while, like Erasmus,
his moderation of temper prevented
him from advocating violent changes.
In 1502 he was Prebendary -of Salisbury
Cathedral ; in May of the same year
Prebendary of St. Paul's, and in the
same month was made dean. Here he
reformed the decayed discipline of the
cathedral, introduced a practice of
preaching on Sundays and great festi
vals, and instituted divinity lectures
by learned men, who, taking tho Scrip
tures for their text, instead of the
ordinary text-books of the schools,
promoted a knowledge of Scripture, and
helped to prepare the way for the Re
formation. His freedom of speech

COLLATION

181

COLLEGE

against abuses might have brought him
into trouble, for FitzJames, Bishop
of London, presented him to Arch
bishop Warham (who, however, dis
missed the complaint), and tried to stir
up the Court against him. He preached
a sermon before the Convocation in
1511, which, with an old English trans
lation, probably by himself, is printed
in his life by Knight, and is a remark
able illustration of his outspokenness.
These troubles and dangers made him
think of resigning his preferments and
living upon his own ample fortune, but
death anticipated his intention, 16th
September, 1519, in the 53rd year of
his age. He founded St. Paul's School
for a high master, sub-master, and
chaplain, to teach gratis 153 scholars,
making the Mercers' Company his
trustees, the Company of which his
father and himself were freemen. He
was buried in the choir of St. Paul's,
under a humble monument inscribed
only with his name ; afterwards a more
sumptuous memorial of him was erected
by the Mercers' Company, which
perished in the Fire of London, but is
engraved in Dugdale's ' History of St.
Paul's.' [See Leebohm's 'Oxford Re
formers. ']
COLLATION. A lay patron of a
benefice exercises his patronage by
presenting the clerk of his choice to
the bishop for his approval. When
the bishop is himself the patron there
is no place for this presentation ; and
the bishop is said to collate the clerk
whom he chooses to the benefice.
Collation was a scanty supper of
bread, fruit, and wine and water, taken
by the monks after compline, during the
delivery of a devout lection from the
refectory pulpit ; this lection was called
a collation, and so the supper gained
the name. From the cloister the name
came into common use for a slight re
freshment which is not a regular meal.
COLLEGE. In Pre-Reformation times
there were numerous religious founda
tions spread over the country, under
the name of colleges. Sometimes the
college consisted only of a number of

clergymen, three or more, living in
community under the Augustinian rule,
charged by the conditions of their foun
dation with spiritual work on behalf of
the town or locality in which they were
situated. Thus a parish church was
sometimes turned into a collegiate
church, or in other words, the staff of
the parish church was strengthened by
the replacing of a solitary vicar by a
warden and fellows, who could more
efficiently fulfil the duties of the cure.
Often a new collegiate church was
founded in addition to the existing
parish churches.
In many cases the college was founded
for other work besides the cure of souls,
especially for education. Especially at
the universities, bishops, monasteries,
and others founded colleges in which the
pupils of their schools, or of their Order,
or the men of their diocese or county,
might find a religious home and receive
tutorial assistance in their studies while
attending the lectures of the university
professors. Colleges with these combined duties
of preaching and teaching were not un-
frequently founded by benefactors in the
provincial towns, of which the following
may serve as an interesting example :
Thomas Rotherham, Archbishop of
York, in 1482, founded a college in his
native town of Rotherham, for a provost
and two fellows. The provost was to
preach the Word of God in the parishes
of Rotherham, Laxton, and Ecclesfleld,
and in other places in the diocese of
York. The duty of the fellows was care
fully laid down. One was to teach gram
mar, poetry, and rhetoric, the other,
music. Six poor boys were to be main
tained in the college till the age of
eighteen, and to receive instruction in
the subjects mentioned. The arch
bishop's primary object seems to have
been to train these boys in such a man
ner that they might hereafter be fitted
for the priesthood. But in his will he
extends the benefits of his foundation.-
He says that he has observed that
there were many quick-witted youths
in the place and neighbourhood, whose

COLLEGES, THEOLOGICAL 182

COLLIER

tastes pointed in the direction of me
chanical arts and pursuits of a secular
kind rather than to the scholarship and
learning which were needed for the
priesthood ; and he provides for a third
fellow, who shall give instruction in
these more homely and simple branches
of education, writing, and arithmetic,
free of all charge to those who should
be sent to receive it. No doubt the
archbishop put into his statutes the
usual provision, that the members of
the college should pray for his soul,
and the souls of his near relations, and
all Christian souls ; and so under the
pretext of its having been founded for
"superstitious uses," it was suppressed
with all other chantries, colleges, and
guilds, in the reign of Edward VI.
COLLEGES, THEOLOGICAL, for
training candidates for Holy Orders.
Several of these institutions afford a
complete course of training, less lengthy
and less costly than the Universities,
viz. St. Bee's, St. Aidan's, Lichfield,
Lampeter, London College of Divinity,
Wycliffe Hall, Oxford, Ridley Hall,
Cambridge. Others give a year of
special theological training to men who
are already graduates of a university
(some take, under special circum
stances, a few non-graduates for an
entire course of training), viz. Wells,
Gloucester, Lincoln, Chichester, Cud-
desdon, Leeds Clergy School, Salisbury,
Truro, and Ely.
There are several general and local
funds for assisting men pecuniarily to
obtain education for Holy Orders, viz.
the Ordination Candidate's Exhibition
Fund, of Whitehall, London ; London
Clerical Education Aid Society ; Cam
bridge Clerical Education Society ; the
Elland Society ; Bristol Clerical Edu
cation Society ; Canterbury Clerical
Education Fund ; Exeter Theological
Student's Fund ; Carlisle Clerical
Training Fund.
1 COLLIER, Jeremy, non-juring di
vine, born 1650, died 1726, was edu
cated at Ipswich Grammar School, of
which his father was Master, and at
Caius College, Cambridge. Rector of

Ampton, Suffolk, 1679, which he re
signed and came to London, and was
made Lecturer of Grays Inn, 1685;
But the occurrence of the Revolution
gave a turn to his whole subsequent
life. He warmly opposed the Revolu
tion, and employed his ready and able
pen in a series of pamphlets and broad
sides against it. For the first of these
pamphlets, 'The Desertion Discussed,'
written in reply to Burnet's 'Enquiry
into the Present State of Affairs, ' Collier
was sent to Newgate, but after a while
was discharged without trial. Again
he was imprisoned in the King's Bench
on suspicion of carrying on communi
cations with St. Germains ; and, refus
ing to give bail on the ground that he
could not thus recognise the jurisdic-
diction of the court, he was neverthe
less released in default of proof. He
was one of that group of bishops,
clergymen, and laymen who refused to
take the oath of allegiance to William'
and Mary [see Non-Jurors], and in
consequence lost his preferment. In
1697—1709 he published a series of
'Essays upon several Moral Subjects,'
which were very highly praised, and
went through many editions, but which
are now forgotten. In 1698 he engaged
in an attempt to reform the profanity
and immorality of the English stage;
which involved him in a ten years'
contest with Dryden, Congreve, Van-
burg, and others, in which Collier had
much the best of it in learning and
reason, and proved himself in wit a
match for the professed wits. What
is remarkable is his success. Dryden,
in the Preface to his ' Fables, ' admitted
the justice of Collier's censures, and
declared his own repentance ; and Dr.
Johnson says, "Collier lived to see the
reward of his labour in the reformation
of the stage." Among many other
works from his indefatigable pen, two
of the most important are, his transla
tion of Moreri's ' Greek Dictionary,'
which is, however, now almost obsolete/
and his ' Ecclesiastical History of Great
Britain,' which is still a standard work.
In 1713 he is said to have been conse-

COLONIAL CHURCHES

183

COLONIAL CHURCHES

crated bishop in the non-juring succes
sion by Hicks. He died 26th April,
1726, and was buried in St. Pancras
churchyard. A man of great learning,
ability, and reputation, who deserves
tho respect due to a man who sacrificed
his prospects to his conscience.
COLONIAL CHURCHES. One of
the grounds put forth for their con
quests in tho newly-discovered world
by the governments of Spain, Portu
gal, and Britain, was tho extension of
-tho blessings of the Christian religion
to its heathen inhabitants. The char
ters which James I. granted to the Vir
ginia Company were accompanied by
orders for preaching the AVord of God
according to the rites and doctrines of
the Church of England, both "in the
colonies and among the savages border
ing upon them." The first English
church on the American continent was
built at Jamestown in Virginia, by the
Rev. R. Hunt, about 160?. Tithes,
glebes, and other provision for the
clergy were made in Virginia by the
local legislature. AVilliam and Mary
founded a college there which was
called after them, and in their reign
an ecclesiastical commissary, the Rev.
J. Blair, was sent to regulate the ecclesi
astical affairs of the colony. In 1692
the local assembly of Maryland pro
vided a legal maintenance for parochial
clergymen. In the time of Charles I. an order
in council placed all British subjects
in foreign parts, (including, clergy
men) under the jurisdiction of the
Bishop of London as. their diocesan.
The credit of the first attempt to
give a complete organisation to the
Churches in the colonies is due to
Archbishop Laud, who proposed in
1638 to send a bishop to New England ;
and in the reign of Charles II. Claren
don obtained the king's sanction to a
proposal for a Bishop of Virginia. But
these and subsequent efforts were frus
trated by the opposition of parties
acting on mixed political and religious
grounds. Ministers were jealous of
loosening any of the bonds which kept

the colonies in political subjection ;
Nonconformists were averse to tho
completion of the episcopal organisation
in the colonial churches, which were
practically working on the presbyterian
model. It was not till after the achieve
ment of independence by our American
colonies that the Church of the United
States at last succeeded in obtaining
the consecration of a bishop. The
English bishops believed themselves
precluded by statute and the common
law from consecrating a bishop for a
foreign country without the sanction
of the Crown, and were unable to in
duce the government to give their
sanction. But with the advice and
assent of the English ecclesiastical au
thorities the bishops of the Disestab
lished Scottish Church (a. d. 1784) gave
valid consecration to Bishop Seabury ;
and three years after (1787) a special
Act of Parliament allowed the English
bishops to consecrate Bishops White
for Pennsylvania and Prevost for New
York. In the same year letters patent
created Nova Scotia into a see, and
Dr. Inglis was consecrated the first
colonial bishop for that diocese.
Quebec was created into a see for
Canada in 1793. From these two dio
ceses grew the bishoprics of Toronto
and Newfoundland. Nothing more
was done till 1813, when, with some
difficulty, Parliament, in reviewing the
Charter of the East India Company,
sanctioned the introduction of a clause
providing for the establishment of a
bishop at . Calcutta with three arch
deacons. From this diocese were erect
ed, between 1833 and 1837, the sees of
Madras, Australia, and Bombay.
At length the rapid multiplication
and growth of our colonies in various
parts of the world led churchmen at
home to make an effort to obtain for
all of them the advantage of complete
ecclesiastical organisation. The Bishop
of London (Blomfield) formally called
the- attention of the Church to the
subject in a letter addressed to the
Archbishop of Canterbury, and as a
result of it, at a meeting of four arch-

COLONIAL CHURCHES 184

COLONIAL CHURCHES

bishops and thirty-nine bishops, held
at Lambeth Palace in Whitsun week,
1841, a "Colonial Bishoprics Council"
was established. It put forth a proposal
to provide bishops for New Zealand,
the British possessions in the Mediter
ranean, New Brunswick, Cape of Good
Hope, Van Diemen's Land, and Ceylon.
It proposed afterwards the provision
of bishops for Sierra Leone, British
Guiana, South Australia, Port Philip,
Western Australia, Northern India,
and Southern India. A public meet-'
ing was called. The two great societies
contributed— S. P. C. K. £10,000, and
S. P. G. £7500, and the Church public
added their contributions.
It is a wonderful illustration of the
vigour with which the Church of Eng
land was developing on all sides, that
in July 1872 the Colonial Bishoprics

Council was able to issue another state
ment, that within sixteen years of its
existence all the places above-mentioned
(with the great exception of northern
and southern India) had become the
sees of new bishoprics ; and that alto
gether in the thirty-one years which
had elapsed the council had provided
for the , erection and endowment of
thirty new sees. Another appeal was
put out for the multiplication of bis
hops in North America, West Indies,
Africa, Asia, Australasia, and for the
foundation of a missionary bishop for
Madagascar. The work has been suc
cessfully continued, and the whole
number of colonial and missionary
bishops now (1886) amounts to seventy-
five. For the following table this work
is indebted to the ' Year Book of the
Church of England.'

PEOGEESS OF THE EPISCOPATE
IN THE BRITISH COLONIES AND DEPENDENCIES.

I. NORTH AMERICA.

Nova Scotia, Quebec, Rupertsland

1787.

1793.

1849.

Columbia, 1S59.

Caledonia, 1879.

N. Westminster, 1S79.

— i  1  1 
Moosonee, Athabasca, Saskatchewan,
1872. 1874. 1874.
South Athabasca,
1884.

Assiniboia, 1884.

Newfoundland, Fredericton,
1839. 1845.

Toronto, 1839.

Huron, 1867.

Ontario, 1861.

II. WEST INDIES.

Jamaica, 1824.
Nassau, 1861.

Montreal, 1850.
Niagara, Algoma,
1875. 1873.
III. SOUTH AMERICA.

Antigua, 1842.

Barbados, 1824.

Trinidad, 1872.

Guiana 1842.

Falkland Islands,
1870.

IV. AFRICA.

Capetown, 1847.

Grahamstown, 1853.
Bloemfontein, 1863.
Pretoria, 1878, St. John's, 187S

Natal, 1863.
Maritzburg, 1878.

St. Helena, 1859.

Zululand, 1870,,
Sierra Leone, 1851. Mauritius, 1854. Zambesi or Central Africa, 1861. Niger, 1864.

COLOURS

185 COLOURS

Calcutta, 1814,

V. ASIA. Victoria, 1849. Labuan, 1355.

Lahore, Rangoon, Madras,
1877. 1877. 1835.

Bombay, Mid-China, North China,
1837. 1872. 1880.

Colombo, 1845,

Travancore and Cochin, 1879,

VI. AUSTRALASIA.
Australia, 1836 ; or Sydney, 1847.

Tasmania, 1842,

Melbourne, 1847.

Ballarat, 1875.

Adelaide, 1847.
Perth, 1857.

Newcastle, 1847.

Goulburn, 1863.
Rivcrina, 1884.

Bathursfc, 1869.

Brisbane, 1859.
I
North Queensland, 1878.

Grafton and Armidale, 1867,

VII. NEW ZEALAND AND THE PACIFIC.
New Zealand, 1841 : or Auckland, 1869. Honolulu, 1861.

Christchurch, 1856. I
Dunedin, 1866.

Wellington, 1858.

Nelson, 1858.

Waiapu, 1858.

Melanesia, 1861.

VIII. EUROPE.
.Gibraltar, 1842.

COLOURS, symbolical. In the
elaborate symbolical system of the an
cient Church, different colours had
different meanings given to them.
White was the symbol of God the
Father, blue of the Son, and red of the
Holy Ghost.
Different colours were used at dif
ferent Church seasons, and had their
manifest convenience as conspicuously
marking the seasons to the eye in the
vestments of the clergy and ornaments
of the Church. The following is the
Sarum series of colours for the seasons
as given. (See Scudamore's ' Notitia
Eucharistica. ')
Bed: during Advent; from Septua-
gesima to Easter (or purple on week
days) ; Ash - Wednesday, Maunday
Thursday, Good Friday, and. Easter
Eve; Pentecost; the Sundays in

Trinity ; Feasts of the Cross and, St.
John Baptist, Apostles and Evange
lists (not in Erster-tide) ; Lammas
Day ; All Martyrs (not in Easter-tide) ;
Holy Innocents ; Ember and Rogation
days ; , and in processions.
White : Christmas (except Feasts of
Martyrs) ; Epiphany ; Easter (except
Invention of the Cross) ; Ascension
tide ; Circumcision ; Transfiguration ;
Name of Jesus ; Feasts of Blessed Virgin
Mary ; Virgins (not Martyrs) ; St.
John Evangelist ; Conversion of St.
Paul (probably) ; Martyrs in Easter
tide ; St. Michael and all Angels ;
Dedication of a Church.
Green : Week-days in Trinity.
Yellow: Confessors.
Black : Offices for the Dead.
Cloth of Gold was a substitute for
all colours.

COLUMBA

186 COMMUNION SERVICE

COLUMBA, born in Ireland 521,
died 597, the founder of the monas
tery of Hy or Iona, from which the
missionaries went forth who founded
Lindisfarne, whose monks converted
Northumbria, Mercia, and Essex. [See
Church, Celtic.]
COMMENDAM. A living com
mended by the Crown to be held until
a rector has been instituted to it is
said to be held in commendam. The
right of the Crown to do this was
disputed by the judges in the reign of
James I. ; but ultimately the judges
submitted. For several centuries the
right has only been exercised in order
to augment the income of the poorer
bishoprics by allowing the bishops to
hold a living (generally that which
they held at the time of their promo
tion, the presentation to which fell
legally into the hands of the Crown)
together with the see. The assignment
of competent incomes to all the sees
by the Ecclesiastical Commission was
accompanied by a provision for the
abolition of Commendams. [See Eccle
siastical Commission.]
COMMUNION, HOLY. One of the
names given to the Sacrament which
our blessed Lord instituted for a per
petual memorial of the sacrifice of His
death, and of the benefits which we
receive thereby. It is clearly derived
from St. Paul's statement (1 Cor. x. 16),
"The Cup of Blessing which we bless,
is it not the Communion ( — partaking.
See the 27th of the Thirty-Nine
Articles) of the Blood of Christ ? the
Bread which we break, is it not the
Communion of the Body of Christ ? "
Like others of the names of the
Sacrament, it brings forward specially
one aspect of it, viz. that in it "we
dwell in Christ and Christ in us ; we
are one with Christ and Christ with
us;" that God "assures us thereby
that we are very members incorporate
in the mystical body of His Son, which
is the blessed company of all faithful
people. "
COMMUNION IN ONE KIND. [See
Popery.]

COMMUNION SERVICE, the First
Reformed. In the general history of
the Prayer Book [which see] it is re
lated how Henry VIII. directed Cran
mer to pen a form for the alteration of
the Mass into a Communion. The form
so prepared was submitted to and ap
proved by Convocation, Nov. 1547 ; ac
cepted by Parliament in the following
month, and issued by Royal Proclama
tion in the March of next year.
. This '.' alteration " left the old service
of the Mass as it stood (it had five
years before, been expurgated of legend
ary and superstitious matter), and con
sisted entirely of an addition which it
is the object of this article to present
to the student.
This " Order of Communion " has
first a notice and exhortation to be
read on the previous Sunday or holy-
day : ' ' Dearly Beloved, on  next, I
purpose, &c. . . . destruction bofh of
body and soul," as in our present
Prayer Book. Then an explanatory
rubric as follows :
' ' The time of the Communion shall
be immediately after that the Priest
himself hath received the Sacrament,
without the varying of any other rite
or ceremony in the Mass (until other
order shall be provided) ; but as here
tofore usually the Priest hath done with
the Sacrament of the Body, to prepare,
bless, and consecrate so much as will
serve the people ; so it shall continue
still after the same manner and form,
save that he shall bless and consecrate
the biggest chalice, or some fair and
convenient cup or cups full of wine
with some water in it ; and that day,
not drink it all up himself, but taking
only one sup or draught, leave the rest
upon the altar covered, and turn to
them that are disposed to be partakers
of the Communion, and shall thus ex
hort them as followeth. "
Then follows the exhortation, begin
ning, "Dearly beloved in the Lord, ye
that mind," &c, which replaced an
older form, previously used in the same
place, when the Holy Sacrament was
administered in one kind only. After

COMMUNION SERVICE

187

COMMUNION SERVICE

this exhortation the Priest was directed
to "pause awhile, to see if any man
will withdraw himself," and then to
say the invitation, " Ye that do truly,"
the Confession, the Absolution, the
Comfortable Words, and the Prayer of
humble access, as we have them now.
The Communion.
Then shall the Priest rise, the people
still reverently kneeling, and the,
Priest shall deliver the Communion,
first to the Ministers, if any be there
present, that they may be ready to
help the Priest, and after to the other.
And when lie doth deliver the Sacra
ment of the Body of Christ he shall
say to everyone these words following,
The Body of our Lord Jesus Christ,
which was given for thee, preserve thy
body unto everlasting life.
And the Priest delivering the Sacra-
, ment of the Blood, and giving every
one to drink once and no more, shall
say,
The Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ,
which was shed for thee, preserve thy
soul to everlasting life.
If there be a Deacon or other Priest,
then shall he follow with the chalice,
and as the Priest ministercth the bread,
so shall he for more expedition minis
ter the wine, inform before written.
Then shall the Priest, turning him to
the people, let the people depart with
this blessing,
The peace of God, which passeth
all understanding, keep your hearts and
minds in the knowledge and love of
God, and of His Son Jesus Christ our
Lord. To which the people shall answer,
Amen.
Note that the Bread that shall be conse
crated shall be such as heretofore
hath been accustomed. And every
of the said consecrated Breads shall
be broken in two pieces, at the least,
or more by the discretion of the Min-
' ister, and so distributed. And men

must not think less to be received in
part than in the whole, but in each
of them the whole body of our Saviour
Jesu Christ.
Note, that if it doth so chance, that the
wine hallowed and consecrate doth not
suffice or be enough for them that do
take the Communion, the Priest, after
the first cup or chalice be emptied,
may go again to the Altar, and rever
ently and devoutly prepare, and con
secrate another, and so the third, or
more, beginning at these words, Simili
modo postquam ccenatum est, and
ending at these words, qui pro vobis
et pro multis effunditur in remis-
sionem peccatorum, and without any
elevation or lifting up.
COMMUNION SERVICE of the First
Prayer Book of King Edward VI., put
forth in a.d. 1549, holds so important a
place in the history of the Prayer Book
that it seems desirable to present it
here in such fulness as is necessary for
its study and comparison with tho
Sarum Missal [see Missal, and Com.
Service, First Reformed], and with the
later books. [/See Com. Service of Second
Prayer Book of Ed. VI. and of Eliza
beth. See also Gallican Liturgy.]
The Supper of the Lord, and the Holy
Communion, commonly called the

» -. - -
The Priest standing humbly afore the
midst of the Altar, shall say the
Lord's Prayer, with this Collect,
Almighty God, unto whom all hearts
be open, &c, through Christ our Lord.
Amen. Then shall he say a Psalm, appointed
for the Introit ; which Psalm ended,
the Priest shall say, or else the Clerks
shall sing,
iii. Lord, have mercy upon us.
iii. Christ, &c.
iii. Lord, &c.
Then the Priest standing at God's Board,
shall begin,
Glory be to God on high.

COMMUNION SERVICE 188 COMMUNION SERVICE

The Clerks.. And in earth peace, good
will towards men, &e.
Then the Priest shall turn him to the
people, and say,
The Lord be with you.
The Answer. And with thy Spirit.
The Priest. Let us pray.
Then shall follow the Collect of the day,
with one of those two Collects follow
ing for the King.
[Collects the same as at present.]
The collects ended, the Priest, or he
that is appointed, shall read the
Epistle, in a place assigned for the
purpose, saying,
The Epistle of St. Paul, written in
the  ¦ chapter of — : — to the  .
The Minister then shall read the Epistle.
Immediately after the Epistle ended,
the Priest, or one appointed to read
the Gospel, shall say,
The holy Gospel, written in the 
chapter of 
The Clerks and people shall answer.
Glory be to thee, 0 Lord.
The Priest or Deacon then shall read
the Gospel. After the Gospel ended,
the' Priest shall begin,
I believe in one God.
The Clerks shall sing the rest.
After the Creed ended, shall follow the
Sermon, or Homily, or some portion
of one of the Homilies, as they shall
be hereafter divided : wherein if the
people be not exhorted to the worthy re
ceiving of the Holy Sacrament of the
body and blood of our Saviour Christ,
then shall the Curate give this exhort
ation, to those that be minded to receive
the same,
Dearly beloved in the Lord, ye that
mind to come, &c.
In cathedral churches or other places,
where there is daily Communion, it
shall be sufficient to read this exhort
ation above written, once in a month.

And in parish churches, upon the
week-days, it may be left unsaid.
And if upon the Sunday or holyday
the people be negligent to come to the
Communion: Then shall the Priest
earnestly exhort his parishioners, to
dispose themselves to the receiving of
the Holy Communion more diligently,
saying these or like words unto them,
Dear friends, and you especially
upon whose souls I have cure and
charge, on  next, I do intend by
God's grace to offer to all such as be
godly disposed, the most comfortable
Sacrament of the body and blood of
Christ, &c.
Then shall follow for the Offertory one
or more of these sentences of Holy
Scripture, to be sung whilst the people
do offer, or else one of them to be sai3/
by the Minister, immediately afore
the offering.
Let your light so shine before men,
&c. Lay not up for yourselves, &c.
Where there be Clerks, they shall sing
one, or many of the sentences above
written, accordini to the length and
shortness of the time, that the people
be offering.
In the meantime, whilst the Clerks do
sing the Offertory, so many as are
disposed shall offer to the poor men's
box every one according to his ability
and charitable mind. And at the
offering days appointed, every man
and woman shall pay to the Curate
the due and accustomed offerings.
Then so many as shall be partakers of
the Holy Communion shall tarry
still in the quire, or in some con
venient place nigh the quire, the men
on the one side, and the women on
the other side. All other (that mind
not to receive the said Holy Com
munion) shall depart out of the quire,
except the Ministers and Clerks.
Then shall the Minister take so much
bread and wine as shall suffice for
the persons appointed to receive Ok
Holy Communion, laying the Bread

COMMUNION SERVICE 189

COMMUNION SERVICE

upon the Corporas, or else in the
Paten, or in some other comely thing
prepared for that purpose : And
putting the Wine into the Chalice, or
else in some fair or convenient cup,
prepared for that use (if the Chalice
will not serve), putting thereto a little
pure and clean water: And setting
both the Bread and Wine upon the
Altar: Then the Priest shall say,
The Lord be with you.
Answer. And with thy spirit.
Priest. Lift up your hearts.
Answer. We lift them up unto the
Lord. Priest. Let lis give thanks to our
Lord God.
Answer. It is meet and right so to
do. The Priest. It is very meet, right,
and our bounden duty, &c. - . .
Almighty, everlasting God.
Here shall follow the Proper Preface,
according to the time (if there be any
specially appointed), or else imme
diately shall follow,
Therefore with Angels, &c.
PROPER PREFACES
[as at present] :
After which Preface shall follow
immediately,
Therefore with Angels and Arch
angels, and with all the holy company
of heaven, we laud and magnify Thy
glorious name, evermore praising Thee,
and saying,
Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God of
Hosts : heaven and earth are fuU of
Thy glory : Hosanna in the highest.
Blessed is He that cometh in the name
of the Lord : Glory to Thee, 0 Lord in
the highest. This the Clerks shall also sing.
When the Clerks have done singing,
then shall the Priest, or Deacon, turn
him to the people, and say, Let us
pray for the whole state of Christ's
Church.

Then the Priest, turning him to the
altar, shall say or sing, plainly and
distinctly, this prayer following :
Almighty and everliving God, which
by Thy holy Apostle hast taught us,
&c. [down to the words] sickness, or
any other adversity. And especially
we commend unto Thy merciful good
ness this congregation which is here
assembled in Thy name, to celebrate
the commemoration of the most glorious
death of Thy Son : and here we do
give unto Thee most high praise,
and hearty thanks, for the wonderful
grace and virtue declared in all Thy
Saints, from the beginning of the
world : and chiefly in the glorious
and most blessed Virgin Mary, mother
of Thy Son Jesu Christ our Lord and
God, and in the holy Patriarchs, Pro
phets, Apostles, and Martyrs, whose
examples (0 Lord) and steadfastness
in Thy faith, and keeping Thy holy
commandments, grant us to follow.
We commend unto Thy mercy (0
Lord) all other Thy servants, which
are departed hence from us, with the
sign of faith, and now do rest in the
sleep of peace : Grant unto them, we
beseech Thee, Thy mercy, and ever
lasting peace, and that, at the day of
the general resurrection, we and all
they which be of the mystical body of
Thy Son, may altogether be set on His
right hand, and hear that His most
joyful voice : Come unto Me, 0 ye that
be blessed of My Father, and possess
the kingdom which is prepared for you
from the beginning of the world :
Grant this, 0 Father, for Jesus Christ's
sake, our only Mediator and Advocate.
0 God, heavenly Father, which of
Thy tender mercy didst give Thine
only Son Jesu Christ to suffer death
Upon the cross, &c. [down to the words']
Hear us (0 merciful Father), we beseech
Thee ; and with Thy Holy Spirit and
Word vouchsafe to bless and sanctify
these Thy gifts and creatures of bread
and wine, that they may be unto us
the body and blood of Thy most dearly
beloved Son Jesus Christ : who in the

COMMUNION SERVICE 190 COMMUNION SERVICE

same , night • that He was betrayed,
Here the *00^c hread, and when He
Priest must had blessed it and given
take the thanks, He brake it, and
bread into Jt to H}s disciples,
his hands. ° . . m , , ,,5 ¦
saying : Take, eat ; this is
my body which is given for you : do
this in remembrance of Me.
Likewise after supper He took the
„ ., cup, and when He had
Here the • .¦< 1 TT •*. ±
Prie t must glven thanks, He gave it to
take the cup ithem, saying : Drink ye all
into his 0f this, for this is My blood
hands- of the New Testament,
which is shed for you and for many,
for remission of sins : do this, as oft
as ye shall drink it, in remembrance
of Me.
These words before rehearsed are to be
said, turning still to the altar with
out any elevation, or showing the
Sacrament to the people.
Wherefore, 0 Lord and heavenly
Father, according to the institution
of Thy dearly beloved Son, our Saviour
Jesu Christ, we Thy humble servants
do celebrate, and make here before Thy
Divine Majesty, with these Thy holy
gifts, the memorial which Thy Son
hath willed us to make : having in
remembrance His blessed Passion,
mighty Resurrection, and glorious
Ascension, rendering unto Thee most
hearty thanks, for the innumerable
benefits procured unto us by the same,
entirely desiring Thy fatherly goodness
mercifully to accept this our sacrifice
of praise and thanksgiving : most
humbly beseeching Thee, &c. [down to
the words] humbly beseeching Thee,
that whosoever shall be partakers of
this Holy Communion, may worthily
receive the most precious body and
blood of Thy Son Jesus Christ, and be
fulfilled with Thy grace and heavenly
benediction, and made one body with
Thy Son Jesus Christ, that He may
dwell in them, and they in Him. And
although we be unworthy (through our
manifold sins) to offer unto Thee any
sacrifice : yet we beseech Thee to accept
this our bounden duty and service, and

command these our. prayers and suppli
cations, by the ministry of Thy holy
angels, to be brought up into Thy holy
tabernacle, before the sight of Thy
Divine Majesty ; not weighing, our
merits, but pardoning, our offences,
through Christ our Lord, by Whom
and with Whom, in the .unity of the
Holy Ghost, all honour and glory be
unto Thee, 0 Father Almighty, world
without end. Amen.
Let us pray.
As our Saviour Christ hath com
manded and taught us, we are bold to
say, Our Father, &c. . . . And lead
us not into temptation :
The Answer. But deliver us from
evil. Amen. Then shall the Priest say,
The peace of our Lord be alsvay with
you. The Clerks. And with thy spirit:
The Priest. Christ our Paschal Lamb
is offered up for us, once for all, when
He bare our sins on His body upon
the Cross ; for He is the very Lamb of
God, that taketh away the sins of the
world : wherefore let us keep a joyful
and holy feast with the Lord.
Here the Priest shall turn him toward -.»
those that come to tho Holy Coin- "
munion, and shall say,
You that do truly, &c. . . . make
your humble confession to Almighty
God, and to His holy Church here
gathered together in His name, meekly
kneeling upon your knees.
Then shall this general confession be
made, in the name of all those that
are minded to receive the Holy , Com
munion, either by one of themj or
else by one of the ministers, or by the
Priest himself, all kneeling humbly
upon their knees.
[Here follow the Confession, the Ab
solution, the Comfortable Words, and
the Prayer of Humble Access, as at
present.] Then shall the Priest first . receive tlte
Communion in both kinds himself,

COMMUNION SERVICE

101

COMMUNION SERVICE

and next deliver it to other Ministers,
if any be there present (that they
may be ready to help the chief
Minister, and after to the people. )
And when he delivereth the Sacrament
of the Body, of Christ he shall say to
every one these words :
The Body of our Lord Jesus Christ,
which was given for thee, preserve thy
body and soul unto everlasting life.
And the Minister delivering the Sacra
ment of the Blood, and giving every
one to drink, once and no more, shall
say, The Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ,
which was shed for thee, preserve thy
body and soul unto everlasting life.
If there be a Deacon or other Priest,
then shall he follow with the Chalice :
and as the Priest ministereth the
Sacramint of the Body, so shall he
(for more expedition) minister the
Sacrament of the Blood, in form
above written.
In the Communion time the Clerks
shall sing,
ii. 0 Lamb of God, that taketh away
the sins of the world,
Have mercy upon us.
0 Lamb of God, that takest away
the sins of the world,
Grant us Thy peace.
Beginning so soon as the Priest doth
receive the Holy Communion, and
when the Communion is ended, then
shall the Clerks sing the Post-Com
munion.
Sentences of Holy Scripture, to be said
or sung every dai/ one, after the Holy
Communion, called Post-Communion.
If any man will follow Me, let him
forsake himself, and take up his cross,
and follow Me. — Matt. xyi.
Whosoever shall endure unto the
end, he shall be saved. — Mark xiii.
Praised be the Lord God of Israel,
for He hath visited and redeemed His
people : therefore let us serve Him all
the days of our life, in holiness and

righteousness accepted before him. —
Luke i.
Happy are those servants whom the
Lord (when He cometh) shall find
waking. — Luke xii.
Be ye ready, for the Son of Man will
come at an hour when ye think not. — ¦
Luke xii.
The servant- that knoweth his
Master's will, and hath not prepared
himself, neither hath done according to
His will, shall be beaten with many
stripes. — Luke xii.
The hour cometh, and now it is,
when true worshippers shall worship
the Father in spirit and truth. — John iv.
Behold, thou art made whole, sin
no more, lest any worse thing happen
unto thee. — John v.
If ye shall continue in My word,
then are ye My very disciples, and ye
shall know the truth, and the truth
shall make you free. — John viii.
When ye have light believe on the
light, that ye may be tho children of
light. — John xii.
He that hath My commandments,
and keepeth them, the same is he that
loyeth me. — John xiv.
If any man love Me, he will keep
My word, and My Father will love
him, and we will come unto him, and
dwell with him. — John xiv.
If ye shall abide in Me, and My word
shall abide in you, ye shall ask what
ye will, and it shall be done to you. —
John xv.
Herein is My Father glorified, that
ye bear much fruit, and become My
disciples. — John xv.
This is My commandment, that you
love together, as I have loved you. — ¦
John xv.
1 f God be on our side, who can be
against us ? which did not spare His
own Son, but gave Him for us all. —
Bom. viii.
Who shall lay anything to the charge
of God's chosen ? it is God that justi-
fieth ; who is he that can condemn ?—
Bom. viii.
The night is past, and the day is at
hand, let us therefore cast away the

COMMUNION SERVICE

192

COMPURGATION

deeds of darkness, and put on the
armour of light.. — Bom. xiii.
Christ Jesus is made of God, unto
us, wisdom, and righteousness, and
sanctifying, and redemption, that (ac
cording as it is written) He which re-
joiceth should rejoice in the Lord. — •
1 Cor. i.
Know ye not that ye are the temple
of God, and that the Spirit of God
awelleth in you ? If any man defile
the temple of God, him shall God
destroy. — 1 Cor. iii.
Ye are dearly bought ; therefore
glorify God in your bodies, and in your
spirits, for they belong to God. —
1 Cor. vi.
Be ye therefore followers of God, as
dear children, and walk in love, even
as Christ loved us, and gave Himself
for us an offering and a sacrifice of a
sweet savour to God. — Eph. v.
Then the Priest shall give thanks to
God, in the name of all them that
have communicated, turning him first
to the people, and saying,
The Lord be with you.
The Answer. And with thy spirit.
The Priest. Let us pray.
Almighty and everliving God, we
most heartily thank Thee, &c.
Then the Priest turning him to the
people, shall let them depart with this

The peace of God (which passeth all
understanding) keep your hearts and
minds in the knowledge and love of
God, and of His Son Jesus Christ our
Lord: and the blessing of God Al
mighty, the Father, the Son, and the
Holy Ghost, be amongst you and re
main with you alway.
Then the people shall answer,
Amen.
Where there are no Clerks, then the
Priest shall say all things appointed
for them to sing. When the Holy
Communion is celebrate on the work
day, or in private houses, then
may be omitted, the Gloria in Excel-

si?, the Creed, the Homily, and the
Exhortation, beginning, - Dearly be
loved, &c.
COMMUNION SERVICE of the
Second Prayer Book of Edward VI.
put forth in 1552 a.d. The history
of this Second Book of Edward VI. is
given in the general history of the
Book of Common Prayer [which see].
What is needed here is to show the
contents of this revised Communion
Service ; and this is briefly done by say
ing that it was identical with the Com
munion Service in our present Prayer
Book, except in the particulars here
mentioned. 1. The ornaments' rubric [whichsee].
2. Some unimportant differences in
the rubrics.
3. In the administration of the Com
munion only the sscond half of each
sentence of administration was used,
viz. "Take eat . , . thanksgiving:"
and "Drink this . . . thankful."
COMMUNION SERVICE of Eliza
beth, put forth in 1559, was identical
with the service in our present Prayer
Book ; and continued unaltered in (all
subsequent revisions.
COMPLINE. [See Hours.]
COMPURGATION. In Saxon times
the mode of deciding all disputed ques
tions of criminality, was by compurga
tion, or by ordeal, or (by special per
mission of the king or chief magistrate)
by the evidence of witnesses. The
mode of compurgation was this : Every
man was bound up with his neighbours
in an association in which each helped
the other, and each was answerable for
the other. One of them accused of a
crime might bring forward his neigh
bours to attest that they believed him
innocent ; a different number of these
compurgators were required according
to his rank, and if the ' requisite
number thus pledged their oaths for
him he stood acquitted of the charge.
This practice of compurgation continued
to be admitted in the Ecclesiastical
Courts to a late period, anct the cere
mony must have been a common sight

CONFIRMATION

193

CONFIRMATION

in the churches : e. g. in 1326 Godelee,
Dean of Wells, was admitted to purge
himself (apparently by his single oath,
on account of his ecclesiastical rank)
from the charge of firing the moors
between Burtle and Glastonbury with
intent to set fire to the monastery
('Diocese of Bath and Wells,' p. 130 :
S.P.C.K.) ; in 1335 Nicholas Bray,
tried before the Bishop's Commissary
for assaulting a clerk, was ordered
to purge himself by the oaths of six
men ; at his request the number was
reduced to four, and by their oaths he
cleared himself (Ibid. , p. 126).
It is supposed that the institution of
trial by jury arose out of this system
of compurgation. A man declaring
himself not guilty had the right to be
tried not by the king's judge alone,
but by his peers ; if twelve of them,
having weighed all the evidence for
and against, declared on oath their
belief in his innocence, he stood ac
quitted of the charge ; they were vir
tually his compurgators. The duty of
the judge was to see that the trial was
fairly conducted, and if a verdict of
guilty were returned, to declare the legal
sentence, and deliver him over to the
sheriff, whose duty it was to execute
it. CONFIRMATION of the election of
a bishop. By the ancient canon law,
whose forms are still scrupulously
observed, a bishop is elected by the
clergy (represented by the Dean and
Chapter) of the diocese, and the elec
tion is confirmed by the assent of the
people. The process of confirmation is
this : the Archbishop, by his Vicar-
General, the Dean of Arches, publishes
a notice at the church of St. Mary-le-
Bow, in Cheapside, of the day of con
firmation, and cites all opposers, if
there be any, to object against the
election, or the person elected.
Twice in the present century it has
been attempted to make the confirma
tion a reality by the offering of objec
tions, On the election of Dr. Hampden
as Bishop of Hereford, in 1 848, a strong
feeling was excited throughout the

kingdom by suspicions of his sound
ness in the faith. His election was
opposed by the Dean and a minority
in the Chapter. At the confirmation
the Vicar- General was assisted, for the
occasion, by two other civilians joined
with him in commission. The usual
proclamation was made by the officer
of the court : ' ' All manner of persons
who shall or will object to the confirm
ation of the election of the Rev. R. D.
Hampden, D. D. , to be the bishop and
pastor of the cathedral church of Here
ford, let them come forward and make
their objections in due form of law, and
they shall be heard." But when an
objector came forward and tendered
certain objections, the Judges peremp
torily refused to hear the objections
made in due form of law. The objec
tors applied to the Queen's Bench for
a mandamus to the Vicar-General to
hear the objections. Four Judges heard
the application ; two, Coleridge and
Patteson, were of opinion that a man
damus should be issued, the other two,
Denman and Erie, that it should not,
and therefore the mandamus was not
issued. " But," says Sir R. Phillimore, -
'Eccl. Law,' p. 48, "the least credit
able or most remarkable circumstance
was that this court refused to allow the
question to be put in a form which
would allow the objectors to have re
course to a Court of Error," and there
fore the unsatisfactory conclusion thus
arrived at was final.
Again, when Dr. Temple was elected
to be Bishop of Exeter, objections in
due form of law were tendered at his
confirmation. The Vicar-General al
lowed counsel to speak to the question
whether the Vicar-General had power
to examine and decide upon such ob
jections, or do otherwise than confirm
the election ; but, in conclusion, the
Vicar-General said, "I take upon
myself the duty of confirming the
election of the Rev. F. Temple, who
has been elected to the See of Exeter,
and in obedience to the letters man
date of the Crown. Those _ letters
mandate have been issued to his Grace

CONFIRMATION

194

CONFIRMATION

the Archbishop of Canterbury. . In
those letters mandate it has pleased
Her Majesty the Queen to signify-
to His Grace the Archbishop that
she has approved of the election of
Dr. Temple to be bishop. She has
likewise commanded him to confirm
the election, and His Grace the, Arch
bishop has issued to me, as Vicar-
General, his fiat to carry out the com
mand of the Queen."— 'Sir R. Philli
more,' p. 52. So that in the making
of bishops the freedom of election by
the clergy is controlled by the letters
missive, and the confirmation by the
people is nullified by this interpreta
tion of the royal mandate to confirm.
Still the forms are not useless and to
be abolished, for so long as they
remain they constitute a perpetual
admission of the canonical mode of
procedure. CONFIRMATION, or Laying on of
Hands. One of the original rites of
the Christian religion. After the
method of the New Testament Scrip
tures we have no formal statement of
its institution, but historical notices of
its use and practice ; e. g. Philip the
Deacon by his preaching and miracles
had converted a number of Samaritans
to the Christian faith. "When the
apostles which were at Jerusalem heard
this, they sent unto them Peter and
John, who when they were come down
prayed for them that they might re
ceive the Holy Ghost." "They laid
their hands on them, and they received
the Holy Ghost, " and the context shows
that what they received was accom
panied with the miraculous Pentecostal
gifts (Acts viii. 5 — 20). Again, when
Paul in the course of his missionary work
came to Ephesus he found a number
of believers, and asked them, "Have
ye received the Holy Ghost since ye
believed?" Just as in these days a
Colonial bishop lighting in his journeys
on a remote settlement of Church people
might inquire, ' ' Have you been con
firmed ? " His question elicited the
fact that they were disciples of John
.the Baptist, who on John's testi

mony believed Jesus to be the Christ,
but had not been initiated into the
Christian Church or received Christian
teaching. Paul caused them to be bap
tised in the name of the Lord Jesus (it
would seem by one of his assistants in
the ministry), and " when Paul had
laid his hands on them the Holy Ghost
came on them, and they spake with
tongues and prophesied " (Acts xix,
1-8). The writer of the Epistle to the
Hebrews enumerates among "the first
principles of the doctrine of Christ,"
the foundation of repentance from dead
works and of faith toward God, the
doctrine of baptisms and of laying on of
hands, resurrection from the dead, and
eternal judgment ; that the laying on
of hands here is confirmation is held by
all the ancient commentators.
In primitive times, and still in the
Eastern Church, the rite was known as
the Seal, and the Unction of the Spirit,
and under these names it is several
times alluded to (e. g. 2 Cor. i. 21 ;
Eph. i. 13 ; iv. 30 ; 1 John ii. 20, 27).
That the rite continued to be used
after apostolic times the universal prac
tice of the Church bears witness. The
earliest notices of it are by Tertullian
(a.d. 196 — 201), who, describing the
practice of the Church of his time, tells
us that "having come out from the
Bath (Font) we are anointed thoroughly
with a blessed unction according to the
ancient rule by which they were wont
to be anointed for the priesthood with
oil out of a horn. . . . Next to this the
hand is laid upon us, calling upon and
inviting the Holy Spirit, through the
blessing " (' De Bapt.' viii. 7 and 8).
The flesh is overshadowed by the
hand, that the soul may be illuminated '
by the Spirit (Tertull. ' De Resurrec.
Cam.,' 8).
' The Apostolic Constitutions ' (II.
cxli.), a testimony to the belief of the
Church previous to the fourth century,
says : " By the laying on of our hands
the Holy Spirit is given."
Firmilian, Bishop of Cesarea in Cap*
padocia, contemporaneous with Cy-

CONFIRMATION

195

CONFIRMATION

prian, says thatr bishops possess the
power of baptising, laying on of hands,
and ordaining. After this time similar
testimonies abound, and the extant
confirmation service's of the churches
are a still more important testimony
to the belief and practice of the Church.
There can be no question that the rite,
universal in the Apostolical Church,
descended without break in all the
Churches, and that though the mira
culous gifts which sometimes attended
the rite had ceased, the Church believed
that the more important permanent
graces of the Holy Spirit were still
thus conveyed. St. Augustine says :
" When we lay hands on these infants,
does any one of you await their speak
ing with tongues, and when he sees
that they do not speak with tongues,
is he so perverse of heart as to say they
have not received the Holy Spirit, for
if they had they would speak with
tongues ? . . . . Not by gifts of tongues
is the presence of the Spirit known in
the laying on of hands, but invisibly
and secretly it is felt " (Pol. v. lxvi. 4).
St. Cyprian (248—258), commenting
on the confirmation of the Samaritan con
verts (Acts viii. 5—20), says : " Which
now also is done among us, those bap
tised into the Church being brought to
the bishops of the Church, and by our
prayer and laying on of hands they
receive the Holy Ghost, and are per
fected with the seal of the Lord " (' Ep.'
lxiii. 8 ; see also ' Ep.'lxxv. 7, 8).
St. Jerome (380—418) says: "If
you ask where it is written, it is written
in the Acts of the Apostles ; but if.
there were no authority of Scripture
for it, yet the consent of all the world
in this particular is instead of a com
mand." From Jerome ('Lucifer,' c. 4) we
learn that bishops used to travel round
their dioceses in order to lay on their
hands, " ad invocationem Sancti
Spiritus,'' on those who had been bap
tised only by a presbyter or deacon.
The usage of the third century, begin
ning possibly in the second, of the
bishops baptising at Easter and confirm- [

ing at the same time, left only those
who had been baptised at other times,
by other ministers, in case of dangerous
sickness, to be separately confirmed.
In the Eastern Churches it has always
been the practice to administer con
firmation immediately after baptism, or
as soon after as might be ; but in the
East, priests were allowed to admin
ister confirmation with chrism con
secrated by the bishop, while in the
West the right was restricted to the
bishop in person.
In many portions of the West there
is reason to suppose that this practice
of confirming soon after baptism con
tinued down to so late perhaps as the
tenth century (Maskell). Bede says
that in his time, the beginning of the
eighth century, after the solemn seasons
of baptism, viz. Easter and AVhitsun-
tide, the bishop male a visitation of
his diocese for the purpose of confirm
ing those who had been just before
baptised. But as time went on, when baptism
was administered by the parish priest,
and less frequent visitation by the
bishop brought him only occasionally
within reach of remote parishes, con
firmation became usually separated by
an interval of several years from bap
tism. Still, whenever a bishop travelled
about, people would flock to him where
he halted, or even wait for him by the
roadside, bringing their children to be
confirmed. Bede describes how, in St. Cuthbert's
visitations of his diocese, "crowds of
listeners surrounding the man of God,
he preached to them for two days, and
then, by the laying on of hands, min
istered to the newly regenerate in Christ
the grace of the Holy Spirit." "Lay
ing his hand upon the head of each,
anointing them with consecrated unc
tion which he had blessed." It was
not till about the thirteenth century
that confirmation was delayed to so late
an age as "years of discretion," i.e.
from about seven to twelve years of age.
The pontifical of Egbert, Archbishop
of York, c. 750, contains the confirma-

o 2

CONFIRMATION

196

CONSECRATION

tion service of the English Church of
that period. *
Anointing with chrism in the sign of
the cross on the forehead was of very
early use in the administration of the
rite, but the laying on of hands was
the essential aet.f All three continued
in use in the English Church down to
the end of the reign of Henry VIII.
In the first book of Ed. VI. the chrism
is discontinued: "Then the bishop
shall cross them on the forehead and
lay his hand upon their heads ; " and
in the second book of Ed. VI. the cross
ing was also discontinued : "Then shall
the bishop lay his hand upon every
child severally. "
The custom of the modern English
Church has been to delay confirmation
to a later age, and to make the occasion
one of completing the religious educa
tion, enlisting the will, and formally
renewing the baptismal vows, and to
follow it immediately with first com
munion. Great pains have been taken of late
years by the clergy to bring all their
people to this rite, and to prepare them
carefully for it, and corresponding pains
have been taken by the bishops in its ad
ministration, with very valuable results.
* The earliest confirmation service extant
is in the sacramentary by Gelasius (A.n. 492).
Its opening words are : " Then (i. e. after
baptism) by the bishop is given to them the
sevenfold spirit. He lays his hand upon
them to seal them with these words, — ' Al
mighty God, Father of Our Lord Jesus Christ,
who hast regenerated thy servants by water
and the Holy Ghost, and hast given them
remission of all their sins, Thou, Lord, send
unto them thine Holy Ghost the Comforter,
and give them the spirit of wisdom and
understanding, the spirit of counsel and for
titude, the spirit of knowledge and piety, fill
them with the spirit of the fear of God, in
the name of the Lord, with whom thou livest
and reignest God, ever with the Holy Ghost,
through all ages of ages. Amen. "
t A picture of confirmation in La Croix's
'Vie Militaire et Religieuse,' shows the
way of applying the chrism to the foro-
head, and some children with their foreheads
bound with the linen band, which was kept
on for three or seven days, out of reverence.
Some interesting illustrations of the mediaeval
practise may be found in Perry's ' Life of St.
Hugh of Lincoln,' pp. 223, 229

CONGE D'ELIRE = leave to elect J
the name of the King's writ to the
Dean and Chapter of a vacant See em
powering them to elect to the vacancy.
[See under title Royal Supremacy. ]
CONGRESS, THE ANNUAL
CHURCH, is a voluntary meeting of
churchmen, clergy and laity, held each
year in some different important -town,-
The Consultation Committee of the
Church Congress, at a meeting Dec.
19, 1881, gave this definition of the
object of the Church Congress, "To
bring together members of the Church
of England and of Churches in com
munion with her, for free deliberation
and for the exchange of opinion and
experience on subjects which affect the
practical efficiency of the Church, and
the means of defence and extension.
Also for the encouragement of a general
interest in these and kindred subjects
amongst the clergy and laity in different
parts of the kingdom."
It is laid down by the committee
that only bond fide members of the
Church of England be permitted to
address the Congress ; that points of
theological doctrine and speculation be
not selected as subjects of discussion,-; •
and that no question be put to the
vote. The following is a list of the Con
gresses already held : — 1861, Cam
bridge ; 1862, Oxford; 1863, Man
chester ; 1864, Bristol ; 1865, Norwich ;
1866, York; 1867, Wolverhampton;
1868, Dublin ; 1869, Liverpool ; 1870,
Southampton; 1871, Nottingham;
1872, Leeds; 1873, Bath; 1874,
Brighton ; 1875, Stoke-on-Trent ; 1876,
Plymouth; 1877, Croydon; 1878,
Sheffield ; 1879, Swansea ; 1880, Leices
ter ; 1881, Newcastle; 1882, Derby;
1883, Reading ; 1884, Carlisle ; 1885,
Portsmouth; 1886, Wakefield; 1887,
Wolverhampton. CONSANGUINITY, relationship by
blood. [See Marriage, forbidden de
grees of. ]
CONSECRATION, setting apart any ¦
thing or person for the Divine ser
vice. Thus churches, bishops, &c, are

CONSUBSTANTIATION

197

CONVENTICLE ACT

.consecrated. The service for the con
secration of bishops is in our Prayer
Books. [See Ordination.]
The Consecration, of a Church and
churchyard, means the setting them
apart from all secular uses, and dedicat
ing them to the service of God. " The
ancient manner of founding churches
was this : after the founders had made
¦their application to the Bishop of the
Diocese, and had his licence, the bishop
or his commissioners set up a cross, and
set forth thg ground where the church
was to be built; and then the founders
might proceed in the building of the
church ; and when the church was
finished the bishop was to consecrate
it, but not till it was endowed ; and
¦before, the sacraments were not to be
administered in it. The form of service
generally (though not of necessity)
used, was drawn up by both houses of
Convocation^ 1712, but did not receive
the royal assent." It may be found in
SirR. Phillimore's 'Ecel. Law,' p. 1763.
CONSUBSTANTIATION. The the
ory adopted by Luther, to explain the
mode of Christ's presence in the sacra
ment. It rejects the theory of a change
in the substance of the elements, but
holds that the material substance of
Christ's body and blood are present
together with the elements of bread
and wine: there are "the real Body
and Blood of Christ, in and under the
bread and wine." In his letter to
Henry VIII. he illustrates his theory
thus: "The Body of Christ is (the
bread still existing) in the sacrament,
as fire is in the iron, the substance of
iron existing, and God in man, the
human nature still existing — the sub
stances in each case being so united
that each retains its own operation and
proper nature, and yet they constitute
one thing."
. Of the great formal Confessions of
the Lutherans, the Confession of Augs-
bury simply says: that "the body
and blood of Christ are really given
with the bread and wine ; " the Saxon
Confession says: that "in this com
munion Christ is truly and substan

tially present, and His body and blood
are truly exhibited to those who
receive. "
Our complaint against Luther, as
against Rome, is that he undertook to
define at all the mode of Christ's pre
sence in the sacrament. When writing
uncontroversially on the subject he fre
quently uses language which is quite
consistent with primitive views.
CONSUETUDINARIUM. One of the
Old Service Books which regulated
the duties of the various officials of
a cathedral or monastery ; is. g. the
heads of some of the chapters in the
Consuetudinary of Lichfield are : 1.
Concerning the dignitaries established
in the church of Lichfield ; 2. Con
cerning the office of the dean ; 3. Con
cerning the office of the precentor ; 4.
Concerning the office of the chancellor ;
5. Concerning the office of the trea
surer ; 6. Concerning the mode of bell-
ringing ; 7. Concerning tho precedence
of the church of Lichfield ; 8. Con
cerning the precedence of the digni
taries ; 9. Concerning the dignity of
the dean and canons ; 10. Concerning
the dignity of the five chaplains ; 11.
The statute of the Lord Hubert, legate
of the Apostolic See.
Every cathedral, and every monas
tery, probably,' had its own Consuetu-
dinal : for monastic examples see that
of the Benedictine Monastery of Abing
don, and that of Evesham, both quoted
by Fosbroke, ' British Monachism,' p.
87, 89.
Trinity Church, Coventry, has two
or three curious documents which
amount to a kind of Consuetudinal: one
of them explains at great length the
duties of the deacon attached to the
church. (Maskell, 'Mon. Rit.' I.
cccxx. note.)
CONVENTICLE. Convcnticulum,dim.
of conventus, a little place of meeting,
said to have been first applied in
mediaeval history to the meetings of
Wicklif's followers, and subsequently
to any meetings of separatists for ro-
ligious purposes.
CONVENTICLE ACT, passed in

CONVERSI

198

CONVOCATION

1644 to prevent the holding of conven
ticles [see preceding article]. It enacted
that only five persons above sixteen
years of age, besides the members of the
family, might meet in any house for
worship, under severe penalties on
those who permitted the meeting to
be held in their houses, and on those
who officiated at the worship. The
act was repealed in the first year of
William III.
CONVERSI, the lay brothers of a
monastery, who had forsaken the world
and taken certain vows ; but who were
of an inferior status to the choir monks,
and generally were the servants of the
monastery. CONVOCATION. For many centuries
the Convocations of Canterbury and of
York have served the purpose of the
Synods of the two provinces ; but it is
desirable to discriminate between the
two things, Convocation and Synod.
The Provincial Synod [see General
Councils] is an ecclesiastical assembly,
consisting of the bishops with some of
their presbyters of the various dioceses
of the province, summoned by the
Metropolitan, to deliberate and act in
ecclesiastical matters. The Convocation
is a representation of the bishops and
clergy of the province, summoned by
the metropolitan at the command of
the king, to advise and act in affairs of
State. The two things, the Synod and
the Convocation, may co-exist. The
two assemblies do not necessarily con
sist of the same persons, but a large
proportion of the persons will be ex
officio members of both bodies. They
may meet at separate times ; or the
Metropolitan may summon the Synod
at the same time as the Convocation,
and fuse the two meetings into one.
Both these methods have been adopted.
In Saxon times the bishops, abbots,
and principal ecclesiastics were sum
moned to the Witangemote to advise and
act in affairs of State ; and the arch
bishops often found it convenient to
give to the assembly the character of a
Synod, and transact ecclesiastical busi
ness at the same time. After the Con

quest the bishops and abbots still
formed part of the king's Great. Council,
but purely Ecclesiastical Synods' were
held to deal with purely. ecclesiastical
matters. It was Edward I. who, in
seeking to obtain a representation of
the different classes of the people, sum
moned knights of the shire to represent
the counties, burgesses to represent the
corporate towns, and through the metro
politans summoned proctors from the
chapters to represent the cathedral i
bodies, and proctors from the arch- J
deaconries to represent the rest of the
beneficed clergy ; so that the bishops
and nobles formed one house of parlia
ment, the knights and burgesses a
second, and the proctors of the clergy
a third house. After this period the
metropolitans often gave to Convocation
the character of a Synod, but they also
often summoned a Synod when there
was no Parliament, and consequently
no Convocation. Since the Reformation
the restrictions imposed upon the clergy
by the Act of Surrender precluded the
metropolitans from summoning their
Synods without the king's licence [see
Supremacy, Royal], and the Convoca
tions, summoned together with every
Parliament, have virtually been the
Provincial Synods. Convocation was
at first organised as an engine of
systematic taxation. The general tax
ation of the country for the expenses
of government originated in the de
mand of the king for voluntary
subsidies from time to time to
meet special emergencies. Subsidies
were demanded separately from the
counties and cities, from the dioceses,
cathedral chapters, monastic orders,
&c. The fair apportionment of these
subsidies among those who had to
contribute to them required a certain
amount of local organisation ; and in
sending up their subsidies the senders .
soon took the opportunity to represent
to the Government the grievances under
which they suffered, and to ask relief
from them.
The growth of the Provincial Con
vocations is chiefly marked by the in-

CONVOCATION

199

CONVOCATION

stitution and development of the prin
ciple of representation. There are few
traces of it before the pontificate of
Stephen Langton. During the thir
teenth century the Cathedral Chapters
and the Diocesan Synods were consulted
separately on taxation. Sometimes arch
deaconries acted separately. In these
assemblies not only subsidies * were
granted to the King, but representatives
to the greater assemblies were chosen,
and gravamina drawn up. In 1225 the
archbishop directed the attendance of
proctors of the cathedral, collegiate,
and conventual clergy, in addition to
the bishops, abbots, priors, deans, and
archdeacons. In 1254 the prelates re
fused to include the secular clergy in a
money grant without their consent, and
a, great council was summoned in con
sequence. At length, in 1283, under
Archbishop Peckham, a convocation
was summoned to meet in London, " to
which the clergy of each diocese, having
had carefully expounded to them the
propositions made on behalf of the
King, shall choose two proctors, and
each cathedral and collegiate chapter a
proctor, and send them with sufficient
instructions, who shall have full and
express power of treating with the pre
lates upon the premisses, and of con
senting to such measures as for the
honour of the Church, the comfort of
the King, and the peace of the realm,
the community of the clergy shall
provide." This rule of election was
then or soon after accepted as a canon,
and the body so constituted was the
Convocation of the province of Canter
bury. That of the province of York
is somewhat differently constituted,
containing two proctors from each arch
deaconry, an arrangement which dates
at least as early as 1279. Owing to
the unfortunate jealousy between the
two primates, the assembling of national
Church councils became, after the in-
* The clergy contributed so many tenths
or parts of a tenth. In 1291 a tenth was
-equal to £20,000. In the time of Henry VII.
a tenth of the southern province had sunk
to £10,000 (Stubbs' ' Constitutional History ;.

dependence of York had been vindicated
by Thurstan, almost impossible. Only
when the authority of a legate super
seded for the moment the authority of
both were any national councils sum
moned. The most important of these
were the councils of 1237, in which the
Constitutions of Otho were published,
and of 1268, in which those of Otto-
bon were accepted.
A clause of the Great Charter ob
tained from John secured the summon
ing of the archbishops, bishops, abbots,
earls, and greater barons personally,
and all other tenants-in-chief under
the Crown by their sheriffs and bailiffs, ¦
to assess aids and scutages when
necessary. In the next reign (1295)
sheriffs wore directed to return two
knights from each shire, two citizens
from each city, and two burghers from
each borough, to attend the Parliament.
In 1295 Edward I. completed this sys
tem of national representation by issu
ing writs direct to the bishops severally
(instead of the ancient mode of sum
moning them through the archbishop),
requiring each of them to bring his
prior, dean, archdeacons, and one fit
proctor for the cathedral chapter, and
two fit proctors for the diocesan clergy
(adopting the principle of synodical
representation already established), to
consider the affairs of the nation. In
truth, what was required of the com
mons and of the clergy was rather to
grant taxes than to give counsel ; but
the opportunity of united consultation
and representation of grievances gave
to the rising middle class, and to tho
body of the clergy, increased political
weight ; and as the middle class grew
wealthy tho power of the purse gave the
Commons House of Parliament a pre
ponderating influence in the counsels
of the Government. Parliaments were
then only summoned at irregular in
tervals, and often sat for only a short
time. When the clergy were thus sum
moned to meet together with Parlia
ment, the archbishops often took tho
opportunity to hold a Synod ; and
Synods were held at other times when

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needed : i. e. while the Sovereign ex
ercised his right to summon prelates
and clergy to consult on afl'airs of
state, the archbishops still exercised
their power of summoning Synods at
their discretion.
In the Convocation of 1415 the pre
lates sat in one place and the clergy in
another, which is the earliest instance
of their separation into two houses.
In the fourteenth century several Con
vocations were concerned with the doc
trines of Wiclif and his followers. From
that time to the tenth year of Henry
VIII. Convocation was called together
irregularly ; sometimes with Parlia
ment, sometimes alone ; and little im
portant business was transacted except
the granting of money subsidies.
On the failure of the councils of the
fifteenth century, at Constance and
Basle, to effect a satisfactory reforma
tion of the abuses of the Church, the
sovereigns took up the task in their
several dominions. The ecclesiastical
affairs of France were regulated by the
"Pragmatic Sanction ;" in Germany
by the Concordat of Vienna ; in Spain,
the great minister, Cardinal Ximenes,
introduced great reforms ; and Henry
VIII. 's great minister, Cardinal Wolsey,
appears, to have aimed at effecting
a similar reformation in England.
For this purpose he obtained the
King's leave to accept a commission
from the Pope as Legate a latere, and
to summon a national Synod. The
clergy assembled at his summons, but
the step seems to have been disliked
by them ; and in a short time, nothing
having been transacted, the National
Synod was dissolved, and the two Con
vocations met as usual. But though
this Legatine Synod effected nothing
at the time, it was made the pretext
afterwards for an ecclesiastical revolu
tion. The King having destroyed the Orders
of Friars and the monastic houses, then
proceeded to plunder the secular clergy,
and subject them to his power. It
seems to have been Cromwell who
suggested one of those cynical acts of

tyranny under the forms of law which
make tyranny most odious.
The act of praemunire passed in the
reign of Edward III. prohibited all
persons from receiving into the king
dom, or obeying, a Papal Bull, without
the royal permission, under pain of
forfeiture of goods and perpetual banish*
ment. This law had been frequently
disregarded ; moreover, the King had
been cognisant of Wolsey's intention
to summon a, Council as Legate, and
had permitted it. Nevertheless, it
was determined to use the obsolete
law as a weapon by which to increase
the royal authority over the clergy.
Proceedings were commenced in the
King's Bench by the Attorney-General
on the part of the Crown, to bring in
the whole body of .the clergy guilty of
a praemunire for having attended the
Legatine Council. The clergy were
compelled to rescue themselves from
the threatened ruin by consenting (by
an act of submission, 1534) to pay an
enormous fine of £120,000, equal to
£1, 500, 000 of our money, and to surren
der their ancient constitutional liberties
to the Crown. The surrender, so far as
it relates to the powers of Convocation,
may be summed up under four heads !
(1) That the Convocation can only be
assembled by the King's writ ; (2) that
when assembled it cannot proceed to
make new canons without a royal
license, which is quite a separate act
from the permission to assemble ; (3)
that having, with the royal license,
agreed upon canons, such canons have
no legal force until confirmed by the
sovereign ; (4) that even with the royal
authority no canons are valid which
are against the laws and customs of
the land and the King's prerogative.
Convocation having suffered no altera- ,
tion since that time, this may be a
convenient place for a brief descrip
tion of it. England is divided into
two provinces — Canterbury and York.
The Convocation of Canterbury consists
of the bishops of the province, including ,
those of the four Welsh dioceses, who
constitute the Upper House ; of the

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CONVOCATION

deans of all the cathedrals, and the
precentor of the chapter of St. David's,
which has no dean, all the archdeacons,
a proctor for each of the cathedral
chapters, and forty-four proctors for
the parochial clergy, who compose the
Lower House. Before the dissolution
of the monasteries certain abbots had
seats in the Upper House.
The Convocation of York consists of
the dioceses of Durham, Carlisle, Ches
ter, Ripon, Manchester, Liverpool, New
castle, who constitute the Upper House ;
the deans and archdeacons, one proctor
for each chapter, and two for each arch
deaconry.* The two Convocations act
independently, and might enact differ
ent and even conflicting canons ; but
in transactions of importance, the two
Convocations have acted by mutual
consent or correspondence, or Com
missioners have been sent by the Con
vocation of York to sit with the Con
vocation of Canterbury with full power
to act for the Convocation of York.
On the summoning of every Par
liament the Royal writ is issued to the
archbishops requiring them to summon
the Convocations. The Archbishop of
Canterbury then issues his mandate to
the Bishop of London as dean of the
province, or in case of vacancy to the
Bishop of Winchester as sub-dean ; in
York, where there is no dean of the
province, the archbishop issues his
mandate direct to his suffragans ; sum
moning the Convocations to meet in
London and York. The proctors for the
parochial clergy are elected by those
holding benefices, in different ways in
different dioceses ; e. g. in London each
of the two archdeaconries chooses two,
and out of these four the bishop selects
any two to attend. In Sarum the three
archdeaconries choose six, and these six
select two out of their number. In the
northern province each archdeaconry
elects two, and all attend. The two
Houses sit separately, the Lower House
choosing its prolocutor or chairman ; *
* For an account of recent changes in the
constitution of the Convocation of York, see
a paper by Canon Trevor in the ' Report of
the Church Congress at Brighton, 1'874. '

the conclusions of one House are sent
to the other for consideration, and the
two Houses frequently confer by sum
moning the prolocutor to the Upper
House. And the Lower House has
this important privilege, that no reso
lutions of the Upper House can be
passed into synodical acts without the
Lower ; and vice vcrsd.
The Houses thus assembled under
the royal writ are a constitutional part
of the State, and should the Crown be
pleased to issue to them a license of
business, they become an Ecclesiastical
Synod, and can proceed to discuss eccle
siastical business, and by their debates
and resolutions exercise a considerable
influence upon the popular mind. But
in order that . any of their resolutions
should become canons having legal
effect, it is necessary that they shall
have the consent of the Crown. The
position of Convocation then is in eccle
siastical affairs analogous to that of
Parliament in State affairs.
The action of Convocation during the
Reformation period is of especial im
portance, as showing the concurrence
of the Church with the civil power in
that crisis of our national history.
"Upon serious examination," says
Fuller (' Church History,' v. 188), " it
will appear that there was nothing
done in the reformation of religion
save what was asked by the clergy in
their Convocation, or grounded on some
act of theirs precedent to it, with the
advice, counsel, and consent of the
bishops, and most eminent Churchmen,
confirmed upon the past fact, and not
otherwise by the civil sanction, accord
ing to the usage of the best and hap
piest times of Christianity."
Mr. Joyce, in his ' Acts of the
Church' (p. 86), also says, "At this
epoch of our history Acts of Parliament,
Royal Proclamations, and Civil Ratifica
tions did not precede but followed in
point of time the decisions of the
Spiritualty, and were merely auxiliary
to the Acts of Convocation ; " and in
his ' History of Sacred Synods ' illus-

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CONVOCATION

trates this general assertion by a list
of measures taken by Convocation.
1534. Declaration that the Pope has
no greater authority in England than
any other foreign prelate.
1536. Forty-nine popular errors com
plained of, and the ten articles of
religion carried.
1539. The Six Articles approved.
1542. First Book of Homilies in
troduced and authorised ; published in
1547. 1543. "Necessary Doctrine and
Erudition " confirmed.
1544. Tho Litany, nearly in its
present form,- authorised.
1547. Communion in both kinds ;
Repeal of prohibition of marriage of
clergy voted. Edward VI. 's First
Service Book approved.
1550. Revision of Litany considered.
1552. Cranmer's Forty -two Articles
ratified. Edward VI. 's Catechism
authorised by delegates of the Con
vocation. 1559. It has been usually thought
that the alteration of the Prayer Book
in the beginning of the reign of Eliza
beth, was effected irregularly by a
Committee of Divines ; but Mr. Joyce
has lately discovered a document which
makes it seem probable that it was
done by an Episcopal Synod.
1562. The Thirty-nine Articles re
vised, and reduced to their present
form. 1603. The Canons (probably col
lected and arranged by Bancroft) were
agreed upon with the King's license.
The alterations in the Prayer Book
after the Hampton Court Conference
were drawn up by the bishops and
divines, and though not formally sub
mitted to Convocation, received synod
ical sanction in these canons.
1661. Occasional Services made :
the form of Adult Baptism, and forms
for January 30 and May 29. The
Prayer Book revised, and adopted in
the Act of Uniformity.
In the early part of the following
reign Convocation met as usual, but
nothing important was transacted till

1640, when the King, Charles I., gave
license to make canons and constitu
tions. Parliament was. dissolved 5th
May, but some in Convocation alleged
that Convocation might continue to sit
till expressly dissolved by the royal
writ. The question was submitted to
the Judges, who decided in the affirm
ative ; but to make all safe a new writ
was issued, continuing the Convocation
during pleasure. A body of seventeen
canons were accordingly made, and
were approved by the King in council} '
and printed by royal authority. One
canon affirmed the Divine right of
kings, the others dealt specially with
popeiy, heresy, and schism, and re
quired the clergy to take an oath not
to bring in any popish doctrine, nor to
give consent to alter the government
of the Church " by archbishops,
bishops, deacons, and archdeacons,
&c," as it stands now by law estab
lished. These canons excited a grievous
outcry among those who were at this
time commencing that revolution
which ultimately brought King and
Archbishop to the block. There seems
no ground for denying that these
canons were legally enacted, but they
were repealed by the Act of 13 Charles
II. With the Long Parliament a new
Convocation was assembled, on No
vember 3rd of the following year, but
the meetings of the Upper House were
prevented by the imprisonment of the
bishops, and the Lower House soon
after ceased to sit, and the Convoca
tion met no more till the restoration of
the Church and Monarchy.
In the difficulties which attended
the Restoration, the summoning of
Convocation was deferred until some
preliminary steps had been accom
plished. It met again May 8th, 1661,
with royal letters of license, empower
ing it to consult upon matters re
lative to the settlement of the Church.
The Convocation of York sent deputies
to sit and act on its behalf with that of
Canterbury, so that the assembly formed i
a national synod. Its chief work was
to revise the Prayer Book, and reduce

CONVOCATION

203

CONVOCATION

it to the form in which it still exists,
and to add some special Forms of
Prayer, e. g. that for the Restoration,
&c. The revised book was signed and
sanctioned by the whole Convocation.
The book was then taken up by Par
liament, and appended to the Act for
Uniformity in Religion. Canons of
discipline were also discussed, but
" some powerful influence prevented"
Convocation from proceeding with
them. In .1664 a most important change
was effected with regard to the privi
leges of the clergy in Convocation.
Hitherto it has been seen the clergy
taxed themselves, and the Convoca
tion was always summoned with every
new Parliament in order to their
giving the customary subsidies ; and
it is easy to see how important was
this constitutional opportunity of pre
senting their grievances to the Sove
reign. Now, however, by an arrange
ment between Archbishop Sheldon and
Lord Chancellor Hyde, the clergy
silently waived the privilege of taxing
themselves, and submitted to be in
cluded in the money bills of the House
of Commons. It was stipulated indeed
that their ancient privileges should be
preserved ; but that proved a poor
security. Collier, the Church historian,
remarked : ' ' Being in no condition to
give subsidies to the Crown, 'tis well
if their Convocation meetings are not
sometimes discontinued, if they do not
sink into insignificancy, lie by for want
of a royal licence, and grow less re
garded when their grievances are
offered," and his remarks have been
amply verified by the sequel of the
history. During the three years of the reign
of James II., although Convocation
was assembled with Parliament, the
King did not permit it to transact
business, knowing that his ecclesiastical
measures would meet with nothing but
opposition from it.
With the " Convention Parliament,"
which seated William and Mary on the
throne, Convocation was not summoned.

And when the Revolution had been com
pleted, and a second Parliament called,
still Convocation was not summoned
with it according to constitutional prac
tice. Then Parliament itself petitioned
the Crown to summon Convocation.
This was not done without preparation.
First, the Toleration Act was passed
allowing Dissenters to hold separatist
religious assemblies ; next a royal com
mission was issued to certain persons
"to prepare business for Convocation. "
The cry was raised that the Church was
in danger, the popular fear being that,
as in Scotland, so in England, it was
the King's design to establish Presbyte-
rianism, or at least to modify the Church
in that direction. When Convocation
met, the Upper House, deprived of the
presence of Archbishop Sancroft and
other non-juring bishops, was under
the influence of the Court ; but the
Lower House at the very outset showed .
its opposition to the new government,
and its resentment at the attempt to
limit its business, and force distasteful
measures upon it. Tillotson, a special
friend of the King, being proposed as
Prolocutor, and supported by the Court
party, was defeated, and the proposed
alterations were allowed to drop. On
the secession of the five non-juring
bishops, new men were appointed who
were in favour of the views of the
Court ; and the divergence between
the two Houses on political and
ecclesiastical questions was greatly
aggravated. The Upper House was
regarded as Whig and Latitudinarian,
the Lower House as Tory and High
Church. A bitter contest ensued be
tween them ; the object of the Lower
House being to obtain increased power
and independence in the transaction of
its business, without being liable to be
controlled at every step by the Upper
House. From 1690 to 1700 Convoca
tion, was silenced, but the contest was
continued in the press with great energy
and ability on both sides.
On the accession of Queen Anne, Con
vocation met again, with license to
proceed to business ; and at once the-

"CONVOCATION

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CONVOCATION

contest between the two Houses recom
menced. It was a distinct and well
understood attempt to place the Lower
House of Convocation in the same rela
tion to the Upper House as the House
of Commons to the House of Lords.*
On the accession of Georgo I. Con
vocation was summoned With Parlia
ment, and tho Lower House at once
attacked Hoadley, Bishop of Bangor,
for unsound teaching in a work which
he had recently published ; but before
the address of the Lower House to the
Upper could be prepared, the Govern
ment interposed and prorogued the
Convocation. From that time down
to the present reign Convocation was
always summoned with Parliament, but
it never received letters of business,
and its meetings were merely formal.
The Synods of the Church were silenced
for 150 years.
"It may well be questioned, " says Sir
R. Phillimore (' Eccl. Law,' p. 1933),
"whether this discontinuance has not
worked mischief to the State as well
as the Church. Probably if Convoca
tion had been allowed to sit to make
the reforms, both in its own constitu
tion and generally in the administration
of -spiritual matters, which time had
rendered necessary, the apathy and
Erastianism which at one time ate into
the very life of our Church, the spiritual
neglect of our large cities at ihome in
England, and of our colonies abroad,
and the fruit of these things, the
schism created by the followers of
AVesley, would not have occurred, and
the State would have escaped the evil
of those religious divisions which have
largely influenced, hampered, and per
plexed the legislation of her Parlia
ments and the policy of her states
men." As a part of the Church revival of
the present generation it seemed to
many to be necessary to obtain a re-
* The Lower House in the Convocation
which sat in 1547, the first year of Edward
IV., had memorialised tho archbishop that
they should have a share in the legislature
and sit in the House of Commons.

vival of Synodical action ; accordingly.
a Society was formed to promote this
end, of which the Bishop of Oxford
(AV'ilberforce) and Mr. Henry Hoare
were very active members. Difficulties
were raised by the law officers,, but
disappeared when firmly disregarded^;
and at length, after an interval of 134
years, the Convocation of Canterbury
(Nov. 5th, 1852) resumed its synodical
discussion of the affairs of. the Church.
The revival encountered still greater
difficulties in the northern province, '
which did not resume synodical action
till 1861. The hazardous experiment,
as it was considered in some quarters,
was entirely successful. It was soon
found that, notwithstanding the heat
of party spirit at that time, the dis
cussions of burning questions by the
clergy were temperate and able, and
tended rather to allay than to increase
differences of view among the clergy,
and helped to form public opinion on
Church questions. By appointing com
mittees to sit during the ad joummcnts,
Convocation was able to deal carefully
with a number of important questions.
License to frame Canons has been issued
on veiy few occasions, and the time is
hardly come for taking full advantage
of the royal license, as will appear in
the sequel ; but Convocation has done
some very important Acts which fell
within its existing powers. The follow
ing are notes of some of the principal'
of these. !
The Convocation which sat together
with the Parliament from 1859 to 1865
prepared a Harvest Thanksgiving ser
vice ; condemned Bishop Colenso's
' Pentateuch ' (1873)-; condemned
'Essays and Reviews' (1864) ;¦ substi
tuted a modified Declaration for the
Oaths before Ordination and InstituJ
tion, and the Oath against Simony
(1865). The Convocation from I860"
to 1868 was largely occupied with de
bates on Ritualism, and on the ecclesi
astical affairs of the South African'
Churches. The next Convocation, which
sat from 1868 to 1874, took up the very
important task of a Revision of the

CONVOCATION

205

.CONVOCATION

English Translation of the Bible, and
[see Bible] appointed a Committee for
the purpose (1870). In 1871 it took
cognisance of the Vatican Council, arid
(1871) passed resolutions to the follow
ing effect : — " That the Vatican Council
has no just right to be termed an
CEcumenical or General Council. 2.
That the dogma of Papal infallibility
is contrary to Holy Scripture, and the
judgment of the ancient Church Uni
versal. 3. That the assumption of
supremacy by the Bishop of Rome in
convening the Council contravenes
Canons of the Church Universal ; and
finally, 4. That there is one true .Ca
tholic and Apostolic Church, founded
by our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ ;
that of this true Catholic and Apostolic
Church the Church of England and the
Churches in Communion with her are
living members ; and that the Church
of England earnestly desires to maintain
firmly the Catholic faith as set forth by
the Oecumenical Councils of the Uni
versal Church, and to be united upon
those principles in brotherly love with
all Churches in Christendom."
During the session a strenuous at
tempt was made to obtain a resolution
of Convocation in favour of removing
the Athanasian Creed from its place in
the services of the Church, or to get
certain clauses of it suppressed. The
rjsult of a long and heated contest was
the issue of a Synodical Declaration as
follows : — " For the removal of doubts,
and to prevent disquietude in the use
of the Creed commonly called the
Creed of St. Athanasius, it is hereby
solemnly declared :
1. " That the confession of our Chris
tian Faith, commonly called the Creed
of St. Athanasius, doth not make any
addition to the faith as contained in
Holy Scripture, but warneth against
errors which from time to time have
arisen in the Church of Christ.
2. " That as Holy Scripture in divers
places doth promise life to them that
believe, and declare the condemnation
of them, that believe not, so doth the
Church in this confession declare the

necessity for all who would bo in a
state of salvation of holding fast tho
Catholic Faith, and the great peril of
rejecting the , same. Wherefore the
warnings in the Confession of Faith are
to be understood no otherwise than the
warnings of Holy Scripture ; for we
must receive God's threatenings, even
as His promises, in such wise as they
are generally set forth in Holy Writ.
Moreover, the Church doth not herein
pronounce judgment on any particular
person or persons, God alone being the
Judge of all."
In this and the following Convoca
tions, following upon a Royal Commis
sion for the. revision of the rubrics in
the Prayer Book, a, new lectionary was
drawn up and adopted, and, being
sanctioned by the Crown, came into
general use. The southern Convocation
also agreed to recommend, with respect
to the Burial Service, in cases in which
the rubric forbids the present service
to be used, an alternative service as
follows : "On the request, or with the
consent of the kindred or friends, it
shall be lawful for the minister to use
only the following Service at the
burial : — The three sentences of the
Scriptures to be said or sung on meet
ing the corpse at the entrance of the
churchyard, and after they are come
into the church, one or both of these
Psalms following, Ps. xxxix. and Ps.
ic, then the Lesson, 1 Cor. xv. 20.
When they come to the grave, while
the corpse is made ready to be laid into
the earth, the priest shall say, or the
priest and. clerks shall sing, the sen
tences beginning, 'Man that is born
of,' &e., ending with the words, 'fall
from Thee ' ; then shall follow the
words, ' Lord have mercy,' &c, the
Lord's Prayer, and 'The Grace of our
Lord.' ' ' Whenever either of the two foregoing
services be used, it shall be lawful for
the officiating minister at his discretion
to allow the use of hymns and anthems
in the church, or at the grave. Farther
it shall be lawful for the minister, at
the . request, or with the . consent in

CONVOCATION

206

COPE

writing, of the kindred or friends of
the deceased, to permit the corpse to be
committed to the grave without any
service, hymn, anthem, or address of
any kind." The Convocation of York
assented to these alterations with the
exception of the last two sentences.
Some other alterations suggested by
the Ritual Commission, and accepted
with modifications by the Convocation
of Canterbury, may be briefly summed
up : that Morning Prayer, Litany, and
the Communion Service may be used
as separate services at the discretion of
the minister. A table to regulate the
Collect, Epistle, and Gospel, when a
holiday falls on a Sunday. That on
occasions sanctioned by the Ordinary,
and when there is more than one cele
bration of the Holy Communion on the
same day, the priest may omit the Ten
Commandments and the Collect for the
Queen, provided that they be always
read over on every Sunday and holiday.
The necessary number of sponsors to be
two, one male and one female, who
may be the parents. These proposals
were nearly all agreed to. It was, how
ever, in the end felt that, with the
present constitution of the House of
Commons, it was undesirable to ask the
consent of Parliament to these or any
alterations, seeing that it was possible
that either House might introduce
modifications which might, without
the possibility of revision by the Church,
be passed into Statute Law. In view
of this fact, and of the need generally
of some better mode of obtaining legis
lative confirmation of the Acts of Con
vocation, the Bishop of London (1874)
introduced a Bill (since re-introduced
by the Bishop of Carlisle) to the effect
that "when the two Convocations, by
and with the authority of the Queen's
Majesty, may have prepared and laid
before Her Majesty a scheme for making
alterations in and additions to the
rubrics and directions contained in the
Book of Common Prayer, &c, &c,
such scheme, if Her Majesty see fit,
shall be laid before both Houses of
Parliament ; and if neither House of

Parliament shall, within forty days
after such scheme shall have been laid
before it, present an address to Her
Majesty praying Her Majesty to with
hold her consent from such scheme, or
any part thereof, then Her Majesty in
Council shall make an order ratifying
such scheme, and it shall become law.
The Southern Convocation appended to
their Report to Her Majesty, a state
ment that their consent was given to
the changes proposed by it upon the
condition that no legislative sanction
should be sought for them until the
Bishop of Carlisle's Bill had become
law. The most remarkable epochs in the
history of Convocation are : — 1. The sit
ting of the bishops and other prelates
with the temporal magnates in the
Parliament. 2. The prcemunientes '
clause of Edw. I. summoning proctors
of the clergy to Parliament. 3. The
division of the dents into two Houses,
c. a.d. 1415. 4. The Act of Submission,
a.d. 1534. 5. The arrangement between
Lord Chancellor Clarendon and Arch
bishop Sheldon, by which the right of
the clergy to subsidise themselves was
abandoned. 6. The accession of Wil
liam III. and Mary, and their action
towards the Church. 7. The imme
diate prorogation in 1717, to prevent
the Lower House from censuring Bishop
Hoadley, and the subsequent silencing
of Convocation during the reigns of
Georges and of William IV. 8. The
revival of the Convocation in the present
reign. Gibson's ' Complete History of Con
vocations ' (facile princcps, says Sir E.
Phill.). Wake's 'State of the Church
and Clergy in England.' Lathbuiy's
' History of Convocation. ' Joyce's
'History of Sacred Synods,' and 'Acts
of the Church. ' Canon Trevor's ' Hist.
of the Northern Convocation.'
COPE, an ecclesiastical vestment
in the form of a semi-circular cloak
with a hood. [See Vestments.] The
examples which remain are all ia the
shape of a semi-circle of silk or other
rich material, with the straight chord

COPE

207

CORRODY

of the semi-circle ornamented with a
broad strip of embroidery (often of saints
under canopies), which falls down in
two straight lines from the neck to the
instep of the wearer, fastened across
the neck by a large square metal brooch,
or by a broad strip of embroidered
cloth ; and sewn upon the back is a,
piece of embroidered cloth of some
colour different from the cope itself,
which represents the original hood.
It was worn by all ranks of the clergy
over the alb or surplice, in procession,
and on other ceremonial occasions.
Illustrations of it abound in the illu
minated MSS., and on the monumental
statues and brasses of the mediaeval
clergy. Examples of it are represented
in the woodcut under the word Pro
cession. The following list of late monumental
effigies in cope is from Haines's ' Manual
of Monumental Brasses': a.d. 1521,
Christopher Urswick, at Hackney,
Middlesex ; 1521, John Rede, New
College, Oxon ; 1525, Warin Penkal-
lynk, Wendron, Cornwall ; 1541,
Thomas Dallynson, Clothall, Herts ;
1545, Thomas Capp, St. Stephen's,
Southgate, Norwich ; 1548, John
White, Warden of Winchester College,
Hants ; 1550, Thomas Magnus, Sessay,
Yorkshire. In the verso of the title page of
Cranmer's ' Catechismus, ' which was
published about the same time as the
First Prayer-Book of Edward VI., the
king is represented seated on his throne,
delivering a Bible to a group of bishops
on his right, who are habited in cope
and mitre, and bear the pastoral staff.
After the accession of Elizabeth the
cope was commonly used by the bishops
on occasions of ceremony, and by the
Celebrant, Epistoler, and Gospeller in
cathedrals. This use of the cope was
embodied in the canons of the beginning
of James's reign (1603). It was in
sisted upon by Laud, against the Puritan
laxity of the time of Charles I. It was
revived at the restoration of the Church
and monarchy.
A print by Hollar in Ashmole's

'Order of the Garter,' p. 574, gives an
interesting representation of the pro
cession which took place on St. George's
Day in the reign of Charles II., in
which are seen the choir in cassock and
surplice, and the canons and others in
embroidered copes. The cope-chest
still remains at York and Salisbury.
Copes continued to be worn in Durham
Cathedral till the end of the last cen
tury, and are still preserved in the great
semi-circular cope-chest in the vestry.
There is also a set of copes at West
minster Abbey which were last worn at
the coronation of her Majesty, Queen
Victoria. Its use, as a vestment required by
law, has been revived by several of the
bishops, and it seems very likely that
it will before long come into general use.
CORPUS CHRISTI DAY was a very
popular festival of the Middle Ages,
instituted by Pope Urban IV. in 1264,
in honour of the Sacrament of the
Altar. The' reserved Host (Corpus
Christi, the Body of Christ), placed in
the pyx, was carried in procession, with
a canopy of honour over it, and at
tended by the clergy and faithful in
festal robes, carrying crosses, banners,
relics, tapers ; and the streets through
which the procession passed were strewn
with flowers, and the houses decorated
with boughs and garlands.
CORRODY, a right of lodging, board, ,
and often of clothing and other speci
fied advantages, in a religious house.
It was very common in the Middle Ages
to provide for a dependent by purchas
ing a corrody for him or her. Kings
often made a demand on monasteries
of royal foundation for corrodies for
their nominees ; probably the noble
families who were the descendants of
the founders of monasteries, and con
tinued to be their patrons, defenders,
and benefactors, made similar demands.
An Act of Parliament of 1 Edward HI.
enacted that not more than one such
burden should be laid by the Crown
upon each house. Widows and others
seem often to have found a suitable
retirement for themselves in the same

COUNCILS

208

CRANMER

way by making a fixed payment, or by
giving their property, to a nunnery,
on condition of receiving entertain
ment in the house for the rest of their
lives. E. g. The Bishop of Bath and
Wells, in 1315, bade the Prioress of
Cannington to receive the Lady Diony-
sia Peverell as a border ; and again the
next year bade her take in the wife and
sister of John Ffychet during his ab
sence. See also some unusual instances
in Preb Stephens's 'Chichester,' pp.
101-3 ; also in 'Bath and Wells,' p.
59, of the S. P. C. K. series of Diocesan
Histories, also in the ' History of Tan-
dridge Priory,' p. 43. London: 1885.
COUNCILS, THE FOUR GENERAL.
[See General Councils.]
COVERDALE, Miles, Bishop of Exe
ter, bom 1487, died 1568, was born
in Yorkshire ; educated at Cambridge
at the house of the Austin Friars, of
which Dr. Barnes was Master. He
became a friar ; and in 1514 was or
dained priest. He was among the first
at Cambridge who inclined to the re
formed opinions. In 1532 he appears
to have been abroad, and to have as
sisted Tyndale in his translation of the
Bible. In 1533 his own version ap
peared. [See Bible.] He was Almoner
to Queen Catherine Pari', and preached
her funeral sermon at Sudley, Septem
ber, 1548. On 14th August, 1552, he
succeeded Harman de Voysey.in the
See of Exeter ; on the accession of
Mary was ejected and imprisoned, but
released after two' years at the solicita
tion of the King of Denmark, when he
joined the English exiles in Holland
and Geneva. He was concerned in the
translation called the 'Geneva Bible'
[see Bible], which had so great a popu
larity among the Puritan party. He
was the first to translate and compile
an English Hymn Book, chiefly from
the Latin, for popular (not ecclesiastical)
use. On the accession of Elizabeth he
returned to England, bringing back with
him, like so many of his fellow exiles,
some of the principles of the Genevan
Reformers. He assisted, however, at
the consecration of Archbishop Parker,

though, having scruples about the vest
ments, he wore only a long black gown.
In 1563 Grindal, who had a great
respect for him, applied to the Secretary
of State for him : " It was not well that
Father Coverdale, qui ante nos omnes
fait in Christo, who was in Christ be
fore us all, should be now in his age
without stay or living ; " and recom
mended him for the See of Llandaff,
which he refused, but accepted the
Rectory of St. Magnus, London Bridge,
which he resigned again 1566, and died
in the following year ; a learned, simple,
pious father of the Reformation.
CRANMER, Thomas, Archbishop cf
Canterbury, bora, 1489 ; died, 1555i;
was born at Aslacton, Notts ; educated
at Jesus College, Cambridge, of which
he became fellow. He took holy orders
as a condition of his fellowship, but
had no cure of souls ; he took his degree
of doctor in divinity ; but he is to bo
regarded at this period as rather a
lawyer than a divine, and his life was
that of a college fellow residing in the
university and taking pupils. Tho .
epidemic called the sweating sickness
in 1528 had driven many from the
university, and Cranmer went to the
house of the father of two of his pupils,
a Mr. Cressy of AAraltham Abbey. The
king came to stay at a house belonging
to the Abbot of St. Alban's at Tyten-
hanger, and two of his household were
quartered upon Mr. Cressy : these two
were Dr. Gardiner (afterwards Bishop
of Winchester) and Dr. Fox, who were
both employed by the king in his
government, and had both been engaged
at Rome in the affair of the king's
divorce. The conversation turning on
the latter subject, Cranmer threw out
the opinion that the proper way to pro
ceed in the matter was not to seek a
divorce from the marriage, but to as
sume that the marriage was null and
void from the beginning, on the ground
that marriage with a brother's widow
being forbidden by Scripture, the papal
dispensation for Henry s marriage with
Katherine could have no force. Gar
diner, it is said, repeated Cranmer's

CRANMER

209

CRANMER

suggestion to the king, who was struck
with it, sent for Cranmer, and engaged
him in his service in the matter of the
divorce. He was provided for, as other
men in his position were, by several
preferments ; he was made one of the
royal chaplains, held the archdeaconry
of Taunton, and some other benefice
whose name is unknown. First, the
king required him to write a treatise on
the marriage maintaining the view he
had started ; then the treatise was sent
to the two universities, and Gardiner,
Fox, Cranmer, and others were sent to
maintain it in discussion. Cranmer is
said tj have shown considerable skill in
the disputation. Shortly an embassy,
headed by the Earl of Wiltshire, the
father of Anne Boleyn, was sent to
Rome on the business, and Cranmer
was one of the advocates in his train.
Cranmer was known to be rising in the
royal favour, and the pope conferred on
the rising statesman the lucrative and
honourable appointment of Penitentiary
of England. From Rome Cranmer was
sent, still on the same business, to nego
tiate in Italy, France, and Germany.
In 1532 he was sent as the head of an
embassy to the Emperor of Germany,
and while here he contracted marriage
with the niece of the reforming scholar
Osiander. The marriage was not a legal
marriage, not one which he could avow ;
but it was such a "morganatic" mar
riage as many of the clergy throughout
the Middle Ages did contract.
. On the 22nd of August, 1532, the
Archbishop Warham died. Gardiner,
now Bishop of Winchester, as, after
Cromwell, the king's ablest and most
trusted minister, no doubt aspired to
the primacy ; but Cranmer already
rivalled the older minister in the royal
favour, and the king, probably thinking
that he would more readily than an
other lend himself to the king's wishes
on the dissolution of his marriage, deter
mined to make him archbishop. Send
ing his new wife secretly to England,
he followed her after some little delay,
and found that the bulls for his con
secration had been already obtained

from Rome. These were according to
the existing forms and precedents on the
election and consecration of a bishop ;
but the intention of the English Church
and nation to repudiate tho papal
supremacy created an obstacle in the
way of talcing oaths "to maintain and
defend against all men the royalty of
St. Peter, and the rights, honours,
privileges, and authorities of the pope
and his successors ; " and the king's
conduct towards Wolsey might justly
make Cranmer afraid of the possible
consequences of accepting any papal
bulls whatever. He stated his difficulties
to the king, who referred him to the
lawyers, and under their advice he went
through all the usual forms, with the
addition of a formal protest as to the
sense in which he accepted them. He
was consecrated 30th March, 1533.
He was soon called upon to do the
work for which the king had made him
archbishop. On 25th May, 1533, he
married Henry to Anne Boleyn. An
Act of Parliament had already made
appeals to Rome illegal, and had de
fined that all ' ' causes of matrimony
and divorce, &c. , either commenced, or
depending formerly, or which hereafter
shall commence, in any of the king's
dominions, should be heard, discussed,
and definitively determined within the
king's jurisdiction and authority, in
the courts spiritual and temporal of
the same. "
Convocation in April gave a decision
by a large majority that the pope had
no power to grant a dispensation to
marry a deceased brother's wife, and
that Katherine had been the wife of
Prince Arthur. On the 11th May
Cranmer held a Court at Dunstable for
the trial of the question of the validity
of the marriage ; the king appeared by
proxy ; the queen, not recognising tho
jurisdiction of the Court, failed to
appear, and was pronounced contuma
cious ; and on the 23rd Cranmer pro
nounced the marriage null and void
ab initio. The decision was very un
popular, for people naturally sympa
thised with the injured queen, and .

CRANMER

210

CRANMER

Cranmer shared in the unpopularity i
the king also, having obtained from
him the service he required, treated
him with neglect ; and the archbishop
turned his attention to the affairs of
his see and province.
In May, 1536, the archbishop was
heeded for another divorce. ' The new
queen was the hope of the rising Re
form party, and consequently the
dread of the Papal party ; she was
ambitious of power, and had provoked
the enmity of Cromwell by threatening
him with the loss of the king's favour.
The king was already growing tired of
his new wife. Cromwell and Gardiner
brought accusations against her of infi
delity to the king. A council was sum
moned, and the accusations were laid
before them. They found the queen
guilty, and the king condemned her
to the block. Cranmer was suddenly
summoned to London ; on his arrival
he heard that the queen was a prisoner
in the Tower. His first impulse was to
visit the king, but on calling his barge
he was told that the king had com
manded that he should keep himself in
readiness at Lambeth ; he was virtually
a prisoner in his own house. He wrote
a letter to the king full of kindly senti
ments of pity for the queen, but ending
with a promise of devotion and obedi
ence. On the 16th he received inform
ation and instructions, and on the 17th,
at Lambeth, in the presence of an as
semblage of the king's counsellors, he
pronounced — again not a divorce, but — a
declaration that, "for certain just and
lawful causes lately brought under his
cognisance," the king's second marriago
"had always been without effect."
The explanation offered is this, that it
had been made known to Cranmer that
the king had been intimate with Mary
Boleyn, the elder sister of Anne, and
that he acted upon a canon which de
clared the marriage with Anne to be
therefore unlawful.
In 1535 the archbishop instituted a
visitation of his province, but was op
posed by Gardiner, Bishop of Win
chester, and by the Bishop of London,

on the ground that in his claim as
primate to visit other dioceses than his
own, he was violating the Act of Supre
macy. We may suspect that Gardiner's
jealousy of Cranmer's appointment over
his head was already showing itself in
this attempt to escape from under his
authority. Cranmer desisted, and the
matter dropped. Cranmer does not
appear indeed to have had much weight
in affairs of State. Cromwell was still
the all-powerful minister, and as vicar-
general wielded the supremacy, and
transacted the affairs of the Church over
Cranmer's head : for example, Cranmer
had nothing to do with the Act for the
dissolution of the smaller monasteries,
or with the shameful business of the
visitation of the greater houses, and the
procuring of their surrender ; his dislike
of the Act of Six Articles did not pre
vent its passing, and his having to
separate from his wife in consequence.
After Cromwell's death Henry acted
as his own minister, and Cranmer was
no longer one of his political agents ;
he took only that part in public affairs
which his primacy required.
At length his opponents in the Council
endeavoured to ruin him. They accused
him of silencing all preachers except
the favourers of religious innovation,
of being in correspondence with the
foreign reformers, and of giving other
indications of an ecclesiastical policy
opposed to that of the king. But the
king himself made Cranmer acquainted
with the accusation, and issued a com
mission to enquire into the conspiracy
and punish the accomplices. From this
time till 1545 the archbishop lived in
peace ; but in that year some members
of the Council accused him of conduct
which, by favouring heresy and inno
vation, threatened the kingdom with
the same distractions which had be
fallen in Germany. The king allowed''
them to summon him before them ; but
on their committing him to the Tower, -
he produced the king's signet ring,
which called the cause into his own'
presence, and there Henry honourably :
acquitted him, and Cranmer again fell :

CRANMER

211

CRANMER

back upon the routine of his office, and
his studies with Ridley his chaplain.
Henry, on the approach of death,
included Cranmer among the executors
of his will, and among the regents of
the kingdom during Edward VI. 's mi
nority, while he excluded Gardiner from
these trusts.
. On Edward's accession the Council of
Regency conferred the title and power
of Lord Protector on the Earl of Hert
ford, afterwards Duke of Somerset, who
was soon invested by the boy king and
a. careless Parliament with almost des
potic power. Under Somerset the spoli
ation of the Church was continued by
the suppression of the chantries, and the
appropriation of cathedral dignities to
lay uses, and simoniacal transactions ;
and under his patronage Genevan and
Zwinglian influences continued to leaven
the teaching of many of the bishops
and clergy. Cranmer desired to suspend
any further changes in religion during
the king's minority, and tried to retard
the progress of the ultra-reformers ;
but again he had not sufficient firmness
and force Of character to exercise much
influence on the course of events.
The first Prayer Book of Edward VI.,
which may be regarded as the work of
the previous reign, was no sooner pub
lished than the second book was begun,
which represented the views of a
more advanced school of reformers ;
and this was not generally in use be
fore it was suspended with the in
tention of still further changes. Cran
mer's own opinions changed during this
. period, or a change of opinion which
had been gradually taking place was
now openly avowed. At the beginning
of the new reign Cranmer took out anew
licence from the king_ for the exercise
of his metropolitan jurisdiction, and
required his suffragans to do the same ;
the effect .of which was to place the
bishops under the legal control of the
archbishop ; and next, under the in
fluence of Cranmer, a commission was
formed to make a general visitation of
the kingdom. ' Gardiner and Bonner
opposed it on the ground that the

supremacy was personal to the king;
and could not be lawfully exercised
during the king's minority, and both
were deposed and imprisoned.
On the death of Edward the arch
bishop at first opposed the Duke of
Northumberland's proposal to divert
the succession to Lady Jane Grey ; but
was at last induced to yield to the dying
young king's wishes, and concurred with
the rest of the Council of Regency in
the unlawful act. In consequence, oh
the accession of Mary, Cranmer was
called before the Council and sent to
the Tower. Convocation was summoned
(Sept. 6, 1553), together with Parlia
ment, and a discussion took place on
some of the chief doctrines in dispute.
But a discussion in the absence of tho
chief defenders of the Reformation was
so manifestly unfair, that it was arranged
that the discussion should be re-opened
at Oxford, — Cambridge being invited
to send delegates, — and that Cranmer,
Ridley, and Latimer should be per
mitted to state and defend their cause
before Convocation and the universities.
November 13th, Cranmer was ar
raigned at Guildhall for treason in his
action with respect to Lady Jane Grey,
attainted, and condemned.
In March, 1554, the discussion began
at Oxford. The questions to be disputed
had been drawn up in three proposi
tions. The Committee of Convocation,
charged with the maintenance of tho
old doctrine, were to defend, and the
three reforming bishops were to oppose,
the following propositions :
1. In the sacrament of the altar, by
virtue of the Divine word uttered by the
priest, the natural body of Christ, con
ceived of the Virgin Mary, is really
present under the species of bread and
wine, and also His natural blood.
2. After consecration, the substance
of bread and wine no longer remaineth ;
neither any other substance, save only
the substance of Christ, God and man.
3. In the mass there is a life-giving-
propitiatory sacrifice for the sins of as
well the dead as the living.
AVhat Cranmer wrote on these points

P 2

CRANMER

212

CRANMER

may be found in his original Latin
among the documents at the end of
Collier's ' Ecclesiastical History, ' and a
translation of it by Grindal is given
in most of the histories. The disputation
which ensued, maintained by Cranmer
single-handed, with great learning and
skill, may be found under the name
of the Disputation with Chidsey. A
further disputation with Harpsfield is
given in Cranmer's 'Remains.' The
result of the Oxford disputation was,
that Cranmer, with Ridley and Latimer,
were condemned as heretics. These
proceedings were found, however, to be
beset with legal difficulties, and were
not prosecuted any further. The arch
bishop continued two years in custody
at Oxford, during which time great
exertions were made to induce him to
recant. At length England was reconciled to
Rome, and a commission was issued by
the pope for the trial in due ancient
form of the accused bishops. On 12th
September, 1555, the archbishop ap
peared before the Commissioner, Brooks,
Bishop of Gloucester, in St. Mary's
Church, Oxford ; condemnation was a
foregone conclusion. On 14th February,
1556, he was formally degraded, and
handed in a formal appeal to the next
.general Council. And now comes the
least pleasant part of Cranmer's history.
Friends urged him to make some sub
mission to the queen and the pope, and
held out hopes of being able to save his
life. He signed a brief document :
"Forasmuch as the king and queen's
majesties, by consent of their Parliament,
havereceived the pope's authority with
in this realm, I am content to submit my
self to their laws herein, and to take the
pope to be the chief head of this Church
of England, so far as God's laws, and
the laws and customs of this realm, will
permit." After this first submissiontvro
others of like tenor were followed by
an equivocal admission of belief in "all
articles of the Christian religion and
Catholic faith as the Catholic Church
doth believe, and hath ever believed
from the beginning." But next the

agents of the foreign Catholic party
appear upon the scene. Two Spaniards
were now holding in Oxford the divinity
professorships which Peter Martyr and*
Bucer had held in Edward's time. They
approached Cranmer with the offer of
pardon if he would sign, a recantation:
" You have only to put a few words on
this little leaf of paper, and life and
wealth are yours. ' ' The document which
he signed is a fuU recantation of his
"errors," a full confession of belief in
the papal supremacy, transubstanti-
ation, and purgatory, and generally an
acceptance of all that "the Catholic
Church and the Church of Rome holdeth
and teacheth. "
It did not much matter what he
signed after that ; and a day or two
after he signed another document, in
which he says : " I confess my unthank-
fulness against the great God ; I ac
knowledge myself unworthy of all
favour and pity ; but not only of human
and temporal, hut divine and eternal
punishment worthy ; for that I exceed
ingly offended against King Henry
VlIL, and especially against Queen
Katherine his wife, when I became the
cause and author of the divorce, which
offence of a truth was the source of all'
the evils and calamities of this realm.
Hence so many slaughters of good men ;
he'nce the schism of the whole kingdom sfcf
hence heresies ; hence the destruction
of so many souls and bodies, which it
bewilders my mind to think of. But
after this commencement of mischief, I
confess that I opened a great inlet to
all heresies, of which myself acted as .
the chief doctor and leader. First of
all, indeed, it most vehemently torments.
my soul that I did dishonour to tiie
holy sacrament of the Eucharist with
so many blasphemies and reproaches,
denying Christ's body and blood to be
truly contained under the species of
bread and wine," &c, &c.
The unhappy man was waiting for a
pardon as the result of this utter humi
liation, when on the 21st March, 1556,
he was led to the Church of St. Mary,- ,
there to read his recantation, — a seventh

CRANMER

213

CREDENCE

document put into his hands for that
purpose on the previous evening, — and
then to be carried to the stake. It is
possible that even then he might ex
pect that at the very stake he would
receive his pardon ; it is more probable
that at length he recognised that after
having thus humiliated him, and dis
credited the Reformation through him,
the queen was resolved finally to let
him suffer. So, standing on a platform
in front of the pulpit of St. Mary's, he
began to read the recantation which
had been dictated to him ; but after a
general confession of faith, when he
should have gone on with the recant
ation of error, he quitted the words of
the document, and proceeded thus :
' ' And now I come to the great thing
that so much troubleth my conscience
more than anything that ever I did or
said in my whole life, and that is the
setting abroad of writings contrary to
i the truth, which now here I renounce
and refuse as things written with my
hand contrary to the truth which I
thought in my heart, and written for
fear of death, and to save my life, if it
might be, and that is all such bills and
papers as I have written or signed with
my hand since my degradation, wherein
I have written many things untrue.
And forasmuch as my hand, offended,
writing contrary to my heart, my hand
shall first be punished therefore ; for
may I come to the fire it shall first be
burned." At first there was an aston
ished silence, then an outbreak of in
terruptions and abuse. Cole the preacher
cried out, "Stop that heretic's mouth
and take him away. " There was a rush
to the scaffold to drag him down ; the
sheriff interfered, and Cranmer was led
to the stake. According to his promise,
he stretched his right hand into the
rising flames, and with mingled exclam
ations of " 0 this unworthy hand ! " and
" Lord Jesus, receive my spirit," he died
that cruel death which posterity has
been charitably willing to regard as a
martyrdom. It is greatly to Cranmer s credit that
he had no share in the iniquitous pro

ceedings by which the greater monas
teries were suppressed, and that he
protested against the misappropriation
of their revenues. In the promotion of
a new translation of the Bible and in
his favouring its publication he played
a creditable part ; and in the drawing
up of the Forty-two Articles of Religion ;
and his temper made him a fitting
moderator between the traditions of the
ancient Church and the innovating
zeal of the new religionists. In the
preparation of the new Prayer Book in
the latter years of Henry, which was
published in the second year of Edward,
he no doubt took the prominent part
which his office demanded ; but Ridley
rather than Cranmer was the theologian
of the Reformation. The draft of the
new set of canons, the 'Reformatio
Legum Ecclesiasticarum, ' was more
within the range of Cranmer's previous
studies, and he is said to have had a
principal hand in it ; but again it is
characteristic that he had not influence
enough to get so necessary a part of the
work of the Reformation as a body of
reformed canons passed into law. He
was a man of very respectable powers
and attainments, amiable, placable,
well-meaning, who would have been a
highly respectable archbishop in or
dinary times ; but he had neither the
learning nor statesmanship to conduct
the Church through such a revolution,
nor the courage and force of character
needed to contend with the strong-
willed king and his unscrupulous
ministers. It is greatly owing to bis
misconception of the rights of the Crown,
and to his want of statesmanship in
dealing with the question, that the
supremacy was allowed to be established
with such absolute authority, and to
be exercised in such a way, as to estab
lish precedents which have put the
Church at a disadvantage ever since.
Authorities : — ¦ ' The Remains of
Thomas Cranmer, ' The Parker Society.
'Life and Death of Cranmer,' The
Camden Society. Dean Hook's ' Lives
of the Archbishops of Canterbury. '
CREDENCE (Italian, credenza, »

CREEDS

214

CREEDS

sideboard or buffet). Used to place
the bread and wine upon before the
time when they are to be offered in the
¦ Eucharistic service ; used also to hold
the cruets and other' things made use
of in the service.
It was sometimes a table placed
against the wall ; often it was an orna
mental arched recess in the wall of the
sacrarium, near the altar, divided in
two by a thin shelf of stone ; in the
bottom of the lower compartment is a
drain, into which the water was poured
with which the priest's hands and the
sacred vessels had been cleansed. There
are examples in our churches of all ages
from twelfth century downwards. Their
use was revived, in the time of Charles
I. , in the shape of a movable side-table
of wood ; examples of that period remain
at Manchester, Oxford, St. Michael's,
Islip, Battle, Queensborough, Cobham,
Chipping Warden. They have been
revived again very generally in the
present generation.
CREEDS, THE (Credo, I believe).
A creed is a brief summary of the chief
articles of the Christian Faith. Such
summaries have existed from the very
beginning of Christianity. They were
in early ages connected with baptism
rather than with worship ; and it is a
probable conjecture that they were first
drawn up for the use of adult converts
who were being prepared for baptism ;
first, as a systematic syllabus of in
struction, then as a formal confession
of faith, previous to baptism ; and lastly,
as a convenient formula to be retained
in the memory. Being thus taught to all
the baptised, and not at first put within
the reach of others by being committed
to writing, they served the further pur
pose of a secret watchword by which
Christians were able to recognise one
another. Our Lord's formula of baptism " in
¦the Name of the Father, and of the
Son, and of the Holy Ghost," seems to
have formed the basis of the creed, for
all the ancient creeds are formed on this
framework ; they consist of three para
graphs, the first relating to the Father,

the second to the Son, and the third to
the Holy Spirit ; they agree with the
apostolic teaching as recorded in the
Acts of the. Apostles in putting forward
only the facts of the Divine Being and
of the work of God- for man's redemp.
tion. There are indications in the New
Testament that such a creed existed in
apostolic times, and that it was from
the -first connected with baptism. For
example when the Ethiopian eunuch
asked Philip, " See, here is water ; what
doth hinder me to be baptized ? And
Philip said, If thou believest with all
thine heart, thou mayest. And, he an
swered and said, I believe that Jesus
Christ is the Son of God. And he bap
tized him " (Acts viii. 36-38). St. Paul
seems to allude to such a creed when he
reminds the Romans (vi. 17), of "the
form of doctrine which was delivered to
them ; " and when he exhorts Timothy
(II. i. 13), "to hold fast the form of
sound words which thou hast heard of
me." There was a very ancient tradition
that such a creed had been issued by
the apostles. Clemens Romanus says,'
"The apostles while yet together by
joint consent, composed that creed
which the Church of the faithful now
holds." Irenoeus says, "The Church
received from the apostles and their
disciples this faith in one God the
Father Almighty, &c." Tertullian
affirms that "It descended to us from
the beginning of the Gospel." ' St;
Ambrose says, "It was made by the
twelve apostles." St. Jerome calls it
"The symbol of our faith and hope
delivered from the apostles."
When we come to search for this creed
in the early writings of the Church,
while we find many traces of the ex
istence of some recognised form of
words, we soon become aware that
from some very brief early form, the
creed underwent a process of gradual ex
pansion, differing in different Churches,
so that we have existing side by side
many different forms of the creed, , some
expressing one article of the faith mow;

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CREEDS

and some less fully ; some inserting an
article of the faith which is not in
others ; but all harmonious expressions
of the same common faith.
We find little more evidence than
-that of scattered phrases which indicate
•the existence of a formal creed, until
we come down to the time of Irenaeus,
¦Bishop of Lyons (a.d. 180), the pupil
of Polycarp, the pupil of St. John
.the Apostle. In his work 'Against
Heresies ' (i. 10) we read as follows : —
" As to the Church, dispersed as she is
through the whole world, yet having
received from the apostles and disciples
the faith in One God the Father
Almighty, who made the heavens and
the earth, and the seas and all that is
therein ; and in one Christ Jesus, the
Son of God, Who was made flesh for
our salvation ; and in the Holy Ghost,
Who by the prophets declared the QJcon-
omies and the Advents, and the Birth
of a Virgin, and Passion, and the Ris
ing from the Dead, and the bodily
Ascension into heaven, of the beloved
Christ Jesus our Lord, and His Coming
from the heavens in the glory of the
Father, to sum up all things, and to
raise up all flesh of all human nature ;
that to Christ Jesus our Lord and God,
and Saviour and King, according to the
good pleasure of the invisible Father,
every knee may bow of things in heaven
and on earth, and under the earth, and
that every tongue may confess to Him,
and He may administer just judgment
to them all ; that is, may both send
into the everlasting fire the spiritual
things of wickedness, as well as angels
that have transgressed and passed into
revolt, as the ungodly, and unjust, and
lawless, and blasphemous -among men ;
and also to the righteous and holy, and
to such as have kept the command
ments and persevered in His love,
whether from the first or after repent
ance, may freely give life, grant incor-
ruption and compass for them eternal
glory. ' ' This preaching and this faith, the
Church, as we said, dispersed as she is
in the whole world, keeps diligently as

though she dwelt but in one house ;
and her belief herein is just as if she
had one soul only and the same heart,
and she proclaims and teaches and
delivers these things harmoniously as
proceeding from one mouth."
In some other places in the same work
there are other summaries of the creed
which are evidently based on the same
formula, of which the above is a para
phrastic statement.
The creed which can be gathered
from Tertullian (De Praesortptione
Hsereticorum xiii.), about a.d. 200, is
as follows :
"I believe in one God, the Creator
of the world, who produced all out of
nothing, and in the Word, His Son,
who through the spirit and power of
God the Father descended into the
Virgin Mary, was made flesh in her
womb, and born of her ; was fixed on
the cross ; was dead and buried ; was
taken into heaven and sat down at the
right hand of God. He will come to
judge the wicked to eternal fire. And
on the Holy Spirit sent by Christ.
And that Christ will, after the revival
of both body and soul with the restora
tion of the flesh, receive his holy ones
into the enjoyment of life eternal and
the promises of heaven. " This also
seems to be a paraphrase rather than a
literal statement of the creed.
The creed of the Churches of Italy,.
as given by Ruffinus, about the year
390, is as follows :
' ' I believe in God the Father Al
mighty, and in Jesus Christ, his only
Son, our Lord ; who was born by the
Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary ; was
crucified under Pontius Pilate, and
buried ; on the third day he rose again
from the dead ; He ascended into heaven ;
He sits at the right hand of the Father,
whence He shall come to judge the
quick and the dead ; and in the Holy
Ghost ; the Holy Church ; the Remis
sion of Sins ; and the Resurrection of
the Flesh."
The earliest occurrence of the "Apos
tles' Creed," exactly as we now have
it, is in a work by Pirminius, who

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CREEDS

appears to have lived some time in
France, though he died in Germany
in 758 ; and the creed has been used
in the Western Church without vari
ation down to the present time.
The history of the "Nicene Creed"
has been partly given in the article on
Councils. At the Council of Nicsea
(A.D. 315), Eusebius, Bishop of Cfesarea,
one of the presidents of the Council,
. recited the creed of his Church. This
was adopted as a basis of agreement,
and slightly modified by the addition
of the words, "of one substance with
the Father," and finally accepted by
the Council in the following form :
"We believe in one God the Father
Almighty, the Maker of all things
visible and invisible. And in our Lord
Jesus Christ, the Son of God, Only-
begotten of the Father, that is, of the
substance of the Father ; God of God,
Light of Light, Very God of very God,
Begotten, not made, Being of one sub
stance with the Father, by Whom all
things were made, of things in heaven
and in earth ; Who for us men and
for our salvation came down from
heaven, was incarnate, was made man,
suffered, rose again the third day,
ascended into the heavens, and He will
come to judge the living and the dead.
And in the Holy Ghost. "
It is usually said that the latter
clauses of the creed were added by the
Council of Constantinople, but this
seems to be very doubtful. [See Coun
cils.] It is certain that the last para
graph, in its extended form, appears
in a work of Epiphanius, seven years
before the date of the Second Council.
And it seems certain that the full form
of the creed did not receive formal
conciliar recognition till the Fourth
Council at Chalcedon. There are two
possible explanations. One, that the
fuller creed was known to the Fathers
at Nicsea, but that they only fully re
cited and dealt with so much of it as
was under dispute, and contented them
selves with indicating the last para
graph by the recital of its first clause.
The other is, that while the form

adopted at Nicaea was that of the
Church of Cassarea, the Church of Con
stantinople had a fuller form, viz. that
given us by Epiphanius ; that the
former part of this was modified in
accordance with the Nicene definitions ;
and that the shorter and the longer
forms went on side by side, and per
haps other forms besides, as they had
done for years past, all alike accepted
as correct expositions of the faith.
After the longer form had been brought
forward and tacitly approved at ChalcO-,
don, it was frequently brought forward
at Synods and Councils, and by the
year 540 had become the generally ac
cepted form of the Nicene symbol.
The only subsequent modification of
it was the introduction of the filioque
— ' ' proceeding from the Father and the
Son " — whose history also is obscure;
It has been usually said that the first
recorded instance of its use was when
Reccared, King of the Goths, at the
Third Council of Toledo, in 589, called
to formulate the national renunciation
of Arianism, recited a Confession of
Faith before the assembled Fathers, in
which occurs the sentence, ' ' The Holy
Ghost must also be confessed by us,
and we must preach that He proceeds
from- the Father and from the Son, and
is of one substance with the Father-
and the Son. " Afterwards, as standards
of this faith, he recited a Latin form
of the shorter Nicene Creed, and then
of the longer form, with the addition
of the words et filio — "and from the
Son." It was not likely that Rec-
cared's religious counsellors would have
advised him on such an occasion to
make a deliberate addition to the re
ceived creed ; it would seem that the
supposed addition excited no objection5
or even comment ; the conclusion in
dicated is, that the creed was already'
known in this form by the Spanish'.
Church. In fact, the confession of faith
appended to the Acta of the First and
again of the Second Council of Toledo,
includes the filioque.
By whom and when it was introduced;
still continues unknown ; but it is fr

CREEDS

217

CREEDS

plausible conjecture that it was one of
the numerous developments which were
being made in the Nicene symbol,
between the fourth and the sixth cen
turies, without any general conciliar
authority, and which depended for their
authority upon their general acceptance
by the Churches. This particular de
velopment has an exceptional history ;
it was gradually adopted in the West,
and gradually excited disapprobation in
the East. A Western Council at Aix-
la-Chapelle, 809, sanctioned it, and the
Eighth Council of Constantinople, 869,
condemned it ; and finally it became one
of the grounds of separation between
these two great portions of Christen
dom. (See ' Church Quarterly Review, '
vol. iii. p. 421.)
The origin and date of the Atha-
nasian Creed, or Hymn, are subjects of
dispute. Waterland (Hist. Ath. Creed)
concludes that it originated in Gaul,
assigns it to about the middle of the
fifth century, and suggests Hilary,
Bishop of Aries, as its possible author.
Dr. Lumby, in the ' Prayer Book with
Commentary' (S.P.C.K.), says, that
though the language is ancient [much
of it may be found in Augustine], and
though there are proofs of the existence
of parts of it at an earlier date, yet it
was not brought together in the shape
in which toe have it till the beginning
of the ninth century. In the course
of that century it was well known in
Gaul, Spain, and Northern Italy, and
was probably introduced into England
also. In the pre-reformation Church
it was read in church every Sunday.
In the First Book of Edward VI. its
use was limited to six great festivals.
In the Second Book of Edward VI. its
use was extended as it is still retained.
The Church did not of its own mo
tion elaborate this creed, and force it
upon all men to be believed. During
the fourth, fifth, and sixth centuries,
one erroneous doctrine after another
arose and spread, and troubled the
minds of the faithful ; and the authori
ties of the Church intervened to oppose
these errors and preserve the ancient

orthodox faith. One disputed point
after another was fully considered, and
the truth with respect to it was care
fully defined. The Athanasian Creed
is a summing up of the results of three
centuries of controversy. And the value
of such a guide to men's speculations
upon these difficult questions, and such
a caution against plausible errors, has
led to the adoption of this creed in the
public services of the Church.
There are two classes of objections
to the creed on the part of perfectly
orthodox Christians.* Some object to
the doctrinal statements, not as inaccu
rate, but as unnecessary and undesir
able dogmatising on questions of the
most difficult and mysterious nature.
The answer to this objection is that
the creed enunciates the two funda
mental doctrines of Christianity : the
doctrine of the Trinity of Persons in
the Godhead, in verse 3, and of the
Incarnation of the Second Person, in
verse 30 ; and that in its further state
ments on these two doctrines it does
nothing more than put forth the ortho
dox statements which have been re
ceived by the whole Church in correc
tion of actual heresies.
The other class of objections is di
rected to the "damnatory" or con
demnatory clauses. To these it may be
answered that they are based upon our
Lord's own words, " He that belie veth
and is baptised shall be saved, and he
that believeth not shall be damned "
(Mark xvi. 16). When the disciple
asks what it is which he is required to
believe, the Church, the Witness and
Keeper of Holy Writ, replies, "in God
and in Christ," or, more fully, "in the
triune God and in the Incarnate Son."
It does not require him to enter into
further speculations ; but if further
asked how the mysterious doctrines of
the three Persons in one God, and of
the union of the two Natures in one
* There are two other classes of objectors :
those who disbelieve the statements of the
creed, and those who dispute that salvation
depends upon belief at all ; with them this
is not the place to argue.

CROMWELL

218

CROMWELL

Christ, are to be held, it goes on to
deliver the statements which the Church
has had occasion to make on these
points. Archbishop Seeker says, "The con
demnation belongs not to all who can
not understand or cannot approve every
expression of it, but only to such as
deny ' the Trinity in unity ' or ' three
Persons in one God. ' This alone is said
to be the ' Catholic Faith.' The words
that follow after, 'for there is one
Person of the Father,' and so on, .are
designed only to set this forth more
particularly," &c.
" ' Whoever desires to be in a state of
salvation ' (Quicunque vult salvus esse),
' before all things it is necessary that
he hold the Catholic Faith,' doth not
mean that true faith is more necessary
than right practice, and is to be first
learnt in order to it. . . The inten
tion, therefore, of the creed, as well as
of our Lord in the Gospel (Mark xvi.
16), is only to say, that whoever rejects
the doctrine of it from presumptuous
self-opinion, or wilful negligence, and
doth not afterwards repent of these
faults, particularly if he is made sen
sible of them, or, if not, at least in
general among his unknown sins, the
case of such a one is desperate. But
if want of information, weakness of
apprehension, or even excusable wrong-
ness of disposition, should make him
doubt or disbelieve any, or the main
part, of this creed, nay, which is utterly
a worse case, the whole revelation of
Christianity, though we pass judgment
on his errors without reserve and gener
ally on all who maintain them, yet
personally and singly we presume not
to judge of his condition in the next
world. To his own master he standeth
or falleth " (Rom. xiv. 4). Westcott's
•' Historic Faith,' Hort's ' Two Disser
tations.' . CROMWELL, Thomas, Earl of Essex,
was the son of a blacksmith at Putney.
While a young man he went abroad,
and there picked up some education.
At Antwerp he was engaged as clerk —
i. e. secretary — to the English factory ;

afterwards served as a soldier under
the Constable of Bourbon, and was
present at the sack of Rome. While
in Italy he had an opportunity of as
sisting the escape from capture by the
French of John Russel, afterwards Earl
of Bedford, who was a secret emissary
of King Henry VIII., and this laid the
foundation of his future fortunes. Re
turning to England, he was taken into
Wolsey's household, and became one of
the great minister's most trusted serv
ants. When Wolsey was impeached of
high treason in the House of Commons,
Cromwell, who was a member, defended
him with great skill and eloquence ; and
his ability, together with the gener
osity of his defence of his old master,
gained him great reputation. On the
Cardinal's disgrace "he recommended
Cromwell to the king's service. He soon
became the king's most trusted minister.
It was he, apparently, who suggested
to the king the monstrous tyranny of
making the whole body of tho clergy
guilty of a praemunire in order to coerce
them into the surrender of the liberties
of the Church. He was the chief director
of the work of bribing and terrorising
the heads of the religious houses into
their surrender into the king's hands.
The beheading of the Abbot of Glaston
bury, and the hanging at the gate of
his own monastery of the Abbot' of
St. John's, Colchester, though cloaked
with a pretext and executed under
forms of law, were sheer murders, sjii
were done under the direct orders of
Cromwell. He was rewarded with a
large share of the plunder, and the title
of Lord Cromwell of Okeham. When
the severance with Rome had been
completed, and the king's supremacy
acknowledged, he made Cromwell
(18th July, 1536), under the title of
Vicar-General, the actual wielder of
the royal supremacy ; and in that
capacity he sat in Convocation, taking
precedence of the archbishop as the
king's representative. In 1539 he was
made Earl of Essex. The king had
hitherto heaped upon him offices,
wealth, and honours ; but his capricious

CROSIER

219

CROSS

temper took a new turn. Cromwell's
¦rivals at Court began to gain the king's
.ear; the king's distaste. for Anne of
Cleves, through whom Cromwell had
hoped to strengthen at, Court the Re
form interest and his own, is said to
have completed his ruin. The king
crushed his able and unscrupulous
instrument with as little ceremony as
he himself had shewn to his victims.
He was arrested at the Council board ;
a Bill of Attainder was passed against
him in Parliament ; and he was be
headed on Tower Hill, 28th July, 1540.
CROSIER = a cross staff, is the name
popularly given to the pastoral staff
which is one of the insignia of a bishop ;
but more properly it designates the
official staff of an archbishop ; the
former terminating in a curved crook,
while the latter" terminates in a cross.
There is some question as to the
date at which archbishops began to use
the cross-headed staff instead of the
crook., Dr. Rock says at the end of
the eleventh century. But the seals of
Archbishops Anselm, Ralph, Thomas
Becket, Richard, and Boniface have a
crook, that of Peckham and all , his
successors a cross-staff, from which it
would seem that our archbishops did
not adopt it till about 1275.
CROSS. It seems to have been the cus
tom to erect a tall cross in every church
yard. The Emperor Justinian made a
law (probably legalising an existing cus
tom), " that none shall presume to erect
a church until the bishop of the diocese
hath first been acquainted therewith,
and shall come and lift up his hands
to heaven, and consecrate the place to
God by prayer, and erect the symbol
of our salvation, the venerable and
truly precious rood " (Sir R. Phillimore,
'¦EccL Law,' p. 1761). Accordingly,
the service for the consecration of a
churchyard, in the old Pontificals, in
volves the existence of a cross, though
from the pictorial illustrations it would
seem as ' if the cross were sometimes
only a temporary erection of wood.
t Examples of such crosses still exist
of all dates from Saxon downwards ;

and mutilated remains of them — tho
base and part of the shaft — exist
in a very large number of our old
churchyards ; it would seem that eveiy
churchyard had its churchyard cross
down to the time of the Reformation.
An Irish canon of the eighth century,
published by D'Achery, seems to indi
cate their meaning ; it directs that a
cross shall be set up wherever there is
consecrated ground to mark the limits
as well as the sanctity of the place.
One of the constitutions of William of
Blois, Bishop of Winchester, made in
1299, says : "Let a handsome cross be
erected in every churchyard, to which
the procession shall be made on Palm
Sunday." [See Palm Sunday.] When
erected it was the duty of the church
wardens to keep them in repair, and
their condition forms one of the sub
jects 'which it was the duty of the
churchwardens to present at the regu
lar arehdiaconal and episcopal visita
tions : e. g. among the presentations
of the churchwardens of Wadsworth,
Yorkshire, in a.d. 1481, is this : " The
cross in the churchyard is broken "
('York Fabric Rolls').
The destruction of these beautiful
and interesting monuments is not to be
attributed to the earlier Reformers ; it
was partly the work of the later Puri
tans and fanatics, who broke the
"superstitious images" with which
they were surmounted, and in great
part, no doubt, it was the result of
simple neglect to keep them in repair.
An incident recorded in the ' Life of
Mr. Richard Baxter' (p. 40 of the folio
of 1696) gives a graphic account of the
way in which their destruction was
often effected, and of the opposition
which was sometimes offered to it by
the better affected : —
"About this time (i. e. 1640) the
Parliament sent down an order for the
demolishing of all statues and images
of any of the Three Persons . of the
Blessed Trinity, or of the Virgin Mary,
which should be found in churches or
on the crosses in the churchyards. My
judgment was for obeying the order,

CROSS

220

CROSS

thinking it came from just authority,
but I meddled not in it, but left the
churchwarden to do what he thought
good. The churchwarden (an honest,
sober, quiet man), seeing a crucifix
upon the cross in the churchyard, set
up a ladder to have reached it, but it
proved too short. Whilst he was gone
to seek another, a crew of the drunken,
riotous party of the town (poor journey
men and servants) took the alarm, and
ran together with weapons to defend
the crucifix and the church images, of
which there were divers left since the
time of Popery." On the other hand,

Churchyard Cross, Eyam, Derbyshire.

where the Church party had the upper
hand, the churchyard crosses which
had been mutilated or fallen into decay
were at this period sometimes repaired.
Blomfield ('Norfolk,' i. 362) relates
how "in 1632 the wooden top of the
cross in the churchyard was made by
appointment of the Bishop of Norwich.
On the top of the side towards the
murch was painted, Crux Christi salus
mundi; on the standing part, Christus
pro nobis passxts ; on the transverse a
wounded heart, and hands wounded
with nails, Ecce ! quanta pro teperlulit ;
on the back side, towards the east, In

Christo spew ; on the standing part, Si
compatemur eonregnabimus ; then on tho
transverse, Beliquit nobis exempluvM
The globe was set up to signify the
heavens, coloured with blue, with starsj*
and clouds ; on the equator circle, As-
piremus permansura cterna ; the lower
part coloured green, to signify the
earth, with trees and flowers, on it

Cross at Cricklade.
Quid tumttltuamur et perilura possidts-
mus. I f the crosses which remain be studied
it will be seen that they divide them
selves into two classes, of very different
style of design, which may be called
pre-Gothic and Gothic. The former
are usually richly ornamented iu low
relief with scroll-work and knot-work.

CROSS

221

CULDEES

of the same kind as is to be seen in
MSS. of tho Irish and Saxon schools of
the ninth, tenth, and eleventh centuries.
Numerous examples still remain in
England and Wales, and they are still
more numerous in Scotland, Ireland,
the Isle of Man, and Iona. There are
examples at Hawkeswell, Penrith,
Bedale, Walton, Aycliffe, Ilkley,
Leeds, Eyam, and Bakewell, Kirk
Braddon, Kirk Andreas, besides many
fragments. There are casts of some of
the examples from Iona and the Isle of
Man in the South Kensington Museum.
In the other class it is easy to recog
nise the usual details of Gothic design.
Their form is usually a base of three or
more steps, upon which stands a plinth,
into a socket in which is inserted a tall
slender shaft, surmounted by a cross or
crucifix, or other sculptured group.
Every one of these parts is often orna
mented. There are perfect examples
at Somersby, and Hempstead, Lincoln
shire ; at Ampney Holy Cross, Glou
cestershire ; at St. Donat's, Gloucester
shire ; Bitterley, Shropshire, &c.
Examples less mutilated than usual
at Raunds St. Peter and Higham
Ferrers, Northants ; at Yarnton, Oxon ;
at Port Kerry, Glamorganshire.
Examples in which the base, with
more or less of the mutilated shaft,
remain, exist in great numbers all over
England ; in Wales they are rare except
in Glamorganshire.
These Gothic crosses are very elegant
little structures ; some few of them
have been restored, and some new ones
erected in modern times. There seems
no reason why they should not be
generally restored and re-erected, as
beautiful ornaments of the court of the
sanctuary, and appropriate monuments
to the undistinguished dead whose dust
lies thick around.
' Notes on the Old Crosses of Glouces
tershire,' by C. Pooley, F.S.A. Lon
don : 1868.
' The Ancient Churchyard Crosses of
Staffordshire,' by C. Lynam.
' Journal of the British Archaeological
Association,' vol. xxxiii., p. 432. __ .

' The Ancient Stone Crosses of Eng
land,' by A. Runnier. London : 1875.
'The Ancient Crosses of Cornwall,'
by J. F. Blight. London: 1856.
' A Description of the Curious Monu
ments of - Icolmkill, Runic and other
Monumental Remains of the Isle of
Man,' by J. G. Cumming. London :
1857. ' Remains of Ecclesiastical Architec
ture and Sculptured Memorials of the
Southern Division of Scotland, ' by T.
S. Muir. Edinburgh : 1855.
' The Sculptured Stones of Scotland,'
by Stuart (Spalding Club).
Lyson's 'Magna Britannia,' vols, for
Cumberland, Cheshire, and Derbyshire.
Stevens's ' Runic Monuments. '
'Journal of British Archaeological
Association,' vol. xxix., p. 106; also
vol. xi., p. 280.
Notes by J. R. Allen on ' Interlaced
Crosses,' Ibid., vol. xxxiv., p. 352.
Cassell's ' Magazine of Art, ' Oct.
1884.; also Feb. 1885.
List of Crosses in ' Building News,'
Oct. 28th, 1881 ; 'Gentleman's Maga
zine,' 1805, p. 1201; 'Ecclesiologist,'
vol. xii, p. 33; 'Journal of British
Archaeological Association,' vol. vi., p.
303. CROSS SLABS. [See Sepulchral
Monuments.] CRUCHED, or CROUCHED, or CROSS
ED, FRIARS, an order of friars in
stituted at Bologna, confirmed in 1160
a.d., and introduced into England at
Colchester in 1244 a.d. They had
altogether six or seven houses here,
viz. Colchester ; Barham, Camb.
Wotton-under-Edge, Gloucester ; Lon
don ; Brackley, Northants ; Oxford
Great Waltham, Suffolk; Guildford
Kildale, Yorks ; York. At first they
carried a cross fixed upon a staff in
their hands, but afterwards had a cross
of red cloth upon the breast and back.
of a blue habit. [See Friars.]
CULDEES. A writer of the seventh
century classifies all monks at that
time under three heads— the Coenobites,
who lived together in monasteries ; the
hermits, who lived alone in their celb

CURATE

222 CURATE, STIPENDIARY

in desert places ; and the anchorets,.
who, having been perfected in the
comobitical life, shut themselves up
in their cells, avoiding intercourse with
men, and living in the sole contem
plation of God. These last were
thought to have chosen the highest
life, and there were many who adopted
it. The title DeicoUe— God-worship
pers— was applied to them. In Irish
the word assumes the form Ceile De,
the name given to anchorets in Ireland ;
in Scotland it appears under the form
Keledei ; later on, among the Angles,
under the form Colidei. "The result
then arrived at is, that the Culdees
originally sprang from the anchorets,
who in time became associated in com
munities of anchorets ; that they made
their appearance in the eastern dis
tricts of Scotland at the same time as
the secular clergy were introduced, and
succeeded the Columbian monks, who
had been driven beyond the great
mountain range of Drumalban, . . .
and that they were finally brought
under canonical rule along with the
secular clergy, retaining, however, to
some extent the nomenclature of the
monastery, until at length the name
of Keledcus, or Culdee, become almost
synonymous 'with that of secular
canon" (W. F. Skene, 'Celtic Scot
land,' vol. ii.).
CURATE means a clergyman who is
instituted by the bishop to a cure (care)
of souls. It is, however, by modern
custom, used to designate clergymen
acting as deputies for, or assistants of,
rectors and vicars, who would be more
correctly, if more cumbrously, called
assistant-curates. In former times when pluralities were
permitted, tho places of absentee in
cumbents were supplied by curates in
charge. No one could act as curate of
a parish without the license of the
bishop, the law regulated his stipend
in proportion to the population of the
parish ; and once licensed he could not
be removed at the incumbent's pleasure,
but only with the bishop's consent.
CURATE, PERPETUAL. When the

bishops required the monasteries and
other religious corporations to appoint
a vicar, and endow him with a suf
ficient living in the parishes which had
been appropriated [see Appropriated]
to them, there were some exceptions!
made to the general rule. In cases
where the benefice had been given ad
mensam monachorum; as a provision
for their personal maintenance, and in
some cases in consideration of the
poverty of the religious house, or the
nearness of the church to be served by
them, they were not required to endow
a vicarage, but were allowed to servo
the cure by themselves, or by a curate
provided by them. When such appro
priations, at the dissolution of the re
ligious houses, came into the hands of
laymen, these laymen were required-
to nominate some clerk in Holy Orders'
to the bishop for his license to serve
the cure, and to provide him with s
stipend. These curates could not be
removed at will by the patrons, and so
they became perpetual curates, only
removable by revocation of their license
by the Ordinary. Generally when the
incumbent in charge of a parish is
maintained, not by rectorial or vicarial
tithes, but by an annual stipend, 'he is
styled a perpetual curate.
CURATE, STIPENDIARY. Beforc[
the Conquest the parochial organisation-
was complete, and every parish had its
resident rector, with his duties defined-
and his rights secured to him by law.
As the population in the towns increased,
and outgrew the parochial arrangements
for their cure, the friars came in to
minister to the poorer classes, while
the middle classes in the towns gradually
multiplied guilds and fraternities, which'
founded chantry chapels, and main-'
tained chaplains for their own special,
spiritual well-being ; and in some cases''
chantries were founded for the special
purpose of providing additional Church
accommodation, sacraments, teaching,
and spiritual cure for peoplei generally
who choose to avail themselves of the ¦
opportunities afforded. [See' Guilds.]
In many towns colleges of priests,'

CURATE, STIPENDIARY 223 CURATE, STIPENDIARY.

consisting of a warden and several
priests, were founded, either with a
new collegiate church, or in connec
tion with the existing parish church,
for the better supply of the opportunities
of worship and means of grace to the
residence town. Throughout the Middle
Ages the evils of pluralities now left a
large number of parishes without a
resident incumbent, and most of these
were served by a stipendiary priest.
The resident incumbents of large par
ishes sometimes, but not often, engaged
for themselves the services of assistant
priests. At the Reformation, colleges, guilds,
chantries, and friars, were all swept
away together ; and there was difficulty
for a long time after in barely providing
each parish with a sufficient incumbent.
In order to make up a competent in
come the evil of pluralities was still
continued, one man being allowed to
hold several livings, he residing upon
one, and serving the others by means
of a curate. Sometimes to such an
extent was the abuse carried, that
one curate served several neighbouring
parishes ; and until the present cen
tury the stipendiary curates, speaking
generally, were those who had the
actual cure of parishes in the place of
absentee incumbents. In some of the
town parishes there were lectureships,
either endowed by some private bene
factor, or maintained by the voluntary
contributions of the parishioners, by
which special provision was made for
fuller ministration of the ordinance of
preaching ; but the lecturer was not
required to take any part in the ordin
ary parish work.
The abolition of pluralities has re
duced the number of curates in charge
to very few ; but, on the other hand,
with the great increase of the population
at the end of the last and beginning of
the present century, the incumbents of
populous parishes began to engage the
services of curates, not to supply their
place, but to assist them in the better
cure of the people committed to their
charge. Act 58, Geo. III. c. 45 enabled

the bishops to require a third service
on Sundays and Holy days, to meet the
wants of the growing population, and
to nominate and license an assistant
curate; the churchwardens to let pews
at such rates as they shall be suffi
cient to provide a stipend ; unless tho
parishioners shall provide the stipend by-
voluntary subscription. The Act made
such assistant curates subject to all juris
diction, laws, statutes, and provisions'
to which stipendiary curates are subject,
except so far as relates to salary. A
curate cannot be appointed, and once'
appointed cannot be dismissed, without
the bishop's license. His stipend is
fixed with the bishop's cognisance, and,
once fixed, cannot bo diminished with
out the bishop's concurrence.
The subdivision of parishes into new
incumbencies has given to many of these
additional clergymen the status and re
sponsibilities of incumbents ; but thero
are still between five and six thousand
who assist the incumbents in tho
working of their parishes, and more'
aro greatly needed to secure the effi
cient and satisfactory working of the
larger parishes in towns, and the large
country parishes with outlying hamlets
and scattered populations ; and tho
condition of this large body of men'
demands careful consideration. The
stipends of these assistant curates are-
paid mostly by the incumbents them
selves ; though two Societies — the
Additional Curates Society, and the
Pastoral Aid Society — supply part of
the stipend in about 1000 of the poorer
parishes, out of money collected by
voluntary subscriptions, and offertories
and donations ; and another Society,
the Curates' Augmentation Society, out
of funds similarly raised, gives an an
nual bonus to a certain number of the-
curates of long standing engaged in the
more important spheres of work. The
general feeling of those who are foremost
in the work of Church extension is that
much further subdivision into indepen
dent parishes is undesirable, that it is
better to work the existing parishes
with a strong staff at the mother Church.

CURE OF SOULS

224

CUTHBERT

This involves, in the larger parishes,
the permanent existence of a staff of
several curates ; and though some^ of
these curates may be young men serving
their apprenticeship to the cure of souls,
it is desirable that some of them, the
majority of them, should be men of
experience and ability. But it seems
scant justice to such men to offer them
only the precarious tenure, and espe-
ciaUy the small income, of a stipendiary
curate. The ancient system of collegiate
churches, in which each member of the
staff has his stall and his definite work,
may afford suggestions for the better
organisation of the clerical staff of our
larger parishes.
CURE OF SOULS, means the spiritual
care or charge of souls. In theory the
diocese is the Ecclesiastical unit of
organisation, the bishop has care of all
souls in his diocese, and the rectors
and vicars are appointed by him to
take charge, under him, of the souls
in the particular districts (parishes)
assigned to them. A cure of souls is
committed by the bishop to a rector or
vicar by the ceremony of institution,
in which the priest kneels before the
bishop while the bishop solemnly, "in
the Name of the Father, and of the Son,
and of the Holy Ghost," commits to
him "the cure and government of the
souls of the parishioners of the said
parish." A cure of souls also means the
district (diocese or parish) assigned to
the spiritual care of a particular man.
CUTHBERT, St., Bishop of Lindis
farne, was of humble parentage. While
keeping his sheep by night, it is said
that he saw a vision of angels bearing
a newly-departed soul to heaven. On
that night Bishop Aidan had died.
Cuthbert thereupon entered into a mon
astery at Old Melrose, which was a de
pendent house of Lindisfarne. A few
years after Cuthbert was one of the
brothers who went to found a new mon
astery on a piece of land at Ripon, given
them byAlchfrith, son of King Oswin ;
but when Alchfrith adopted the Conti
nental customs and desired to introduce
them into his monastery, the brethren

returned to Melrose. In 664 Cuthbert
was made prior of this house ; but he
was speedily removed to Lindisfarne to
be prior of the mother house, where he
induced them to adopt the Catholic
customs. After twelve years Cuthbert!
adopted that stricter life of ascetic
seclusion which was then considered
the highest phase of the religious life
[see Culdees] ; inhabiting a solitary
cell with an oratory attached, sur
rounded by a high wall, so that he
could see nothing but the heavens ;
and here he passed the remaining years
of his life. His reputation for sanctity
increased, and at the Synod of Twyford
(J84) Cuthbert was selected for the
vacant See of Hexham. • To meet his
unwillingness, Eaton, the Bishop oft'
Lindisfarne, offered to take Hexham1,*;
and to leave Cuthbert bishop at Lin
disfarne, For two years he fulfilled
the duties of the office, but then re
signed, and retired again to his cell,
only to die there after two months
more of seclusion, March 20, 687. The
history of Cuthbert does riot end with
his death. His dying request had been
that if ever the community should?'
leave Lindisfarne they would carry his
body with them. In 875 the monks
fled before an invasion of the Danes,
carrying the saint's body. , For seven
years the bishop and his monks wan
dered over the north of England, still
carrying the saint's body ; and there is
a tradition that wherever they rested
for a while they built a church to
shelter the sacred relic. In 883 King
Guthred fixed the saint's body and the
bishopric with it at Chester le Street,
and gave it the land between the Wear
and Tyne, with the right of sanctuary,
which afterwards at Durham became so
famous. Nine bishops ruled at Chester
le Street, until in 990 they fled again '
before the Danes southward ; and finally
found a settled home at Durham, and
there they enshrined the "incorruptible
body" in the cathedral of Durham)
and entailed on the bishop palatine the
privileges which Guthred had given to
the saint. The grave of the saint was.

DALMATIC

225

DEACON

opened in 1827, and a portable altar, a
pectoral cross, and other relics were
found, for which see Rev. James
Raine's ' St. Cuthbert. ' [See Durham.]

DALMATIC, a vestment worn by
deacons. [See Vestments, Clerical.]
DEACON (from the Greek Siaxovoq,
a minister ; fiovKoc. was the word for
the lower class of servants or slaves of
a great household ; Sicikovoc., for the
upper class, the confidential servants
and administrators of the household),
a member of the third and lowest of the
three orders of the sacred ministry.
The appointment of an order of
deacons is recorded in Acts vi.» The
common fund of the Church of Jeru
salem offered a daily distribution to
those who needed it, according as they
had need. ' ' When the number of the
disciples was multiplied," and the task
of discrimination had become more
difficult, there arose a murmuring
among the Hellenistic Jews (that is, the
Jews of foreign countries), against the
Hebrews (that is, the native Jews),
because their widows were neglected in
the daily ministration. Who man
aged the distribution is not said '; prob
ably not the apostles themselves, or
there would have been no cause of
complaint. The apostles recognise that
as the rulers of the Church "they are
ultimately responsible for the proper
management of this department of the
Church's affairs ; but they plead that
it is not meet that they should leave
the higher duties of the ministry for
these temporal details. Therefore in
the plenitude of their apostolic author
ity they announce the intention to
make «. subdivision of the ministry,
and to appoint an order of it specially
to attend to this kind of ministration,
viz. to the management of the finance
and the charities of the Church.
"Wherefore, brethren, look ye out
among you seven men of honest report,
full of the Holy Ghost and ' wisdom,
whom we may appoint over this busi

ness." They dictate the number : they
meet the discontent by leaving the dis
ciples themselves to select men in whom
they have confidence ; they reserve to
themselves the ordination, because they
only have power to delegate their au
thority, and by the laying on of their
hands to call down spiritual gifts need
ful to qualify men for this ministry.
.The "whole multitude" chose seven
men — Stephen, Philip, Prochorus, Nica-
nor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolas a
proselyte of Antioch, "whom they set
before the apostles : and when they had
prayed, they laid their hands on them. "
Mosheim and others suggest that this
is not the first occasion of the appoint
ment of deacons. That the common
fund, not administered by the apostles
in person, as we have seen, was from
the first administered by persons spe
cially set apart to do the work ; that
they are to be identified with the
"younger men " who officiated at the
burial of Ananias and Sapphira. That
what was done on the present occasion
was only the addition of seven Hellen
ists to the existing body of deacons in
order to meet their complaints.
It is replied that the Grecian names
are by no means conclusive evidence
that the men were all Hellenists ; it
was quite common for the Jews of
Palestine at this time to' assume foreign
names. * That we can only explain the
prominence which the historian of the
Church gives to this incident on the
ground that it is not merely an account
of a" trivial complaint which led_ to no
important results, but that it is the
incident which gave immediate occa
sion for the appointment of a new order
of the :ministry. We must note that
they are not expressly called deacons,
though the word SiaKoviiv is used to
describe their special functions in verse
2. In Acts xxi. 8, they are called 'Hhe'
seven," in conformity with the habit of
describing the members of these early
orders of men within the Church, "the
* B. g. Joseph Harsabas, surnamed Justus ;
and Saul, called also Paul.

DEACON

226

DEACON

Twelve," " the Seventy," and " the
Seven." Though the immediate occasion of the
establishment of an order of deacons
was the need of a body of officials to
manage the temporal affairs of the
Church, the deacons were not limited
to this special ministration. Stephen
and Philip preached and baptised, and
their ministry was aided by the power
of working miracles.
It was not only in the Church of
Jerusalem, that there were deacons. It
was a permanent order of the sacred
ministry, and is found generally through
out the Apostolic Church. St. Paul
speaks of their existence in Philippi
(Phil. i. 1), and among the directions
which he gives to Timothy for his guid
ance in the ruling of the Church at
Ephesus, he tells him what kind of men
to choose for deacons.
They continued as a regular order
of the ministry in the subsequent
ages of the Church, e. g. Ignatius, in
his famous Epistles, over and over
again, names the bishops, priests, and
deacons as the three recognised orders
of the ministry of the Church ; and
Tertullian also speaks of them as a
distinct order.
In the fourth century, the deacon of
the cathedral church is found to be a
very important person ; he is the con
fidential assistant of the bishop, the
treasurer of the diocese, and not in
frequently succeeded to the See. [See
Archdeacon.] It was considered an
essential part of the deacon's office to
assist the priest in the celebration of the
Eucharist, his special functions being to
read the gospel and to administer the
cup ; and the Nicene canon, forbidding
deacons to celebrate, seems to indicate
that there was a tendency among them
to usurp the functions of the higher
order. The Church of England has always
retained the order ; but for some cen
turies it has been only a stepping-stone
to priest's orders ; deacons have been,
in fact, apprentice priests learning the
duties of the priesthood, and (in the

scarcity of priests) performing priestly
functions except those expressly re
served to the higher order. It is "to he
regretted that we have not a bona fide
order of deacons, to relieve our scanty
body of priests of those duties which
belong to the diaconate, leaving them
more time and energy for worship,
study, and devotion, and for the higher
spiritual part of their ministry in the
cure of souls. , The question has long
been under discussion, and it may be
hoped that before long some method
will be found of securing what is
generally admitted to be greatly need
ed for the more complete fulfilment
of the Church's ministration to the
people. A deacon must be full twenty-three
years of age, unless by special dispens- ?
ation. For the form of his ordination,
see the Prayer Book. His duties are set
forth in a rubric of that form, viz. to
assist the priest in Divine service, and
especially when he ministereth the Holy
Communion, and to help him in the
distribution thereof ; to read the Holy
Scriptures and the homilies in church ;
to instruct the youth in the catechism ;
in the absence of the priest to baptise
infants ; to preach, if he be licensed
thereto by the bishop ; to search for
the sick, poor, and impotent. He may
not pronounce absolution, or conse
crate the Holy Communion. He is not
capable 'of holding any benefice or
ecclesiastical promotion.
The proper vestment of a deacon
from very early times, very possibly",
from the earliest times, was the albe;
with the orarium worn over the left
shoulder. About the 8th century the
dalmatic began to be appropriated to
the deacon, and continued to be his
distinctive vestment throughout tho
Middle Ages. At Furness Abbey -is an
effigy of a deacon in a curiously plaited
albe with apparel in front, and with
stole over the left shoulder,' holding
the book of the Gospels (Blox-ajn's
'Companion to the Study of Gothic
Architecture, ' 11th Ed. , p. 55). Another
effigy of a deacon in albe, dalmatic, and

DEACONESS

227 DEDICATION OF CHURCHES

amyss is engraved in the same work,
p. 59.
The insignia of the deacon's office,
given to him at his ordination, were
the book of the gospels and the
ampullae ; a New Testament is still
given to him, with the words, "Take
thou authority to read the Gospel in
the Church of God," &c. [See Orders,
Holy.] DEACONESS. From the very first,
women were included in the ministry
of the Church. Besides the group of
twelve apostles who attended our Lord
everywhere, there was also a group of
women who "ministered unto Him"
(Matt, xxvii. 55). Phoebe, by whom
St. Paul sent his letter to the Romans,
is called by him "a deacon of the
.Church in Cenchrea. " The same apostle,
instructing Timothy what kind of
people to admit to the various orders of
the ministry, names bishops (i.e. pres
byters), deacons, and female deacons
(1 Tim. iii. 11). In Pliny's letter to
Trajan, he tells him that among the
Christians whom he had examined as
to their beliefs and practises were two
"women whom they call ministers"
(ancilla? quae ministra; dicebantur).
The Apostolical Constitutions decree
that she should be chosen from among
the virgins, or from among the widows
who have been once married. The
Council of Chalcedon enj oins : " Let not
a woman receive imposition of hands as
a deaconess before she is fifty years old. "
In the Eastern Church deaconesses
continued till the twelfth century ; in
the Western Church, in spite of decrees
of councils to the contrary, they con
tinued to exist till about the same
period. The order of deaconesses has been re
vived in our day in the Church of Eng
land. The first Deaconesses' Institution
was founded in London in 1861. Others
have been established at Maidstone,
Farnham, Chester, Ely, Manchester,
Salisbury, Walsall ; the St. John's
House, Norfolk Street, and the Mildmay
Deaconesses, both in London, are also
to be included among the Deaconesses' Q

Institutions ; but the idea has not be
come popular. The Sisterhood idea has
rather succeeded in enlisting the sym
pathies of the pious female mind, and
supplied an agency for doing woman's
work in the Church, which has com
mended itself to the general acceptance
of the Church.
DEAN (Decanus), one who is set over
ten persons, was first the name of an
officer, having superintendence over
others, in a Benedictine monastery.
Afterwards, when cathedral chapters
were organised on the monastic model,
the title of dean was given to the head
of the chapter, to which its discipline
was committed. The office of dean as
head of a cathedral chapter, though
existing some time before on the con
tinent, was not introduced into Eng
land till the very eve of the Norman
Conquest. [See Chapter.]
In the cathedral chapters of St. David's
and Llandaff there never was till recent
statutes any dean, but the bishop in
each was head of the chapter ; and
at the former the chantor, at the latter
the archdeacon, presided in the absence
of the bishop, or vacancy of the See.
By Act 3 and 4 Vict. c. 113, the Pre
centor of St. David's was to be styled
dean, and the archdeacon of Llandaff
was to be also dean, and on the erection
of the See of Manchester the Warden of
the collegiate church was also styled
dean. DEDICATION OF CHURCHES.
Churches always were and always are
dedicated to God only ; but it was a
very early and general custom to dedi
cate them in memory of some martyr
or saint. Augustine explains the mat
ter very clearly. ' ' They did not honour
their martyrs by erecting temples or
altars to them, but only unto God."
The same place indeed was often a
monument or memorial of a martyr
and a temple of God, because churches
were commonly built over the sepul
chres of the martyrs, or in the places
where they suffered, or the relies of
the martyrs were translated into them ;
thence they were called by the martyr's

DEGREES

228 DIOCESAN CONFERENCES

name, because they were memorials of
them. Churches sometimes obtained
a name from some accidental circum
stance connected with their history,
as the Lateran Church at Rome, the
Caesareum at Alexandria, the Palaea
at Antioch, or our own Bow Church,
London. The Celtic Church habitually
gave to a church the name of its
founder, even in his lifetime.
In a form of consecrating churches
contained in a canon of a Synod at
Calchyth, under Archbishop Wulfred,
816, it is ordained that when a church
is built it shall be consecrated by the
proper diocesan, who shall take care
that the saint to whom it is dedicated
be pictured on the wall, or on a tablet,
or on the altar. A decree of Arch
bishop Winchelsea commanded that
the image of that saint to whom the
Church was dedicated should be care
fully preserved in the chancel of every
parish church. (Sir R. Phillimore,
'Ecclesiastical Law,' p. 1776.)
The dedications of churches often
illustrate their early history, and of
the district in which they exist. The
comparative number of churches in
any district dedicated to various saints,
indicates which were the more popular
saints of the district. Thus, e. g. , the
dedications of the churches of Corn
wall and of Wales are alone enough to
prove that those districts were evange
lised by the Celtic Church. The track
of Celtic missionaries across the conti
nent of Europe can be traced by the
dedications of the churches scattered
along their route,
DEGREES, University, are the steps
in academical rank which a properly
constituted university has power to
confer upon its members and others.
It is usually required that a man shall
have been a resident member of the
university for a stated time, and shall
have passed certain examinations.
There are various schools or faculties
in which a man may graduate (i. u.
take his degree) ; the old schools or
faculties in the English universities
were arts, law, music, and theology ;

to these have recently been added
natural science, and others.
The degrees rise one above another ;
the first degree being in arts and natural
science, that of Bachelor, B.A. ; next
that of Master, M.A. In music, law,
and theology, first Bachelor, B.D. or
B.M., LL.B. ; then Doctor, D.D., or
as it is called at Oxford, Professor of
Sacred Theology. (S. T. P.)
The material, fashion, and colour of
the academical gown and hood afford
an outward token of the degree a man
has taken. [See Hood.]
The universities frequently confer.
honorary degrees upon distinguished
men by way of recognition of merit,
or thanks for services.
The Archbishop of Canterbury has
a right to confer degrees. The Court
of Rome had assumed the right to
recognise a university and to give uni
versal currency to its degrees, and had
reserved to itself the right to confer de
grees independently of any university.
The Archbishop of Canterbury, as papal
legate, exercised this power in Eng
land, and retained it under statute, of
Henry VIII. It affords a means of
giving public recognition to the actual
attainments of men who have not ac
quired their learning through the usual
academical channel ; and, given as they
are with a very sparing and discrim
inating hand, these Lambeth degrees
confer a real distinction upon their.
recipients. DE PICA, an order of friars of
that name, of whom little is known.
They had in England only one house,
at Norwich.
DIGNITARY, an ecclesiastical per
son who holds a preferment to which
some jurisdiction is attached, as dean,'
chancellor, precentor, treasurer, arch
deacon. DIOCESAN CONFERENCES. The
sense of the pressing need of the revival
of the corporate action of the Church
has shown itself in a very remarkable
manner in the creation of a system of
Diocesan Conferences. The first im
pulse to the movement was given by.

DIOCESAN CONFERENCES 229

DIOCESE

the Bishop of Exeter (Philpot), in his
revival of his Diocesan Synod in 1850;
it has grown, until there is only one
diocese (Worcester) which is still with
out such an organisation. The Con
ference is based upon the old Diocesan
Synod, well known to the common law
of the Church, but differs from it in
combining the laity with the clergy in
one body for united discussion and
action ; it differs from it also in having
no legal character, and no ecclesiastical
authority. An important addition was
made to this congeries of conferences
by the formation of a Central Council
of Diocesan Conferences. This consists
of three clerical and three lay members
from each Diocesan Conference, selected
with the express sanction of their re
spective bishops. The object of the
Central Council is "to give greater
linity of action to Diocesan Con
ferences by considering, through repre
sentative members, the resolutions at
which such Conferences may have ar
rived, and other matters concerning
the interests of the Church which the
Council may deem it expedient to sug
gest for discussion by the Conferences ;
that so the general opinion of the
Church at large may be obtained on
matters affecting its welfare, with a
view to their being brought promi
nently, if thought desirable, before the
Convocations and Parliament." The
institution of the Council has been
accepted by all the Diocesan Confer
ences, and it held its first meeting,
July 7, 1881. It has also received a
partial recognition from the Convoca
tion of Canterbury, inasmuch as the
Lower House, having itself in 1879,
and again in 1880, appointed a Council
to receive reports of the several Diocesan
Conferences, and to report thereon, that
Council in its last report, issued Feb.
1882, recommended that the object for
which it had been appointed might in
future be best secured by inviting the
Central Council of Diocesan Conferences
" to consider what special subjects (one
or more) it would be desirable for all
Conferences to unite in discussing in

the course of each coming year, and to
forward their recommendations to their
lordships the bishops, and the presi
dents of the respective Conferences."
DIOCESE (SioiKnoic, = any kind of
administration), the district under the
jurisdiction of a bishop. The word
diocese originally meant a civil division
of the Roman Empire, which contained
many provinces, and if employed eccle
siastically represented a Patriarchate ;
the word for the district governed by a
single bishop was parish, irapomia. In
the fourth century the word diocese
began to be used in its modern signi
fication. The limits of dioceses depended
upon local and accidental considera
tions. The origin of our English dio
ceses * is that each of the independent
Anglo-Saxon kingdoms had its own
bishop, and the kingdom formed the
diocese. t
Archbishop Theodore (668 — 690) first
broke down the theory of ' ' one king one
bishop," by insisting on the subdivision
of the country into dioceses of more
manageable size.
In carrying out the subdivision, "he
followed the lines of the still existing
tribal or territorial arrangements, which
had preceded the creation of the seven
kingdoms. East Anglia was first
divided between the northern and
southern divisions of the folk ; the
former with its [new] See at Elmham,
the latter clinging to Dunwich. North
umbria followed : York, the capital of
Deira, had already put in its claim, ac
cording to the direction of St. Gregory,
and had its own bishop. Bemicia
remained to Lindisfarne and Hexham ;
and the Picts had a missionary bishop
at Withern : the Lindisfari, or modern
Lincolnshire, who at the moment of
the division were under the North
umbrian king, received a bishop, with
his See at Sidnacester. Next Mercia
* [For a history of the dioceses see under
their several names.]
t The diocese of Rochester, which seems
an exception to this, corresponded with the
territory of a small sub-kingdom which occu
pied the north-west corner of the kingdom of
Kent.

DIOCESE

230

DIOCESE

was divided ; the recovered province
of Lindsey was recognised as a new
diocese ; the kingdom of the Hwiccas,
which still existed as an under king
dom, furnished another, with its See at
AVorcester ; north and south Hwicana
had their bishop at Hereford, and the
middle Angles theirs at Leicester. The
work was not without its difficulties.
The old bishops in particular resisted
any infringement of their power. Win-
frith of Lichfield had to be deposed
before Mercia was divided ; the struggle
for the retention of the Northumbrian
dioceses was the work of the life of
Wilfred. In AVessex the opposition

was so strong as to thwart Theodore
himself, and it was not until after his
death, when Brithwold was archbishop
of Canterbury and Ini king of the West
Saxons, that the unwieldy diocese was
broken up. Sussex, which now was
permanently subject as a kingdom, was
under the diocese of the mission See at
Selsey ; the kingdom of AVessex proper
was divided by the forest of Selwood
into two convenient divisions, of which
the western half had its See at Sher
borne ; Winchester remaining the See of
the eastern half, with a sort of primacy
11,,,™!, »

of its own, .as the
(Bishop of Chester),

mother Church

FIRST PERIOD.
The number of Episcopal Sees in England (exclusive of Wales) hid increased
before and in the time of Bede, a.d. 731 to 21.

1 In Kent
2 East Saxons
3 Eas* Angles
4 West Saxons
5 Mercia

6 South Saxons
7 Northumbria

12
34 56
78
9
10 111213 141516

Ripon also appears to have
To these may be added the
above : 17 1819
20
Also 21

Canterbury (a.d. 597).
Rochester (604).
London (605).
Dunmoc (Dunwich) (630).
Elmham (673).
Winchester (635).
Sherburn (in Dorsetshire) (705).
Repton, removed to Lichfield (655).
Dorchester (636), removed to Leicester 737.
Sidnacester (678).
Worcester (680).
Hereford, formerly suffragan (677), to Menevia or
St. David's.
Selsey (709).
York (625).
Lindisfarne (635).
Hexham (678).
(Witheme suffragan of York.)
been an Episcopal See in the seventh century.
Welsh Sees, which are more ancient than the
St. David's.
Llandaff.Bangor.
St. Asaph.
Man.

DIOCESE

231

DIOCESE

SECOND PERIOD.
In the course of the ninth and tenth
centuries, Beverley in Yorkshire, Taun
ton and Crediton in Devonshire, and
St. Peter's in Cornwall, were Episcopal
Sees for a short time.
The number of English Sees was not
increased in the time of William tho
Conqueror ; some of them were trans
lated as follows :
Norwich (1091) (and a.d. 1066 —
1088, Thetford), from Elmham in Nor
folk, and Dunwich in Suffolk.
Salisbury (1218), from Old Sarum
(1075), from Sherburn and Wilton.
Lincoln (1076), from Leicester, and
from Dorchester, Oxon, and Sidnacester
near Gainsborough in Lincolnshire.
Chichester from Selsey (1070).
Exeter (1050), from Crediton for
Devon, and from Bodmin for Cornwall.
Bath and Wells, 909.
Durham (990), from Lindisfarne,
Chester-le-street, and Hexham.
Cirencester (854).
THIRD PERIOD.
From William the Conqueror to
Henry VIII. The See of Ely founded,
1109, and Carlisle, 1133.
In the reign of Henry VIII. it was
proposed to create about twenty new
sees and twenty-six suffragan bishops,
making the whole number about seventy .
Of the twenty intended sees six were

formed — Chester, Peterborough, Ox
ford, Bristol, Gloucester, AVestminster.
The last was suppressed again after
nine years' existence.
Other sees were designed at Waltham
for Essex, St. Albans for Herts, Burton-
on-Trent, Shrewsbury, Colchester, Bod
min, Lancaster, St. Jermyn, Fountains.
Suffragans were partially introduced and
afterwards laid aside.
FOURTH PERIOD.
The following new sees have been
created in recent times.
Ripon in 1836 ; Manchester, 1847 ;
St. Albans, 1875 ; Truro, 1876. An Act
of Parliament in 1878 authorised the
creation of four new bishoprics, of
which Liverpool, Newcastle, and South
well have been founded, and Wakefield
still remains to be instituted. An Act
of 1884 authorised tho separation of
Bristol from Gloucester, and its re
creation into a separate bishopric, so
soon as the necessary funds shall have
been provided.
It is not to be supposed that the ex
tension of the Episcopate is to stop here.
The ideal to be aimed at is, perhaps,
that the parishes of every great town
with its suburbs should be organised
into corporate ecclesiastical unity by
their erection into a bishopric, accord
ing to the primitive model.
A chronological chart of the descent
of the dioceses of the two provinces is
| given on the following pages.

A CHRONOLOGICAL VIEW OF THE FORMATION OF THE DIOCESES OF THE PROVINCE OF CANTERBURY.

KENT.

Canterbury, 507.

Rochester, 004.

Rochester.

St. Albans, 1875.

ESSEX. London, 004.
Westminster, 1540—1550.

MERCIA, WESSEX, SUSSEX.

-+-

Dorchester, G30.

E. ANGLIA.
Dunwich, 631.

Mbrcia.
Lichfield, 656.

Lindsey, 678.

Leicester,

Lichfield. I

Hereford,

Leicester, 737.
Dorchester, about 538. ¦
Lincoln, 1095.

United j 705—737.

Lichfield, 737.
Chester, 1075. ¦)
Coventry, 1102. }-
Lichfield, J

Worcester, 680.
Gloucester, 1541.
Joined with
Bristol, 1836.

Ely, 1100.

Lincoln.

Lincoln.

Osney, 1542.
Oxford, 1545.

Peterborough, 1511.

Chester. 1541.
Prov. of York.

Winchester, 009.

Lincoln.

Southwell, 1884.

Bristol.
1512-1836.

TVessex.
Dorchester,
"Winchester, 662.

Ehnham, 673.

Dunwich, 031.

Sussex.

United 870 (?)
Thetford, 1075.
Norwich, 1094.

TVineh ester.

 1  —
Selsey, 709.
Chichester, 1075.

Sherborn, 705.
Joined to
Ramsbury - 1058.

Ramsbury, 909.
Joined to
Sherborn, 1058.
Old Sarum,
1075.
New Sarum,
1218.

Weljs. 909 (?)
Bath, 1076.

Crediton. 909 (?)
Exeter, 1049.

Exeter.

Truro. 1870.

Salisbury.

DIOCESE

233

DISCIPLINE

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DIRGE. A funeral chant or song,
from Dirige, from Psalm cxvi. 9, which
occurs in the Office of the Dead.
DISCIPLINE OF THE CHURCH.
The Church and Kingdom of Christ,
like other kingdoms, has laws which
are binding upon its subjects, and offi
cials authorised by the king to ad
minister those laws : the discipline of
the Church means the putting those
laws into execution.
There are these two great differences
between human law and Divine law :
(1) The former only takes cognisance of
a man's acts in relation to others, and
only aims at preventing one man from
doing any injury to another. The latter
has regard to the moral quality of a
man's acts in themselves. In other
words, the former deals only with crime ;
the latter with sin. Again — (2) Tho
former takes the criminal by physical
force and inflicts such punishment as
is adequate to the offence, with a view
to deter from crime ; the latter only
admonishes the sinner, and counsels
him to penitence, restitution, and
amends, and self-discipline, pro salute
animce, for the welfare of his soul. If
he refuse to obey these counsels, the
penalties it can inflict are first, to sus
pend him from the Church's assemblies
and sacraments, and lastly, to reject
him from the Church whose laws he
refuses to obey.
Our Lord laid down the basis of this
discipline in the Sermon on the Mount,
by extending the scope of the law from
outward acts to inward feelings — from
crime to sin (Matt. v. 17—48). Ho
pointed out the voluntary character of
obedience and the spiritual penalties of
disobedience (v. 29, 30) ; and (Matt.
xviii. 15) laid down the whole process
of discipline, and committed its exercise
to the ministry. St. Paul expressly
claims this authority (1 Cor. iv. 1),
and records instances in which he had
exercised it (1 Cor. v. 1-5 ; 2 Cor. ii.
5, 11 ; 1 Tim. i. 20). Also St. Paul, in
the Pastoral Epistles directing bishops
in the duties of their office, gives
large directions on the use of discipline

DISCIPLINE

234

DISCIPLINE

(1 Tim. i. 3, 4 ; ii. 8 ; iii. 1—15 ; iv.
11 ; vi. 17, 19—21 ; 2 Tim. iv. 1, 2 ;
Titus i. 5, 11, 13 ; ii.; iii. 1, 2, 10, 11).
He even exhorts his disciples that in
the ordinary disagreements and dis
putes which may arise among them on
temporal matters, they should resort
to the arbitration of their ministers
rather than go to law before the heathen
tribunals (1 Cor. vi. 1 — 8).
But in Christian countries the civil
power not only adopts the law of Christ
as the basis and standard of its own civil
law ; but it also recognises tho value
of this Church discipline, and inter
venes to enforce, if need be, the obedi
ence of its subjects to it. The mode
in which this is accomplished is this :
The bishop is the ruler of a church,
and its discipline centres in him. The
civil power takes its precautions in the
interest of its subjects that his disci
pline shall be equitably administered
(e. g. by a veto on the nomination of a
bishop, by stipulating that his sentences
shall be arrived at under proper safe
guards against injustice), and then
lends its power to enforce obedience to
his sentences.
The proper sphere of discipline is
faith and morals. It is easy to see
why a Christian State should lend its
authority and its power to enforce the
discipline of the Church. For civil law,
which deals only with a man's outward
acts, and with them only so far as they
injure his- neighbour, is manifestly a
very imperfect instrument, and leaves
untouched a whole realm of action in
which a man does injury to himself,
and to society, and sins against God.
Where civil law stops short, Church
discipline comes in ; and the two to
gether exercise a salutary control over
the whole sphere of human life and
conduct. The ecclesiastical laws made and
altered from time to time, under which
this discipline is to be administered,
form the body of Canon Law [see
Canon Law], and we in England are in
an embarrassing and unsatisfactory con
dition with respect to it. At the Re

formation it was intended, as one im
portant part of that general revision of
the condition of the Church, to collect;
out of the vast body of the Canon Law
a new code of discipline for the English
Church. The work was undertaken by
a Commission in the reign of Edward
VI., and the results of their labours
are embodied in a vol. entitled 'Re
formatio Legum Ecclesiasticarum ' [see
below], but it was never adopted or re
ceived any kind of authority, so that
the ancient Canon Law of the Church
of England (the Roman Canon Law
never ran in England) still holds good,
where it is not contrary to the Statute
Law, and does not interfere with the
rights of the Crown which were ex
pressly reserved by the " Act of Sub
mission," 25 Henry VIII. c. 19 (1533
A.D.). Bishop Ridley, in one of his works,
says : ' ' The marks whereby this Church
is known unto me in this dark world,
and in the midst of this crooked and
froward generation, are these — the sin
cere preaching of God's Word ; the due'
administration of the sacraments ; and
faithful observance of ecclesiastical dis
cipline according to the Word of God."
The Catechism of Edward VI., A.D.
1553, says : "The marks of the Church
are first, pure preaching of the gospel.;
then brotherly love ; thirdly, upright
and uncorrupted use of the Lord's
sacraments according to the ordinance
of the gospel ; last of all, brotherly
correction, or excommunication, or
banishing those out of the Church that
will not amend themselves. This mark
the holy fathers termed discipline."
The Second Part of the Homily for
Whitsunday, set forth early in Eliza
beth's reign, gives these as notes of the
Church : "It hath always these notes
or marks whereby it is known — pure
and sound doctrine, the sacraments.^
administered according to Christ's holy
institution, and the right use of eccle
siastical discipline."
The ' Reformatio Legum Ecclesiasti
carum ' was brought forward again in
Elizabeth's reign, and attempts wero

DISCIPLINE

235

DISPENSATION

made to get it legalised, but the Queen
thought that it touched on her supre
macy. It was reprinted in the reign of
Charles. Two valuable works on the
subject, written in the reign of Queen
Anne, when it was again hoped that
something might be done to supply our
deplorable lack of discipline, are •- ' The
Church of England's wish for restoring
of Primitive Discipline,' London, 1703 ;
and ' The Penitential Discipline of the
Primitive Church . . . down to its
Present State Impartially Represented, '
by a Presbyter of the Church of
England, London, 8vo., 1714. Bishop
Burnet also tried to bring the subject
forward in the reign of William and
Mary. Even within the last few years a
Committee of Convocation has drafted
a new set of canons, which have not,
however, been yet considered by the
Houses. It is this failure to reform the ancient
Canon Law, and to bring it into con
formity with our ecclesiastical condition
and modem requirements, which has
probably had much to do with the
decay of discipline among us ; a decay
which we formally recognise and lament
on Ash Wednesday in the opening sen
tence of the Commination Service : —
"Until the said discipline may be re
stored again, which is very much to
be wished ; " a decay so complete that
it is probable that a vast majority of
Church people are ignorant that the
Church of Christ even claims such an
authority over them in the regions of
faith and morals. The Church of Eng
land is clear enough in its principles,
though restrained in its practice. The
sentence quoted above from the Com
mination Service, the rubric before the
Communion Service, the thirty-second
article, the Canons of 1603, the actual
practice of the Church Courts down to
a comparatively recent period, combine
to show that she still maintains in
theory the duty of maintaining an
ecclesiastical censorship over the faith
and morals of her children. In the
great revival of religion now in progress

in England, the restoration of discipline,
so long and so formally declared to be
a great desideratum, is to be wisely
aimed at. [See Penance, Penitentiale.
See Haddan and Stubbs's Preface to the
' Penitentiary of Archbishop Theodore ';
Archdeacon Hale's 'Precedents.'] ,
DISENDOWMENT. The depriva
tion of the Church, by Act of Parlia
ment, of her endowments. There are a
great many people, even among Church
men, who believe that the clergy are
paid by the State, out of the taxation
of the people ; whereas the fact is that
the nation has the advantage of the
magnificent organisation of thirty-three
bishops and 20,000 clergymen, not only
ministering to the whole people in
spiritual things, but also taking a lead
ing part in all kinds of action for the
physical, moral, and intellectual well-
being of the people, without having to
tax the people one penny for it's main
tenance. [See Property of the Church.]
( ' Establishment and Disendowment, ' by
Professor E. A. Freeman. )
DISESTABLISHMENT. [See Estab
lishment. ]
DISPENSATION. The power of ad
ministrators of the law to excuse from
obedience to the law in particular
cases. The sale of dispensations by
the Court of Rome was one of the
grievances which swelled the general
complaint against the venality of Rome.
No one has power to dispense from
obedience to the Divine Law, e. g.
to marry within the forbidden degrees ;
and on this ground Henry VIII. claimed
that his marriage with Katherine, his
brother's widow, was no marriage, not
withstanding the Papal dispensation
which had been given for it. The
claim of the king to give a general
dispensation, i. e. to suspend a law
entirely, was made but soon abandoned
by Charles II. ; the claim of James II.
to give - particular dispensation, i. e.
to excuse a particular person from obe
dience to a particular law, was resisted.
The two cases enter into the Church
history of the period. The bishop of
a diocese and the archbishop of a.

DISSENT

236

DISSENT

province have the right of dispensation
in certain cases ; e. g. a case of every
day occurrence is that, whereas by law
the banns of a marriage ought to be
published three times before the mar
riage takes place, the bishop of the
diocese issues a licence to the officiat
ing clergyman which dispenses with
this obligation ; and whereas by law
a marriage must take place in church,
and between certain hours, the arch
bishop may issue a licence dispensing
with these regulations, and permitting
the marriage to be solemnised in any
place and at any hour. A bishop may
allow a priest to hold two benefices ;
may excuse him from canonical resid
ence ; may give a dispensation to eat
meat on fast days, &c.
By Act 25 Hemy VIII. c. 21, the
Archbishop of Canterbury has the
power of dispensing in any case where
in dispensations were formerly granted,
so that it be not contrary to God's
word. DISSENT, in the ordinary accept
ance of the word, means not merely
want of assent to the constitution or
doctrine of the Church, but the forma
tion of a religious organisation separate
from the Church. It is synonymous
with schism.
There was abundance of want of
assent both before the Reformation and
afterwards, which remained in the
Church in a state of more or less open
nonconformity. It was not until the
reign of Elizabeth that. the great evil
of formal dissent began. Our purpose
here is briefly to sketch its rise and
spread, leaving the characteristics of
the different dissenting communities to
be dealt with under their several names
[which see].
From the latter part of Henry VIII. 's
reign to the early part of that of
Elizabeth, the Church oscillated be
tween the extremes of Popery and
Calvinism ; but under the sagacious
and strong policy of Elizabeth and her
counsellors, it was soon manifest that
the Church of England had taken up
tho permanent status of an autonomous

Reformed Church, but reformed on the
basis of Catholic antiquity. Then the
parties which were discontented with
this solution of the long contest of the
Reformation began to adopt a policy of
their own.
The great body of the Puritans re.
mained in the Church, organised them
selves within the Church (see Puritans),
and commenced that contest with the,
bishops and the Prayer-Book which,
under the Long Parliament, culminated
in the overthrow of the English Reform
ation, and the substitution of Presby
tery, the Assembly Catechism, and the
Directory. In 15ti8 Brown, a clergyman, estab
lished a separate congregation in Lon
don, on Independent principles, and
founded the party which ultimately,
under the Commonwealth, out-general-
led the Puritans, and secured for a
while the triumph of their principles
both in Church and State.
The Pope, abandoning all hope of
another reaction, at length broke with
Elizabeth and the Church of England ;
issued a bull of excommunication and
deposition of the Queen, and authorised
the King of Spain to invade the country,
execute the sentence of deposition, and
restore the Papal supremacy. The
choice of a great number of waverers
was determined by their loyalty and
patriotism in favour of conformity J
but the more extreme adherents of the
Papal cause broke off from the Church,
set up altar against altar, and went
into open schism. [See Recusant.]
Neither of these sects were tolerated
by the Government ; indeed, toleration
of open schism was not contemplated
by any one in those days as a practicable
policy. Political principles were in
volved in both schisms. The Papists
were believed to aim at a revolution
which should place a Papist sovereign
on the throne ; the principles of the
Independents involved Republicanism
in the State ; and the Government
treated both parties as suspected
traitors. In 1633 the sect of Baptists arose

DISSENT

237

DISSENT

out of a secession from the Independ
ents ; they still held the same opinions
on Church organisation, and the same
general scheme of doctrine, but differed
on the subject of baptism.
In 1642—1649, in alliance with the
triumph of the Commons House of
Parliament over tho Lords and the
Crown, the Puritan party triumphed
in the Church, ejected the bishops and
the loyal clergy, and set up the Pres
byterian form of Church government ;
superseded the Convocation by the
Assembly of Divines ; suppressed the
Prayer -Book, and established the
Directory. But in the hour of their
triumph, the government of the House
of Commons was terminated by the
usurpation of Cromwell, and the reign
of the Presbyterian party was frus
trated by the establishment of Inde
pendent principles in the affairs of
religion, and for ten years dissent had
all its own way.
After twenty years' experience the
people welcomed back the constitu
tional monarchy as an escape from a
reign of terror, and as the greatest
safeguard of their rights and liberties ;
and reinstated the Church as the only
refuge from a flood of fanaticism, hy
pocrisy, and irreligion.
On the Restoration, the religious
parties resumed much of their old
position and attitude ; dissent was again
prescribed by law ; the Conventicle
Act and the Five Mile Act crippled
the action of the Dissenters.
James II., in furtherance of his
designs in favour of Romanism, bought
off the opposition of Protestant dissent
by offering toleration all round. The
brave stand of the Seven Bishops
against the Declamation of Indulgence
brought the religious struggle to a
crisis, and the unconstitutional acts
of the king brought about the Revolu
tion, which drove him from the throne.
The accession of William III. was a
crisis in the history of dissent. The
king's personal beliefs were on their
side ; the acts of both Charles II. and
James II. had prepared the way for a

policy of toleration ; and the Toleration
Act gave dissent a recognised status,
and conferred privileges on its ministers
and its places of worship. A return
made to the king of the number of
Dissenters in the kingdom gives us the
information that at this time (1700),
the Dissenters numbered about one in
twenty of the population, and it is
believed that they did not increase
during the next five-and-twenty years.
The next great step in the history of
dissent is the rise of the Wesleyans.
Begun as a high-church revival within
the Church, it gradually diverged into
a lamentable schism from the Church ;
which we may reckon perhaps as be-.
ginning with the building of the first
meeting-house at Bristol in 1739, and
reaching its consummation when tho
Conference authorised its preachers to
administer "sacraments" in 1795.
In 1800 it is estimated that the
Dissenters were one in five of the popu
lation, with about 1000 meeting-houses.
The great spread of dissent in the
latter part of the eighteenth century
and former part of the nineteenth, was,
largely owing to the inability of tha
Church to extend its machinery with
sufficient facility to provide for the
religious needs of the rapidly-increasing
population ; while its corporate action
was strangled by the suspension of
Convocation, its initiative crippled by
the traditional idea of the functions of
the Episcopate, and it was without
the power to divide a parish or build
a new church without a special Act of
Parliament. Dissent attained its culminating,
point about the middle of this century.
By that time the great Church revival
had got fairly under way, and has
since then effected the most remarkable
religious revolution which the country
has witnessed since the Reformation.
The concurrent decadence of dissent
was a natural result. The later history
of dissent is twofold. On one side the
spiritual element in it has partaken
of the general religious revival : it
has thrown off much of its previous

DISSENT, CAUSES OF

238

DISSENT, CAUSES OF

narrowness and puritanical fanati
cism ; it has become comparatively
learned, sound in theology, tolerant,
sesthetic, sympathetic with the Church.
On the other hand, the old Independent
dissent has organised itself, with great
skill and a lavish expenditure ; has
formed itself into a party in the State,
politically powerful out of all proportion
to its numerical strength, and has set
itself the task of destroying the Church.
As in the time of the last similar crisis,
it is using religious dissent for the
furtherance of its aims ; it is abun
dantly evident that should it succeed,
it will again insist upon the supremacy
of its own principles.
The most remarkable phenomenon
of present dissent is not so much that
it has ceased to increase numerically,
as that it is rapidly subdividing into
scores of little sects, which grow more
numerous and more fanatical year by
year. It looks as if, while the main
body of hereditary dissent is gravi
tating towards the Church, the con
victions of personal dissidence were
asserting themselves in these demon
strations in the opposite direction.
A not unnatural result of the recent
history of the Church and dissent is,
that the younger members of dissent
ing families are being gradually ab
sorbed by the Church. It may well be
that, the causes which produced dissent
having to a great extent been removed,
dissent has fulfilled its mission ; and
we may reasonably hope that the
earnest practical religious feeling which
formed the backbone of dissent will
again rally the mass of English Chris
tianity round the Church of England.
DISSENT, CAUSES OF. In trying
to discover the causes of Protestant
Dissent, one powerful cause may per
haps be found in the erroneous view of
the relation which the Bible holds to
tho Christian economy, which is summed
up in Chillingworth's famous and at
tractive saying, "The Bible and the
Bible only is the religion of Protest
ants." (1) Christ did not send a Book
into the world by the hands of His

apostles, and leave men to gather doc
trines and principles out of this Book,
and to form institutions such as should
seem to them best calculated to cany
out these principles and doctrines. He
founded an Institution, and bade that
men should be gathered into this Insti
tution, there to be imbued with prin-:
ciples and taught doctrines ; and the
Book grew up gradually, and (in a sense
which does not exclude the overruling
of the Divine Providence) accidentally,
within the Institution, in the form of
separate occasional documents. It was
many generations before these docu
ments were, by a process of selection
which is not very clear (except, again,
that we acknowledge a Divine Provi
dence in the matter), gathered together
into a recognised body of Scriptures;
and then it was found that, without any
deliberate intention on the part of the
writers of the occasional documents, or
on that of the selectors of them, but by
a happy coincidence, which we attribute
to the' providence watching over-^or„
rather to the Divine Person present in —
the Church, everything which was of es
sential importance in the life and work
of Christ, and in the foundation and
organisation of His Church, every doc
trine, every institution, were directly
or indirectly testified to in this body of
Sacred Scriptures. So that the Church
of Christ of the present day, when
challenged, can produce its documents,
and shew from them that it is now as
Christ and His apostles constituted it ;
that it still teaches the great truths
which Christ and the apostles taught ;
that any new separate organisation of
Christians is not the historical Insti
tution which Christ founded and His
apostles organised ; and that any new
system of doctrine stands condemned by
its very novelty.
(2) A fruitful source of error in all
denominations of Christians, and of
non-Christians, is the taking isolated
passages of these occasional documents
of the Bible as if they were general
abstract statements applicable under
all circumstances ; whereas each such

DISSENT, CAUSES OF 239 DISSENT, CAUSES OF

passage requires to be considered in
relation to the context of the document,
and in relation to the person who wrote
it, the persons to whom he wrote, and
the special circumstances in which it
was written. Then when the sense of
the particular passage in this particular
document has been ascertained, it must
be compared with all the other docu
ments. And lastly, what is left ob
scure or doubtful may often need to be
elucidated by evidence brought from
outside, as to the current meaning of a
word or phrase at that time in that
country ; or by evidence of the
known manners and customs of the
people. (3) Another fruitful cause of error is
failure to see that the majority of the
New Testament Scriptures represent the
Institution of Christ while in process of
organisation, under the inspired direc
tion of the apostles, before it was per
fected and consolidated into its per
manent forms ; e. g. that the arguments
and teachings of the Epistles were for
the most part addressed to people
who had recently, as adults, become
converts to the Christian Institution,
out of a Jewish or heathen state ; not
to those who had been bom and trained
up in Christianity, for whom a different
set of arguments and a. different line of
teaching may be more suitable.
These things being so, it is manifest
that to start with the assumption that
the Bible is to be put into each man's
hand, and he is to frame his own
religion out of it, and then to join
himself to, or gather round himself,
others who agree with him, who are to
organise themselves into a Church, 'is —
the more thoroughly and generally
these principles are acted upon — the
more sure to result in an indefinite
number, and a continual, increase in
the number, of erroneous sects ; in
place of the one Institution founded by
Christ, holding "the Faith once for
all delivered to the Saints" — the one
Holy Catholic Apostolic Church, "the
witness and keeper of Holy Writ,"
" the pillar and ground of the Truth. "

It is well to bear in mind that Dis
sent has had other and deeper causes
than ignorance of sound theology and
Church history, and self-willed impa
tience of authority ; it has often been
the practical protest of religious earnest
ness against coldness and deadness in
the Church, against abuses, against the
obscuration of important truths.
Tho Lollardism of the fourteenth cen
tury derived its strength not so much
from its religious fanaticism and politi
cal socialism, as from its protest against
practical abuses and doctrinal errors in
the Church, which were at last cor
rected at the Reformation ; and from
its revolt against feudal tyrannies and
political corruptions, most of which
have been subsequently ameliorated.
The life of the Puritan party was
the intense belief in God's government
of the world, and its stern ascetic
piety, in contrast with the lukewarm
faith and lax lives of the mass of the
orthodox. The Presbyterian polity was'a protest
against an Episcopal rule which had
degenerated from the primitive standard
of a bishop ruling with the consent of
his presbyters, into an autocracy resting
on the power of the State.
The Congregational schism had its
profound basis in the spirit of repub
licanism, but it represented the rights
of the laity in the election of the minis
try and the management of the affairs
of the Church.
The Wesleyan movement was a re
vival of the ancient discipline of the
Church ; and it was not only the love
of autocratic power in the leaders of
the movement, but want of confidence
in those into whose hands that disci
plinary authority ought to have been
committed, which led to the hardening
of the society into a sect.
The strength of the Quaker move
ment lay in its revival of a belief in
the co-operation of the Holy Spirit
with the individual soul.
The Unitarian sect owes its continued
life, as it owed its origin, to its main
tenance of the unity of the Deity, as

DISSENTERS

240

DISSENTERS

against the tritheism of much of our
popular religionism.
Irvingism was the revival in a Pres
byterian body of the idea of the need,
to the perfection of the Church, of the
authority committed by, Christ to the
Apostolic order, and the failure — so
natural to Presbyterians— to recognise
that that authority had in fact never
ceased in the Church, but existed in
the Episcopate ; and so it logically be
came a lawless Catholic revival, among
people of Presbyterian antecedents,
outside the Church.
DISSENTERS, THE NUMBER OF.
In the Census of 1851 certain calcula
tions were made, from data arbitrarily
selected, as to the comparative numbers
of the population who adhered to the
Church, and to the several dissenting
bodies ; the result of which was to show
that the population adhering to the
Church was little more than one-half of
the whole population of England and
Wales. It was soon pointed out that
this estimate had been made by one
who, however able and honest, was a.
Dissenter ; that the data selected by
him as the basis of the calculation were
not such as were most likely to give a
fair result ; and that, the results were in
some cases inconsistent with ascertained
facts. On the whole the Church re
fused to accept the estimate as a fair
representation of the facts, and appealed
to the statistics to be ascertained by
definite inquiry at the next census.
But when the arrangements for this
census were being made in Parliament,
tho Dissenters strenuously opposed the
introduction into it of any direct means
of ascertaining the numbers actually
adhering to the various religious de
nominations. Lord Palmerston, as
Home Secretary, pointed out that the
Church denied the correctness of the
statements put forth in 1851, and chal
lenged direct inquiry, and that if the
Dissenters opposed it, it would be
universally accepted that they were
afraid of its results. Still they reso
lutely opposed it, and the Government
yielded to the pressure put upon it.

The same unwillingness to have a
religious census of the population has
been exhibited by the Dissenters at
every succeeding census. So that wo
are driven to collect such data as seem
to be likely to yield trustworthy in
formation, and to make such calcu
lations as we can from them — e. g. the
religious census of the army and navy ;
the comparative number of marriages
in Churches and meeting-houses ; of
burials in consecrated and unconsecrated
ground ; the number of children in
Church elementary schools, and in
others ; besides, in certain towns a
religious census has actually been taken
by voluntary effort. The result of
these estimates made from time to
time, by different persons, is that from
73 to 75 per cent, of the population of
England and Wales seek the ministra
tions of religion at the hands of tho
Church. And a hundred facts indicate
that for the last fifty years the Church
has been steadily progressing not only
in numbers, but in the respect and affec
tion of the people. The latest external
authority to which we can refer for
statistics, is Ravenstein's Denomina
tional Statistics, whose figures are now
some years old. He gives — .
Romanists . 1,800,000
Baptists . . 700,000 members.*
Whitaker's Almanack for 1884 gives—'
Romanists about . . 2,000,000
Baptists, baptised members * 304,802
with Sunday scholars 437,187
Congregationalists (including Scot
land and Ireland) may probably .-be
about 1,250,000.
Wesleyans (of all the connections,,
including Scotland and Ireland) 744,898
members,* with 1,555,696 Sunday
Scholars. On the other hand, nothing is more
remarkable in the recent religious
history of the people than the way in-
which dissent, while not increasing as
a whole, is nevertheless rapidly sub-
* Members means communicants, and im
plies a much larger proportion of nominal
adherents.

DISSENTERS

241

DISSENTERS

dividing into a multitudo .of little
sects. The table below, which is taken
from a return of the Registrar-General,
may. need a little explanation. Under
an Act of Parliament, certain privileges
are awarded to places registered as places
of Divine worship. The result is, that
all such places are registered as soon
as occupied ; and the Registrar-General
produces, among other returns, a state
ment of all the places so registered.
In 1851 the census gave seventy-five
different denominations. The Registrar-
General's return of places of worship in
1871, gave 177 names ; in 1886 it had
increased to 213. The following is a
transcript of the lamentable list for the
latter year : —
Advent Christians.
Advents, The.
Alethians.Anglican Church.
Apostolics.Arminian New Society.
Army of the King's Own.
Baptists.Baptized Believers.
Believers in Christ.
Believers in the Divine Visitation of
Joanna Southcote, Prophetess of
Exeter.
Believers meeting in the name of the
Lord Jesus Christ.
Benevolent Methodists..
Bible Christians.
Bible Defence Association.
Blackburn Psychological Society.
Blue Ribbon. Gospel Army.
Brethren. British Israelites.
Calvinistic Baptists.
Calvinistic Independents.
Calvinists and Welsh Calvinists.
Canonbury Hall Mission.
Catholic Apostolic Church.
Catholics of Newport.
Children's Special Service Associ
ation.
Christadelphians.'Christian Army.
Christian Believers.
Christian Brethren.

Christian Disciples.
Christian Eliasites.
Christian Evangelists. .
Christian Israelites.
Christian Lay Church.
Christian Mission.
Christian Pioneers.
Christian Soldiers.
Christian Teetotallers.
Christian Temperance Men.
Christian Unionists.
Christian Workers.
Christians owning no name but the
Lord Jesus.
Christians who object to be otherwise
designated.
Church. Army.
Church of Christ.
Church of England.
Church of England (unattached).
Church of Progress.
Church of Scotland.
Church of the People.
Congregation of the Son of the
Covenant.
Congregational Baptists.
Congregational Temperance Free
Church.
Countess of . Huntingdon's Connec
tion.
Covenanters.Coventry Mission Band.
Crusade Mission Army.
Danish Lutherans.
Deaf and Dumb Mission.
Dependents.. Disciples in Christ.
Disciples of Jesus Christ. .
Dunbar Archd., Congregation of.
Eastern Orthodox Greek Church.
Ecclesia of the Messiah.
Eclectics. Episcopalian Dissenters.
Evangelical Free Church.
Evangelical Mission.
Evangelical Unionists.
Exeter Free- Spiritual Research
Society.
Followers of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Free Catholic Christian Church.
Free Christian Association.
Free Christians.
Free Church.

DISSENTERS

242

DISSENTERS

Free Church (Episcopal).
Free Church of England.
Free Evangelical Christians.
Free Gospel and Christian Brethren.
Free Gospel Church.
Free Gospellers.
Free Grace Gospel Christians.
Free Methodists.
Free Salvation Army.
Free Union Church.
Full Salvationists.
General Baptist.
General Baptist New Connection.
German Evangelical Community.
- German Lutherans.
German Roman Catholics.
German Wesleyans.
Glassites. Glazebrook Army.
Glory Band.
Gospel Army Mission.
Gospel Band.
Gospel Temperance Blue Ribbon
Army.
Greek Catholic.
Hackney Juvenile Mission.
Halifax Psychological Society.
Hallelujah Band.
Holiness Army.'
Hope Mission.
Hosanna Army.
Humanitarians. Independent Church of England.
Independent Methodists.
Independent Religious Reformers.
Independent Unionists,
Independents. Inghamites.Israel, New and Latter House of.
Israelites.
Jews. King Jesus' Army.
King's Own Army.
Latter Day Saints.
Latter Day Saints (Anti-polygamy).
Lodging House Mission Association.
Lutherans. •
Members of the Church of England.
Methodist Army.
Methodist Reform Union.
Mission Army.
Missionaries. Modern Methodists.

Moravians.Mormons.New Church.
New Connection General Baptists;
New Connection Wesleyans.
New Hebrew Congregation.
New Jerusalem Church.
New Methodist.
New Spiritual Church.
Newcastle Sailors' Society. ¦' !
Old Baptists.
Open Baptists.
Open Brethren.
Orthodox Eastern Church.
Particular Baptists.
Peculiar People.
Pilgrim Band.
Plymouth Brethren.
Polish Jews.
Polish Society. •
Portsmouth Mission. •
Positivists.Presbyterian Baptists.
Presbyterian Church in England, ' ¦ , ,
Primitive Congregation.
Primitive Free Church.
Primitive Methodists.
Progressionists. Protestant Members of the Church of
England.
Protestant Trinitarians.
Protestant Union.
Protestants adhering to Articles 1 to
18, but rejecting Ritual.
Providence. Quakers.
Ranters. Rational Christians.
Recreative Religionists.
Red Ribbon Army.
Redeemed Army.
Reform Free Church Wesleyan
Methodists.
Reformed Church of England.
Reformed Episcopal Church.
Reformed Presbyterians.
Reformed Presbyterians or Cove
nanters.
Reformers.Refuge Methodists.
Rescue and Evangelization Mission.
Revivalists. Revival Band. '

DISSENTERS

243

DISSENTERS

Roman Catholics.
Royal Gospel Army.
Saints.
Salem Society.
Salvation Amiy.
Salvation Navy.
Salvationists.Sandemanians.Scotch Baptists.
Second Advent Brethren.
Secularists.Separatists (Protestant).
Seventh Day Baptists.
Society of the New Church.
Spiritual Church.
Spiritualists.
Stockton Hebrew Congregation.
Strict Baptists.
Swedenborgians.Temperance Methodists.
Testimony Congregational Church.
Theistic Church.
Trinitarians.Union Baptists.
Union Churchmen.
Union Congregationalists.
Union Free Church.
Unionists.Unitarian Baptists.
Unitarian Christians.
Unitarians. United Brethren or Moravians.
United Christian Army.
United Christian Church.
United Evangelical Ch. of Germany.
United Free Methodist Church.
United Presbyterians.
• Universal Christians.
Unsectarian.Welsh Calvinistic Methodists.
Welsh Free Presbyterians.
Welsh Wesleyan Methodists.
Wesleyan-Methodist Association.
Wesleyan Reform Glory Band.
Wesleyan Reformers.
Wesleyans.
White Ribbon Gospel Army.
Working Man's Evangelical Mission
Chapels.
Worshippers of God.
Young Men's Christian Association.
Young Women's Christian Associ
ation.

These descriptions are taken from the
original certificates sent to the Regis
trar-General for procuring the registra
tion of the room or building, and it
will be observed that the same sect is
in some instances variously described.
The melancholy truth illustrated
by the foregoing facts and figures is
the division and consequent enfeeble-
ment of English Christianity by Dis
sent. Some try to make believe that
this very division is an advantage,
through the rivalry which it creates
between the different religious bodies.
But the mind of Christ is not for rivalry,
but for unity : ' ' Neither pray I for these
alone (viz. the apostles), but for them
also which shall believe on Me through
their word ; that they all may be one ;
as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in
Thee, that they also may be one in
Us " (John xvii. 20, 21). We are One
in Spirit, plead some, notwithstanding
these external divisions. But tho
apostles, whose task it was, under
special Divine guidance, to embody the
mind of Christ in the practical organ
isation and working of His Church,
earnestly deprecated these divisions, and
condemned those who promoted them.
"Be ye all of one mind" (1 Peter iii.
8 : Acts i. 14 ; ii. 1, 46 ; iv. 44 ; v.
12 : 1 Cor. i. 10'; xiii. 11 : Phil. i. 27 ;
ii. 2; iv. 2). "Mark them which
cause divisions . . . and avoid them "
(Rom. xvi. 17 : 1 Cor. i. 10 ; iii. 3 ;
xi. 18 : 1 Tim. vi. 3).
An eloquent Nonconformist leader
argues that the different denominations
are like the different corps of an army,
wearing different uniforms and using
different weapons, but all fighting in
the common cause against the common
enemy. An admirable illustration. ,
The enemy could desire nothing better
than that the army opposed to him
should be divided into independent
corps, jealous of one another, under
different commanders, without any
attempt at unity of plan and concurrent
action. When the actual results of division
are studied, it is seen that God's awful

DISSENTERS

244

DIVORCE

rebuke of sin loses its force on the sin
ner's conscience, when, the authority of
the prophet who utters the rebuke is
disputed by rival prophets. The sceptic
is inevitably encouraged in his doubts
by the fact that when he asks what to
believe, English Christianity replies in
180 discordant voices. They who have
to deal with the practical details of
religious work, know how they are
vexed and thwarted and weakened in
every parish by its religious divisions.
The citizen who conceives some com
prehensive plan for the evangelising of
the town in which he lives, soon finds
that the religious divisions of the town
make common interest and united
action absolutely impossible. States
men know how not only the religious,
but the civil, social, educational, and
moral life of the nation are cramped and
dwarfed and embittered by these re
ligious rivalries and animosities. Let
us at least open our eyes to facts, and re
cognise that these divisions are an evil.
And it is not among ourselves only
that the evil works. This division of
our English Christianity has unhappily
been propagated to every country to
which our English Christianity has
been carried — to the United States, to
every one of the colonies, to every hea
then country to which our missionary
labours have extended; and everywhere
it hinders the cause of Christianity.
It is this spectacle of the endless
divisions and disorders of our English
Christianity which makes the other an
cient Churches of Christendom afraid to
follow the example of our Reformation.
" Nothing probably would so greatly
tend to the purification and revival of
the spiritual life of Christendom, to
the reunion of the divided and dis
tracted Churches, to the spread of
Christianity among the heathen nations
of the world, as the reunion of English
Christianity. This reunion can only
take place, so far as human wisdom
can foresee, by the gradual re-absorp
tion of the masses of the population
into the body of the Church. The
Church has reformed most of the

abuses which have alienated many from
her in the past, and is proceeding . in
the path of refomi ; she cannot give
up the points of doctrine and of essen
tial organisation on which the sects
formally base their . separation. But,
on the other hand, there are among
the Dissenting communities thousands
of individuals who are what they are
not from any well-considered consci
entious objections, but from early train
ing, or accidental preferences, or ignor
ance of what the Church really is and
believes. These might, they would if
they saw all the evils created by divi
sion, reunite themselves to the Mother
Church, the Historic Church of Eng
land. Separations as numerous, as long
standing, and far more embittered, have
again and again in the long history of
the Church of Christ thus died out."
(From 'Turning Points of Church
History.') It is the key of the ecclesi
astical position of Christendom ; the
example of England would be followed
in the colonies, and countries which
are influenced by England. This
would give such strength and prestige
to the Anglican Communion as would
affect the whole Church of Christ.
And a revived and reunited Christen
dom would surely be the precursor of
the fulfilment of our Lord's declaration,
that the unity of His disciples is the
condition on which the world would
believe that God had sent Him : "That
they also may be one in Us, that the
world may believe that Thou hast sent
Me " (John xvii. 21). " I in them, and
Thou in Me, that they may be made
perfect in One ; and that the world
may know that Thou hast sent Me"
(John xvii. 23).
DIVORCE. The separation of man
and wife by the sentence of a lawful
court. The phrase of the marriage
contract " to have and to hold, for
better for worse, from this day for
ward, till death us do part," is the
expression of the view which the
Church of Christ has always held of
the general indissolubility of the mar
riage bond. And it was practically

DIVORCE

245

DOGMA

indissoluble ; for though tho Ecclesias
tical Courts would, for sufficient causes,
grant a separation, a mensd et thoro —
from bed and board — yet there was no
legal mode of obtaining a total disso
lution from the marriage tie. In the
middle ages, indeed, separations were
sometimes effected on the subsequent
discovery of some original impediment
to the legality of the marriage, by the
declaration that because of such im
pediment the marriage was null and
void, ab initio, i. e. was no marriage.
The technical impediments to the law
fulness of marriage had been so multi
plied by the Roman Court (e. g. by
the fiction of a spiritual affinity created
by sponsorship at baptism), that it was
often possible to discover some such
pretext for a sentence of dissolution.
But in theory there was no power any-
¦where of giving a divorce a vinculo
matrimonii. This general truth is only
illustrated by the fact, that about 1700
a practice crept in among ourselves by
which men of great wealth and influ-
-ence were allowed, in the one case of
the wife's adultery, to obtain a special
Act of Parliament over-ruling the
general law, and absolving the man from
all penalties for putting away his wife,
and marrying again, in that particular
case. At length, in 1857, an Act of
Parliament took away from the Eccle
siastical Courts all jurisdiction over the
subject of marriage, and conferred upon
a Court specially created a jurisdiction
to grant divorces a vinculo matri
monii — from the marriage tie, with
liberty to contract a new marriage.
The difficulty into which this put the
clergy, of liability to penalties for con
scientious refusal to re-marry a divorced
person, was got over by a curious and
not satisfactory compromise. It was
expressly enacted that no clergyman
should be compelled to solemnise the
marriage, but if the incumbent of the
church in which it was desired that
the marriage should take place should
refuse to solemnise the marriage, then
the parties should be entitled to have
the service performed in that church by

any other clergyman whom they could
find willing to perforin such service.
This novel permission of re-marriage
by the civil law, involves the clergy
and faithful laity of the Church in two
great difficulties : (1) whether the
Church is to recognise the lawfulness
of the re-marriage of the innocent
person, or of both persons, in the case
of divorce on account of adultery ; (2)
if the Church does not recognise the
re-marriage of such persons, is she to
admit to Holy Communion persons
who have entered into such relations ?
At present the law of the Church and
the law of the land are opposed to one
another on these points ; for the law of
the land, which legalises the re-mar
riage, would also uphold the legal right
of such persons to be received as com
municants. And the clergy are placed
in a position of difficulty, and in danger
of serious penalties at the hand of the
civil judge, for obeying the law of the
Church ; the faithful laity are thrown
into a state of perplexity as to their
duties to themselves and others. New
legislation by the Church, or an author
itative re-declaration of the deliberate
mind of the Church, seems desirable
for the guidance' of its officials and
people. DOGMA is the accurate statement in
formal theological language of religious
truth as laid down by competent author
ity ; viz. by Holy Scripture, as the
unity of God ; or, on points which
have been subject of controversy by
General Councils of the Church, as the
true deity of our Lord Jesus Christ ;
or, generally, by competent ecclesias
tical authority, according to the 20th
Article of the Church of England,
which maintains that "the Church
hath authority in controversies of faith."
To dogmatise, or to teach dogma
tically, is therefore to state religious
truths, as thus ascertained by com
petent authority, not as doubtful pro
positions to be discussed and received
so far as they may commend them
selves to the knowledge and judgment
of the disciple, but as ascertained truths,

DOG-TONGS

246

DOMINICANS

to be received by those who acknowledge
the authority.
The words are sometimes used in
invidiam. Dogmas, or precise authori
tative statements of religious truth, are
considered uncharitable towards those
who do not accept them, or do not
accept the authority. A dogmatic per
son means, in common parlance, one
who is opinionated and dictatorial.
DOG-TONGS. In old days dogs
were frequently brought to ¦ church by
their owners, and often became so
troublesome as to necessitate their
forcible removal. In many churches
in Wales a special instrument was pro
vided for the purpose, and formed a
portion of the regular ecclesiastical
furniture. It was a pair of "lazy
tongs, " on a large scale, armed with jaws
at the end, with which any unruly beast
might be seized either by the leg or
neck, and forcibly ejected beyond the
sacred precincts. At Clynnog Fawn
church in Carnarvonshire, a pair of
iron dog-tongs is still preserved, bear
ing the following inscription, ' ' Rbvd-
H. W*a V" 1.1. W.I. WARs 1815." It
consists of six pieces of narrow bar iron
| inch by TV inch and 14 inches long,
jointed at. the centres and ends, so as
to form a lattice ; when extended to
its full length it is 3 feet 9 inches long.
The jaws are provided, with two sets of
four iron teeth.
A pair of wooden dog-tongs at Clo-
dock church, Herefordshire, is described
and illustrated by the Rev. D. R.
Thomas in the ' Archseologia Cambren-
sis' for 1876, p. 213. Other tongs
exist at Gyffylliog church, and Llany-
nis church, Denbighshire. Items for
whipping dogs out of church appear in
parish accounts, as in those of Smarden
church, Kent, under the dates 1573,
1576, 1619, where a regular official,
known as the dog-whipper, is referred
to. "1619, To Sothenden, for whipping
doges out of ye church, iiijd. To
Thomas Hopper for ye whip, iijd. " (See
' Archseologia Cantiana,' vol. xiv. p. 25.)
Similar disbursements are recorded
by the Churchwardens of Great Staugh-

ton church, Huntingdonshire, such as,
"1653. Itm. paideto Wm. Richards for
whippinge the dogs out of the chureh
from Michaelm. till Christmas follow-
inge, Is. Od."— J. R. A.
DOMINICANS. An Order of FriaTS
so called after their founder, Dominic ;
Friars Preachers from their special voca
tion ; popularly Black Eriars from the
colour of their outer robe. [See Friars.]
At the beginning of the thirteenth
century, the religious world of Europe
was distracted with numerous heresies,
which threatened alike Christian faith
and ecclesiastical order. In the south
of France the endeavour to put down
the Waldenses and Albigenses by force
led to a civil war. Dominic, born
1170, of a noble Spanish family,,*
canon of Osma, of learning, piety, and
zeal, had attended his bishop on an
embassy to France ; and going thence to
Rome, they obtained the Pope's leave to
work among the heretics in the south
of France. At Montpelier they met
with some Papal Legates, who, with
some Cistercian monks, were endeavour
ing to combat the prevalent heresy
with little success. The bishop advised
them to meet the professed apostolical
simplicity of the heretical teachers by
a similar simplicity, and volunteered
to enforce his counsel by his own ex
ample. The missionaries accordingly
sent away their servants and baggage,
and went two and two barefooted from
place to place, preaching to the people
and disputing with the heretical teach
ers. When the bishop returned to his
See, and the Cistercian monks to their
monastery, Dominic continued to carry
on the work almost alone. Then ho
conceived the idea of an Order of men,
who, fully equipped with learning, and
winning the sympathy of the people,
by the simplicity of their lives, should
devote themselves to the conversion of
heretics and the defence and propaga
tion of the Faith. The Bishop of Tou
louse encouraged the idea, and obtained
for him the verbal sanction of the Pope
Innocent III. (1215), gave him a church
in Toulouse for his convent, and a pro-

DOMINICANS

247

DOMINICANS

portion of tithes for its maintenance.
Honorius III. confirmed his Rule (1216) ;
and gave him the church of St. Sabina
in the Aventine, where he fixed the
head-quarters of his Order ; and con
ferred on him the office of Master of
the Sacred Palace, whose duties were
the supervision of the religious instruc
tion of the households of the pope and
cardinals. The new Order of Friars Preachers
made rapid progress. The organisation
was the same as that of the Franciscans :

Dominican Friar.
a General in Rome ; provincials in the
several countries to which it extended ;
and custodes, over districts called visit
ations, and priors of individual houses
—all elective and removable. At the
second chapter, 1221, the Order was
divided into eight provinces, to which
four were subsequently added ; it now
borrowed from the Franciscans.the prin
ciple of absolute poverty or mendicancy ;
and adopted the distinctive dress of

white frock and scapulary with the black
outer robe, from which they derived
their popular name of Black Friars.
In philosophy the Dominicans
warmly espoused the theory of Thomas
Aquinas, the most distinguished school
man of their order, who was the repre
sentative of the Realistic philosophy.
The Order had a special ¦ devotion to
the Blessed Virgin Mary, and adopted
as a tenet the suggestion which Aquinas
started as a possibility, of the Immacu
late Conception of the Virgin. Each of
them had an image of the Madonna as
well as a crucifix in his cell.
Controversial disputation and preach
ing being the special object of tho
Order, it devoted itself from the first
to the cultivation of theology and
philosophy, supplied professors to tho
universities of Europe, and took its
full share in the great intellectual
movements of its time. Among tha
most learned men of the thirteenth
century, Albert, surnamed the Great,
was a Dominican; and Thomas Aquinas,
whose Summa Theologies became the
standard of orthodoxy and the text
book of theological teaching for the
Western Church for the subsequent
ages. The long roll of Dominicans
who rose to the greater dignities of the.
Church is" crowned by the names of
three Popes — Innocent V., Benedict
IX., and Pius V. Its members were
much employed by the pope as envoys.
The office of Inquisitor was in several
countries committed to the hands of the
Dominicans as the official champions of
orthodoxy ; and Leo X. committed to
them the censorship of books.
The Order was introduced into Eng
land in 1221,* and patronised by Arch
bishop Langton ; and established its
first house, of a prior and twelve friars,
in Oxford ; the next in London, and
so gradually spread over the -country.
The Parliaments of 1450 and 1529 were
summoned to meet in their house in.
London, of which only the name sur
vives. Some remains of their churches,
* Dominic died in August of the same
year.

DONATIVE

24S

DUNSTAN

and houses still exist, — c. g. at Glou
cester (see -plan and drawings, ' Archae
ological Journal,' vol. xxxix. p. 304) ;
also at Lynn and Beverley ; their
refectory at Canterbury, the nave of
their church, now St. Andrew's Hall,
at Norwich. The preaching crosses
at Hereford and elsewhere are inter
esting indications of their habit of ad
dressing large open air congregations.
At the dissolution, in 1536, they had
fifty-eight houses here, viz. : at Dun-
staple, Cambridge, Chester, Truro,
Carlisle, Derby, Exeter, Melcombe,
Chelmsford, Gloucester, Winchester,
Hereford, King's Langley, Herts, Can
terbury, Lancaster, Leicester, Boston,
Lincoln, Stamford, London, Newport
Mon., Lynn, Norwich, Thetford, Yar
mouth, Northampton, Bamburgh, Ber
wick, Newcastle, Oxford, Rutland,
Shrewsbury, Bristol, Ivelchester, Somer
set, Newcastle-under-Lyne, Dunwich,
Ipswich, Sudbury, Guildford, Arundel,
Chichester, Winchelsea, Warwick,
Salisbury, Walton, Worcester, Bever
ley, Doncaster, Hull, Pontefract, Scar
borough, Yarm Yorks, York, Breck
nock, Bangor, Rhudlan, Cardiff,
Haverford in Pembroke. There were
two nunneries at Langley, Lancashire,
and Guildford.
DONATIVE, is a Church benefice to
which the patron has a right to nom
inate any eligible cleric, and the cleric,
thereupon, may vacate any benefice he
at present holds without tho bishop's
license, and becomes vested of the new
donative benefice without any present
ation to the bishop, or institution or
induction, by the bishop. It is a kind
of benefice liable to abuse, and wdiich
might with advantage be reduced to
the usual rules.
The DORMITORY of a monastery
[see Monastery] was a long hall or
gallery, with the beds arranged along
the walls on each side, originally with
out any separation from one another ;
and the monks slept in their habit,
contrary to the usual custom of the
time which dispensed with all clothing
in bed. A lamp burned all night, in

the dormitory. The abbot, or prior,
or one of the officials, slept in the
middle of the room. At a later period
the dormitory was divided by timber
or even stone partitions, into separate
cubicles, with doors so made with open,-
ings that a supervision could still be
exercised by the official in charge.
DUNSTAN, St., Archbishop of Can
terbury, born 925, was of noble birth ;,
his parents' names were Heorstan and'
Kyneditha. We find his near kinsmen
among the palatini, i. e. members of
the Court and household of King
Athelstan ; he was related to the great
Lady Ethelfleda, who was of royal de
scent, being Athelstan's "niece ; Elfege,
Bishop of Winchester, and Bishop
Kinesigo of Lichfield were also near
relatives. He was born at or near
Glastonbury, and was a pupil of the
Irish pilgrims who had- taken up their
abode there. Whilst quite a boy he
lived also in the palace of Athelstan, •'
at no great distance from Glastonbury.
Ho received the tonsure at an early
age. Being expelled from Athelstan's
Court, he stayed a long time with
Elfege at Winchester, who persuaded
him to become a monk. He returned
to Glastonbury in attendanoe on the
Lady Ethelfleda, who had a house '
there, and who left her estates to be
disposed of by him. Between the years
942 and 946 King Edmund gave him
the Abbey of Glastonbury. This vener
able foundation, whose history stretched
back to the age of the earlier British
Church, had fallen into the condition
of many of the Saxon monasteries at
this time ; a piece of family patronage,
in which the nominal abbot, might be
a married man, a prior being the re-'
ligious ruler, and the so-called monks
being often secular priests or clerks,
also with wives and children. Tho
new abbot was still a young man of
about twenty-two ; whatever improve-'
ments he may have made now, the'
great reform, which made him regarded;'
in after ages as a second founder of
Glastonbury, certainly belong to a later
period of his life.

DUNSTAN

249

DUNSTAN

King Edmund died soon afterwards.
Edred, his successor, was about the
same age as Dunstan. The young
king, of a sickly constitution, was
chiefly guided by the advice of his
mother ; but he put the young abbot
into an official position somewhat like
that of the Chancellor of later times.
Edred, unlike his two predecessors, lived
chiefly at Winchester, . and Dunstan's
time was divided between Glastonbury,
where he was restoring the buildings
and raising up a school of learning,
and Winchester, in attendance on the
king. In 956 Edred died, and was
succeeded by Edwy at the age of fifteen.
The story which some historians have
cited as an instance of the tyranny of
tho archbishop over the king really
amounts to this, that the minister
fetched the wanton boy, his pupil and
ward, out of the dangerous company of
a girl to whom he was paying unlawful
court, and brought him back to fulfil
the duties of kingly courtesy to the
chief men of the kingdom assembled at
his coronation festival. Edwy accused
the minister of malversation in his
office, and Dunstan fled to Flanders,
where Count Arnulf gave him protec
tion, and the Monastery of Blandinium
was his temporary home. It was here,
in a well-ordered monastery of the
Benedictine rule, that Dunstan learnt
the discipline which he afterwards in
troduced at Glastonbury. A revolution
deprived Edwy of power, and. placed
his brother Edgar at the head of affairs.
Dunstan was recalled, and regained his
influence, and was consecrated bishop
without a see, until the death of Kyne-
wald (957 or 8) left Worcester vacant
for him ; in 959 he received the See of
London, still continuing to hold Wor-
caster till the settlement which followed
after Edwy's death ; and on the vacancy
of Canterbury in the same year, Edgar,
with the advice of the Witan, appointed
Dunstan as archbishop, still holding
the other sees until the opportunity of a
satisfactory settlement of affairs. . On
the death, of Edwy in the following
year Dunstan consecrated Elfstan to

London and Oswald to Worcjster, and
two years afterwards Ethelwold to
Winchester. From this datp began the
struggle of which the historians of the
reign have made so much between the
monks and the clerks. The desire of
the movers in the matter was to reform
the monasteries and reduce them to the
Benedictine rule. Ethelwold also ex
pelled the seculars, and converted his
cathedral chapter at Worcester into a
convent of Benedictine monks ; Os
wald left them in his cathedral at
Worcester, but removed his choir to
the neighbouring monastery ; and Dun
stan made no attempt to introduce a
change at Canterbury, it was jElfric
in 1003 who introduced the monks
into Canterbury cathedral ; and all
the other cathedrals remained in pos
session of the seculars till the end. of
the Anglo-Saxon period. In this re
form of the monasteries "Ethelwold
was the moving spirit ; Oswald tem
pered zeal with discretion ; Dunstan's
hand may be credited with such little
wisdom and practical moderation as
can bo traced." The movement, with-
all its drawbacks, was justifiable, per
haps absolutely necessary. The cleans
ing of Winchester from the spunilice
clericorum may not have been indis
pensable for the welfare of Ramsey,
Ely, Peterborough, and Thorney ; but
we cannot doubt that a monastic mis
sion system was necessary for the re
covery of middle England from the
desolation and darkness brought upon
it by the Danes, or that the monastic
revival was in these regions both suc
cessful and useful.
Dunstan was Edgar's closest friend
and adviser, the chief of the Witan,
and the ecclesiastical head of the nation.
And the reigns in which Dunstan was
the royal adviser were successful reigns :
the country had peace, and grew in
prosperity ; religion revived, and learn
ing and the arts began to be successfully
cultivated in the monastic schools. On
the accession of Ethelred his influence
over the affairs of the government
ceased ; he retired to his see, and died

DUNWICH

250

DURHAM

there 19th May, 988. The period
of prosperity was succeeded by "the
misrule of, Ethelred, the oppression of
Canute, and the tyranny of his sons ;
the political turmoil of the great pro
vincial struggles under Edward the
Confessor ; and after that, the appar
ently hopeless humiliation under the
Conqueror. " All this helped to invest
Dunstan and Edgar with a character
they had scarcely possessed in their
life-time. The English looked back,
and saw that for thirty years Dunstan
had been ' ' the mainstay of the safety
and glory of the English ; " for a cen
tury and a half he continued to be the
popular saint of the mother Church of
Canterbury, and " his glory was at last
eclipsed by no less a hero than Thomas
a Becket." He has left no literary re
mains. The early and more trustworthy
writers connect his memory with no
cruel or barbarous asceticism. His
rerouted crusade against the married
clergy, as distinct from the members
of monasteries, is unsupported by evi
dence. ' ' He was a learned and reli
gious ecclesiastic, the wise instructor
of a royal pupil, the statesman, the
reformer, and the patriot. " ' Life of
Dunstan,' by W. Stubbs, Rolls Series.
DUNWICH, DIOCESE OF. [See
Norwich.] DURHAM, DIOCESE OF, is the
legitimate representative of the Celtic
bishopric of Lindisfarne, to which,
after the failure of the Italian mission
from Canterbury, and the flight of
Paulinus, the kingdom of Northumbria,
and not that kingdom only, owes its
conversion to Christianity, and its
permanent ecclesiastical organisation.
The history of the mission of Paulinus
belongs more properly to the history
of tho diocese of York, and is there
dealt with.
The history of the diocese of Lindis
farne begins with the victory of Oswald
over Ceadwalla at Heathfield, in the
year 633. How he sent to Iona for a
missionary, how Aidan was sent, and
established himself at Holy Island,
and became the apostle of Northumbria,

is part of the general history of the
Saxon Conversion, which is related
under the title Saxon Period of Eng*
lish Church history, and in the life of
Aidan [which see]. A few notes may
be added of the gradual progress of
Christianity in the vas"t kingdom which
then stretched from the Humber to
the Frith of Forth, and which is
marked by the foundation of the re
ligious houses, which were the mission
stations from which the neighbouring
districts were evangelised.
Besides Lindisfarne Aidan founded
Melrose, and made Eata its abbot.
Hilda [which see] was first tho Superior
of a small nunnery on the banks of the
Wear, and afterwards founded the great
double house of monks and nuns at
Whitby. Ebba, the sister of the two
kings Oswald and Oswy, first gathered
a community at Chichester, and later
founded tho double house of Colding-
ham. Alchfrid, the son of King Oswy,
founded a monastery at Stamford, near
York, and afterwards the monastery
at Ripon, of which he made Wilfrid
abbot, Cuthbert being one of tho
original members of the community. ¦
Benedict Biscop, a noble Saxon, who
held office under King Oswy, at the
age of twenty-five forsook his secular
life. In 653 he went to Rome ; and
again in' 665, when he also passed two
years at the monastery at Lerins, then
the most famous monastic school north
of the Alps, and there received tho
tonsure. He returned to Rome just at
the time that Theodore was consecrated
Archbishop of Canterbury there, and
returned with him to England, and'
undertook the charge of the monastery
of St. Peter at Canterbury. After two
years he visited Rome yet again, and
on his return, went to his native
Northumbria, and obtained from the
king a grant of land on the north side
of the mouth of the Wear, whera he
built the monastery of Wearmouth.
He Visited Rome yet again to Seek
what he needed for his undertaking,:
brought back a precentor, pictures,
and relics, and a letter of privileges for

DURHAM

251

DURHAM

his monastery. On a new grant of land
which the king gave him he founded
a second monastery at Jarrow, and
returned yet again to Rome in search
of books and pictures, and other eccle
siastical treasures.
It was in 664 that the Synod took
place at which the Northumbrian
Church (Bishop Colman dissenting and
resigning his see) accepted the Con
tinental customs. Ceadda founded a
monastery at Lastingham, over which
he, and subsequently his brother Cedd,
ruled. In the visitation of Archbishop The
odore he decided between Ceadda and
Wilfrid in favour of the latter, who
was accordingly installed as Bishop
of Northumbria ; but then Theodore
decided upon the division of the vast
diocese, and on Wilfrid's refusal to
accede to this loss of territory, he was
deposed in turn. York was made a
separate see from Lindisfarne, and a
special bishop was consecrated for the
outlying southern district of the Lindis-
waras in Lincolnshire, which had been
annexed to the Northumbrian kingdom.
Two years later another bishop was
consecrated for Hexham, and? still
another for the outlying northern pro
vince of the Picts, who were subject to
the Northumbrian king.
It is the diocese of Lindisfarne whose
history is here to be followed. Tun-
bert, the first bishop of this sub-divi
sion of Northumbria, was succeeded by
St. Cuthbert, whose history will be
found under his name, and the fortunes
of his see, until it was finally settled
at Durham.
It was in 995 that the car contain
ing the body of St. Cuthbert remained
immovable at Dunholme, and the
Bishop Aldhun and his monks under
stood that the saint had chosen that
place for the future site of the see. It
was on 4th Sept. 999 that the great
church was dedicated. The episcopal
line of Hexham having ceased about
A.D. 820, in a way which is not ex
plained by the historians, but which
may be conjectured to have been from

the same cause as the migrations of
the see of Lindisfarne, viz. the utter
anarchy of the whole kingdom caused
by the continual ravages of the Danes,
the Bishops of Durham, from Aldhun
to Egelwin, ruled over the whole coun
try from the Tyne to the Tees, and
from sea to sea, over a half-barbarous
people, in stormy times. During the
course of ages the possessions of the
Church of Durham, or, as it was called,
the Patrimony of St. Cuthbert, had
become very great. The bishop and
the monks formed one community called
the Congregation of St. Cuthbert ; but
in the latter part of the Anglo-Saxon
period, in the general decay of English
monasticism, they had fallen away from
anything like regular monastic life and
discipline. There was one peculiarity
which distinguished the See of Durham
from all others in England — the Pala
tinate power. The bishop was not
only a prelate of the Church, but also
a temporal prince. All the other great
divisions of England were called coun
ties, because they were, or were sup
posed to be, under the jurisdiction of
an earl or count ; but the territory
between the Tees and the Tyne (to
gether with certain detached districts
between the Tyne and the Tweed) was
not called a county, but "The Bishop
ric," because the bishop was its tem
poral ruler. Elsewhere the terms dio
cese and bishopric meant tho same
thing, but it was not so here : the
word Diocese referred to the whole
territory under the bishop's spiritual
jurisdiction, i. e. the country from the
Tees to the Tweed, including both the
shires of Durham and Northumberland ;
the word Bishopric referred only to
the district under the bishop's temporal
jurisdiction, or the shire of Durham.
Hence "the men of the Bishopric" are
constantly distinguished from "the
men of Northumberland, " though both
alike were in the diocese. The origin
of the Palatinate is lost in the mist
of remote antiquity. It does not
seem to have begun at the Conquest,
nor was it then at its greatest height.

DURHAM

252

DURHAM

The germ- may have existed in Saxon
times, perhaps ever since the kings
Guthred and Alfred gave to the Church
the land between the Wear and the
Tyne ; and its culmination appears to
have arrived in the fourteenth century.
The powers of the Bishop of Durham
within the bishopric were far greater
than those of any earl in his county.
Mr. Low* gives a detailed statement
of the rights of the bishop as Palatine ;
they were such as to make the bishop
a great feudal prince within his bishop
ric, almost independent of the king,
while the "men of the bishopric"
were a privileged class in the kingdom ;
they were called Haliwerkfolc, i. e. Holy-
work people ; they were the servants of
St. Cuthbert, subject to none but St.
Cuthbert's successor, and to him only
within the bounds of the bishopric.
Egelwin, the last Saxon bishop,
having seized a large amount of the
Church's treasure, fled, and shortly
after died. The Conqueror nominated
to the vacant see Walcher, a native of
Lorraine, a canon of Liege, a man of
noble birth and considerable attain
ments. In his time three monks from
Worcester diocese, who had read in
history (Bede's, probably) of the mon
asteries which formerly existed in
Northumbria, were seized with the
desire to seek out their ruins and re
vive the monastic institution in those
places. The bishop encouraged them,
and settled them first at Jarrow ; there
a few others joined them ; and they
established a religious community and
began the rebuilding of the church.
Thence one of them went to Monk-
wearmouth, which in time herefounded
and rebuilt, and the third to Whitby,
where he repaired the famous house of
St. Hilda, and founded a community
which afterwards removed to York and
became the famous abbey of St. Mary.
Walcher was killed by a riotous mob
of his own subjects, and was succeeded
by William of St. Carilef, whose rule
is memorable for two great achieve-
¦ * 'Diocesan History of Durham,' p. 123.
by Rev. J. L, Low. S.P.C.K.

ments. He removed the clergy of tho
"Congregation of St. Cuthbert," and
supplied their places with monks of
Jarrow and Monkwearmouth, and so
converted the cathedral body into a
convent of monks under the Benedic
tine Rule. Next he commenced (1093)
the building of a new cathedral. He,
dying in 1095, was succeeded (after
three and a half years' vacancy) hy the
notorious Ralph Flambard, the un
scrupulous minister of Rufus. During
his incumbency the king founded a
new diocese of the county of Cumber
land, placing its see in the church of
the Austin Canons of Carlisle. He also
took away Hexham and the neighbour
ing district (Hexhamshire), and be
stowed it upon the Archbishop of
York ; and Teviotdale in Scotland,
which the Bishops of Durham still
claimed, was annexed to the diocese of
Glasgow. In his time, too, Carilifs
magnificent design for the cathedral
was completed, and the church was
dedicated (1104), which still so grandly
crowns the rocky height above the Wear.
The majority of the bishops must be
passed over in silence ; but there is
one who deserves, notice as an example
of the prince-bishop of the Middle
Ages. Hugh Pudsey, a young man of
twenty-five, of the kindred of King
Stephen, was consecrated by the pope
in 1154 ; a man of great wealth,
ability, ambition, and magnificence.
He bought of Richard I. the earldom
of Northumberland, and was appointed
Justiciary of the northern part of the
kingdom. Antony Bek (1283—1310), bishop in
the reign of Edward I., gathered still
grander honours around his crozier.
A magnificent prelate, able, accom
plished, of boundless ambition, and
with a large private fortune in addition
to the revenues of his see, he astonished
the world with his lavish expenditure.-
His usual retinue was one hundred and
forty knights ; he brought to the king's
aid in his campaign against Baliol one
thousand foot and five hundred horse,
When the pope summoned him to

DURHAM

253

DURHAM

Rome, to reply to the charges brought
against him by his convent, he went
with such a retinue, and lived with
such magnificence, and treated cardinals
and pope with such self-confidence,
that all the world wondered. Clement
V. made him Patriarch of Jerusalem ;
and Edward II. conferred on him the
sovereignty of the Isle of Man.
As a contrast to these, a few lines
may be granted to a note on Bishop
Richard de Bury (1333—1345), who
had been tutor to the young prince,
afterwards Edward III., and was em
ployed by that king as ambassador and
chancellor, and who yet found time for
tho duties of his episcopal office, and
for the cultivation of letters. "He
was one of the foremost pioneers in the
revival of learning ; insatiable in read
ing and in collecting books. Ho main
tained a correspondence with learned
men, among the rest with Petrarch,
and entertained in his family many
learned scholars who afterwards rose
to eminence, among whom were Thomas
Bradwardine, soon afterwards Arch
bishop of Canterbury, Richard Fitz-
ralph, afterwards Archbishop of
Armagh, with many more. Every day
at table, unless the arrival of persons
of importance prevented it, reading
went on, followed by discussion. He
is said to have had more books at his
different houses than all the other
bishops of England, and he kept con
stantly employed a host of collectors,
transcribers, illuminators, and book
binders. That the treasures he had
collected might not be lost, he left a
large part of them to the library of
Durham College, Oxford. He wrote a
book, which is still extant, called
'Philobiblion,' in which he relates,
among other things, how he became
possessed of his collections, and lays
down rules for the preservation and
use of books. He tells us that many
opportunities, which he eagerly seized,
were afforded him by his foreign em
ployments ; that when people got to
know how eagerly he sought^ after
books, they were forward in coming to

offer them, either in gift or for sale ;
that the stores of monasteries were
opened to him, and poor monks, whom
he always befriended, took pains to
help ; France, Germany, and. Italy,
were all laid under contribution ; who
ever brought a book was always wel
come. Books, he says, are most
patient and kind teachers — "these are
the masters who instruct without birch
rods, without scolding or anger, and
need neither bread nor money. When
you go to them they are never asleep,
they do not hide themselves, they.
never grumble, and if you make a mis
take they never laugh at your ignor
ance." It is said that in each of his
different manors the floor of his bed
room was so encumbered with books
that one could hardly move or find a
place to stand without treading upon
a book." *
The situation of the diocese made it
constantly subject to Scottish raids,
and the first to suffer in the Scottish
invasions of England. A note on the
battle of Neville's Cross will be enough
to illustrate the military aspect of the
episcopate. The Nevilles of Raby
were among the Barons of the Palatin
ate, being the tenants of the convent
for the manors of Raby and Staindrop-
shire. In 1346 the Scottish King,
taking advantage of Edward III.'s
absence in France, invaded England,
thinking it denuded of its fighting
men, who had gone with the king to
the French war. But Ralf Neville,
Henry Percy, and the border Barons,
with the Bishop of Durham and the
Archbishop of York, mustered their
forces, and met the enemy at the Red
Hills, near Durham, and fought a des
perate battle, which ended in the defeat
of the Scots, with the loss of 15,000
men. The prior and monks had taken
with them the standard of St. Cuth
bert, to a place near the field, and
during the battle knelt in prayer for
victory. The victors went to the
cathedral to return thanks, and tho
banners of Lord Neville and of tho
» Ibid. p. 185.

DURHAM

254

DURHAM

Scottish King were hung up on St.
Cuthbert's shrine as memorials. A
hymn of thanksgiving was ordered to
be sung every year on the anniversary
of the battle from the top of the cathe
dral tower, and is still chanted every
year, though the day has been changed
from Oct. 17th to the 29th of May. A
cross of stone was erected by Lord
Neville on the field, the base of which
only still remains. When Ralf Neville.
died, in recognition of his services on
that day of danger, he was allowed to
be buried within the cathedral church,
an honour never before granted to a
layman. The funeral was a magnificent
one : the body was brought to the
churchyard in a chariot drawn by
seven horses, and carried on the shoul
ders of knights into the church, where,
the bishop being absent, and the prior
in ill-health, the office of the dead was
performed by the Abbot of St. Mary's
of York. Eight horses, four for war
and four for peace, were presented as
an offering, with costly cloths of blue
and gold ; and the widowed baroness
presented a large sum for the repairs of
the church, with rich vestments for
the celebration of mass on the day of
his anniversary. The Nevilles had a
chapel in the south aisle of the nave.
In 1372 we get a glimpse at the
condition of the Convent in Pope
Gregory IX. 's reply to an application
for leave to appropriate a Yorkshire
benefice. He says that he is informed
that "the religious body consisted of
one hundred and fifty persons, with
four dependent abbeys where priors had
been instituted ; besides which, that
they held, dependent on the monas
tery, thirteen parish churches, while
they had the right of collation to
many others ; that by reason of their
Opulence they were guilty of great
enormities ; that when they travelled
they were each attended by three or
four horsemen, and made an appear
ance inconsistent with religious hu
mility ; and that in their expenses, as
well in provision for their table as in
apparel and other ordinary matters,

they were guilty of great excess.". Ten
years afterwards they obtained from
Pope Urban VI. for their prior tha
privilege of wearing mitre, staff, ring,
sandals, and other pontifical insignia.
The reason they assign in asking for
this privilege is, that their house had
an income of 5000 marks sterling or
more, and that the heads of other
houses of less importance had this
privilege, to the scandal of their church.
At the time of the Reformation
Cuthbert Tunstal was bishop, a man
of learning, ability, and judgment,,, a
friend of Erasmus, and sharing with
that eminent scholar and many of the
best men of the time, a desire for the
reformation of abuses, the sweeping
away of superstitions, the promotion
of sound learning and religion, but
afraid of the lengths to which the
spirit of innovation might proceed.
He first opposed the making of tha
changes in Henry's reign, but when.,.
made conformed to them. On the ac
cession of Edward VI. an endeavour
was made to convict him of treason ;
the House of Commons refused to pass
a bill of attainder, but a Commission,
found him guilty ; he was deprived
and committed to the Tower ; the
bishopric was dissolved, formed into a
County Palatine, and annexed to the
Crown. On the accession of Mary,, tho
bishop was restored to his see, and an
Act of Parliament restored the bishop
ric, with its rights. On the accession, >
of Elizabeth, he declined to comply
with the new changes, was deprived,
and committed to the friendly custody
of Archbishop Parker at Lambeth,
where he resided till his death. The
dissolution of the monasteries gives.ua
a glance at the religious houses of the
diocese. All of them except the Priory
of Durham itself were included among
the smaller houses, and fell under the
Act of Suppression. They were not
numerous. In the bishopric itself
there was no independent monastic,
foundation. Finchale, Jarrow, and
Wearmouth were dependencies of Dur
ham, so also was Lindisfarne a portion

DURHAM

255

DURHAM

of the bishopric, though the whole
county of Northumberland lay between.
Tynemouth had for centuries been a
oell of St Albans. In Northumber
land, Hexham and Brinkburn were in
the hands of the Augustinians. New-
minster was a Cistercian and Blanehland
a Prsemonstratensian foundation. There
were also Alnwick and Hulne, besides
a small nunnery at Lambley, near
Alston. Hexham did not fall without
a. struggle. When the Commissioners
appeared they met with a determined
resistance, headed by the Master of
Ovingh'am, a dependent cell lower
down the Tyne. But all was in vain,
and the last prior,, so says tradition,
was hanged at, the gate of the priory.
Durham, like a mother bereft of all
her children, stood alone for the present.
Next came the surrender of the Abbey
of Durham, which took place on the
last day of i540. There is still extant
a report of the proceedings of the Com
missioners at Durham. It suffered
the usual spoliation ; "but with regard
to endowments the. church of Durham
fared better than most. The abbey
was refounded as a chapter of canons,
with a dean and twelve prebendaries.
The prior became the first dean, and
the prebendaries were named from the
senior monks. The possessions of the
church were allowed to remain in a
great measure entire." *
A sermon preached before the Court
in 1552, the second year of Edward
VI., by Bernard Gilpin, the saintly
and magnificent rector of Houghton-
le-Spring, gives a picture of the state
of the Church at this time. He in
veighs against the dispensations for
pluralities and non-residence "trans
ported hither from Rome," but still
prevailing, in spite of the professions
of purity of doctrine. From these, dis
pensations came the farming of bene
fices by gentlemen and laymen, the
profit of which they find so sweet that
preachers could, not have them. Patrons
put in incompetent persons, taking a
bill to let them have the greatest part
* 'Diocesan Hist, of Durham,', p. 27.

of the profits. Patrons "see that none
do their duty — they think it as good
to put in asses as men ; " and the
| bishops play into their hands. "The
bishops were never so liberal in making
of lewd (i. e. unlearned) priests, and
they (the patrons) are as liberal in
making lewd vicars." "... Baptism
is despised, and the Holy Communion
thought nothing of. ..." "Learning
decays — men will not send their chil
dren to the schools. Look upon the
two wells of this realm, Oxford and
Cambridge, they are. almost dried up.
Ministers do not think themselves,
obliged to do any pastoral work the
first year after presentation, because
they get no pay, the king taking the
first-fruits." "With all this there
was much hypqcrisy — great professions
of zeal for the purity of the gospel. "
The abuses of the Reformation led
to the rebellion called "the Rising in
the North " in 1509, which is part of
the general history of the time, but
has a local interest since it was headed
by Percy, Earl of Northumberland, and
Neville, Earl of Westmoreland, and
the insurgents took possession of the
city and cathedral of Durham. It was
put down without difficulty, and the
insurgents were treated with great, but
perhaps under the circumstances need
ful, severity ; sixty-six were executed
at Durham alone, and the .Earl of
Sussex boasted that there was not a
village between Newcastle and Wether-
by where some had not been hanged.
A year and a half after Tunstal's
deprivation, James Pilkington (1560)
was nominated to the see, after the
estates of the see had been sufficiently
despoiled ; and in 1563 William Whit-
tingham, who had married Calvin's
sister, was made dean, and "did all he
could to remove every trace of the
ancient faith. "
At the time of the Great Rebellion
Morton was bishop, and his high
character appears to have won for
him more favour than was shown to
the other deprived bishops, for a pen
sion of £800 was assigned him. The

DURHAM

256

EASTER

possessions of the see were sold for
£68,121.15*. 9d.
A unique transaction in the eccle
siastical history of the Rebellion was
the foundation by the Lord Protector,
in the houses of the dean and prebend
aries, on the petition of the gentry of
the county, of a college for the instruc
tion of youth, on the ground of the
distance from the great universities of
Oxford and Cambridge. The scheme,
however, was not carried into effect
when the death of Cromwell, and the
Restoration of the Monarchy and the
Church, restored the buildings and the
revenues to their rightful owners; and
the scheme had to wait till the nine
teenth century for its realisation.
Bishop Morton died eight months
before the Restoration, and John Cosin,
Dean of Peterborough, one of the most
learned of the clergy of the time, was
promoted to the vacant see. The large
share which he took in the latest re
vision of the Book of Common Prayer
need not here be dwelt upon.
Of the later Bishops of Durham it is
only necessary to note that Joseph
Butler, the author of the ' Analogy of
Religion, ' and other of the most valuable
theological treasures of the Church of
England, was rewarded for his writings
with the see of Durham (1750), which
he held only two years.
Bishop Shute Barrington's (1791 —
1826) episcopacy of thirty-five years
was remarkable for able administration
and wise munificence. The Ecclesias
tical Commission, in taking over the
property of the bishop and of the dean
and chapter of Durham, allowed them
to carry out the scheme first proposed
during the Commonwealth, viz. to
found a northern university at Durham.
The university consists of two houses —
University College, in the old castle of
Durham, and Bishop Hatfield's Hall.
The university has been very efficiently
conducted, and has attained respectable
rank ; but improved modern methods of
travelling have enabled many students to
come to the great southern universities
who would otherwise have swelled the

numbers and increased the reputation'
of Durham. On the death of Bishop'
Van Mildert, 1836, the limited powers"
and shadowy dignity of the Palatinate;
were, in pursuance of an Act of Parlia-'*
ment, annexed to the Crown. In 1884
the see was subdivided by the creation'
of the See of Newcastle [which see].
Among the bishops, the Bishop of
Durham takes precedence immediately
after the Archbishop of York, and is.
followed by the Bishop of Winchester. ¦"
The diocese now consists of the entire
county of Durham and a small part of
the North Riding of York ; population
867,427 ; 2 archdeaconries (Durham'
and Auckland) ; 11 deaneries ; 223-
benefices ; 201 resident incumbents,
and 167 curates.
(This article is chiefly abstracted from
the Rev. J. L. Low's Durham volume
of the ' Diocesan Histories, ' published'
by the S.P.C.K., 1881, to which the
student is referred for a more complete"'
sketch of the subject.)

EASTER. The festival of the Resur
rection of our Lord and Saviour Jesus'
Christ. - It was anciently called Pasclij'
from the Greek iraaxa, derived from
the Hebrew Passover ; and the name '
still exists in the north of England in
a corrupt form in the common name of
"Paste Eggs," for Easter Eggs. - Since
the weekly festival was changed from
the seventh to the first day of the week
in commemoration of the Resurrection,
it was natural that a yearly festival
should also be instituted in its honour.
And indeed among the Jewish Chris
tians the festival already existed in the
great feast of the Passover, and only
needed to have the new Christian truths
and doctrines imported into it ; and we
know that this annual festival of the
resurrection was universally observed
from the first among the Churches; •¦•
There was, however, at an early
period a difference as to the day on
which the Christian feast should db
observed. The Churches of Asia kept

EASTER SEPULCHRE 257 ECCLESIASTICAL COMMISSION

it on the third day after the 14th of
the month Nisan, as the actual day of
our Lord's resurrection, on whatever
day of the week that might happen to
be, while the Western Churches always
observed it on the Sunday after the
actual day. The Council of Nicaea (325)
settled the dispute by decreeing that
the feast should be kept everywhere on
the same day, and that that day should
be the first day of the week. And it
was entrusted to the patriarch of Alex
andria, the great seat of the astrono
mical learning of the time, to have the
proper day calculated, and to notify
it to the other principal Churches.
In the early Saxon period of our Church
history we again find disputes about
the proper time for the observance of
Easter between the Celtic Churches and
the Continental Churches. The reason
was that the Celtic Churches in their
isolation from the continent continued
to use the cycle called by the name of
Sulpicius Severus (though really of
earlier date), after the other Western
Churches had adopted the more correct
cycle of Victorius Aquitanus. The
day was always held to be the chief
festival of the Christian year, and its
eve was one principal day for the admin
istration of baptism. It was observed
with great religious ceremony, but was
not attended by so many secular ad
juncts, or so much domestic festivity as
Christmas, Epiphany, or Whitsuntide.
EASTER SEPULCHRE. Among the
dramatic ceremonies by which the an
cient Church appealed to the imagin
ation of worshippers was a symbolical
representation on Good Friday of the
burial of our Saviour. On that evening
a consecrated Host, contained in the
Pyx [which see], was laid on a structure
erected on the north side of the chancel,
which represented the sepulchre, and
•remained there until it was taken out
again — representing the resurrection —
on Easter morning. The Easter Sepul
chre was usually a temporary structure
of wood, hung with rich cloths, usually
with an angel watching at its door.
Xights were kept burning around it,

and people paid their devotions at it
from Friday evening to Easter morning.
Sometimes an altar-tomb was used as
the base of the Easter sepulchre. There

Easter Sepulchre, Hawton, Lincolnshire.
are a few instances of a permanent stone
sepulchre appropriately ornamented.
This engraving i.^ of one in Hawton
Church, Lincolnshire.
ECCLESIASTICAL COMMISSION.
The agitation for parliamentary reform
before the bill of 1832 was accompanied
by an agitation for reform in the Church.
Very little was really known of the
value of Church property, and the
most exaggerated statements were
circulated by the opponents of the
Church : for example, a Tract on Tithes
put forth by the Society for the

ECCLESIASTICAL COMMISSION 258 ECCLESIASTICAL COMMISSION

diffusion of Ecclesiastical Knowledge,
stated that the revenue of the Church
amounted to two hundred millions
sterling, and that by confiscating it,
the Government would be able to remit
seventy-one millions of annual taxation.
The friends of the Church knew that
the distribution of the Church property
was very unequal [see Property of the
Church], e. g. that several of the sees
were so poorly endowed that they were
obliged to be eked out by allowing
their bishops to hold other benefices in
commendam, and they did not deny that
there were abuses which needed remedy.
Accordingly, in the year 1832, a
Royal Commission was issued author-
Net annual revenues of Episcopal and Archiepiscopal Sees
Cathedral and Collegiate Churches

ising and directing the Commissioners
therein named, to make a full and cor
rect inquiry respecting the revenues
and patronage belonging to the several
archiepiscopal and episcopal sees in
England and Wales, to all cathedral
and collegiate churches, and to all
ecclesiastical benefices (including dona
tives, perpetual curacies, and chapelries),
with or without cure of souls, and the
names of the several patrons thereof,
and other circumstances therewith con
nected. At the end of two years they
made a return of the value of the
dignities and benefices of the Church
from all sources, of which the following
is a summary : — £160,114 272,828

the 10,701 Benefices  3,058,248

Tithe paid to Lay Impropriators .
There are in England and Wales-
294 Benefices under

£1,000,000

10211591 1355
1964 1317 830504
337
217 129 91
137 31 18

between

of

£50 a year.

and

£100 150
200300
400 500600700
800i900
10001500
2000

In the following year, 1835, a second
Commission was issued to inquire into
the state of the several dioceses in
England and Wales, their re venues, and
the duties of the several bishops ; also
to consider the state of cathedral and
collegiate churches. They issued four
Reports in the course of 1835 and 1836,
and upon these Reports action was
taken in Parliament, and the greater
number of their recommendations were
adopted. The first Act (6 and 7 WiUiam
IV. c. 77) referred only to the epis-

£50 100 „
150 „
200 „
300 „ „
400 „
500 ,,
600 „
700 „
800 ,,
900 „
1000 „ „
1500 ,,
2000 and upwards.
copal dioceses, revenues!, and patronage,
and by it the limits of the various
dioceses were carefully re-arranged.; it
provided for the union of the two sees
of Gloucester and Bristol, and for the
erection of the new sees of Manchester
and Ripon. The Act also rearranged
the ecclesiastical patronage of the sees,
in accordance with the relative magni
tude and importance of the sees as re
arranged. It was further arranged that
portions of the revenues of the richer sees
should, on the next avoidance of the Bees,

ECCLESIASTICAL COMMISSION 259 ECCLESIASTICAL COMMISSION

_be appropriated to the augmentation of
the incomes of the poorer sees, so as to
give the following annual average in
comes : — The Archbishop of Canter
bury, £15,000 ; the Archbishop of York,
£10,000 ; Bishop of London, £10,000 ;
Bishop of Durham, £8000 ; Bishop of
Winchester, £7000 ; and to the other
bishops from £4000 to £5000 each : and
that for the future no bishop should
hold any other dignity, office, or bene
fice in commendam. The Act further
provided for the erection of fit resid
ences for the sees of Gloucester and
Bristol, Lincoln, Llandaff, Rochester,
Manchester, and Ripon. Some new
archdeacons were created, and the
limits of the old archdeaconries re
arranged. In order to carry out these
recommendations, a body politic and
corporate was created by the name of
"The Ecclesiastical Commissioners for
England. " Five were to form a quorum ;
if there were only two bishops present,
and both objected to the ratification of
any proceeding, it was to be postponed
to another meeting. Moreover, every
scheme which passed the Commissioners
needed to be approved by His Majesty
in Council to give it legal effect. By
this Act only the episcopate had been
dealt with.
In 1840 the recommendations of the
fourth and fifth Reports of the second
Commission were substantially adopted
by Parliament in the Act 3 and 4 Vict.
c. 113. By this Act the cathedral
and collegiate chapters were fixed in
number, according to the following
scale ; some of these canonries being
appropriated as the endowment of pro
fessorships in the Universities, and. of
archdeaconries.

Name of Cathedral
or Collegiate Church.

No. of
C anons at
the time
of passing
the Act.

Canterbury
DurhamEly

12 12

Westminster

12

6

Winchester

12

5

Exeter

8

5

Bristol

6

4

Carlisle

4

4

Chester

6

4

Chichester

4

4

Gloucester

6

4

Hereford

8

4

Lichfield

6

4

Lincoln

6

4

Manchester

4 Fellows

4

Norwich

6

4

St. Paul's, London

3

4

Peterborough

6

4

Ripon

0

4

Rochester

6

4

Salisbury

6

4

Wells

6

4

Windsor

12

4

Worcester

10

4

York

4

4

St. David's

6

2*

Llandaff

0

2*

By this Act the non-residentiary
Deaneries of Wolverhampton, Middle-
ham, Heytesbury, and Brecon were to
be suppressed. All sinecure rectories
were to be suppressed, and power was
given to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners
to purchase those in private patronage.
Minor canons were henceforth to be
appointed by the respective chapters,
and were not to hold any benefice with
their minor canonries, except under
certain limitations.
The funds thus accruing were to be
carried to a Common Fund, " out of
which additional provision was to be
made, by the authority hereinafter pro
vided, for the cure of souls in parishes
where such assistance is most required,
in such manner as shall, by the like
authority, be deemed most conducive
to the efficiency of the Established
Church, provided always that on mak
ing any such additional provision out
of any tithes, land, &c, due consider-
* By later Act, 6 and 7 Vict. c. 77, § 2, thesa
were each increased to 4, and four Canonries.
were also assigned to Bangor and St. Asaph
respectively.

ECCLESIASTICAL COMMISSION 260 ECCLESIASTICAL COMMISSION

ation should be had of the wants and
circumstances of the places in which
such tithes now were or have hereto
fore arisen."
To carry out these measures the
former Commission was enlarged, and
the Commissioners were to prepare and
lay before Her Majesty, from time to
time, such measures as they might deem
expedient ; and such measures were
only to take effect upon ratification by
the Queen in Council and publication in
the ' London Gazette. '
There were thus two distinct funds —
the Episcopal Fund arising out of the
payments of the richer sees, and the
Common Fund arising out of the sus
pended canonries, suppressed sinecure
rectories, and the like. The proceeds
of the former fund were to be devoted
exclusively to episcopal purposes, of
the latter fund to non-episcopal.
In 1847 a complaint of the action of
the Commissioners led to the appoint
ment of a select committee of Parlia
ment "to inquire into the composition
and management of the Ecclesiastical
Commission," and as a. result of its
recommendation a committee of paid
Commissioners, two to be nominated by
the Crown, and one by the Archbishop
of Canterbury, was appointed to manage
the property (as distinguished from
the appropriation of the funds) of the
Commission. In 1850, a considerable change was
made in the constitution of the Commis
sion. It was found that the Board was
too numerous for the convenient trans
action of the details of business. Ac
cordingly three Estate Commissioners
were appointed who should be ex officio
members of the Board, two to be nomin
ated by the Crown, and one by the
Archbishop of Canterbury ; one of the
crown nominees and the archbishop's
nominees to be paid salaries out of the
Common Fund ; the two paid Commis
sioners to be joint treasurers of all funds
passing through the Commissioners'
hands. These three Commissioners,
together with two of the Ecclesiastical
Commissioners appointed annually by

the Board, to form the Estates Com
mittee. To this Estates Committee
was committed the whole management
of the property vested in the Com
missioners. In this year also the two separate
funds, the Episcopal and the Common
Fund, were formed into one Common
Fund. It was not foreseen at the time,
but it has since come to pass, that instead
of the Episcopal Fund having a surplus
to contribute to the Common Fund, the
augmentations of the poorer sees have
exceeded the receipts from the richer
sees, and the Common Fund has had to
supply the deficiency of the Episcopal
Fund. As, however, the leases of epis
copal property fall in, the value of the
episcopal property will be increased,
and the Common Fund will ultimately
receive a large increment from the
surplus of tho Episcopal Fund.
Another important change was made
in the same year, 1850. Under the pro
visions of the Act of 1836, the bishops
of the richer sees paid over certain
fixed sums to the Commissioners, and
retained the balance. It was found
that by this plan the bishops .received
in some years more, in some less, than
their statutable income. To remedy
this an Act was passed providing that
all bishops appointed since 1848 should
receive the income assigned by Parlia
ment, and no more. In order to effect
this, estates in fee producing the re^
quired income were to be gradually
acquired by the Commissioners and
handed over to the bishop : in this way
the bishops, instead of being mere sti
pendiaries, would again have solid en
dowments ; but any excess of income
over the sum assigned by statute was
to be paid to the Commissioners, while
any deficiency was to be made up out
of the Common Fund.
In 1857, in consequence of the recom
mendations of a House of Commons
Committee, the duties of the Church
Building Commission were transferred to
the Ecclesiastical Commission, and the
sum of £3750 a year previously paid
out of the Consolidated Fund for the

ECCLESIASTICAL COMMISSION 261 ECCLESIASTICAL COURTS

office expenses of the former Commission
was also transferred to the latter.
In this year also the Commissioners
adopted the principle acted on by the
governors of Queen Anne's Bounty, of
. making grants in augmentation and
endowment of benefices only on con
dition that they.be met by private
benefactions of at least equivalent
amount, preference being given in pro
portion to largeness of population,
poverty of benefice, and largeness of
private benefaction. The result has been
to elicit a very large aggregate of private
benefactions in augmentation of the
permanent endowment of the Church.
One valuable work of the Commission
has been the rearrangement of the
duties and emoluments of the arch
deaconries. Up to 1864 they had re
arranged the territories of forty-seven,
and created eleven new archdeacons ;
they had further endowed fifteen with
canonries, one with a vicarage, and
thirty-three with annual sums, varying
from £67 to £200, so as to insure each
archdeacon an income of at least £200
from his archdeaconry.
The following, from the Thirty-
Seventh Report of the Commissioners
(1885), is a brief summary of the work ac
complished by the Commissioners in the
augmentation and endowment of bene
fices during a period of forty-four years,
from 1840 (when the Common Fund was
first created) to the 31st of October last.
The total number of benefices which
have been augmented and endowed by
the Commissioners is upwards of 5000.
The grants made by the Commis
sioners in the augmentation and endow
ment of these benefices — consisting
partly of annual payments charged Upon
the Common Fund, partly of capital
sums expended in the provision or im
provement of parsonage houses, or in
the purchase of property, and partly of
land, tithes, &c, annexed to the bene
fices — amount to about £718,000 per
annum in perpetuity, or in capital
value to a sum of about £21,540,000.
' The benefactions by private donors,
consisting of stock, cash, land, tithes,

and other property, received by, or
conveyed to, the Commissioners, or to
the incumbents of benefices, chiefly to
meet grants made by the Commissioners,
amount to about £4,410,000 ; and are
equivalent to a permanent increase in
the endowments of benefices of about
£147,000 per annum. There is, more
over, a sum of about £26,000 per annum
contributed by benefactors to meet the
Commissioners' grants for curates in
mining districts.
The total increase in the incomes of
benefices from the augmentations and
endowments made by the Commis
sioners, or through their instrument
ality, amounts, therefore, up to the
31st October, 1884, to about £891,000
per annum ; and may be taken to
represent the income which would be
derived from a capital sum of about
£26,730,000. [This article is much indebted to a
pamphlet on ' The Ecclesiastical Com
mission,' by the Rev. G. H. Sumner,
1864, which was drawn up with assist
ance from the officers of the Commission.
ECCLESIASTICAL COURTS, or
Courts Christian. In 1 Cor. vi. St.
Paul speaks of it as a custom already
established for Christians to avoid going
to law with one another before the
heathen tribunals, and to refer their
differences to the arbitration of wise
men among themselves. It gradually
became an important and laborious part
of a bishop's duty to act as arbitrator.
When the Empire became Christian,
the bishop's sentences of arbitration
were recognised and enforced, i.e. the
informal arbitration grew up into a
bishop's court of jurisdiction, whose
sentences were enforced by the secular
arm. And this was doubtless the case
in the Roman or British Church as in
all other parts of the Empire. _ During
the Saxon period the ecclesiastical law
was as follows : The body of canoni
cal written law containing the Holy
Scriptures, the Creeds, and the Canons of
the General Councils ; and the Canons
of the National Councils ; assisted in
application by the less authoritative

ECCLESIASTICAL COURTS 262 ECCLESIASTICAL COURTS

manuals of the Penitentials, by the
less authoritative collections of foreign
councils, and by the coincident support
in some particulars of the ecclesiastical
enactments of the kings.
The ecclesiastical courts of the period
were as follows :
The jurisdiction of the bishop was
recognised — (1) as the chief pastor of
the diocese ; (2) as the protector of the
clergy ; and (3) as the proper arbitrator
in disputes which did not admit or
require legal decision.
The metropolitan authority of the
archbishops was recognised by the
bishops, and by the kings and Witen-
agemots. The prevalence of the monastic
system, and the great importance
attached to the office and character
of abbots, with the exemption of many
monasteries from episcopal superin
tendence, had the effect of creating
peculiar jurisdictions for the abbeys, in
which both ecclesiastically and secularly
the abbot occupied the place consti
tutionally belonging to the bishop.
There were provincial synods in
which questions of greater importance
were decided and settled, and which
consisted of bishops, abbots, and clergy,
and were occasionally attended by
kings and lay-lords. Ecclesiastical
suits were heard and decided in the
moots or public assemblies of the shire
and hundred in which the bishop and
ealdermen are said to have expounded
the divine and secular law. In addition
to the above courts many Anglo-Saxon
bishops were lords of manors, and in
that character possessed jurisdiction
over these manors in all ordinary and
civil and criminal cases, but probably
exercised this jurisdiction by their
manorial stewards.
Of the procedure in Church courts
there is little definite information. The
moots were general assemblies of the
men of the shire or hundred, for other
business besides the administration of
justice. The sheriff, ealderman, and
bishop appear to have been presiding
officers. The decision of all disputed

questions was by compurgation or
ordeal, or in certain cases, by special
permission of the king or chief magis
trate, by the evidence of witnesses.
The function of the ealderman or
bishop of expounding the law in such
cases would only be the securing of the
perfect carrying out of the customary
forms of charge, defence, challenge,
and compurgation, and ihe reporting
of the legal penalties ensuing on the
practical decision.
As to appeals there was no regular
system, but probably, in accordance
with foreign practice, appeals were
occasionally carried to the archbishop
as metropolitan, or to the provincial
synod ; there are, however, none re
corded except suits between churches
in different dioceses, or of interests of
too great importance to he disposed' of
at diocesan synods or shire-moots. Of
appeals to Rome, in the form which.
appeal ultimately took in England,
there is no evidence ; the recourse to
Rome in the disputes between Wilfred,
Archbishop Theodore, and the kings of
Northumbria in the seventh century,
and those between the Archbishop, of
Canterbury and the kings of Kent and
Mercia in the ninth, were more of the
nature of political negotiations. They
do, however, illustrate the point that
the Church was a portion of a greater
organisation than the Witenagemot ;
the exact limits of its relations to tha
foreign Churches were possibly dis
putable, but the fact of the incorpor
ation was admitted on all sides.
The judicial authority of the bishop
being inherent in the person rather
than in the court, he would, in visit
ation or at home (in itinere or in
camera), possess full authority to hoar
such cases as ho could deal with, under
his penitential or consensual juris
diction. It is highly improbable that
the penitential machinery Would bo
worked in public, or that disputes
capable of episcopal arbitration would
be brought before the moot.
The means by which ecclesiastical
sentences were carried out, seem to.

ECCLESIASTICAL COURTS 263 ECCLESIASTICAL COURTS

have been either by the direction of
the bishop to his archdeacons and
deacons to enforce the sentence, or by
his calling for the services of the officers
of the shire without previous application
:to the Crown. Sentences issued in the
shire-moot would naturally be enforced
by shire officers, while those of the
more distinct ecclesiastical courts were
carried out by the archdeacon and his
subordinates. The Anglo-Saxon laws contain pro
visions for the excommunicate corre
sponding to those for the outlaw, and in
many cases prescribe punishments and
compensations for ecclesiastical offences
as offences against the national law.
Under the influence of the Norman
Conqueror the Church of England was
brought into the organised ecclesiastical
system of the Continent of Europe,
of which the Bishop of Rome was re
cognised as the head, with visitatorial
authority over all the Churches. The
civil and ecclesiastical jurisdictions were
divided and committed to different sets
of courts ; and the machinery for the
administration of jurisdiction was more
complete and scientific. The law itself
became more scientific under the in
fluence of the revived knowledge^ of
the ancient imperial law, and the im
pulse which was given to the study of
law as one of the chief branches of
knowledge. As to the law itself, though a,
knowledge of the Roman canon law,
and of the imperial civil law as far
as procedure went, formed the basis
of the education of the ecclesiastical
jurist, yet they had no direct authority,
but only so far as the canon law had
been, accepted by the English Synods,
and so far as tho practice had been
adopted in the ecclesiastical courts.
The provincial law of the Church
of England was contained in the con
stitutions (as the canons put forth in
a provincial synod presided over by
the archbishop were called) of the
archbishops, from Langton onwards ;
and the canons passed in the legatine
, councils under Otho and Othobon, which

latter were ratified in councils by Arch
bishop Peckham. The ' Commentaries
on the Constitutions of Otho and
Othobon,' by John of Ayton, and the
' Digest of the Provincial Constitutions, '
by Bishop Lyndwood, were the finally
received texts of this portion of the
law. The ' Provincial Constitutions '
of Canterbury were received in York
in 1462.
Canons made in diocesan synods had
no force in other dioceses, but were
often received in other dioceses, accord
ing to the estimation in which their
authors were generally held ; and
though they were not incorporated in
the provincial canons, portions of them
were often adopted and introduced
into the constitutions of a subsequent
provincial synod. Very much of the
ecclesiastical as of the secular law
was customary, and not necessarily
in accord with the customs of the
Continental Churches. And though
William I. directed that the Epis
copates leges should be brought into
accord with the canons, and that the
ecclesiastical courts should decide ac
cording to the canons ;. yet as a matter
of fact no new code of ecclesiastical
law was drawn up, and attempts to
force on the Church and nation the
whole body of the canon law were
always unsuccessful, and the canons
were held to be of no force when
opposed to the laws of England.
The check which the Crown exer
cised upon ecclesiastical legislation was
irregular and undefined. William I.
allowed no council to make canons with
out his previous assent. Under Henry I.
the king's assent to certain enactments
made in councils of the clergy is dis
tinctly expressed. From that time
onward the method of restraint was
confined to the issue by the king of
warnings and prohibitions addressed to
the archbishop, and in some rare cases
the archbishop was obliged to recall an
enactment. Many such prohibitions
were issued in the thirteenth century,
when Archbishops Boniface and Peck
ham were endeavouring to enlarge the

ECCLESIASTICAL COURTS 234 ECCLESIASTICAL COURTS

area of ecclesiastical legislation, espe
cially over the laity. But except when
the Crown or the Parliament took
such extraordinary steps to prevent
the Church from interfering with the
temporal rights of the people, freedom
of ecclesiastical legislation was per
mitted. It has been said that William I.
divided the civil from the ecclesiastical
jurisdiction, ordering that " no bishop
or archdeacon shall henceforth hold
pleas touching ecclesiastical laws in the
hundred court, nor draw to the judg
ment of secular men causes which per
tain to the government of souls. In
the same way the sheriff or reeve is for
bidden to interfere with the legal pro
ceedings which belong to the bishop. "
The immediate result was to give a
new organisation to the ecclesiastical
courts, and especially to add to the
existing judicature of the archbishops
and bishops the judicial organisation
of the archdeaconries. The archdeacon,
of whom there was only one to each
diocese, had hitherto been the assistant
of the bishop, and perhaps sat in the
bishop's court as his representative.
It is presumed that the archidiaconal
courts were now formed as ministerial
sub-sections of the episcopal jurisdic
tion, and were organised to enforce the
new-enacted law and canonical pro
cedure, and multiplied to meet the
increase of ecclesiastical litigation.
Owing, however, to the strong clerical
feeling against these courts, a reorgan
isation of the courts took place about
the middle of the twelfth century, by
which the unity of the bishop's court
was restored, and an Official was ap
pointed to exercise the bishop's juris
diction ; and his function soon became
one of judicial semi-independence,
so far as his commission empowered
him, there being no appeal from him
to the bishop ; but the bishop usually
reserved particular portions of jurisdic
tion for his own hearing. At what
point of time the official ceased to be a
mere nominee of the bishop, and to
retain office at the death of his prin

cipal, more information is needed. The
present practice of appointing him by
patent for life, with the confirmation
of the dean and chapter, grew up in
the seventeenth century.
Each diocese had its consistory court
held in the cathedral church, presided
over by the chancellor as official prin
cipal, and was competent for every sort
of ecclesiastical cause, including testa
mentary and matrimonial matters.
There was an appeal from this court to
those of the province.
The Provincial Courts of Canterbury
were four.
1. The Court of the Official Principal,
commonly called the Court of Arches,
was the consistory court of the arch
bishops ; it was held in the church of
St. Mary-le-Bow, and had a distinct
staff of officers and body of advocates;' .
2. The Court of Audience, which
seems to have originated from the per
sonal jurisdiction of the archbishop.
It was the domestic and familiar court
of the archbishop, and his auditors
followed his person. In time its juris
diction was exercised by one judge sit
ting in the consistory court of St.
Paul's. 3. The Prerogative Court exercised. [¦
testamentary jurisdiction.
4. The Court of Peculiars, which was
formed to exercise jurisdiction in the
thirteen London parishes, which, being
"peculiars" of the archbishop, were
not subject to the jurisdiction of the
Bishop of London.
The provincial courts of York were
known as the prerogative court and
the chancery court, and seem to have
answered to the general description
given above of the prerogative court
and court of arches of Canterbury.
Cases of heresy were generally
brought before the archbishop in Con
vocation, or before the archbishops and
a committee of bishops, or before a
commission issued by the archbishop.-
But sometimes the accused is dealt with
by a bishop sitting judicially in his
palace, and sometimes by the official in
the diocesan court.

ECCLESIASTICAL COURTS 265 ECCLESIASTICAL COURTS

The principle seems to have been
universally admitted that a judge in
an ecclesiastical court must be in some
grade of holy orders, but the weight
assigned to the properly spiritual quali
fication was not regarded as of primary
importance, where the judge possessed,
by reason of office or delegation and
professional authority, the practical
requirements of his high function.
The effect of the changes made by
William I. was to withdraw from the
ecclesiastical courts all powers which
they had probably formerly possessed
cf enforcing their spiritual sentences
by material force. Early in Henry II. 's
reign it had become the rule to apply
tor a royal writ to be sent to the sheriff
to carry out the law. The writ was
probably usually issued as a matter of
course. But the necessity for applying
for a writ gave the Crown the power
effectually to prevent the amplification
of ecclesiastical jurisdiction when it
was attempted.
Ecclesiastical jurisdiction comprised
broadly all causes arising out of eccle
siastical relations, persons, properties,
rights, and remedies, viz. over — ¦
Churches — Patronage, furniture,
ritual, revenues.
Clergy — In all their relations — faith,
practice, behaviour, dress.
Laity — Morality, behaviour in church
precincts, marriages, testaments, legiti
macy, administration of intestates' pro
perty, fiduciary and pledging contracts,
and promises and keeping of oaths.
Doctrine— Its maintenance through
out both clergy and laity.
As to appeals, they are of two kinds.
The appeal ex gravamine or extra-judi
cial was where a person, apprehending
injustice from his immediate superior,
appealed to a higher authority for pro
tection ; which higher authority would
(on just cause shown) stay all proceed
ings in the court appealed against, and
call the question before itself. A very
large proportion of the recorded appeals
to Rome in mediaeval history were of
this kind. A judicial appeal was an
appeal against the sentence of a court

to the decision of a higher court, and
might be carried through all the grada
tions of courts. It might not, how
ever, be carried from the archbishop's
court to the court of Rome but with
the king's permission. The statutes of
praemunire were introduced by the Crown
to prevent appeals to Rome upon points
with which the national tribunals were
perfectly competent to deal, and were,
indeed, little more than an additional
sanction to the right constantly asserted
by Henry III. and Edward I., termed
" the privilege of England." The great
schism of the West, however, had pro
bably more to do with the diminution of
appeals than any particular measures.
Before the Reformation appeals were
almost reduced to matrimonial and
testamentary questions.
Of the temporal causes subject to
the ecclesiastical courts, the chief Were
matrimonial and testamentary suits,
and actions for the recovery of ecclesi
astical payments, tithes, and customary
fees. Besides these, there was a large
field of work for the Church courts in
disciplinary cases. These proceedings
furnished employment for a great
machinery of judicature.
The jurisdiction of the ecclesiastical
courts over spiritual men embraced all
matters concerning the canonical and
moral conduct of the clergy, faith,
practice, fulfilment of ecclesiastical
obligations, and obedience to ecclesias
tical superiors. For these questions
the courts possessed a complete jurisdic
tion of their own, regular processes of
trial, and prisons in which the con
victed offender was kept until he had
satisfied the justice of the Church. In
these prisons the clerk convicted of a
crime for which, ifhehadbeena layman,
he would have suffered death, endured
life-long captivity ; here the clerk con
victed of a treason or felony in tho
secular court, and subsequently handed
over to the ordinary, was kept in safe
custody. The new ecclesiastical courts created
by the legislation of the Reformation,
were —

ECCLESIASTICAL COURTS 266 ECCLESIASTICAL COURTS

1. The Court of Delegates instituted
under Henry VIII. as the supreme
tribunal of appeal in ecclesiastical
pauses from the provincial courts, and
had full power to , hear and determine
finally. Only seven appeals can be dis
covered to have come before this court,
which can be shown to have even
remotely involved any question of
doctrine. In the first, sentence was
given against the appellant ; in five
others, the proceedings were discon
tinued before final decision ; in the one
remaining case, the court varied the
decree in a minor point while confirm
ing the decision of the diocesan court.
It may therefore be inferred, that in
no case in which the law of the Church
of England as touching doctrine was
concerned, are the delegates known to
have reversed the decision of the
provincial court.
The other court mentioned was the
Court of High Commission, instituted
under Elizabeth, under the authority
of the statute 1 Elizabeth, c. i. for the
execution- of the supreme ecclesiastical
jurisdiction, given or recognised by the
Act as belonging to the Crown. The
jurisdiction is defined as being "such
as hath heretofore been, or may law
fully be, exercised or used for the
visitation of the ecclesiastical state and
persons, and for reformation, order, and
correction of the same ; and of all
manner of errors, heresies, schisms,
abuses, offences, contempts, and enor
mities." It was a court of first in
stance, not a court of appeal from the
courts of the ordinaries ; and there was
no appeal from it. It did a great deal
of business : every offence which could
be treated as ecclesiastical being in
cluded in the scope of its action.
Though there is sufficient evidence of
the exercise of doctrinal jurisdiction
by this court, the largest proportion of
offences dealt with by it come under
the heads of misconduct and immor
ality, of clergy and laity alike, or of
proceedings in recusancy and non-con
formity which were prescribed by the
statute. This court was abolished by

the Long Parliament in Act 16 Ch. I.
c. 11.
A royal commission inquired into
the Court of Delegates in 1830, and
in pursuance of its report an Act, 2
and 3 William IV. c. 92, transferred
the powers of the high court of dele
gates,, both in ecclesiastical and mari
time causes, to His Majesty in Council ;
and a Judicial Committee of Privy
Council was organised for the hearing
of such causes. So few ecclesiastical
cases had ever come before the Court
of Delegates, and no case for so long a
period, that this branch of the func
tion of the court seems to have been
overlooked. Neither in their examina
tion of witnesses, nor in their report,
do the Commissioners appear to have
contemplated the peculiar character,
or the possible occurrence of appeals
on matters of doctrine. And Lord
Brougham subsequently, in the House
of Lords, said, "he could not help
feeling that the Judicial Committee of
Privy Council had not been framed under
the expectation of questions like that
which had produced the present measure
being brought before it. It was created
for the consideration of a totally dif
ferent class of cases [from the Gorham
case] ; and he had no doubt, that if
it had been constituted with a view to
such cases as the present, some arrange
ment would have been made " (Debate,
on Bishop Bloomfield's Bill, 1850.
'Hansard,' ser. iii. vol. cxi. p. 629)..,
The two chief Acts since the above
affecting the Church courts and dealing
with the discipline of the clergy, are—
The Church Discipline Act (3 & 4
Vict. c._ 86, 1840), which relates to
clergy discipline, and provides that in
the case of a clerk charged with an
offence against the ecclesiastical laws, or
against whom there is any scandal, the"
bishop may — (1) issue a Commission of
five persons to inquire ; if a prima facit
case is made out, and if both parties
consent, the bishop may pronounco
sentence without further proceedings
Or (2) the bishop may summon the
accused before the court, in. which ha

ECCLESIASTICAL COURTS 267

EDUCATION

is to be assisted by three assessors, one
being the dean or archdeacon, and
another a lawyer, and may hear and
determine the case. Or (3) the bishop
may forward the cause, by letters of
request, to tho provincial court which
has power given it to hear and deter
mine. The last course is that which
the bishops have in the great majority
of cases adopted. The decision in the
case of Julius v. Bishop of Oxford
established that a discretion is left to
the bishop to determine whether any
proceedings at all shall be taken against
an accused clerk.
The other important Act of late years
is the Public Worship Regulation Act
(37 & 38 Vict. c. 85, 1874), which
enables the archdeacon, or the church
wardens, or three aggrieved parishioners,
to carry a clerk before the bishop for
offences in ritual. Tho bishop may,
at his discretion, decline to take pro
ceedings. If he think fit to take pro
ceedings, then if the clerk agree to
submit to the bishop's judgment with
out appeal, the bishop is to hear and
decide. If not, the bishop is to trans
mit the case to the archbishop, who is
to hand it over to the judge appointed
under tho Act.
The Church Discipline Act was not
superseded by the Public Worship Re
gulation Act ; they exist side by side ;
and a recent action for restraining ritual
has been brought under the former in
preference to the latter.
It is charged that sufficient care was
not taken in the provisions for con
stituting the judge under the Public
Worship Act, to constitute him, as it
intended to do, the Official Principal of
both Provinces, and capable of acting
as an ecclesiastical judge in all cases.
For example, it is allowed that any
case forwarded under the Church Dis
cipline Act by letters of request to the
provincial court, would come before
the judge appointed by the Public
Worship Act as Official Principal of
each Province, who could then pro
nounce any ecclesiastical sentence he
may think fit. Yet, under a legal in

terpretation of tho Public Worship
Act, this judge has been held not
bound to comply with the provisions of
Canon 127 as to signing the articles
on declaration of Church membership.
('Historical Appendix to Report of
the Ecclesiastical Courts' Commission,'
1883 ; ' A Summary of the Ecclesiasti
cal Courts' Commission ; ' Report of
Dr. Stubbs's 'Historical Reports,' G.
L. Holland, B.A., Barrister-at-Law.
Parker, Oxford, 1884.)
EDUCATION. The Roman Empire
had a great machinery for the educa
tion of the people : elementary schools
in the provincial towns, high class
schools in the metropolitan cities •of
the provinces, culminating in the more
famous schools of the great capitals of
the empire. In the confusion caused.,
by the invasions of the barbarians,
these schools gradually dwindled away,
or were taken up into the schools which
the Church gradually founded wherever
it established its institutions. For the
Church always regarded the education
of the people as one of the duties com
mitted to it by Him who came to be
the Light of the World, and who spe
cially gave to the ministry and thence
to the Church the charge, "Feed My
lambs." The Christian Church sedu
lously preserved the learning and civil
isation of the ancient world ; and its
schools were an integral and important
part of the organisation of every cathe
dral and every monastery ; and the
education of the people was one of the
duties of every priest.
The missionaries who converted our
barbarous and heathen Saxon- ancestors
were only following the usual lines' of
Church action when they established
schools at every missionary centre, and
used every endeavour to educate and
civilise, as well as to Christianise, the
people among whom they laboured.
The education of the Middle Ages in
England, from the Saxon conquest
down to the Reformation, was entirely
the work of the Church. The State
did not make any attempt to educate
the people ; it left it in the hands of

EDUCATION

268

EDUCATION

the Church as part of its proper work.
An enthusiast here and there, like St.
Francis of Assisi, may have spoken
contumeliously of education in compari
son with simple piety, but it was con
trary to the spirit of the Church, and
such ideas had no practical effect ; for
example, the disciples of St. Francis
were soon among the most learned
scholars and most popular teachers of
their day.
There was no attempt to restrict
education to the higher classes ; on the
contrary, wherever a lad of the lower
classes showed signs of literary ability,
his abilities were cultivated ; and the
Church afforded the great channel
through which low-born talent was
enabled to rise above the level of its
v birth, to the very highest offices and dig
nities in Church and State. This zeal
for education, for the education of the
lower classes, was based on profound
religious principle. It cannot be better
expressed than it was by Cranmer when
his brother Commissioners for the re
organisation of the schools of his own
cathedral of Canterbury, would have
restricted the education there given to
the sons of the upper classes : "It was
meet," said they, "for the ploughman's
son to go to plough, and the artificer's
son to apply the trade of his parent's
vocation, and the gentleman's children
are meant to have the knowledge of
government and rule in the common
wealth." "No," said the represent
ative of the Church, who knew the
traditions of the old Church, and
bravely advocated their maintenance
in the new order, "utterly to exclude
the ploughman's son and the' poor man's
son from the benefits of learning, as
though they were unworthy to have
the gifts of the Holy Ghost bestowed
upon them as well as upon others, is
as much as to say that Almighty God
should not be at liberty to bestow His
great gifts of grace upon any person
but as we and other men shall appoint
them to be employed ; " and so he stood
firm for admitting ploughmen's, and
artificer's, and poor men's sons, as well

as gentlemen's sons, to the advantage:
of that education which would maki
them wiser and better men in whatevei
station, and would fit them for thf
higher stations of society, if God in
his Providence shall call them thereto.
Not only the schools, but the universi
ties also were the work of the Church
[see Schools, University], and the col
leges within the universities were nearly
all founded by ecclesiastics as houses
where the pupils sent up from the cathe
dral, monastic, and such like schools
could have the advantages of the com
forts and discipline of a well-ordefel
home, while they were completing their
studies by attending the lectures of tho
great teachers of the time.
A considerable number of colleges and
grammar schools were founded in the
towns in the fifteenth century to meet
the needs of the growing population,
and the guilds also often maintained
similar schools. Of the grammar schools
founded in the reign of Edward VI. and
Elizabeth, some were intended to supply
the place of the schools destroyed in
the course of the Reformation ; some
of them were only refoundations of the
old schools out of their old endowments.
In modern times it was the Society
for Promoting Christian Knowledge, an
association of bishops, clergymen, and
Church laymen, which, in the reign of
William and Mary (1698), first estab
lished schools of primary education ;
and it was an offshoot from this society,
the National Society for the Education
of the Poor, which in the early part
of this century took up the duty of
providing, on a still larger scale, for
the education of the lower classes sof
the people.
The quarrel which the opponents of
the Church have had with the Church
in modern times on the subject of
education, has been that the Church
has always openly professed to make
religion, the basis of education, and has
avowed that its design was the educa
tion of the children of the poor in the
principles of the Established Church.
Its opponents established rival schools

EDUCATION

269

EDUCATION

in which other religious principles were
taught, but the wealth and zeal of
Church people outstripped them in this
rivalry. Then they appealed to Par
liament to aid the cause of the educa
tion of the lower classes by a grant of
public money, which should be dis
tributed to the schools of all denomin
ations in proportion to the number of
children educated up to a certain
standard ; but the Church schools still
attracted tho vast majority of the poor
scholars, and the Church consequently
obtained the larger proportion of the
parliamentary grant. Then the Board
School system was devised ; ostensibly
to supplement the existing schools ;
with a compulsory clause which would
enable the neglected children to be
swept into these supplementary schools.
To evade the supposed "religious diffi
culty," it was provided that no religious
formularies (e. g. the creeds of the
Church) should be taught in them ;
and Parliament evaded the question
whether the Bible should be read in
them, by leaving it to the decision of
the individual Local Boards.
It soon appeared that the Board
Schools were being worked not as sup
plementary to the existing Church
¦schools, but, as far as possible, in rivalry
with them ; still the Church accepted
the situation, and, with increased
zeal and energy, proceeded to multiply
her school accommodation, and to im
prove the quality of the, education'
given ; and that with such success,
that in the ten years from the begin
ning of the Board School System, the
Church, but of her own resources, added
to her previously existing school accom
modation, as many "school places"
as the Board with all its energy and
enormous expenditure had provided in
the same time.
The history of the Board Schools is
a very remarkable illustration, out of
many which both ancient and modern
times present, of the way in which an
astute, well-organised minority of poli
ticians can, in England, carry out its
designs in the teeth of the general re

pugnance. Parliament had no know
ledge that it was setting up a system
which was to use the public money in
rivalling the existing denominational
schools. The parents had no desire for
a system of secular schools ; tho "reli
gious difficulty" did not practically
exist. But, our English habit of allow
ing an Act of Parliament to be inter
preted contrary to the intention of those
who passed it, and the slow unwieldy
ineptness of the Church public to
defend itself from energetic aggression,
have resulted in consequences which
neither the Church nor the nation
desired. The contest is not yet concluded.
The opponents of the Church make no
secret that they will endeavour to
gather the Church schools into the
Board School system. It remains to
be seen whether Churchmen will rouse
themselves not only to defend their
own schools, but also to obtain from
the justice of Parliament that their
schools shall be put on a. footing of
fair competition with their rivals.
The Church is prepared to admit that,
as matters stand, the State may feel it
self precluded from giving national funds
for anything else than secular education ;
all that the Church asks is, that it
will pay the denominational schools for
the "article" of secular results, asmuch
as it pays the rival schools for the
same "article." At present, according
to the returns of the Government In
spectors, the Church schools produce
quite as good secular results as their
rivals do ; and do not get tho same
amount of public money for the "ar
ticle," by many hundreds of thousands
of pounds, as the rival schools do.
The most recent development of the
tactics of those who desire to get tho
education of the people out of the hands
of the Church, is to abolish all payment
on the part of the parents for children
educated in the Board Schools. This,
it is supposed, with great probability,
would at once ruin the denominational
schools, The entire scheme of national
education aimed at is expressed in the

EDWIN

270

EGBERT

words, " free, secular, and compulsory."
And there is no secret made of the
desire to take in hand higher education
also, and to arrange a great system of
education for the whole of the youth
of the nation, from the lowest to the
highest, on the same principles.
It is for Church people to determine,
whether they are prepared to submit to
have religion compnlsorily eliminated
from the education of the country.
They are politically quite strong enough
to prevent it ; they are strong enough
to obtain justice for the denomina
tional schools against the rivalry of
1870. Places.
Church . . . 1,365,080
British, Wesleyan, &c. 411,948
Roman Catholic . . 101,556
The average attendance of scholar
1870 Scholars.
Church .... 844,334
British, Wesleyan, &c. . 241,989
Roman Catholic . . 660,660

So that in spite of the powerful
rivalry of the Board schools, the Church,
during the period over which these
figures extend, has increased its school
accommodation by over a million places,
nearly as much as the number created
by the School Boards, and its average
attendance is more than half the total
of the children under instruction in all
the schools in the kingdom.
As a further illustration of the great
work the Church has done in the educa
tion of the people, it may be noted,
that during the last seventy years the
Church has contributed, voluntarily
for the purpose (over and above all
Government grants and payments),
£28,127,147. Since 1870, the .sum
thus contributed is £7,269,837 against
£1,905,976 contributed by all the other
denominations put together.
EDWIN, King of Northumbria,
a.d. 616 — 633, in whose reign North
umbria embraced Christianity. [See
Paulinus,]

the Board schools ; they are quite stroli;
enough to secure such a proportion'b:
representation on the School Boardi
as would ensure their being used foi
the purpose for which they were in
tended, viz. to gather in the poorest,
the waifs and strays, the neglected
children, and to elevate them out of
their Miserable and helpless condition;
Some statistics are added from the
returns of the Educational Committee
of the Privy Council. The Education
Act was passed in 1870, at which time
the school accommodation was pro
vided by the —
1884 Places.'
Church . . . 2,454,788,
British, Wesleyan, &c. 597,262
Roman Catholic . . 284,514,
Board .... 1,490,174-
•s was : — 1884 Scholars.
Church . . . 1,607,823
British, Wesleyan, &c. 381,628
Roman Catholic . . 167,841'
Board . . . 1,115,832-'
EGBERT, King of Kent, A.D. 664—
673, concurred with Oswy, King o'f
Northumbria, in uniting the Churches
of the Saxon kingdoms under Theo
dore, Archbishop of Canterbury. [Set
Theodore.] EGBERT, King of Wessex, A.r>.
802—839, having (815) conquered the
Britains of Cornwall, subdued Mercia
825 — 828, and asserted his supremacy
over the other kingdoms, is reckoned
the first king of all England. It. is
remarkable that the Churches of the
kingdoms had been united into a Church
of England, under the primacy of
Canterbury, nearly one hundred and
fifty years before.
EGBERT, first Archbishop of York,
732—766. A scion'of the royal family
of Northumbria ; educated from infancy
in a monastery ; ordained deacon at
Rome ; consecrated bishop, 732. The
Venerable Bede, whose pupil he had
been, addressed a letter of counsels to
the new bishop, recommending, jamong

ELMHAM

271

ELY

other things, the erection of the northern
kingdom into an ecclesiastical province.
The counsel was, with the concurrence of
the king, carried into effect, and Egbert
(735) became (if we do not reckon
Paulinus) the first Archbishop of York.
In 738 his brother Eadbert became
king (he abdicated 759, spent ten years
in religious retirement in the monastery
of Vork, and died 768). He was a
man of great learning, and fully sus
tained the ¦ high reputation which the
schools of York had obtained through
out Europe. He was a munificent patron
of architecture, art, and music. His
pupils afterwards taught in the schools
of Italy, Germany, and France. Several
of his works have come down to us :
the most valuable, a ' Pontificate, '
' Succinctus Dialogus Ecclesiastics In-
stitutionis,' ' Excarpsum de Canonibus
Catholicum Patrum, Vel Poeniten-
tiale. '
ELMHAM, DIOCESE OF. [See
Norwich.] ELY, DIOCESE OF. Ely has,a long
and distinguished history before it
became a Bishop's See. Etheldreda,
daughter of Anna, King of the East
Anglians, ¦ married Tondbert, King of
the South Gyrvians or Fenmen, and
received the Isle of Ely as her dower ;
on his death she was married again to
Egfrid of Northumbria, but with his
permission she retired to her own
estate, and there built a double monas
tery of men and women, of which she
was the first .abbess. This was de
stroyed in the great Danish invasion
Of 870. Ethelwold, Bishop of Win
chester, purchased the Isle of Ely from
King Edgar, and refounded the monas
tery for Benedictine monks. It grew
in wealth and importance, and its
abbots were among the most powerful
Churchmen of the age. At the Norman
Conquest the Isle of Ely became the
refuge of the last Saxons who held out
against William, and the monastery
was, as it were, the citadel of the
" Camp of Refuge."
In the reign of Rufus, Abbot Richard ,
son of Richard, Earl of Clare, conceived

the idea of terminating the constant
disputes of the powerful monastery
with the Bishop of Lincoln, by getting
the Abbot raised to the Episcopal
dignity, ruling independently over its
own estates, and a portion of the vast
Lincoln diocese besides. He died before
the plan could be accomplished. Her-
vey, Bishop of Bangor, whom the Welsh
had driven out of his see, was able to
carry the plan through ; and in 1108,
at the Council of London, Archbishop
Anselm consented to the erection of the
new see, and Hervey was appointed to
it. During the succeeding centuries
down to the Reformation the see was
occupied by a series of great statesmen
and great prelates. Bishop Hugh, in
1280, founded Peter Hbuse, the first
endowed College at Cambridge, in
imitation of Merton College, lately
founded at Oxford by Walter de Mer
ton, Bishop of Rochester. Bishop
Merton (1479, translated to Canter
bury, I486) attempted one of the
first works on a large scale for the
drainage of that part of the Fens
called the North Level ; the canal
he cut for 40 miles from Peterborough
to the sea, is still called "Merton's
Seam." Elizabeth despoiled the see,
exchanging (under the authority of an
Act of Parliament) fourteen manors of
the see for tenths, and impropriations
of much less value in the possession of
the Crown. The Lord Keeper Hatton
subsequently obtained a portion of the
bishop's London property in Holborn ;
and when Bishop Cox resisted the
spoliation, the Queen wrote to him
the famous letter : ' ' Proud Prelate, you
know what you were before I made
you what you are ; if you do not imme
diately comply with my request, by
God, I will unfrock you. Elizabeth. "
On Bishop Cox's death the see was
kept vacant for eighteen years, during
which the Queen received the whole
profits. The chapel of the ancient
town palace of the bishops still remains
in Ely Place, Holborn ; it has recently
been bought by Romanists, and con
verted to their uses.

EPIPHANY

272 ESTABLISHED CHURCH

The diocese consists of the entire
counties of Bedford, Cambridge, and
Huntingdon, the greater part of Suffolk,
and portions of counties adjacent.
Population, 512,747 ; 4 archdeacon
ries, viz. : Ely, Bedford, Huntingdon
and Sudbury ; 34 rural deaneries ; 556
benefices. EPIPHANY ( = a manifestation of
glory, as of the moon appearing from
behind a cloud, or the sun rising in the
east ; and is applied to the manifesta
tion of the Divine glory of Jesus Christ).
In very early times the whole twelve
days' festival, which began with the
day of the Nativity, was called the
Epiphany ; but in course of time the
name was limited to the last day of the
twelve. In the Eastern Church the
event selected for special commemora
tion on the last day was the Baptism
of our Lord, as the occasion of his
manifestation to John Baptist, and
through him to the world, as the
promised Messiah, and by the Voice
from heaven as the Beloved Son. In
the Western Church the manifestation
of the Infant Saviour to the magi, as
to the first-fruits of the Gentile world,
was selected as the special subject of
commemoration ; and the days were
observed with many festal observances
and curious customs. [See 'Medii
.ASvi Kalendarium,' under the word
Epiphany.] EPISTOLARE. One of the old Service
Books, which contained the portions of
Scripture to be read as the "Epistle"
in the Communion Service.
ERASTIANISM, a phase of thought,
rather than a party in the Church,
which ignores the truth that the Church
of Christ is a kingdom, having an or
ganisation, laws, and officials, of Divine
authority. It assumes religion to be
in the first place an individual question,
and the Church to be merely the national
organisation for religious purposes, to
which right-minded people ought to
conform as to any other regulation of
the State. The theory takes its name
from Lieber, a native of Baden (who,
according to the pedantic fashion of the

day, Greecised his name into Eraslus)
who taught such principles as these a
the time of the Reformation. Hi
principles were taken up in England h]
the Independents at the time of thi
Great Rebellion. There is probably i
great deal of unconscious Erastianisn
m the minds of ill-educated Church
people ; it falls in naturally with the
individualism and self-reliance, ignor-
ance of the history of the Church, dis
like of ecclesiastical authority, and
respect for the law of the land, which
are features of the English character! ,-u
ESTABLISHED CHURCH. The word
' ' established, ' ' as applied to the Church
of England, is a phrase of modern use,
and of ambiguous meaning. It first
occurs in any authoritative document
in the Canons of 1603.
Canon 1 says, "All usurped and
foreign power [viz. the Papal power]
(forasmuch as the same hath no eslah
lishment nor ground of the law of God)
is, for most just causes, taken away and
abolished." Canon 4 has the heading, "Impugn;
ers of the worship of God, establishei
in the Church of England, censured ; *«.
and begins : " Whosoever shall hereafteri.'
affirm that the form of God's worship
in the Church of England, established,
by laiv, and contained in the Book of
Common Prayer and administration of
the Sacraments," &c.
Canon 5 is entitled "Impugners of
the Articles of Religion established in
the Church of England, censured ; " and
enacts that: " Whosoever shall affirm
that the Thirty-nine Articles agreed
upon in Convocation are superstitious
or erroneous," 4c, without a .word
about the sanction of the Articles hy.
Royal or other State authority.
Canon 6 is entitled "Impugners of
the Rites and Ceremonies established'm
the Church of England, censured ;" and
enacts that : ' ' Whosoever shall hereafter
affirm, that the Rites and Ceremonies
of the Church of England by law estabt
lished," 4c, in which by comparison
with the preceding Canons the words
"by law established" belong to "the

ESTABLISHED CHURCH 273 ESTABLISHED CHURCH

Rites and Ceremonies," and not to "the
Church of England."
So that the Canons assert that the
Papal supremacy has no establishment,
that the worship of God in the Prayer
Book, the Thirty-nine Articles agreed
upon by Convocation, and the Rites
and Ceremonies of the Church, are by
law established ; but they do not say
that the Church of England is by law
established, or use the phrase, Estab
lished Church.
The first use of the word in an Act of
Parliament is in the Act of Uniformity
of Edward VI. (5 and 6, cap. 1), in which
the word " establishing " is applied, not
to the Church itself but to the revised
Prayer Book: "The establishing of
the Book of Common Prayer now ex
plained and hereto annexed." In the
Act 1 Elizabeth, c. i, the word " estab
lished" is used in setting forth the
claims of the Crown ecclesiastical juris
diction. In the Act of Uniformity of
1662 the Liturgy of the Church of
England is described "as is now by
law established. " It was not till the
time of William III. that the Church
itself is described as established, and
then it is not in any statute, but in an
address presented by the Houses of
Parliament to William, and is echoed
in his reply.
"In short," Professor E. A. Free
man * says : " We have to get rid of the
notion that there was some time or other
when the Church was established by a
deliberate and formal Act. . . . There
was no moment when the nation or its
rulers made up their minds that it
would be a good thing to set up an
Established Church, any more than
there was a moment when they made
up their minds that it would be a good
thing to set up a Government by King,
Lords, and Commons. " " The popular
notion clearly is that the Church was
'established' at the Reformation.
People seem to think that Henry VIII.
or Edward VI. or Elizabeth having al
ready ' disestablished ' an older Church,
• 'Establishment and Disendowment,' E.
A, Freeman.

went on of set purpose to ' establish '
a new one .... in all that they
did, Henry and Elizabeth had no more
thought of establishing a new Church
than they had of founding a new
nation." The phrase "Established Church,"
as commonly used, of course alludes in
a general way to the legal position of
the Church in relation to the State.
But it is perhaps difficult to define
what are the exact points of relation
between the Church of England and
the State which constitute its estab
lishment. Not its endowment by the
State, for the State has not endowed.
the Church. Not the protection of the
property of the Church by the law,
for the law equally protects the pro
perty of all other religious communities.
Not certain personal privileges of the
clergy, such as exemption from enlist
ment, serving on juries, &c, because
these privileges are extended to all
"ministers of religion."
Probably the two points that do con
stitute the idea of the ' ' establishment "
of the Church of England are, 1. that
the State recognises the Church as
the rightful representative of Christ's
Church in this country ; and 2. that it
gives coercive jurisdiction to the Eccle
siastical Courts, and takes the corre
lative right to have a voice in the
appointment of the chief administrators
of this jurisdiction — the bishops.
When Edwin, King of Northumbria,
called his thanes and councillors to
gether, and Paulinus laid the doctrines
of the Christian religion before them,
and they, after the interesting discussion
which Bede has recorded, resolved to
accept the proposals of Paulinus, the
Church was in a sense ' ' established "
in the kingdom of Northumbria.
When Theodore had gathered to
gether the bishops and representative
clergy of the seven Churches of the
seven kingdoms, the kings and their
thanes assisting at the Council, and they
had all accepted the propositions which
he laid before them, the united Church
of England was in a sense "estab-

ESTABLISHED CHURCH 274 ESTABLISHED CHURCH

lished " ; and a very remarkable
"establishment" it was, of a united
Church extending over seven divided
and often hostile kingdoms ; and had
an influence which is only beginning to
be generally recognised, in enabling the
Church to sustain society amidst poli
tical convulsions, and finally to harmo
nise the seven kingdoms into a united
England. When William the Conqueror intro
duced a more scientific system of juris
prudence, by severing the Ecclesiastical
Courts and giving them a more definite
sphere and a more express coercive
jurisdiction, he considerably modified
the mode of the "establishment" of
the Church.
The mediseval history of the relations
of the Church to the State presents
many various phases, from the firm
maintenance of the rights of the national
Church against the claims of tho
Papacy by William I. to the abject
surrender of Crown and Church by
John ; from the triumph of the Church
over the Crown, when Henry II. did
penance at the shrine of Thomas a.
Becket, to the triumph of the Crown
over the Church, when Henry VIII.
coerced the clergy by the Act of submis
sion. Henry VIII. was not moved by mere
passion and capricious tyranny in his
action towards the Church ; he had a
clear consistent ecclesiastical policy.
He reasserted for the Crown the ex-
tremest rights which the Conqueror
had maintained ; and by destroying
the monasteries, and controlling the
secular clergy, he reduced the rela
tion of Church and State to that of a
Christian State, strong, tyrannical, and
jealous of the Chnrch, with a Church
which, distracted and weakened by
internal divisions, was no longer able
to assert the liberties which had been
for centuries regarded as its constitu
tional right. Henry VIII. was perhaps
disposed to claim a new vague spiritual
character for the Kingship, and a con
sequent vague spiritual authority over
the Church ; but the Convocation reso

lutely opposed any such assumption
and carefully guarded against the allow
ance of any such claim. Still the
Church continued to be not only
strongly controlled by the State* but
also strongly maintained by it against
the Papal endeavours to recover its
authority, and against internal endea
vours to divide her unity. In all thesa
readjustments of the relations of the
Church with the State, the change has
been formally recognised on both sides ;
and when we come down to the time of
Parliaments (a comparatively late period
in the history of the Church), the re
cognition has been made in a legal way
by Acts of Convocation on one side and
by Acts of Parliament on the other.
So that at any period, from the Council
of Hertford down to the present day,
the Church of England might have
been spoken of as " by law established ; "
seeing that in all that period the Church
was recognised by the State, protected
in her liberties and rights, and aided
in the exercise of her regulations ;and
discipline. To. this general statement
we must mako the one exception of the
period of the Great Rebellion, during
which the Church was disestablished
and disendowed, proscribed and perse
cuted. But the Act of Uniformity of
Charles II. did not so much establish
the Church as reinstate it legally into
the rights and liberties from which it
had been illegally deposed ; just as we do
not regard the reign of Charles II. as
the establishmeat of a new monarchy,-
but as the restoration of the old dyn
asty which had been forcibly excluded
from its rights. It is perhaps from
the accession of William III. and the
toleration of Dissenters, and the con
cession to Dissenters of immunities and
privileges, that we must date the idea
of the "establishment" of the-Church
as the one, among several rival religious
bodies, to which exceptional advantages
have been conceded by the State. And
yet it is from that very period that
the Dissenting bodies began to be "es
tablished by law" ; inasmuch as from
that time Acts of Parliament recognise

ETHELDREDA

275

EULOGLE

and legalise their existence as organised
religious bodies, protect their property
and their worship, give exceptional
privileges to their chapels and minis
ters,* and the Courts of Law enforce
the fulfilment of the trust-deeds of their
chapels, and interpose to decide their
internal disputes. What more does
the State do for the Church which
makes her established, while they are
not so i. The nomination of the bishops
by the Crown is rather an irregular
interference with the ancient establish
ment than a normal part of it. The
sitting of the bishops in the House of
Lords is a constitutional usage as old
as the existence of the House of Lords,
but the exclusion of the bishops from
the House of Lords would not disestab
lish the Church.
ETHELDREDA, foundress of Ely.
Great numbers of the ladies of the
royal families of the early Anglo-Saxon
period embraced the religious life.
Etheldreda is an illustrious instance.
She was a daughter of Anna, King of
¦the East Angles, and had three sisters
who were also nuns. Although she
had in her own mind embraced the
religious life and vowed perpetual vir
ginity, yet she was given in marriage
(652) to Tondbert, an East Anglian
prince, who gave her the Isle of Ely as
her dowry. After the death of Tond-
¦bert, she was again given in marriage
to Egfrid, son of Oswy, King of North
umbria. But both these marriages were
nominal, since she maintained her vow
¦of virginity. In 671, Egfrid, now King
of Northumbria, consented to a separa
tion, and Etheldreda, after a year spent
as a nun at Coldingham, retired to her
island amidst the fens, where she estab
lished a religious house,t which, under
her wise rule, became a devotional
centre to the whole East of England.
,She died 23rd June, 679. In 605, her
* E.g. their chapels are relieved from pay
ing rates and taxes ; their ministers are ex-
, cused from serving in the militia and on
juries. t One of her historians says it was a double
house, of nuns arid monks, like Whitby [sec
Hilda] and Coldingham ; but this is doubtful.

sister Sexburga, who had succeeded
her as abbess, determined to translate
her remains, and obtained from Grant-
chester, near Cambridge, a white marble
sarcophagus, which must have been of
Roman workmanship, and in it enshrined
the body, which, like St. Cuthbert's,
was undecayed. Her house of Ely was
the predecessor of the present mag
nificent cathedral. Burnt by the Danes
in 866, it was rebuilt by King Edgar,
who made it a monastery of Benedic
tine monks. In 1107 it was made the
See of the Bishopric of Ely. [See Ely,
Diocese of..]
EUCHARIST (from the word evxa-
pioria, thanksgiving), one of the
names given from the earliest period to
the celebration of the Holy Communion.
Like most of the other names given to
the Divine Service, it brings out spe
cially one aspect of it, viz. that it is the
great act of thanksgiving ; the oblation
of the bread and wine are by the accom
panying words of the ancient liturgies
made a symbolical thanksgiving for
the "fruits of the earth; for the
Incarnation of the Son of God ; for the
redemption of the world by His sacri
fice of His Body and Blood ; for the
Divine Food of the Sacrament.
EULOGTiE, loaves blessed at the
time of the Eucharist, but not conse
crated, which were distributed to the
people present, and were sometimes
sent to people at a distance as presents
expressive of kindly feeling.
It was a primitive, perhaps an apos
tolic, custom, and was of universal use.
But at last, when the laity seldom
communicated, the blessed bread be
came to them a kind of substitute for
communion, and was supposed to con
vey at least a measure for grace.
A proclamation of 1538 explains that
the blessed bread was intended not to
supersede, "but to put us in remem
brance of the howsell which in the be-
ginninge of Christe Church men did
oftener receive than they use now to
do" ('Concil,' torn. iii. p. 842) ; and
soon after the custom was discontinued.
The taking away of the holy water

T 2

EVANGELICAL

276

EVANGELICAL

and the holy bread was one of the
complaints of the Devonshire rebels
in 1549. See ' Dictionary of Christian
Antiquities ' ; Maskell, ' Monumenta
Ritualia,' vol. i. For some illustrative
anecdotes see 'Charlemagne,' p. 116.
S.P.C.K. EVANGELICAL. The "Evangeli
cal " * school of thought came into
prominence in the latter end of the
eighteenth century. The Church in
England had sunk into a torpid con
dition. Low Churchmen and High
Churchmen alike were (no doubt with
many exceptions) dry and formal, with
out unction or life ; and Dissenters
were affected by the general lethargy.
Churches fell into disrepair, services
were perfunctorily performed, clergy
were inactive, exceptional activity was
unappreciated and sometimes derided.
Out of this general deadness two great
revivals of religion took place almost
simultaneously : the first, which un
happily, became exterior to the Church,
is dealt with under the head Wesley ;
the latter, or " Evangelical " move:
ment, though perhaps affecting those
without, belongs actually and primarily
to the Church.
The special features of the Evangelical
movement were the revival of a very
earnest faith in the Atonement, and of
ardent personal religion, together with
a profound veneration for the very
letter of Holy Scripture. Warm and
sometimes exciting preaching took the
place of dry theology and morality ;
and the wide and tolerant charity of
the adherents of the school led to a free
religious intercourse with Protestant
Dissenters, which had the effect of
tinging the teaching of the Evangelical
school with Calvinism : not, however,
the harsh and horrible supralapsarianism
* It is sometimes called " Low Church," but
we must be careful to distinguish between
the "Low Churchmen " of the eighteenth and
those of the nineteenth century. The latter,
and not the former, are " Evangelical." The
" Low Churchmen " of the earlier period
were Erastian in their church views, and
latitudinarian in their belief ; the very reverse
of the Evangelicals.

of Scotland and Holland, but rather a
gentle form of that Angustinianism
which, while it adores the Divine fore
knowledge, forgets human freewill.
The revival was marked, as most
great revivals have been marked; by
increased attention to Church hymnody.
For Sternhold and Hopkins, or Brady
and Tate, were substituted hymns full
of Christian piety. Not only were
Methodist and- Nonconformist hymn-
books adopted, or at least laid under
contribution, but Cowper, Toplady,
and other sacred -poets, belonged dis
tinctly to the Evangelical school, /and
furnished a large quota of those devout
songs which played a conspicuous part
in the history of the movement.
If the birth of the school may he
attributed to the influence of any one
man, rather than to a natural wave of
reaction, under the guidance of the
Holy Sph'it, passing over the mind of
the Church, then that man was William
Law, whose ' Serious Call to a Devout
and Holy Life,' and ' Christian Per
fection,' had a great effect on the
minds both of John Wesley and "of
Henry Venn, who may be regarded Jas
one of the earliest and perhaps the
most influential of the Evangelical
school. With Venn we may enumerate,;
as early Evangelicals, Samuel Walker
of Truro ; James Hervey, the author
of the ' Meditations in a Country
Churchyard ; ' and William Talbot of
Reading. Later names of eminence are
William Romaine of St. Anne, Black-
friars ; Joseph and Isaac Milner, the
Church historians ; John Newton of
Olney ; the poet Cowper ; Richard Cecil
of St. John's, Bedford ; Thomas Scott,
the commentator ; Legh Richmond of
Turvey ; Henry Martyn, the missionary;
Charles Simeon of Cambridge ; John
Thornton, the chief of the Clapham
Community ; and the great William
Wilberforce. Nor may we forget that
King George III. .himself was de
cidedly a favourer of the Evangelicals.
And Selina, Countess of Huntingdon,
must not be left unnoticed. Her col-'
lege at Trevecca was intended for the ^

EVANGELISTARIUM

277

EXCOMMUNICATION

training of " Evangelical " preachers,
though its innate sectarianism led it
to become the nucleus of a new ' ' Con
nexion," apart from, though not actually
hostile to, the Church.
The dangers or defects, whichever
we may choose to term them, of the
school lie in its tendency to narrowness
of mind ; to the obscuration of other
parts of the Christian scheme by the
special prominence given to one (the
Atonement) ; to the undue exaltation of
preaching above other Church ordin
ances, and the consequent undervaluing
of Creeds, Sacraments, Worship, and
indeed of the whole system of the
Church. These latter tendencies have
caused the Evangelicals to be nick
named "Low" Churchmen.
The revival of the High Church school
of religion marks the beginning of the
decline of the Evangelical party as a
party. The chief truths which the earlier
revival had established were accepted
by the new school of thought ; while
on the other hand the Evangelicals
learnt to supplement their system of
thought in some of those points in
which it had been defective. The
happy result is that it is probable that
between the great body of those who
would be classed as belonging to the
moderate High Church School, and the
great body of those who would still
claim to belong to the Evangelical
school, there is not much difference in
doctrines, or in the usages of Divine
worship ; and there is between them a
.mutual understanding and sympathy
which increases day by day, and is full
of promise for the future of the Church
of England. R. T.
' EVANGELISTARIUM. One of the
old Service Books, which contained the
portions of Scripture to be read as the
"Gospel" in the Communion Service.
[See Sequence.]
EVANGELIUM. [See Textus.]
EVENSONG. The popular name of
the ancient Vesper service of the
Church ; it was appropriated at the Re
formation to the Evening Prayer formed
out of the two evening "Hours,

viz. Vespers and Compline. [See
Hours.] EXCOMMUNICATION. The Church
has never assumed to have power to
punish its members by temporal inflic
tions, as fine or imprisonment, or the
like ; but only by spiritual censures.
The first of these is admonition ; the
second suspension for a time from some
or all of the privileges of the Church,
as Divine Worship and Holy Com
munion ; the third is exclusion from
the Church.
Lesser excommunication excludes
from Holy Communion for a time,
usually until repentance and satisfac
tion ; greater excommunication cuts off
from the Church altogether, not only
from the services of the Church, but
from brotherhood with Christian people,
so that he is to them "as an heathen
man and a publican " (Matt, xviii. 17) ;
they are not to keep company with him,
' ' no not so much as to eat " (1 Cor. v.
11) ; but the offender may on repent
ance and satisfaction be reconciled
again. [See Discipline; Canon Law;
Ecclesiastical Courts.]
Our Lord Himself had laid down tho
principles of a first private remon
strance, then a public admonition, and
finally exclusion from Communion — ¦
"if he neglect to hear the Church, let
him be unto thee as an heathen man
and a publican" (Matt, xviii. 17) — and
gave express authority of discipline to
the apostles (Matt. xvi. 19 ; John xx.
22, 23).
It is inherent in the constitution of
the Church as an external society that
it should have authority to eject from
the society those who refuse to conform
to its laws ; and we find this authority
assumed and exercised in the first age
of the Church. Thus, St. Paul in
giving St. Timothy directions for his
exercise of- the apostolic authority
delegated to him in the Church of
Ephesus, says : " Them that sin rebuke
before all, that others also may fear" (1
Tim. v. 20) ; "reprove, rebuke, exhort "
(2 Tim. iv. 2) "; also to Titus, "rebuke
them sharply" (ii. 13); "an heretic

EXETER

278

EXETER

after the first and second admonition
reject" (iii. 10). And we have the
history of the excommunication and
again of the reconciliation by St. Paul
of the offender at Corinth (1 Cor. v.
1—5 ; 2 Cor. i. 11).
The Church has always considered
the exercise of discipline an important
part of its functions ;' and the canons
regulating it form a large part of its
legislation. The Reformation of the sixteenth
century dealt imperfectly with the
Church's system ; leaving a mass of
ancient canons unrepealed, but obsolete ;
new piecemeal legislation on various
points of discipline since that date,
much of it unsuited to the present
state of society, has only increased the
confusion. A restoration of discipline
is one of the pressing needs of the
Church. EXETER, DIOCESE OE. While the
south-western peninsula was still un-
conquered by the Saxons, it seems to
have had two lines of bishops of the
ancient British Church — one line in
Cornwall (which has been happily re
vived in our days in the new Diocese of
Truro) [which see], and one for Devon
shire. The West Saxon kingdom was
continually encroaching upon the free
Britons, and the jurisdiction of the
See of Winchester advanced together
with it ; but in 704 that great see was
divided, and Devonshire was included
in the Sherborne bishopric. > In the
course of the eighth and ninth centuries,
the West Saxon rule was extended over
the whole of Devonshire, and the county
was created into a separate diocese, with
its see first (905) for a short time at
Bishop's Tawton, and then (about 912)
at Crediton. Eadulf was the first
bishop at Crediton, and his name occurs
in a charter of 933. For a time the
bishops of Crediton exercised authority
over the conquered parts of Cornwall ;
but when the whole of Cornwall was
conquered by Athelstan (925 — 940) it
was created into a separate see. Ten
Cornish bishops and ten Devonshire
bishops rulod contemporaneously, till

the two sees were united, under Living
(1035 — 1047), the chief counsellor of
Canute ; and the see of the united
bishopric was removed to Exeter under
his successor, Leofric (1040 — 1072), a
native of Lotharingis, in the time of the
Confessor. He placed his see in the
monastery of St. Mary and St. Peter, and
was inducted into it by the king and
queen in person ; he replaced the monks
by a body of canons, whom he placed
under the rule which Chrodegang. had
introduced into Lotharingia. He was
not displaced at the Conquest ; and
was succeeded by Osborne (1072 — 1103);
who, though of Norman birth, had been
educated in England, and continued the
English customs. William Warelwast;
a nephew of the Conqueror, ruled 1107—
1136, and founded the Norman cathe
dral of which the unique transeptal
towers still remain. Bishop Bartholo-
mseus, the son of humble parents in
Exeter, where he was called Isoarius
(Isea= Exeter), put forth a Penitential
which still remains, and illustrates the
beliefs and manners of the time. The
city of Exeter is said to have been
divided into parishes in the time of
Bishop Simon de Apulea (1214—1223).
Bishop William Bruere (1224—1244),
a warlike prelate, who, together with
Bishop Peter de Rupibus of Winchester,
led the English crusaders at Acre,
1228, founded the deanery, and, it is
said, created twenty-four prebendaries
in his cathedral. Walter Bronescombe
(1257—1280) was also of humble Exeter
parentage. Peter Quivil (1280—1291)
has left a body of Constitutions
(to be found in Wilkins's 'Concilia'))
which are interesting and important.
Walter de Stapledon (1308—1326)
founded a college and a hall at Oxford^
and built a see house in London outside
Temple Bar. He was employed in
State affairs by Edward II., and whet
the king fled to Bristol, he left London
in charge of the bishop. The citizens,
taking the Queen's side, dragged the
bishop from St. Paul's, where Tie had
taken sanctuary, and beheaded him
beside the great cross in Cheapside.

EXETER

279

EXORCIST

John Grandisson (1327 — 1369), a de
scendant of the Dukes of Burgundy,
ruled the see for forty years with great
wisdom and splendour. Edmund
Lacey (1420—1455) was reputed a
saint, and his tomb became a place of
pilgrimage. A Liber Pontificalis of
this prelate is still preserved in the
cathedral, and is of great interest.
George Neville (1458 — 1465) is an ex
ample of the abuse of Church patron
age. When fourteen years old he held
a canonry in York and another in
Salisbury ; at twenty-three he was
elected and confirmed Bishop of Exeter,
though he could not be consecrated till
twenty-seven ; in 1465 he was trans
lated to the See of York. Hugh Old
ham (1504 — 1519) was joint founder
with Fox, his predecessor in the see
(1487—1491), of Corpus Christi Col
lege, Oxford. John Vesey, or Harman
(1519—1551), lived through the Re
formation, resigning his see (1549) in
King Edward VI. 's time, resuming it
on Coverdale's deprivation (1533) under
Mary, and again resigning in 1551.
He died in 1555, at the age of 103.
Miles Coverdale was bishop during the
short interval above-mentioned, 1551 —
1553. His life belongs to the history
of the Reformation ; his short rule in
Exeter was that of a pious man and
zealous minister, but not of a great and
influential prelate.
James Fisherville (1555, dep. 1559)
was the zealous but mild bishop of
Mary's time ; there was only one mar
tyrdom in this diocese. Joseph Hall
(1627, trans. 1641) was a learned divine
and favourite author. In 1641 he
was translated to Norwich, and in the
same year sequestered as a delinquent ;
he published an account of the perse
cution to which he was subjected.
John Gauden (1660—1662), a man
of ability, ambition, and doubtful
character, is specially notable as having
claimed the authorship of the ' Icon
Basilike, ' a book professing to contain
the private devotions and meditations
of Charles I. Jonathan Trelawney
(1689—1707) was one of the seven

bishops committed to the Tower by
James LL Henry Philpot (1850), by
his great learning, ability, and firmness,
exercised a remarkable influence in the
early part of the Church revival of the
last half century.
The diocese consists of the county
of Devon. Population, 603,211 ; 3
archdeaconries, Exeter, Totness, and
Barnstaple ; 23 rural deaneries ; 503
benefices. EXORCIST. The third of the five
Minor Orders [which see] of the mediae
val clergy. The belief in the frequent
possession of men by evil spirits con
tinued to be general in the Church
down to a late period. It was believed
that unbaptised children, being ' ' born
in sin, and children of wrath," were in
some way under Satanic influence, and
in the earlier part of the Baptismal
Service there was a solemn exorcism of
the evil spirit, which was retained
with slight alteration in the First
Prayer Book of Edward VI., "I com
mand thee, unclean spirit, in the name
of the Father, of the Son, and of the
Holy Ghost, that thou come out and
depart from these infants." Then, all
sickness being a result of sin, it was
believed that those afflicted with any
unusual malady, especially maladies
accompanied by violent and involuntary
action, as epilepsy and madness, were
possessed by an evil spirit. Such per
sons were called Encrgumens. Their
words during their seizures were care
fully noted, since they were believed to
be the words of the spirit, who had
supernatural knowledge, and might
give utterance to important truths or
predictions, as Matt. viii. 29 ; Acts xvi.
16 ; and the heathen oracles generally,
see Gregory of Tours, 'De Mirac. S.
Martini,' § xxv. ; and Eginhard, 'His
tory of the Translation of the Blessed
Martyrs, SS. Mareellinus and Peter,'
lib. vii. c. 91.
The office of the exorcist was to say
certain prayers and perform certain
ceremonies over such persons, with the
view of delivering them from the evil
influence. He was appointed to his

EXTRA SERVICES

280

PAST DAYS

office by the bishop's benediction and
the presentation of a Book of Exor
cisms. The belief both in Satanic pos
session, and the power of exorcism,
survived the Reformation, and is not
now extinct ; the 72nd of the Canons
of 1603 recognises the belief, while it
, suggests the danger of superstition and
fraud: — No minister, without licence
of the Bishop of the Diocese, is to
attempt, upon any pretence whatever,
whether of possession or obsession, by
fasting and prayer to cast out any devil
or devils, under pain of the imputation
of imposture or cozenage, and deposition
from the ministry.
EXTRA SERVICES. It is enacted
by the Act of Uniformity, that the form
of worship directed in the Book of Com
mon Prayer shall be used in the Church
and no other ; but with this proviso,
that it shall be lawful for all men, as
well in churches, chapels, oratories, or
other places, to use openly any psalms or
prayers taken out of the Bible, at any
due time, not letting or omitting there
by the service, or any part thereof, men
tioned in the said book. This, says
Sir R. Phillimore, is a veiy important
legal proviso, and one not generally
known. An abbreviated service has been
sanctioned by some of the bishops, and
authorised by the Convocation of Can
terbury, and a form for it may be ob
tained from the Christian Knowledge
Society. F
PACULTY. A faculty is a grant
made under authority of the Bishop's
Court, by his Chancellor, Commissary,
or Vicar-General, and is either of a
public nature for the benefit of a parish
at large, or private for the benefit of an
individual. Of the first sort are faculties
for rebuilding or enLirging, repairing
or altering the fabric of a church, or
its seating or permanent decoration or
ornament; or for building on consecrated
ground, or similar matters ; or for con
firming such things already done. At
the present time, in minor matters,

such as the erection of stained glass
windows, or a new font, pulpit, organ*
bells, or seats, the informal assent of
the bishop is frequently deemed suf
ficient, though wanting in legal author
ity, and questionable (with probable
costs) in the Consistorial Court. Facul
ties of a private nature are to enable an
individual to build a chapel or aisle to
form part of a church, and which re
mains the private property. of the in
dividual for the use of himself and
family, and for their burial-place ; or
to put up a monument in the church
or churchyard ; or to remove a corpse
from consecrated ground, and similar
matters. Formerly, faculties were
granted for other things less definitely
ecclesiastical, such as to teach grammar,
to act as midwife, to bury an excom
municated person, to eat flesh in Lent,
or to resort to other than the parish
church. The commonest and best
known is the ordinary Marriage Licence;
[See Licence.]
Faculties professing to grant pews,
or licences to erect pews, have formerly
been lavishly granted by the Ecclesi
astical Courts; a practice which they
have since reprobated.
Faculties were at one time granted
for the establishment of select vestries,
whereby the rule was taken from the
parishioners at large, and placed in the
hands of a limited number of them ;
but in the opinion of the learned Spel-
man, writing soon after their intro
duction, such faculties were utterly
devoid of authority. — A. H.
FALD- STOOL. A folding-stool which
can be easily placed where wanted for
any temporary purpose, and removed
again ; as the movable seat of a bishop,
which can be placed at the sacrarium
step for ordination, &c. ; the Litany
desk, which can be placed at the entrance
to the chancel, according to the rubric,
for the saying of the Litany, and re
moved aside when done with.
FAST DAYS. The appointment of
annual days for fasting, in commemor
ation of certain events, is sanctioned by
the Divine appointment of tho great

FASTING

281

FATHERS

fast of the Day of Atonement, in the
Old Testament Church. To this the
authorities of the Jewish Church added
other annual fasts in commemoration
of the taking of Jerusalem, and the
destruction of the temple. The Chris
tian Church, from a very early time,
observed a fast before Easter ; and the
Eastern Church has always observed a
fast also before Advent. The Wednes
day and Friday weekly fasts are also
of primitive origin. The fact that the
Church seems always to have con
sidered it a principle of ritual observ
ance, that a festival should be preceded
by a fast, accounts for the observance
of Eves or Vigils in connection with
the great festivals. The Ember days
have also a very early date as fast days.
The Rogation fast dates from the time
of the institution of the Rogation
season, viz. the fourth century. Thus
we account for the complete Prayer
Book list pf " Fasts and Days of Abstin
ence [see Abstinence] to be observed
in tho year, viz. : 1. The Forty days
of Lent. 2. The Ember days. 3. The
Rogation days. 4. All Fridays, except
Christmas Day. 5. The Evens or
Vigils before certain festivals."
FASTING. A penitential religious
observance, which by no means con
sists in, but which certainly includes, a
certain degree of abstinence from food.
The objects of fasting seem to be to
express penitence ; to practise self-
denial for the sake of obtaining com
plete self-control ; to bring the body
into a condition favourable to spiritual
exercises. There is no question that certain
fasts were enjoined, and that voluntary
fasts were encouraged, in the Old Testa
ment dispensation. It is equally clear
that the general observance of fasting
was enjoined and practised by our Lord
and his apostles. The appointment of
certain fast days by the Church is a
regulation by competent authority, and
therefore of general obligation. [See Fast
Days.] The degree and kind of abstin
ence from food to be observed, seems
to have differed in different times and

places ; and is well left to bo deter
mined by circumstances of climate and
usual habit. A wise man will adapt
the means wisely to his own case, so as
to attain the religious end of fasting;
a too rigid definition of tho means
might help an unwise man to rest on a
formal observance of the external rule ;
though even that, done in » general
spirit of religious obedience, were better
than a neglect of the observance
altogether. FATHERS, The. The Church of Eng
land bases its teaching on the Holy
Scriptures, the Councils of the un
divided Church, and the Fathers. By
the latter phrase is indicated all the
early Christian writers whose works
were received in the Church as ortho
dox. " The great Fathers of the Christian
Church are nearly all included within a
century, and the greatest of them were
contemporaries. The great Alexan
drian and African writers, Clement,
Origen, andTertullian, belong to a rather
earlier period ; St. Gregory the Great '
and the Venerable Bede to a period
rather later. Putting them aside, the
greatest Fathers, both Greek and Latin,
may be said to begin with Athanasius
and to end with Leo the Great, and are
included within the dates 330 and 461. "
The following is a list of the more
eminent : — Clemens Romanus, Poly
carp, Barnabas, Ignatius, the author of
the Epistle to Diognotus, Hermas and
Papias are called Apostolic Fathers
because they lived in the apostolic age.
After them come Justin Martyr (103 —
164) ; St. Irenams (140—143) ; St. Cle
ment of Alexandria (died about 216) ;
Tertullian (104—216) ; Origen (born
about 185) ; St. Cyprian (200—258) ;
St. Gregory Thaumaturgus (240—265) ;
Lactantius (about 320) ; Eusebius (died
338) ; St. Athanasius (326—373) ; St.
Cyril of Jerusalem (died 386) ; St.
Hilary of Poictiers (350—367) ; St.
Basil (born 328) ; St. Gregory Nazian-
zen (329—389) ; St. Ambrose (340—
396) ; St. Chrysostom (347—407) ; St.
Jerome (345^—420) ; St. Augustine

FATHERS

282

FECKENHAM

(354—430); St. Cyril of Alexandria
(412—444) ; Socrates (born about 380) ;
Sozomen (contemporary with the pre
ceding) ; Theodoret (consecr. 420) ; St.
Leo (oonsecr. 440). St. Bernard (died
1153) is usually considered "the last
of the Fathers. "
" What was their work ? The gospel
had not only to give an answer to
simple souls asking nothing more than
a practical rule by which to- live here
and to win heaven hereafter. If it
was to dominate the whole realm of
thought and life, as it claimed to do,
then it must deal with the whole range
of science and philosophy. It must
not only separate and reject all that was
false, but it must welcome and adopt
and gather into itself all the true re
sults of human thought which the
great races — Egyptian, Indian, Greek,
and Jewish — had been maturing for
centuries ; all the true conclusions
which human reason had painfully
wrung out of the facts of the universe ;
all the prophetic guesses of the heart
and soul stretching out to the unseen
and the future.
'.'The Fathers of the Church were the
men who, by God's grace, accomplished
this great and noble task. Holding
the faith once for all delivered to the
Church with a firm unfaltering grasp,
they, with a wonderful breadth and
depth of learning, and a still more
wonderful soundness and sobriety of
judgment, gathered round the gospel
all that was true and valuable in the
heterogeneous mass of ancient thought "
('Turning Points of General Church
History,' p. 179).
We are indebted to the Benedictines
of St. Maur for tho best collected
edition of ' the Fathers, published at
Lyons, 1677, in twenty-seven folio
volumes. Migne's ' Bibliotheea Pat-
rum ' contains not only the text, but
elaborate notes and other critical ap
paratus. The more important writings
of the moro eminent Fathers have
recently been made easily accessible to
the English reader by translations
published at low prices ; especially the

' Library of the Fathers,' published by
J. H. Parker and Son, Oxford. A
series of short sketches of some of the
most eminent Fathers has been pubs.
lished by the Christian Knowledge;
Society. FECKENHAM, John de, last Abbot
of Westminster, died 1585. Born
of poor parents, and admitted into
Evesham Monastery ; he was sent to
Gloucester Hall, Oxford, for his educa
tion, and thence returned to his abbey.
On its dissolution he was turned out
with a yearly pension of 100 florins,
and returned to Gloucester Hall. He
was chaplain to Bishop Bonner, and
when that prelate was ejected in 1549,
he was committed to the Tower. On
Mary's accession he was again chaplain
to Bonner, and was made Dean of St.
Paul's. He was one of the appointed
disputants with Cranmer, Ridley, and
Latimer, conducted his part of the dis
cussion without bitterness, and was
noted for his interference on behalf of
the persecuted Protestants ; and in par
ticular his intercession procured the
release of the Princess Elizabeth from
the prison in which her sister's fears
guarded her. In September, 1557,
when Mary refounded the Abbey of
Westminster, Feckenham was made
abbot over a convent of fourteen
Benedictine monks, with episcopal
authority. On Elizabeth's accession she acknow
ledged her obligations to Feckenham,
and offered him preferment, provided
he would conform. ¦ This he refused,
but he appeared in her first Parliament,
sitting last on the bishops' bench, and
was the last mitred abbot Who sat in
Parliament. He steadily opposed all
the acts by which the Reformation
was reinstated, and his opposition led
to his commitment to the Tower. The
latter part of his life was spent some
times in the friendly custody of pre
lates who sought to win him to the
Reformation, sometimes in. straiter cus
tody on suspicion of being concerned in
the plots of his co-religionists. His
learning, moderation, and benevolence

FEES

283

FELLOW

secured him the' esteem of all parties.
He is an interesting illustration of
the vicissitudes through which men
passed in tho stormy period of the
Reformation. FEES, payments made to the minis
ter for performing certain offices of the
Church for the benefit of individuals,
Called anciently altarage, now surplice
fees ; and for other acts performed in
virtue of their office as beneficed clergy.
Such fees have been paid from Saxon
times downwards. In Saxon times,
besides tithe, the clergy received, under
the name of cyric-sceat, or church-scot,
a sort of commutation ' for first-fruits,
paid by every householder ; and sawl-
sceat, soul-scot, or mortuary dues, with
other occasional spontaneous offerings"
(Bishop of Chester, 'Const. Hist.' I.
229.) In the Middle Ages nearly every
one who made a will left money not
only to his parish priest but often
to other clerks, and poor people, who
should attend his funeral, and pray for
the repose of his soul. Since the
Reformation, customary fees have been
everywhere payable for burial, and
though the canon law says that the
funeral rites shall not be withheld on
account of non-payment of any sum
of money, yet the customary fees are
recoverable at law afterwards.
There was also an ancient custom of
mortuaries or corpse presents, according
to which the best of the deceased's goods
Was given to God and the Church, in
the first place before all other legacies,
except where the best good was due to
the lord of the feu for a heriot ; in
which case the second best was given to
the Church, and it was usually taken
to church with the funeral ; e. g. the
best horse and armour, or silver cup,
or rich pall. At the burial of Prince
Arthur (1502) in Worcester Cathedral,
a squire clad in the prince's armour,
and mounted on the prince's charger,
preceded by another carrying the shield,
sword, helmet, and surcoat, rode up
the church into the choir, where the
Abbot of Tewkesbury as Gospeller

received them as a mortuary offering. *
By 21 Henry VIII. u. 6, the custom
was regulated, persons whose posses
sions were below a certain sum were
exempted, and a payment in lieu of
mortuary was proportioned to the value
of his possessions.
To receive fees for the administration
of sacraments is a sacrilege, and for
bidden by the canons under severe
penalties. No fee is due for the regis
tration of baptism, by 34 and 36 Vict.
cap. 36. The fees for marriage and
burial are in old parishes the ' ' custom
ary " fees, and vary in different places ;
in new parishes they are settled by the
Ecclesiastical Commissioners. No fee
can be demanded for churchings, but
the woman is by the rubric required to
offer accustomed offerings. The offici
ating minister cannot refuse to perform
the service until he has received his
fee, but has his remedy at law to
recover it afterwards.
The incumbent is also entitled to a
fee for searches and copies of the regis
ters of baptisms, burials, and marriages,
of which he is -the lawful custodian.
He is also entitled to fees for the erec
tion of gravestones and monuments in
churchyards, affixing of monumental
tablets to the walls of churches, and
the construction of vaults.
FELLOW. The staff of a college
at one of the universities consists of a
master or president or head or provost
or dean ; a number of fellows ; and a
number of scholars. A fellow is elected
by the existing head and fellows, takes
a part in the management of the affairs
of the body, and has a share in its
emoluments, viz. rooms in college,
commons, i. e. board, and a portion of
the revenues. A fellow used to be
required to be a member of the Church
of England, was restricted from marry
ing, and held his fellowship for life.
By recent legislation he need not be a
member of the Church ; he may marry,
but he only holds his fellowship for a
term of years.
* ' Diocesan Histories : "Worcester,' p. 132.
S. P. C. K.

FERRAR

284

FESTIVALS

FERRAR, Nicolas, born 1592, died
1637, is remarkable as the founder of a
religious house, which was an interest
ing phenomenon of the religious life of
the seventeenth century. He was the
son of a wealthy and eminent London
merchant ; was educated at Clare Hall,
Cambridge, where he took a fellowship ;
and travelled on the continent, after
the custom of young men of family and
fortune in his day. On his return he
was engaged as King's Council for the
Virginia Plantation, in which his father
and brother had a considerable interest.
In 1624 he was returned as a Member
of Parliament. Now, however, he con
ceived the plan of retiring from the
world, and organising his family into a
religious family, not modelled on the
lines of a mediaeval convent, but rather,
unintentionally, and as the natural
result of similar causes, affording an
illustration in these modern times of
what was probably the condition of
many of the monasteries of the Anglo-
Saxon period. For this purpose he
purchased an estate at Little Gidding,
Hants. Here he gathered together his
mother, his sister, with her family,
and other relations, to the number of
forty ; these, with the servants of the
house, lived by a religious rule ; and
Ferrar, having taken deacon's orders to
justify his spiritual authority, acted as
the superior of the family. The rule
regulated the general devotions, em
ployments, and recreations of the day,
and the special occupation of each in
dividual. A school for the village
children, a small hospital for tho sick
of the neighbourhood, were adjuncts of
the establishment, and printing and
book-binding among the occupations of
the family. The scheme of religious
exercises was entirely loyal to the
Church of England — daily Morning
and Evening Prayer, and Holy 'Com
munion every Sunday in the parish
church, to which services the family,
clothed uniformly, walked in proces
sion. The Lavs perennis of an earlier
age was imitated in a system of ' ' watch -
ings " from nine in the evening till one

next morning, during which two com
panies repeated the whole Psalter
nightly. At the same time it is curious
to find that one of the books constantly.
read aloud for the general edification-
was Foxe's 'Book of Martyrs.' This
remarkable experiment seems to have-.
been entirely successful, during the
short time it lasted. Mr. Ferrar's,
mother, who had acted as Superior of
the female part of the house, died in.
1635 ; Mr. Ferrar himself on December
1637 ; soon after his death the ParlhW
mentary soldiers paid a visit to Little
Gidding, and plundered and destroyed
everything in both house and church.
The family fled, and thus their religious
life seems to have come to an end.
('Life of Nicholas Ferrar,' by Isaac
Walton.) FESTIVALS, or FEASTS. The
Christian Church derived from the Old
Testament Church the divinely-origin- ,
ated custom of keeping certain days,
and seasons as religious festivals and
fasts, in memory of great events in the
past. God appointed the three festivals
of the Passover, Pentecost, and Taber
nacles, and the great fast of the Day,
of Atonement. The authorities of the
ancient Church added two other feasts,
one in memory of the deliverance from
destruction in Hainan's conspiracy ; the
other in memory of the dedication of
the second temple, the crowning act of
the restoration of the people to their
own land.
The Christian Church retained two
out of the three great feasts of the Old
Testament Church in her Easter and
Whitsuntide. To these the authorities:'
of the Churches added others from timo
to time, and their observance gradually
spread. The observance of days in
commemoration of the saints was of
early origin ; the days of martyrdom
of St. Stephen, St. Peter, and St. Paul,
for example, were generally observed
before the end of the fourth century,
The custom once recognised, it was
natural that each Church should soon
have its own list of local saints thus
honoured. [See Calendar.]

FIRST-FRUITS

285

FLOWERS

FIRST-FRUITS. The Roman See,
in pursuance of its ever-growing claims
over the Church, about the twelfth
century assumed a right, as a kind of
feudal lord over all the benefices of
the Church, to demand a fee, in pro
portion to the value of the benefice,
from every new incumbent. Some
bishops and abbots had already made
such a claim from those who held
benefices under them.
Pope Boniface VIII., in the latter
¦part of the reign of Edward I-., made
this claim to first-fruits from all the
benefices of England ; but the King
supported by the Parliament of Car
lisle rejected the demand as an en
tirely novel claim, and contrary to the
laws and constitution of the realm.
The king, however, as a personal con
cession, allowed the nuncios to collect
first-fruits for three years. In later times
the claim was so pressed that the clergy
found themselves unable to resist the
payment. Strenuous complaints against
these exactions were made at the Coun
cils of Constance and of Basle, but
without success. In England the Pope
had a house and large establishment of
officials for the collection of these and
other payments, and the large amounts
thus sent out of the country were one
of the standing grievances of the Church
and nation down to the time of the
Reformation. Then they were among
the first abuses dealt with. [See Re
formation Period.] Letters Patent in
the twenty-fifth year of Henry VIII.,
brought into operation an Act made
three years before — not to suppress
this tax upon the clergy, but — to divert
the proceeds of it into the royal treasury.
Queen Mary gave up these first-fruits.
In the first year of Elizabeth they were
resumed by the crown ; and continued
to form part of the royal revenue, until
Queen Anne restored them to the
Church, under a scheme for their appro
priation to the increase of poor livings.
[See Queen Anne's Bounty.]
First-fruits were otherwise called
Annates, because they were in theory
the first year's income of the benefice ;

in fact it was some proportion of a
year's income which was actually paid.
FLAGON, a vessel used to hold the
wine at the celebration of Holy Com
munion. In the pre- Reformation times
two small cruets held sufficient wine
and water for the use of the clergy,
who alone communicated in the cup ;
but with the restoration of the cup to
the laity, a much larger portion of wine
was needed, and a pair of "round-
bellied " flagons was provided to con
tain it. They were sometimes of silver,
but more commonly of pewter. The
20th Canon of 1603 requires that the
wine shall be contained in "a clean
and sweet standing pot or stoup of
pewter, if not of purer metal." Soon
after this period the usual tankard
pattern came into almost universal use ;
those at Canterbury Cathedral, how
ever, of A. D. 1664 are jug-shaped, with
lids surmounted by crosses. ('Old
English Plate,' by W. J. Cripps.
London: 1881.) [See Ampulla.]
FLOWERS. The use of flawers in
the decoration of the Church in time of
Divine service is of great — possibly of
primitive — antiquity, and is alluded
to by several of the fathers. Jerome
especially praises Nepotian that in his
pious care to adorn the Divine service,
lie used flowers of many kinds, and
the leaves of trees, and the branches
of the vine, in the decoration of his
church. The poetic feeling of the times con
ceived many religious associations of
flowers. Not only the lily, but others
were associated with the blessed Virgin ;
in the passion flower they saw the nails
and crown of thorns, &c. In all
churches on the Sunday before Easter
palms were blessed and borne by the
congregation in procession round the
churchyard. In some churches rose
leaves were showered down from the
clerestory on Whitsunday, to represent
the descent of the sacred flames on the
great day of Pentecost. The revival of
aesthetic feeling in our day has led
again to a large introduction of flowers,
in bouquets upon the holy table, and

FONT

286

FONT

in the decoration of the church on great
festivals. FONT, fons = fountain, the vessel
which contains the water for baptism.
Cathedral churches had their bap
tisteries, in which provision was made
for numerous baptisms of adult converts
as well as of the children of Christian
parents. In the earlier period of our
history living water, i. c. water not cut
off from its source, seems to have been
preferred for baptism where it could be
had. For the baptism of King Edwin
of Northumbria, a wooden chapel was
built round a spring of water ; York
cathedral was subsequently built over
the wooden chapel, and the spring still
exists in its crypt. At St. Madem's
Oratory, Cornwall, a little stream flows
under its north-west angle, where a
little well is excavated to form a font.
The holy well of Fynnon Vair, near St.
Asaph, rises at the west end of the
church, and is conducted into the south
transept of the church, where a bath or
font is made to receive it. Many, of
the holy wells dedicated to Celtic saints
probably supplied water for the baptism
of their converts.
In later times churches made provision
for the baptism of children in fonts of
stone (or other material), usually placed
near the principal entrance to the
church, to symbolise that it is through
baptism that we enter into the church
and body of Christians.
The font was one of those objects
whose ritual importance and whose
prominence as a feature in the church
demanded ornamental treatment, and
accordingly the architects of all times
were lavish of their skill on its design ;
and the result is a wonderful variety
of forms.
The age of a font is determined
either — (1) by a contemporary in
scription upon it, stating the date of
its erection ; (2) by the linguistic or
palaiographical peculiarities of an in
scription when it bears one ; (3) by the
character of its ornamental or archi
tectural features ; or (4) by the fact of
its erection being mentioned in his

torical documents. There is no font
having a date carved upon it earlier
than the fifteenth century. The oldest
inscription upon a font is probably that
at Little Billing, near Northampton,
which is in Roman capitals such as were
in use during the eleventh century.
The earliest forms of ornament which
occur upon fonts are spiral patterns,
similar to those found in the , Celtic
MSS. , as on the font at Deerhurst in.
Gloucestershire, and interlaced work
and key-patterns, as on the font at
Edgmond in Shropshire. It is more
likely, however, that these are inr
stances of the survival of archaic forms
of decoration, than that they indicate a
date anything approaching the age of
the Celtic MSS. The most ancient
architectural details and figure sculp
ture found on fonts are distinctly of
the Norman period. There remains a
residue of fonts destitute of ornament
and rudely executed, whose date can
not be fixed, some of which may pos
sibly belong to the Saxon period, but
it is a little remarkable that though
a font is little liable to accident or de
struction, and is a feature of the Church
furniture which is usually preserved
through successive alterations of the
structure, yet not a single font has been
proved on any evidence whatsoever tp
be of date anterior to the Conquest.
Ihe object of a font is to hold the
water used for the rite of baptism, either
by immersion or by affusion. The
majority of fonts are made of stone, but
during the Norman period fonts of lead
were not uncommon, as at Tidenham
in Gloucestershire. Leaden fonts of a
later date are rare, but a good example
of one of the Decorated style exists at
Parham, in Sussex. One or two in
stances exist of wooden fonts, as at
Llan-gyryvon, in Cardiganshire, and
Marks Tey, Essex. Occasionally the
materials from older buildings were
utilised, as in the case of the 'font at
Wilne, in Derbyshire, which is made out
of the base of a cylindrical Saxon pillar,
the ornament being left in its original
state. In its most primitive form a fort

FONT

287

FONT

consists of a rude block of stone with a
basin-shaped cavity scooped out in its
upper surface, for holding the water
used at baptism. In later times this
block of stone was placed on steps, so
as to raise it above the level of the
rest of the floor of the church ; sub
sequently a pillar was added between
the block and the steps, so that in the
latest stage of its development the font
consists of the following parts — (1) the
bowl ; (2) the stem with its architectural
capital and base ; (3) the steps. The
font was usually placed standing by
itself, and not against a wall, although
there are instances as at Llantwit-juxta-
Neath, in Glamorganshire, of a font
which by its shape appears to have
been intended to occupy the latter
position. The shape of a font is there
fore generally symmetrical, the bowl
being cylindrical,hemispherical, square,
or polygonal. The stem consists of a
single cylindrical, square, or polygonal
pillar, or a central pillar surrounded by
four or more disengaged shafts. The
steps range from one to three in number,
and are sometimes wider one side than
the other for kneeling upon, or have
separate projecting steps for this pur
pose. The early Norman fonts were
cylindrical or square, simply placed on
raised steps, without any stem what
ever. When the stem was added it
took the form of a round pillar in
preference to a square one, as being
for aesthetic reasons more appropriate ;
but when a square block was placed
on the top of a round stem, it was
found that the corners projected un
duly, hence the introduction of the
four disengaged shafts at the corners,
as in the case of the magnificent font
at Winchester cathedral. Another
method of treatment common in Norman
times, especially in South Wales and
the West of England, was to scallop
the lower portion of the square bowl so
as to resemble the cushion capital of a
column. In the case of several of the
Cornish fonts the bowl is hemispherical
instead of square, and the stem consists
of a central column with four disengaged

shafts, which run up as high as the
rim of the bowl, and there terminate,
in heads of men or angels. Early
English and Decorated fonts are much
fewer in number than Norman and
Perpendicular ones. The shape of the
Early English font was commonly either
a round bowl supported on a central
column and four disengaged shafts, as
at All Saints, Leicester, or a round
bowl supported, on a clustered column,
similar to that used in the architecture
of the same period, the bowl of the
font being treated as the capital of the
column, as at Ashborne, in Derbyshire.
Highly moulded capitals, bases, shafts,
&c. are characteristic of this style. In
the Decorated period the old method
of dispensing with a stem was reverted
to, and the font was made polygonal,
the sides being decorated with panelling
to imitate window tracery, as at Goadby
Marwood, in Leicestershire, or very
elaborately covered with foliage and
architectural details, as at Patrington,
in Yorkshire. The Perpendicular fonts
have generally a polygonal bowl upon
a polygonal stem, the sides being orna
mented with recessed panelling. The
number of the sides of polygonal fonts
of all periods varies, octagons and hexa
gons being of the most frequent occur
rence ; and occasionally heptagons and
pentagons. Oval fonts are very un
common. The various forms of decoration
which are found upon fonts may be
classed as follows : (1) architectural
features, such as moulding, panelling,
&c. ; (2) pure geometrical ornament ; (3)
conventional foliage ; (4) figure sculpture
of men and animals. The architectural
features of fonts correspond with the
other details of the buildings of tho
period. Arcading is the characteristic
architectural feature of the Norman
period, moulding of the Early English,
tracery of the Decorated, and panelling
of the Perpendicular. Pure geometrical •
ornament, consisting of incised patterns,
rosettes, diapers, &c., occur chiefly on
Norman fonts, as at West Chelborough,
in Dorsetshire. Conventional foliage

FONT

288

FONT

is found on fonts of all periods. Figure
sculpture, consisting of heads of men
and angels at angles, supporting figures
of beasts, Scripture scenes, &c, occur
on Norman fonts, and the emblems of
the Passion, Sacraments, sacred mono
grams, angels, and heraldic devices on
Perpendicular fonts.
The position of fonts in churches
varies, but generally they are placed
west of the south doorway on the
south side of the nave, or at the west
end of the nave in the centre. The
earliest dated font is at Rinton in
Lincolnshire, A. D. 1405 ; post-reforma
tion fonts are not uncommon, as at
Sandal Magna, Yorkshire, A. n. 1662.
Inscribed fonts of early date are rare,
but many exist of the fourteenth and
fifteenth centuries. The font at Bride-
kirk, in Cumberland, bears an inscrip
tion in Runes, showing that it was
wrought by one Richard ; it is of the
twelfth century. The font at Little
Billing, in Northamptonshire, has a
Latin inscription in uncials of the
eleventh century, showing that it was
made by Wigbert and Clementarius.
The font at Potterne, in Wiltshire, has
an inscription in similar characters to
the above, taken from the Psalms :
' ' + Sicut cervus desiderat ad fontes, " &c.
The font at Eullington, in Somerset
shire, has a Latin inscription of the
twelfth century, and that at Keysoe, in
Bedfordshire, one in Norman French
of the thirteenth century. The font at
Bradley, in Lincolnshire, has an in
scription in black letter of the fourteenth
century, partly in Latin and partly in
English. The font at St. Mary's,
Beverley, in Yorkshire, has an inscrip
tion in English, and is dated MCXXX.
Some fonts have projecting basins
attached to them, as at Youlgrave, in
Derbyshire. The font at Pitsford,
Northamptonshire, has a stone read
ing-desk fastened to the side of it.
A constitution of Edmund, Arch
bishop of Canterbury, 1236, first re
quired that the font should be covered
and locked. The earliest font-eovers
were flat, and made of wood, being

fastened by a staple at each side. In
most cases the old cover has disap;
peared, but either the staples, or tho
places where they have been, can still
be seen. At Wickenby, in Lincoln
shire, the whole of the fastening
exists. The font-covers of the Per
pendicular period were spire-shaped,
being lifted by means of a pulley and
counterweight. At St. Gregory's, Sud
bury, the lower stage of the font-case
slides up, telescope fashion, leaving iho
canopy still suspended over the font.
They are usually very elaborate speci
mens of wood-carving ; and the finest
examples are to be found in the Eastern
counties and Lincolnshire, as at Fries:
ton, also at Ewelme, in Oxfordshire.
At Luton, Beds, the stone font-case is
expanded into a structure enclosing "the
whole font, with open arches at the
sides supporting the canopy. The
Elizabethan font-covers were in the
Renaissance style, as at Walpole St.
Peter, Norfolk.
Stone fonts are in all cases lined with
lead, to prevent the water being absorb
ed. The water from fonts is generally
allowed to escape by means of a hole in
the bottom, which communicates with
a drain beneath. The size of the hole
is about 1J inches, and is generally 'in
the centre of the bowl. The shape of
the hollow or inside of the bowl of
fonts varies ; sometimes the outside
and inside are both rectangular ;¦ some
times the outside is square and the in
side round. The bowl is made deepest
next the drain-hole, so as to allow the
water to run off. There is generally a
recess cut all round the edge of a font
for the lead covering to be turned over
and rest in, so as to be flush with the
rest of the stonework.
The average dimensions of a font are
as follows : — Diameter of bowl outside,
2 ft. ; ditto inside, 1 ft. 6 in. ; depth
of bowl inside, 1 ft. ; ditto outside, 1 ft.
3 in. ; height, exclusive of steps, 3 ft;
steps, 7 in. high, 1 ft. wide.
F. A. Payley's ' Illustrations.of Bap*-
tismal Fonts ' (J. Van Voorst, 1844) ;
' Simpson's Fonts ; ' Papers in the

FONTEVRAUD

289

FRANCISCANS

' Archaeologia,' vols, x. and xvi. ; the
late Mr. Albert Way's 'Collection of
Fonts,' in the Library of the Society
of Antiquaries ; Ashby de la Zouche
and 11am Anastatic Drawing Societies
annual volumes ; ' Reliquary,' vol. xxv. ;
Journals of tho various Archsological
Societies ; Lyson's ' Magna Britannia ' ;
Eyton's 'Shropshire.' (For list of
leaden fonts, see ' Sussex Archaeological
Collections,' vol. xxxii.)
FONTEVRAUD, nuns of; was a
female Order of Augustinians of which
little is known. It was founded at
Fontevraud in France about 1100 a.d.,
and three houses of the Order were
established in England during the reign
of Henry II. Its houses were all double
houses, having- nuns and monks in
the same enclosure, all subject to the
rule of the abbess. The founder
grounded his model on the Lord's re
commending the blessed Virgin Mary
and St. John to each other ; and as St.
John was bidden to regard the Virgin
as his mother, so it was directed that
the monks should recognise the abbess
as their superior. The Order was
brought to England in 1101 A.D. at
Eaton, thence called Nun Eaton,
Warwickshire, and there were other
houses at De La Grave and Amesbury.
Their habit was a tunic of the natural
colour of the wool, with' a large black
outer robe.
FRANCISCANS. Friars of the Order
of St. Francis of Assisi, so-called after
their founder ; called by him Fratres
Minores, Friars Minor, out of humility,
and so commonly Minorites ; also, from
the colour of their habits, Grey Friars.
[See Friars.]
In the thirteenth century the towns
of Europe had, as again in our own day,
become the centres of a mass of popu
lation, flocking in from the rural dis
tricts in greater numbers than the towns
were able to give profitable occupation
to ; overcrowding the poorer parts of
the towns, and accumulating a mass of
ignorance, disease, and misery, which
the charitable and ecclesiastical organ
isations of the towns were unable to

cope with. Frequent seasons of scarcity,
amounting occasionally to famines,
were followed by pestilences ; wide
spread and virulent epidemics were
common; leprosy, introduced by return
ing pilgrims and crusaders from the
East, had become naturalised and widely
spread. At the same time that all these
physical evils afflicted the bodies of the
people, the popular mind had become
infested with irreligion, fanaticism, and
heresies ; especially manichaeism had

A Franciscan Friar,
been brought back from the East, when
it was widely prevalent, and had spreac
like a spiritual leprosy through thi
Western Churches.
While the misbelief awakened thi
zeal of Dominic [see Dominicans], thi
misery of the people touched the hear
of Francis. Born at Assisi in Italy
the son of a wealthy merchant, anc
brought up to his father's calling, a
an early age he gave himself up t<
a life of poverty and hardship, and o:

FRANCISCANS

290

FRANCISCANS

works of mercy. Others joined him,
and he conceived the idea of an order of
men who should minister especially to
the poor, gaining the sympathy of the
poor man by being even poorer than
himself. In 1209 the Pope gave a reluctant
verbal approbation to the foundation
of this new type of agency, and after six
years' experience of its working, gave a
more formal sanction to the rule in the
Council of Lateran, 1215. At the
general chapter of the Order held at
Assisi (1219), Francis directed a number
of his disciples to go to England and
establish the order there. They arrived
here, four clerks and five laymen, in
1224 ; five of them established a home
at Canterbury ; the other four pro
ceeded to London and established a
house there. Thence two of them went
to Oxford ; thence to Northampton ;
and so the Order spread, until within
thirty years of their arrival in England
they had here 1242 friars -in forty-nine
convents. The English province was divided
into seven custodies (or wardenships),
each including eight or nine houses.*
* The wardenship of London had within it
nine convents, viz at London, Canterbury,
Winchelsea, Southampton, Ware, Herts.,
Lewes, Chichester, Salisbury, and Win
chester. The wardenship of York had seven con
vents, viz. York, Doncaster, Lincoln, Boston,
Beverley, Scarborough, Grimsby.
The wardenship of Cambridge had nine
convents, viz. Cambridge, Norwich, Col
chester, Bury St. Edmunds, Dunwich, Wal-
singham, Yarmouth, Ipswich, Lynn.
The wardenship of Bristol had nine con
vents, viz. Bristol, Gloucester, Bridgewater,
Hereford, Exeter, Carmarthen, Dorset, Car
diff, Bodmin.
The wardenship of Oxford had eight con
vents, viz. Oxford, Beading, Bedford, Stam
ford, Nottingham, Northampton, Leicester,
Grantham. The wardenship of Newcastle had nine
convents, viz. Newcastle, Dundee, Dumfries,
Haddington, Carlisle, Hartlepool, Berwick,
ltosebury, Richmond, Yorks.
The wardenship of Worcester had nine
convents, viz. "Worcester, Preston, Lane. ;
Bridgenorth, Shrops. ; Shrewsbury, Coven
try, Chester, Lichfield, Lancaster, Stafford.
¦ In addition to those convents erected before
1399, we may add some more modern (from

There is a long roll of Franciscan
bishops, archbishops, cardinals, includ
ing two popes, viz. Nicholas IV. and
Sextus V. The rule was based on tho
three usual vows of poverty, celibacy,
and obedience. Francis enjoined abso
lute poverty, forbidding either individ
uals, or friaries, or the order, to possess
property ; requiring his friars to live by
their own labour and on the alms of the
charitable. He did not impose more
devotions than the regular Church ser
vices, and, requiring only the fasts of the
Church, left his friars -to eat and drink
whatever was given them. He dis
couraged learning, and was especially
anxious that his disciples should devote
themselves to the care of the most
miserable and helpless, e.g. he re
quired them to attend diligently on the
lepers ; whoever, rich or poor, sought
admission into the Order was com;
manded an attendance upon leprous
patients. The Order increased with wonderful
rapidity. Rich men as well as poor
flocked into it — bishops resigned their
sees, abbots laid down their dignities,
learned men — monks and seculars,
sought admission into it. Their en
thusiasm produced a great effect on the
popular mind, similar to that produced
in more recent times by the labours of >
Wesley and Whitfield.
It was soon found that the perma
nency and usefulness of the institution
demanded some modification of the
simple severity of the rule of Francis.
Each friary must have property, at least
to the extent of a house, a church, a
garden. To enable men to preach the
gospel, to heal the sick efficiently, to
influence deeply the mind of their age,
Speed and Harpsfield), viz. Aylesbury, Bucks,
Plymouth, Hamele, Hants, Greenwich,
Beaumaris. Harpsfield ('Hist. Eng.') says
Henry VII. built six monasteries of Obser
vants, viz. at Canterbury, Greenwich, Rich
mond, Sussex, Southampton, Newark, New
castle. There were also in England four
female houses of the Order known as
minoresses, or (after the name of the first
nun of the Order) Poor Clares, via. in London,
Waterbeach and Denney in Cambridgeshire,,
and Brusyard in Suffolk. . ' "

FRANCISCANS

291

FRANCISCANS

men must be encouraged to study the
ology, physic, philosophy; and in order
to study, must have leisure from other
occupations. The property difficulty
was got over at first by vesting it in
trustees, very commonly the corpora
tion of the town, and giving them the
use only of their houses and churches.
But at length Nicholas IV. formally
relaxed the rule, allowing them to
hold property under the fiction that it
was vested in the supreme pontiff for
the use of the Order. The rule was
again relaxed by Clement V.. in the
Council of Vienna.
From its first establishment in Eng
land the Order cultivated learning.
Agnellus, the first English provincial,
established a school in the friary at
Oxford, and induced Robert Grostete,
afterwards Bishop of Lincoln, one of
the most learned teachers of his time,
to come and lecture to the brethren
there. Under this famous teacher his
scholars made remarkable progress.
Within a short time lecturers were
appointed in thirty of their houses, and
a regular succession of them was main
tained in the two universities. The
eminence of the Franciscan and Domi
nican friars who lectured at Oxford
conferred a European reputation on
that university, which for the first time
surpassed the fame even of that of
Paris, and attracted students from all
countries. On the other hand, the
general of the Order sent for English
friars to lecture in foreign friaries ;
Lyons, Paris, and Cologne were indebted
for their best professors to the Oxford
Franciscans. Repeated applications were
made from Ireland, Denmark, France,
and Germany for English friars. The
three schoolmen of the most profound
and original genius — Roger Bacon, Duns
Scotus, and Occham — were trained with
in the walls of the Oxford Franciscan
friary. From this time the study of
scholastic divinity prevailed in both
the English universities above that of
law. From this time we date a more
methodical treatment of all subjects
under discussion, and the employment I

of words in their more strict and literal
meaning. But while thus profoundly studying
the Aristotelian philosophy and scho°
lastic divinity, their itinerant mission
aries cultivated a popular style of
preaching, made interesting to ordin
ary hearers by quaint sayings, and anec
dote and illustration, and made effective
by fervent appeals to the heart. Their
practice of the healing art led them to
special cultivation of natural science.
The Franciscan friar, Roger Bacon, was
the father of the modern experimental
philosophy. In seeking by every means
to influence the popular mind in the
direction of religion they cultivated the
arts ; some famous painters were Fran
ciscan friars. They recognised the
popular influence of dramatic represent
ations, and became the writers,
managers, and actors of the miracle
plays and moralities of the Middle
Ages. The recent revival of the Pas
sion Play at Ober Ammergau has
proved with what effect such means
may be used for impressing the great
facts and lessons of Scripture history
on the minds of the spectators.
As when the monks had relaxed tho
Rule of St. Benedict, a reaction sprung
up towards the primitive austerities,
and the Reformed Orders of Clugny, and
Citeaux, and the rest took their rise ;
so at the end of the fourteenth century
a similar reaction arose among the
Franciscans in favour of a stricter ob
servance of the Rule of St. Francis,
and gradually led to a division of the
Order. Those who embraced the stricter
views came to be known as Observants
or Recollets, while the rest were dis
tinguished as Conventuals. A long
period of fermentation resulted in tho
Observant friaries being allowed in the
Council of Constance (1415) to have a
separate head, under the name of Vicar-
General, nominally under the authority
of the minister-general of the whole
Order. St. Bemardine of Sienna is the
great representative of this secession,
and was its first Vicar-General in 1421.
In 1446 the Observants were allowed to

FRANCISCANS

292

FRANCISCANS

hold a distinct general chapter. Later
still (1484), the so-called Bull of Union
gave the Observants precedence over
the Conventuals. In England, where
the rule had always been more strictly
observed than in other provinces, this
reformation caused no disruption.
King Edward IV. was a great patron of
the Observants ; Henry VII., we have
seen, built six convents for them ; Henry
VIII. in his earlier years favoured

philosophy the Franciscans revived the
system of Aristotle, and in the disput
ations of the schools produced the great
champions of realism, while the Domk
nicans were nominalists. Duns Scotus
was the oracle of the Franciscans- in
theology and philosophy, as Thomas
Aquinas was of the Dominicans. In
theology the Dominicans were the great
promoters of the cultus of the blessed
Virgin Mary, while the Franciscans

A Semi-choir of Franciscan Friars. Uth cent. MS. in British Museum. Domitian, A, 17.

them, and chose one of them for his
confessor. Twelve of the English con
vents were of Observants. (For their
rule see ' Monumenta Franciscana '
vol. ii.)
Its unity of organisation, and its
popularity, made the Order powerful
and it did not hesitate to take a side
in the questions of the day, and to
throw its whole weight on the side it
espoused; while the rivalry which
existed between the two great Orders
was Partly the cause, partly the result
of the fact that the Dominicans usually
espoused the opposite side. Thus in

opposed it. The Dominicans held the
Augustinian views on the doctrine of
grace and free will, while the Francis.
cans were held to be almost semi-Pela
gian. In politics the Order espoused the
cause of the House of York, and con
sequently was regarded with disfavour
by the sovereigns and nobles of the
rival house.
In the dispute between Henry VIII.
and the Papacy at the beginning of the
Reformation, the Order arrayed itself,
in accordance with its traditions, on the
side of the Pope. The warden of the
Observants at Greenwich, preaching

FRIAR

293

FRIAR

before the king, spoke violently against
his marriage with Anne BuUen, and
compared the king to Ahab. On their
refusal to subscribe to the royal supre
macy, the Observants were expelled
from their houses (1534), some im
prisoned, and some put to death. The
conventual Franciscans lasted a little
while longer ; but the Act for the sup
pression of religious houses under the
value of £200 a-year (a.d. 1536) was
fatal to them, in common with all the
rest of the mendicant orders. The re
turns of the commissioners for their
suppression bear conclusive testimony
to the poverty of their houses.
There are still interesting remains of
their convents and churches at Lynn,
Coventry, Richmond,* Yorks, &e. A
ground plan of a Franciscan convent is
given in Walcott's : ' Church and Con
ventual Arrangement. '
See Dugdale's ' Monasticon ' ; ' Monu-
menta Franciscana ' ; ' Life of St. Francis
of Assisi ' ; ' Scenes and Characters of
the Middle Ages. '
FRIAR (Frater, Frere, old English
Frere = brother), a member of one
of the new religious Orders founded in
the thirteenth century for spiritual and
charitable work among the people.
The idea of the earlier religious Orders
was seclusion from the world for the
purpose of spiritual self-cultivation.
The idea which inspired the friars was
devotion to religious ministries to man
kind. Accordingly, while the monas
teries were situated in remote places,
and the monk spent his life within his
cloister, the friaries were built in the
suburbs of the great towns, and the
friar was busy all day long in the
streets and alleys of the town, or itin
erating through the country, visiting
the sick and afflicted, preaching in the
parish churches and churchyards, at
markets and fairs. (An Act of 5 Richard
II., cap. 5, speaks of preachers in mar
kets, fairs, and other public places, as
well as in churches and churchyards. )

• Engraved in the latest edition of the
' Monasticon.'

The Lollard preachers naturally fol
lowed in this respect the example of
tho friars, paying pastoral visits at
castle, farmhouse, and cottage. The
organisation of the monks and friars
was different. Each monastery of the
older rules was an independent cor
poration, under the absolute government
of its abbot, who ruled for life, and
had no superior. Each Order of friars
was an organised body spread over
Christendom, but forming a united
whole, ruled by a hierarchy of officials :
first a Cardinal Protector and Corrector,
a General residing in Rome, and Pro
vincials in the various countries to
which the Order extended. A division
of a province among the Dominicans
was called a visitation. The houses
in each province (among the Francis
cans at least) were grouped into cus
todies, under a custos (or warden),
each house was ruled by a warden or
prior. The officers were all elected at
a chapter, and were required to resign
at the ensuing chapter, and might be
removed at any time for insufficiency
or misconduct.
Men of any other Order might be
come friars, but a friar might not
transfer himself to any other Order ;
yet a friar might accept Church prefer
ment, and each mendicant Order prided
itself on its long list of bishops, arch
bishops, cardinals, and even popes. A
runaway friar (in England, by royal
mandate) was to be arrested by the
sheriff at the demand of his superior,
and any one harbouring him was de
clared (by the pope) excommunicate.
The principal mendicant Orders were
the Franciscan, Dominican, Carmelite,
and Augustinian. As the Fourth Lateran
Council, 1215, had forbidden the found
ing of any new monastic rules, so
Gregory X., at the Second Council of
Lyons, 1274, reduced the "unbridled
multitude " of friars to these four, and
forbade the founding of any new men
dicant Orders.
The two great Orders of Francis and
Dominic multiplied rapidly, and played
a very important part in the subsequent

FRIAR

.294

FRIAR

history of the Church. They culti
vated theology, philosophy, and natural
science with such success that their
teachers were famous in all the univer
sities of Europe. They cultivated the
arts of disputation, of popular preach
ing, of pastoral theology, and produced
such a popular excitement and revival
of religion as may be compared with
the results produced in a later age by
Wesley and Whitfield. They obtained
from the popes entire freedom from
episcopal control, and authority to
hear confessions and give absolution
without the consent of the parish
priests ; but Boniface VIII., A. D. 1301,
restrained them from preaching in the
' parish churches without the leave of the
incumbents. There was an inevitable jealousy be
tween the friars and the two other great
ecclesiastical classes — the monks and
the parish priests. The ostentatious
poverty and active labours of the Friars
seemed like a practical reflection on the
wealth and dignity and leisure of the
Lord Monks ; and their intrusion into
the estates and interference with the
tenants of the monasteries provoked
resentment. The intrusion of the friars
into their parishes was especially offen
sive to the secular clergy, visiting their
parishioners, hearing confessions, saying
masses,* preaching in their churchyards,
carrying off alms, in all ways under
mining their influence. The excuse for
this intrusion is, that in many cases the
rectors were in minor orders, living
secular lives, in many others were
absentees, and their parishes were griev
ously neglected, so that the regular
ministrations of an earnest good friar
were a blessing to the parish ; but
naturally where their visits were most
needed by the people they were most
distasteful to the parish priest.
The name of the ' ' Preaching Yard "
still attaches to an open space adjoining
several of the old Friaries, and is evi-
* The friar carried a small super-altar with
him, which he laid on a wooden table and
said mass in private houses (Matth. Paris,
'Hist. Major,' p. 419, ed. 1640).

dence that the preaching friars were
accustomed to deliver outdoor sermons
to the people who assembled in the
court to hear them. The preaching-
cross in the middle of the courtyard of
the Hereford Dominican Friary indi
cates that other of these preaching-
yards may have had a pulpit in the
middle, or on one side as in the refec
tory pulpits, or in a corner as at Mag
dalen College, Oxford. At Rampis-
ham, Gloucestershire, the churchyard
cross has one side of the steps expanded '
into a little platform, on which the
preacher of the out-door sermon could
stand ; and there are remains of a pro
vision for erecting a temporary awning
over him to protect him from rain or
sun, or perhaps a wooden tester to act
as a sounding-board.
The weakest point of the institution I
was its want of regular funds for its i
maintenance. In England the Orders
never acquired landed property, but
were dependent upon alms, in money
and kind, sent daily by the pious to
the friaries, or begged by the friars,
going two together, from door to door ;
upon the price of masses said for the
welfare of the living or repose of the
dead ; upon gifts and legacies ; upon
fines imposed in penance. The conse
quence was that the friars were accused
of haunting death-beds and volunteer
ing to make wills for the sake of ob
taining legacies for their house, of
seeking money for masses which were
never said, and of practising all the
mean arts of popularity-hunting and
cajolery ; and it was alleged that many
of the friars thus wandering round the
country, away from the supervision- of
their superiors, well entertained every
where, led an easy, self-indulgent,
sometimes dissolute life. Many broke
their obedience, and wandered about
the country at their own will. Matthew
Paris (who, however, is a hostile critic)
says that the friars deteriorated more
in one-fourth of a century than the
monks had done in three or four cen
turies. The Wars of the Roses were very

FRIENDS

295

FUNERAL CUSTOMS

detrimental to the Religious, both in
numerical strength and in financial
prosperity. The years immediately
preceding the dissolution were the
period of greatest trial to the mendicant
Orders, e. g. the Friary at Gloucester,
which in 1267 accommodated forty
friars, had only seven inmates left.
All the Orders of friars were suppressed
by the Act of 27 Henry VIII., cap 28,
1535-6. One great characteristic of the mendi
cant Orders is that,' being free from the
control of the bishops, dependent on
the pope for their privileges, governed
by a general in Rome, and — in the case
of the Franciscans — specially enjoined
by their founder to uphold the dignity
and authority of the Roman See, they
were always and everywhere the strenu
ous defenders of the Papacy. This
brought them into collision with the
popular feeling in England, always
more or less resentful of the encroach
ments and exactions of the Court of
Rome. This led to their destruction
by the first wave of the rising Reform
ation of the sixteenth century, and
accounts for the excessive odium which
has in England attached to the institu
tion ever since.
Nevertheless, the present condition
of society, the prevalence of schism,
heresy, and infidelity, the religious
ignorance, poverty, and misery of a
vast proportion of the population, the
insufficiency of the parochial organisa
tion of the Church to deal with this
state of things, seem to call loudly for
some new agency which, while exhibit
ing the self-denial, zeal, and practical
ability of the mendicant Orders, shall
avoid the errors of their system. And
the establishment of several brother
hoods, of S. John, Cowley, of the Wil-
berforee Missionaries in South London,
and of missioner canons in several
dioceses, are tentative efforts in this
direction, destined perhaps shortly to
produce important results.
FRIENDS, SOCIETY OF. [See
Quakers.] FUNERAL CUSTOMS. As early as

the seventh century the bell tolled for
the dead : at first to announce that a
death had taken place ; later in articulo
mortis — the "passing bell;" in both
cases to solicit the prayers of all who
heard. In some parishes the bell an
nounces the sex and age of the deceased.
First, the "raising" of the bell gives
warning ; then, after a pause, it strikes
three times three strokes for a male,
three times two for a female, three times
one for a child ; and after another pause,
as many strokes as the age of the dead ;
and after another pause, the knell rings
at minute intervals for an hour. Im
mediately after death the body was ' 'laid
out," lighted candles placed at the
head and feet and sides, and the friends
came to take their leave of the dead.
In the case of the wealthy and great,
the body was dressed in its official
robes and insignia ; a hearse or frame
of wood was placed over it bearing
many candles, and people were admitted
to see the lying in state. Where it was
necessary to carry the body to a distance
for interment, it was wrapped in lead
and soldered up, and placed in a wooden
coffin, and often a wax figure of the
deceased, dressed in his proper robes,
was laid upon the coffin. The effigies
of several of the English Sovereigns
which were thus used ' are still pre
served in Westminster Abbey. Psalms
were sung and prayers said during this
time. In ancient times burial took place
more speedily after death than at pre
sent. Great personages might be lapped
in lead and coffined in stone, and car
ried to their sepulture on a funeral car ;
but the great majority of persons were
only wrapped in a winding-sheet, placed
upon a bier, carried to the grave on
the shoulders of friends and neigh
bours, and so laid in tho bosom of
mother earth. The burial service still
seems to contemplate these simpler
customs, where it desires earth to be
east upon the body, with the words
"earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust
to dust."
The . body was carried to .church for

FUNERAL CUSTOMS

296

GARDINER

the funeral service * in procession, the
clergy preceding it, the mourners fol
lowing in the order of their relation
ship. The clergy wore no token of
mourning ; the pall thrown over the
dead was, until the fifteenth century,
of bright colours ; and the use of black
by the mourners was at first discouraged,
but at the funeral the mourners usually
wore a long black cloak and hood ; and
the custom of wearing clothes of black
or dark colour for days, or weeks, or a
year afterwards, according to the near
ness of relationship, became common.
From very early times it was the custom
to give alms to the poor who attended a
funeral, and to give a funeral feast to
the friends, and sometimes to the poor
also. The ceremonies did not cease
with the day of the funeral. There
were commemorations at different in-.
tervals. The mourners attended church
on the following Sunday. At the end
of a month the near relatives again
visited the grave, and prayers were
said and alms were given to the poor
who attended ; it was called the
Month's-mind. Again, on the anniver
saries of the death the relatives visited
the grave ; this annual visit to the
grave is still usual in Wales. Fre
quently a priest was engaged to say a
Trental, i. e. to say mass daily for
thirty days for the deceased. Often a
chantry was founded and an endowment
was provided for one or more priests to
say daily masses for the dead, for so
long, or in perpetuity. [See Chantry.]
In the early ages of the Church the
Holy Eucharist was celebrated at a
funeral for a distinguished person, and
the name of the dead was introduced
in the commemoration of the departed ;
later the Eucharist was a usual part of
the funeral service. It was sometimes
provided by the deceased or his friends
that mass should also be said at the
commemorations. As soon as the Reformation pre
vented people from leaving money for
* For account of the Service consult ' Burial
Offices according to the English and Roman
Uses. A. H. Pearson : London, 1880.

mortuary, masses, the desire to have
some special religious services con
nected with their death led them to
leave money for the preaching of so
many "godly sermons," sometimes
specifying the preacher. The custom
of having a funeral sermon continued
to a recent period, and the guinea
to the clergyman for preaching it was
one of the customary expenses of a
funeral.

GARDINER, Stephen, Bishop of
Winchester, born 1483, died 1555. It
was said that he was an illegitimate son
of Wydville, Bishop of Salisbury, who
was brother of Elizabeth Wydville,
Queen of Edward IV. In early life he
was known by the name of Stephens,
and afterwards took the name of Gar
diner, to whom his mother was married.
He received a good education at Trinity
Hall, Cambridge, where he was dis
tinguished for his Ciceronian Latin,
and his proficiency in Greek ; but ho
applied himself especially to civil and
canon law ; and in later years was said
to be the most learned civilian of his
time. In 1520 he was elected Master of
his college. Cardinal Wolsey took him
into his household and made him his
secretary ; thus he became personally
known to the king. Both recognised his
great ability, and trusted him in affairs
of the most important and confidential
nature. In 1527 he and Fox, Provost
of King's College, Cambridge, were
sent to Rome to negotiate the business
of the king's divorce, when he suc
ceeded in obtaining the commission' to
Wolsey and Campeins to try the case.
While at Rome Gardiner had also been
trusted by Wolsey to negotiate the
business of his own election to the
Papal chair, in case of the death of
Clement VII., then dangerously sick.
On his return he received from the
Bishop of Norwich the Archdeaconry
of Norfolk, which seems to have been
his first Church preferment, and tho
king took him from Wolsey into his
own. service as a Secretary of State. It

GARDINER

297

GENERAL COUNCILS

was he and Fox (if the story be a true
one) who, hearing Cranmer's famous
suggestion on the way of dealing with
the question of the divorce, introduced
Cranmer to the king. On Wolsey's
disgrace Cromwell stepped into the
position of the king's chief minister ;
but Gardiner was also in high favour,
being especially employed in the affair
of the divorce, and in Nov. 1531 the
king gave him the See of Winchester.
It must be recognised that Gardiner
was a learned and able man, but his
ability was displayed in the field of law
and politics ; the bishopric gave rank
and income to the statesman ; but he
did not, as many of his predecessors
under similar circumstances had done,
justify by his subsequent career his
episcopal promotion. He held firmly
to his own opinions of what was lawful,
and as a statesman shewed a certain
independence of character in a way to
entitle him to respect ; but he was not
a favourable example of a bishop, and
brought odium upon the Church of
which he was a prelate. In 1533 he
was sent as ambassador to France, and
in 1538 to the German Diet. In the
latter part of the king's reign, however,
Gardiner had fallen into disfavour, and
his name was erased from the list of
statesmen whom the king appointed as
his executors and the counsellors of the
young king, Edward VI. " If he was
one," the king is reported to have said,
" he would trouble them all, and they
should never be able to rule him."
They found him unruly enough in op
position ; disapproving as a statesman
of the measures of the government,
protesting against the lengths it went
to in religious matters, refusing as a
bishop to accept some of them. In
Sept. 25th, 1547, he was called before
the Council, and refusing to promise to
accept the Homilies, or to allow the
royal visitors to act in his diocese, he
was committed to the Fleet prison.
In December he was set at liberty on
the General Amnesty proclaimed in
honour of the king's accession ; but
was in a few months brought , before

the Council again, and required to de
clare his adherence to the measures of
the government in a public sermon ;
but instead he defended his own views
in his sermon before the king and
Court, and was sent to the Tower next
day.- Several attempts were made to
gain over a man of so much ability to
the service of the government ; but he
carried himself with a rugged independ
ence, and at length was deprived for
disobedience and contempt, and left a
close prisoner in the Tower during the
remainder of Edward's reign. On
Mary's accession Gardiner, with other
State prisoners, was released, restored
to his see, appointed Chancellor, and as
the queen's Minister exercised a more
complete authority than any previous
English Minister — with the one ex
ception of Wolsey — had ever enjoyed.
As Mary's Minister — putting his cha
racter and acts as bishop aside — he
deserves the respect- of Englishmen.
He shewed no great subservience to the
pope, and made the best terms he could
for the Church and nation in the Re
conciliation ; he opposed the Spanish
marriage, and when it was inevitable
he made conditions for the security
of the liberties of England. If his
private character was not estimable,
and his conduct as a bishop not credit
able, if his administration was not
free from the harshness of the school
'in which he had been trained, he was
the ablest statesman left after Wolsey
and Cromwell were gone, and has
some title to be considered a great
English minister. He died 12th Nov.,
1555, and was buried in Winchester
\R \i\ pn Tfll
GENERAL BAPTISTS. [See under
Baptists.] GENERAL COUNCILS, THE. The
Synod of Jerusalem, when "the apostles
and elders came together," under the
presidency of St. James, the Bishop of
Jerusalem, ' ' to consider of the matter "
of the maintenance by the Judaising
party in the Church of the doctrine
that the Gentile converts to Christi
anity ought to keep the law of Moses,

GENERAL COUNCILS

298

GENERAL COUNCILS

is the exemplar of all subsequent Eccle
siastical Synods.
As the Church extended and de
veloped, there grew up together with
it a subordinated system of Synods.
Each bishop and his clergy held a Dio
cesan Synod. The Churches of each
Province were united in a Provincial
Synod. The Provinces in one nation
were occasionally assembled in a Na
tional Synod. At great crises a general
Council of the whole Church was
gathered together.
- The four first General Councils have
a special importance, because they bear
testimony to the constitution, doctrine,
and discipline of the Primitive Church.
They have a special importance to us
because they have again and again,
from the earliest times of our history
down to the present day, been accepted
as standards of the Church of England.
It is on record that the British Church
gave its adhesion to the Council of
Nicaea. The Synodof Hatfield(A.D. 680),
under Theodore of Canterbury, affirmed
the five Councils ; and the subsequent
Synod of Calchythe (a.d. 787) affirmed
the sixth Council which had been held
in the interim. "To this extent the
Primitive Church of England committed.
itself to the great conciliar decisions
of its time. It never committed itself
beyond" ('Diet, of Christian Biog.,'
Article Eanbald II ).
The Reformers of the sixteenth cen
tury repeatedly put forth the Scriptures,
the General Councils of the undivided
Church, and the ancient Fathers as the
standards to which they desired to
conform. When the Reformed Church
was re-established after the reaction
under Queen Mary, the Statute 1 Eliz.
c. i. § 17, declared that heresy is to be
determined "by the authority of the
Canonical Scriptures, or by the first
four General Councils or any of them,
or by any other General Council wherein
the same was declared heresy by the
express and plain words of the said
Canonical Scriptures, or such as shall
hereafter be ordered, judged, and deter
mined to be heresy, by the High Court

of Parliament in this realm, with the as
sent of the clergy in their Convocation."
And in our own generation, the eight
primates and sixty-eight other bishops
who attended the meeting of bishops
of the Anglican Communion at Lam
beth in 1867 (the first "Pan-Anglican
Synod "), " solemnly recorded their con
viction that unity will be most effectw
ally promoted by maintaining the Faith
in its purity and integrity, as taught
in the Holy Scriptures, held by the
Primitive Church, summed up in the
Creeds, and affirmed by the undisputed
General Councils."
The fifth and sixth General Councils
are little more than appendices to the
third and fourth, and do not contain
any new decisions of .doctrinal import
ance. And the disagreements between
Eastern and Western Christendom pre
vented any subsequent Councils from
having the character of "undisputed
General Councils." It becomes neces
sary, then, for the well-instructed Eng
lish Churchman to know something of
the history and of the canons of the
First Four General Councils.
In the. beginning of the fourth cen
tury, Arius, a Presbyter of Alexandria,
taught a view of the relations of the
Father and Son in the Godhead, which
was inconsistent with the true deity of
the Son. According to his teaching,
"there was a time before the com
mencement of the ages when the Parent
Deity dwelt alone in undeveloped, un
divided unity. At a time immeasur
ably, incalculably, inconceivably re
mote, the majestic solitude ceased ; the
Divine unity was broken by an Act of
the Sovereign will ; and the only be
gotten Son, the Image of the Father,
the Vicegerent of all the Divine power,
the immediate agent in all the long
subsequent work of creation, began to
be " (Milner's ' Hist. Christ,' ii. 358).]
He further held as to the Incarnation,
that in it the Son assumed a human
body only, His nature supplying the
place of a human soul (Robertson,
'Hist, of the Church,' i. 208). Arius,
persisting in this teaching, was con-

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demned by his Bishop Alexander. This
condemnation was ratified by a Synod
of Egyptian and Lybian bishops ; the
heresiarch was excommunicated with
his adherents, among whom were two
bishops, twelve priests, and about as
many deacons. Arius took refugo in
Palestine, and there industriously pro
pagated his opinions. Eusebius, Bishop
of Nicomedia, and a Synod of Bithy-
nian bishops, accepted him as orthodox.
The controversy attracted attention,
and began to disturb the Church far
and wide.
At this period Constantine, by the
conquest of Licinius, had become master
of the whole empire. The grand idea
which occupied his mind was that of
a united empire, with one religion.
And just when the external unity had
been accomplished, and the rapid spread
of Christianity and decadence of hea
thenism promised to terminate the
civil war which had so long existed
between the two religions, he found
that this new heresy seemed about to
divide the Christian world into two
camps, and to kindle a new "civil
war " hardly less hurtful than the other
to the tranquillity of the Empire. Hav
ing first tried in vain to minimise the
questions in dispute, and to persuade
the disputants to a reconciliation, he
then summoned a General Council of
the Church to determine the contro
versy and restore peace.
A General Council was not merely an
assembly of bishops, it was an assembly
of the Churches, represented by their
clergy. In the Synods of the second
century, indeed, only bishops seem to
have sat ; but towards the middle of
the third century a new custom seems
to have been introduced, and in many
Synods of that and the following cen
turies, priests and deacons also were
sent by the Churches together with the
bishops. Each Church was represented
by a group of its clergy ; the bishops
sat in a, circle, arranged according to
their provinces, each bishop with his
priests behind him, and his deacon on
a lower seat before him. In cases

where the bishop could not be present
the Church was represented by some of
its priests, and even by some of its
deacons, who took part in the proceed
ings, and signed the acta of the Council.
The work of the Synod was not to
settle by argument whether this or
that doctrine approved itself to the
reason of the clergy present, but to
gather the testimony of the Churches
to the question of fact, whether the
doctrine in dispute was in accordance
with the doctrines which had always
been received and taught in the
Churches. The Council was held at Nicmea, the
capital of Bythinia. The number of
bishops who subscribed to the creed
was 318, and the total number of
bishops, priests, and deacons present
at the Council about 2000. It was
opened by the emperor in person on
the 15th of June, 315. The creed was
drawn up on the 10th, then the Canons
were made, and the Council was form
ally closed on the 25th August.
Arius was called upon for a state
ment of his opinions. He seems to
have thrown aside his customary cau
tion and ambiguity of expression, and
to have stated plainly his belief that
the Word was not co-eternal with the
Father, nor of the same substance,
that in the beginning the Father was
alone, and that he drew the Son out
of nothing by an act of His will. That
the Son was God only as possessing an
imparted Divinity. The Fathers stopped
their ears with the lively Eastern ges
ture of disapprobation, and cried out
aloud against such blasphemies. The
condemnation of Arius was not for a
moment doubtful, the question of special
interest was how many of a handful of
waverers would be found to commit
themselves to his errors. What the
Council had first to do was to draw up
an accurate definition of the true Faith
which should exclude this new and
fatal error. Eusebius of Caesarea, who
was one of the ecclesiastical Presidents
of the Council, Hosius of Cordova was
the other, submitted the creed of the

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Church of Caesarea as a basis of agree
ment. It ran thus :
" We believe in one God, the Father
Almighty, the Maker of all things
visible and invisible.
"And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the
Word of God, God from God, Light
from Light, Life from Life ; Son only
begotten, first-born of every creature,
before all ages begotten from the Father
by whom all things were made ; Who
for our salvation was made flesh, and
lived among men, and suffered, and
rose again the third day, and ascended
to the Father, and will come again in
glory to judge quick and dead.
"And I believe also in one Holy
Ghost." What was wanted was some modifi
cation of or addition to this formula
which would at once express the true
and exclude the false doctrine ; several
phrases were suggested which the Arians
were willing to accept, in a sense of
their own. At length the word 67*0011-
o-ioc (of the came substance) was sug-
fested, and accepted, as rightly de-
ning the relations of the Father and
Son. At first seventeen demurred to
it, but during the interval before it
was necessary to subscribe, all but five
had their objections removed, and
when it came to the act of signing,
only two bishops ultimately declined.
The doctrine of the Church having
been thus authoritatively ascertained,
the emperor proceeded to take steps
against the disturbers of the peace of
the Church and empire. He banished
Arius, and condemned his books to be
burnt. To tho Creed [see Creeds] the Council
appended the following Canon :
"As for those who say that 'there
was a time when the Son was not,' or
that ' He was not before He was be
gotten,' or that 'He was made out of
nothing,' or that 'He is of another
hypostasis or of another substance than
God, ' or that He is ' created, ' or ' mut
able and subject to change,' those the
Holy Catholic Apostolic Church of God
declares to be anathema."

The Council then proceeded to deal
with the question of the time at which
Easter should be held, about which
there had been differences in tho Church
for two centuries past, which had dis
turbed the peace and order of the
Church. Some of the Churches kept
the day of the Jewish Passover as tho
Easter festival, on whatever day of the
week it might fall ; others kept the
Easter festival on a Sunday, next after
the day of the Jewish Passover. But
there were also difficulties about" the
calculation of the day of the Jewish
Passover. This and several other points
of order and discipline were discussed
and determined and embodied in twenty-
two Canons, the subjects of which are
here briefly indicated :
"Canon 1. A man self-mutilated not
to be ordained priest, or if ordained
to be deposed.
' ' 2. No one to be baptised, ordained
priest, or consecrated bishop, without
proper time for instruction and trial. ¦
" 3. Clergymen not to have female in
mates in their houses, except near rela
tives, or such as are free from all suspicion.
"4. A bishop to be consecrated, if
possible, by all the bishops of the
province, or at least by three, with the
consent of the rest ; the confirmation
belongs to the metropolitan.
"5. Excommunications to be ex
amined by the next metropolitan Synod,
and, if confirmed, then to be accepted
generally. " 6. The old custom in use in Egypt, j
in Libya, and in Pentapolis should ¦
continue to exist, that is, that the
Bishop of Alexandria should have juris
diction over all these (provinces) ; and
there is a similar relation for the Bishop
of Rome (kui rw iv ry PaijiijJ iirio-Koiriji
rovro o-vvtOes iarlv) ; the rights which
they formerly possessed must also bo
preserved to the Churches of Antioch
and to the other eparchies (provinces).*
* Hefele admits that the customary juris
dictions here spoken of are the patriarchal
jurisdictions of Alexandiia, Eome, and An- 1
tioch. The rights of the other eparchies, he
says, relate to the superior eparchies of Pou-
tus, Proconsular Asia, and Thrace.

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301

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" 7. As custom and ancient tradition
show that the Bishop of iElia (Jeru
salem) * ought to be honoured in a
special manner, he should have pre
cedence, without prejudice, however,
to the dignity which belongs to the
metropolis (viz. Cfesarea).
"8. The Cathari (Puritans), if they
wish to enter the Catholic and Apostolic
Church, must submit to the imposition
of hands. (They were not to be re-
baptised, but admitted by laying on
of hands. )
"9. The ordination of men who are
afterwards found to have committed
crimes is invalid ; for the Catholic
Church requires men who are blame
less. "10. Lapsi ordained in ignorance, or
in spite of a knowledge of the fact, to
be excluded from the ministry.
"11. Lapsi during the tyranny of
Licinius, to do penance three, years
among the audientes, and among the
substrati,' and for two years more to
take part with the faithful in Divine
service, but without participation in
the oblation.
"12. Those who have laid aside their
belts, and afterwards returned to mili
tary service, to do penance three years
as audientes, and ten as substrati, but
may be treated with greater leniency
at the discretion of the bishop. (This
seems to refer to military officers who
retired when Licinius required them
all to sacrifice, and who afterwards
resought their old rank, and of course
made the required sacrifice.)
"13. The old rule ofthe Church to be
observed, that no one (under penance)
dying be refused the viaticum (the
Holy Communion). If, however, he
recovers, he is to take his place among
those who take part in the prayers
without communicating.
"14. Catechumens who had lapsed
to be audientes for three years..
• The fashion of pilgrimage to the Holy
Places, which came in very shortly, served
still further to add to the prestige of the
Church of Jerusalem, and the Council of
Chalcedon recognised this by assigning to its
bishop tho titular dignity of patriarch.

" 15. Forbids translations of bishops,
priests, or deacons.
"16. Priests and deacons leaving
their own church to be sent back to
it ; and no bishop to steal as it were a
person who belongs to another bishop,
and ordain him for his own church ;
if he do so, the ordination to be null.
"17. Clerics not to take usury or
any sort of scandalous gain.
"18. ' It has come to the knowledge
of the holy and great Synod that, in
certain places and cities, deacons ad
minister the Eucharist to priests, al
though it is contrary to the manner
and custom to have the Body of Christ
distributed to those who offer the
sacrifice by those who cannot offer it. '
(This relates to administration as
assistants, not to celebration of Holy
Communion. )
" 19. Paulianists wishing to return
to the Catholic Church to be re-bap
tised. (Followers of Paul of Samosata,
because not baptised in the name of
the Holy Trinity.)
"20. As some kneel on the Lord's
Day, and on tho days of Pentecost, the
Holy Synod has decided that, for the
observance of a general rule, all shall
offer their prayers to God standing (i. e.
on those days). "
We are told that an attempt was
made to pass a Canon on clerical celi
bacy, but that it was prevented mainly
through the opposition of Paphnutius,
himself a celibate, who declared that
too heavy a yoke ought not to be laid
on the clergy, and that marriage is
honourable in all.
Notwithstanding the decision of the
Council of Nicaea, the Arian heresy,
under the patronage of his successor
Constantiu3, spread over the East, and
penetrated into the West ; other here
sies sprang up : tho Apollinarian, on the
union of the two natures in Christ ;
the Macedonian, on the personality and
co-equality of the Holy Spirit ; and
disputes as to which of two rivals was
the rightful Bishop of Constantinople
and of Antioch ; and the Eastern
Church was in confusion. It is to be

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302

GENERAL COUNCILS

noted, as throwing considerable light
on the relations of Rome to the rest of
the Church at this period, that a Synod
held at Rome, of which Jerome was the
secretary, had already dealt with some
of these questions, and had decided in
favour of Melitius against Paulinus as
Bishop of Antioch, and of Maximus
against Gregory of Nazianzen as Bishop
of Constantinople, when Theodosius
the Great summoned a Second Gene
ral Council to meet at Constanti
nople. It met May 2, 381, and was
attended by 136 orthodox prelates, and
36 of the Macedonian party ; all from
the Eastern Church ; the West being
entirely unrepresented.
It is not necessary to do more than
give the decisions at which it arrived.
The rightful possession of the see of
Constantinople being one of the ques
tions in dispute, Melitius of Antioch,
the next in dignity, presided over the
earlier sessions. The Council first de
cided in favour of Gregory against
Maximus, and solemnly enthroned
him as Bishop of Constantinople, and
Melitius dying while the Council was
sitting, Gregory assumed the presi
dency. But Timothy of Alexandria,
arriving at this late period, complained
that the Council had commenced, with
out him, and revived the dispute as to
the right of Maximus against Gregory.
Gregory, for the sake of the peace of
the Church, resigned, but the Council
refused to recognise the right of Max
imus, and a new election was made to
the see of Constantinople. Nectarius
was chosen, who, according to the bad
custom of the time, was still only a
catechumen. He was baptised, and
consecrated bishop, and presided over
the Council wearing his episcopal robes
over the white dress of one newly bap
tised. The Apollinarian heresy and
the Macedonian heresy were condemned.
It is usually said that the final clauses
of the Nicene Creed, as we possess it, were
added by this Council. But there is con
flicting evidence on the subject which it
is difficult to harmonise. On one hand,
the expanded form existed before the

Council,, for it is contained in a work
by Epiphanus (the Anchorite), seven
years before that date. But it is doubt
ful whether the extension was formally
accepted and authoritatively put forth
by the Council of Constantinople. For
many years afterwards the shorter
Nicene Creed is set forth by the greatest
bishops, and on the most important
occasions, as the received creed of the
Church, e.g. at the Third General
Council of Ephesus. It was at the
Fourth General Council" of Chalcedon
that the discrepancy came under dis
cussion. At the opening of this Council
the Acts of the previous Council of
Ephesus were read, and, as part of them,
the shorter Nicene Creed. Some mem
bers called out that this shorter form
had been extended by succeeding Coun
cils. The President, Cyril of Alexf
andria, directed that each of the bishops
should write down the form of the-
Creed which he had received and
taught ; and these were recited at the
opening of the second session. When
the shorter form was read all the bishops
declared that this was the faith in
which they had been baptised, and now
baptised others. Then a request was
made that the exposition of the 150
Fathers of Constantinople might be
read, and the longer form was read by
Aetius, the Archdeacon of Constanti
nople, but was not greeted with the
acclamations which had welcomed the
shorter form. Some of its clauses were,
however, introduced into the shorter
form by the Council. Professor Lumby
(from whose ' Notes on the Creed ' in the
S.P.C.K. Prayer Book with Commen
tary the above is taken) concludes that
"at the time of the Council of Chal
cedon, the Niceno-Constantinople Creed
was far from obtaining general accept
ance. We have no certainty that it
was put forth as a confession by that
Council.. It certainly was entirely
ignored by the Fathers assembled at
the Council of Ephesus. It seems most
likely, therefore, that it was a profession
received among the Churches in the
Patriarchate of Constantinople, but at

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303

GENERAL COUNCILS

first not more widely circulated ; and
that it was only brought into promin
ence at the Council of Chalcedon by
those who were from Constantinople
or from the Churches in immediate
connection therewith. Afterwards the
longer creed was frequently brought
forward in Synods and Councils, and
by a.d. 540 it had become the gener
ally accepted form. "
It is unnecessary to give all the
Canons made by the Council ; but the
third of them is very important in
its bearing on the subsequent claims
of Rome. The Church had from time
to time modified its arrangements in
harmony with the actual changes of
the world with which it had to deal ;
for example, if the State transferred the
seat of the government of a province
from one city to another, the Church
sometimes found it convenient to make
the new city the ecclesiastical metro
polis also of the province. So now the
fact that Constantinople had been built
as the new capital of the empire was
recognised by its being raised to tho
' dignity of a Patriarchate, with prece
dence immediately after Rome, and
the reason assigned, "forasmuch as
it is a new Rome," implied that the
Bishop of Rome obtained his precedency
simply because his see was the ancient
capital of the empire. And in accord
ance with this, at a later -period when
the Barbarians had overrun the West,
and Constantinople was the undisputed
capital, its bishop claimed, and Jus
tinian formally confirmed the claim,
to the first place of precedency in the
Church. It has been said that this
Council consisted entirely of bishops
of the Eastern Church, and that the
West was unrepresented in it. It came,
however, to the dignity of a general
Council by the adhesion of the rest of
Christendom to its decisions ; for gene
ral acceptance is the final test of the
authority of a Council.
The causes which led to the Third
General Council were as follows. Nes-
torius, a monk and priest of Antioch,
was appointed A.D. 428 to the see of

Constantinople. One of the priests who
had accompanied him from Antioch,
preached a sermon in which he attacked
the use of the word Theotokos (she
of whom God was born) as applied to
the Virgin Mary. The word had been
used by Athanasius and other great
orthodox Fathers of the Church. It
did not mean that the Virgin com
municated the Divine nature to the
Saviour ; but it expressed the truth
that the conjunction of the Godhead
with the humanity took place simul
taneously with the conception of the
humanity. The sermon excited op
position. Nestorius, in a series of
sermons, supported the views of his
Presbyter. He was understood to teach-
that a man was born of the Virgin, and
then the Divine Person entered into and
united himself with this man, which
would imply that there are two persons,
a Divine Person and a human person,
in our Lord. The question created great
excitement, a new heresy seemed to be
rising up. Cyril, Bishop of Alexandria,
and Celestine of Rome, both condemned
Nestorius ; John of Antioch, and
the Eastern bishops generally, sided
with Nestorius ; so that the four great
patriarchs were divided, two against
two. The Emperor Theodosius II.
summoned a General Council at
Ephesus to determine the question.
The Bishop of Antioch and the Syrian
Bishops were delayed in their journey,
and after long waiting the 200 bishops
assembled, at length, 21st June, 431,
opened tho Council without them.
Nestorius was cited to appear before
them, but refused until the Orientals,
who were his sympathizers, should
arrive. Theod oret and 6 7 other bishops
protested against proceeding to business
without them. The Count Candidian,
sent by the emperor to represent him,
and maintain order, also demanded
delay. But on the morrow the Council
proceeded to business, got through it
on that day, and ended with a sentence
of deposition against Nestorius. On
the 27th June the Orientals arrived.
On hearing what had been done they,

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304

GENERAL COUNCILS

with 29 others who joined them, con
stituted themselves into a rival Council,
condemned Cyril of Alexandria, and
acquitted Nestorius. The representa
tives of the Western Church (two
bishops and a priest) did not arrive
till all this had taken place. They
recognised the Cyrillan Council, and
subscribed to its decree.
Deputations from both Councils ap
peared before the emperor ; but in the
meantime he had taken advantage 'of
"¦ previous offer of Nestorius to resign,
and had required him to do so, and
to retire to his monastery. The em
peror gave no decision between the
two Councils, and the Church was left
to choose between them. The great
body of the Church has ultimately
accepted the definition of the Council
of Ephesus. Nestorianism was sup
pressed within the empire, but it con
tinued to be maintained by the great
Church of the further East whose
chief see was at the capital of the
Persian empire, and it has continued
in that Church down to the present
day. Twenty years after the Council of
Ephesus, Eutyches, abbot of one of the
great monasteries of Constantinople, a
man who was held in great reverence
for the austerity of his life, was ac
cused of teaching erroneous doctrine,
the opposite of that held by Nestorius,
viz. that the Godhead and the manhood
were not distinct in the Person of Christ,
but were united in a third mixed nature,
which therefore was neither human nor
Divine. A new dissension on this' subject
agitated the Church, and a quasi-
general Council held- at Ephesus, with
great violence, compelled the Fathers
to sign a decree in favour of Eutyches.
The Bishop of Rome, however, held a
Synod which disavowed the proceedings
of its representatives. And finally, the
new Emperor Marcian, desirous of re
storing the peace of the Church, sum
moned a new Council (451) at Chal-
cf.don, on the Asiatic shore opposite
Constantinople. The number of bishops

assembled was 520, all from the East,
except the two bishops who represented
the Western Church, and two African
bishops. The Roman Legates and
Anatolius of Constantinople sat as Pre
sidents. The result of the Council was
a definition of the orthodox faith in
these words: "That Christ is perfect:
alike in Godhead and in manhood,.
very God and very man, of a reason-,
able soul and human flesh ; co-essen
tial with the Father as to His God
head, and co-essential with us as to His
manhood ; like to us in all things ex
cept sin;. . . one and tho same Christ,
Son, Lord, Only-begotten, to be ac
knowledged in two Natures, without
confusion, change, division, or separ
ation ; tho difference of natures being
in no wise taken away by reason of
their union, but rather the properties
of each nature being preserved, and
concurring into One Person and ono
hypostasis, not as it were divided or
separated into two persons, but one
and the same Son and Only-begotten
God the Word." Some decrees were
also made by the Council as to eccle
siastical jurisdiction and precedence.
A Canon of the Second General Coun
cil had given honorary precedence to
Constantinople after Rome, but had
not given it any jurisdiction. Its
patriarchs had, however, claimed cer
tain rights over Thrace, Asia (the pro
vince of that name), and Pontus, e.g.
that of nominating the metropolitans
and bishops, and of consecrating fheml
The present Council decreed a com
promise on the subject ; giving the
Patriarch of Constantinople power to
consecrate the metropolitans only;
whose appointment was left to the
election of their suffragans. Tho word
ing of this Canon is important, since it
declares still more explicitly than the
Second Council did, that the prece
dence of Rome rested on political
grounds. "New Rome," it says,
' ' ought to be magnified in ecclesi-
astical^ matters, even like the eldet
Imperial Rome, as being next to it."
The see of Jerusalem had long been a

a.d. 325.

II. 381.

III. 431.

IV. 451.

Place where held.

Nicaea.

Constantinople.

Ephesus.

Chalcedon (Suburb of
Constantinople).

TABLE OF THE FIRST FOUR GENERAL COUNCILS.
Heresiarch condemned.

Emperor under whom
• held.

Constantine the Great.

Theodosius.

Theodosius II.

Marcian.

Arius ¦ (Presbyter . of
.^ Alexandria).

Macedonius (Bishop of
Constantinople).

Nestorius (Bishop of
Constantinople).

Eutyches (Abbot in),
and Dioscorus (Bp.
of Alexandria).

Heretical tenets
condemned.

Denial of the true Deity
of Jesus. Christ.

Denial of the Person
ality and Deity of
the Holy Ghost.

That there are two
Persons in Christ.

That there is only one
nature in Christ.
Called the Monophysite

Remarks.

Hosius, Bishop of Cordova,
and Eusebius, Bishop of
Caesarea, presided. Atha
nasius the chief defender
of the faith. Homoousios.

Meletius of Antioch, Gre
gory Nazianzen, and
Timothy of Alexandria,
successively presided.

Cyril of Alexandria pre
sided. Theotokos.

Anatolius (Bishop of Con
stantinople) and the En
voys of Leo the Great,
presided.

G1LBERTINE

306 GLOUCESTER AND BRISTOL

simple bishopric, subject to Caesarea,
the capital of the province ; but Jeru
salem, by reason of the vast confluence
to it, since the pilgrimage of the Empress
Helena, of pilgrims from all countries,
had latterly assumed much higher
importance, and the claims of the see
of the Mother- Church of the whole
world to a special reverence were pro
minent in the minds of all Christians.
The Council, therefore, on the appli
cation of Juvenal, Bishop of Jerusalem,
raised the see to the dignity of a patri
archate, and gave it jurisdiction over
Palestine, leaving to the bishops of
Caesarea the honorary title of Metro
politan. The Bishop of Rome's representative
opposed the Canon on the see of Constan
tinople, and Leo himself, when he read
the decrees of the Council, challenged
its assertion that the precedency of his
see arose out of the political import
ance of his city ; for Rome was already
putting forth its theory of the "Privi
lege of Peter ; " but the matter re
mained as the Council had settled it, and
its decrees have been accepted by the
Church as those of a General Council.
GILBERTINE, Order of Monks, was
founded by a Lincolnshire priest,
Gilbert of Sempringham, in the year
A. D. _ 1139. There was this notable
peculiarity in the organisation of the
houses of this Order, that they were
double houses, i. e. both monks and
nuns lived in the same place, under the
same superintendence, though with a
rigid separation between the two divi
sions. Their churches had a double
nave, i. e. divided into two aisles by
columns and arches, and a veil down
the middle divided the monks from the
nuns. The monks followed the Augus
tinian rule, the nuns followed tho rule
of the Cistercian nuns. There were
twenty-six houses of the Order, all
priories dependent upon the chief house
of Sempringham, whose head, as Prior-
General, had absolute rule over the
whole Order. The habit was a black
cassock, a white cloak, and a hood lined
with lambskin.

There were twenty-six houses of the
order in England ; Chicksand, Beds ;
Cambridge, Fordham, and Mirmand at
Welle, Isle of Ely, Cambs ; Hitchin,
Herts ; Alvingham, Bullington, Catte-
ley, Haverholme, Holland Brigge,,
Lincoln, Newstede on Ancolm, North
Ormsby, Sempringham, Sixhill, and
Tunstal, Lincolnshire ; Shouldham,
Norfolk ; Mattersey at Elreton, Old
Malton, Overton, Watton, and St.
Andrew's, York, Yorksh. Four only
ranked among the greater monasteries.
The total Gilbertine revenues at
the Dissolution only amounted to
£2421 13s. 9d.
GLEBE, an old English name for
land under cultivation, which has con
tinued to be applied to the land which
forms part of the endowment of a
parochial benefice. The endowment!!
was commonly made by an allotment \
of house and glebe by the lord of the
manor, who thereby became patron of
the Church. Other persons also, at the
time of dedication or afterwards, often
contributed small portions of land;
which is the reason why in many par- .
ishes glebe is not only distant from j
the house, but lies in several divided
parcels. ¦
GLOUCESTER AND BRISTOL,
DIOCESE OF, in not, like Bath and
Wells, or Coventry and Lichfield, the
double title of one diocese, it is the
title of two distinct dioceses united
in one hand in quite modern times;
and already an Act of Parliament has.
been obtained, authorising a re-division ,
as soon as a sufficient endowment for
Bristol shall have been voluntarily
provided. Gloucester formerly lay within the
diocese of Worcester ; it is one of the
new dioceses created at the Reformation.
The Abbey Church of the great Bene
dictine Monastery at Gloucester, sup
plied a grand Cathedral Church, and a
portion of its estates sufficed to endow
the see. John Wakeman, who had been
Abbot of Tewkesbury, was the first
bishop. Among its bishops may be
noted Miles Smith (1612— 1624), one

GRADUALE

307

GRIND AL

of the translators of the "Authorised
Version" of the Bible, and writer of
its preface ; Richard Frampton (1681
— 1691), one of the non-juring bishops ;
William Warburton (1760 — 1779),
author of " The Divine Legation of
Moses," and other works.
Bristol was also one of the new sees
of the Reformation, and, like Gloucester,
was carved out of the great' diocese of
Worcester. The fine church and house
of Augustinian Canons was appropriated
for the Cathedral Church, and for the
residence of the new bishop and canons.
Paul Bush (1542, dep. 1554), late
Provincial Master of the House of
Bonhommes, at Edgington, wa3 the
first bishop. The see remained vacant
from 1558 to 1589, during which time
it was administered by the bishops of
Gloucester. ' Joseph Butler (1738, tr.
1750), the author of the 'Analogy,' was
bishop here for twelve years before his
translation to Durham. [See Butler.]
On the translation of Bishop Allen to
Ely in 1836, this see was united to
that of Gloucester.
The united dioceses include the
county of Gloucester, parts of Somerset
and Wilts, and of counties adjacent.
Population, 695,952 ; 3 archdeaconries,
viz, Gloucester, Cirencester, and Bristol ;
21 rural deaneries ; 489 benefices.
The GRADUALE, GRADALE, or
GRAYLE, one of the old service books,
which was to the service of High Mass
what the Antiphonarium was to the
Daily Office. It contained the Introits,
Offertories, Communions, Graduals,
Feasts, Sequences, and other things to
be sung by the choir at the celebration
of the Eucharist. It took its name
from certain short phrases after the
Epistle, sung " in Gradibus," i.e. while
the deacon was ascending the stairs of
the pulpit or rood-loft, to read the Gos
pel. It usually contains the musical
rendering of the words. [See Sequence.]
GRANDMONTINES, Order of monks.
This reformed Benedictine Order was
founded at Grandmont in France, in
the year A. D. 1076. Its rule differed
very little from the Benedictines. It

was introduced into England in tho
reign of Henry I. at Abdei'bury, Shrop
shire, and had two other houses, viz.
at Creswell, Herefordshire, and Gros-
mont or Eskdale, Yorkshire.
GRAVE-STONE. There is a type of
monument of Saxon date of the shape
called en dos d'ane, like an ass's back,
i. e. with a curved elevation, and
usually covered with sculptures. One
at Heysham, Lancashire, is engraved
as the frontispiece to ' Sepulchral Slabs
and Crosses,' and there is another at
Repton, Derbyshire, another at Bedale,
Yorks, both on Plate XXXIII. of that
work. A very fine example, of which
one part, much worn, was preserved
in the church, and another part was
recently dug out of the churchyard,
fresh and sharp in its sculptures, at
Shelton, Notts Another still more
finely sculptured is at Bexhall, Sussex.
GRINDAL, Edmund, Archbishop of
Canterbury, born 1519, died 1583 ;
was born at Hinsingham, Cumberland ;
educated at Magdalen, Christ's, and
Pembroke, Cambridge ; 1538, fellow of
Pembroke ; 1549, Vice-Master of Pem
broke, and Lady Margaret's preacher.
Having obtained great reputation as a
preacher, Ridley, Bishop of London,
made him one of his chaplains, 1550,
and 1551 collated him to the precentor-
ship of St. Paul's. In 1553 he fled
from the Marian persecution to Stras-
burg ; on the accession of Elizabeth
returned to England, and was at once
employed, in the revision of the Prayer
Book, chosen as one of the divines
to hold a public disputation with the
popish prelates, as one of the commis
sioners of the North, and frequently as
a preacher before the Court and at St.
Paul's ; in 1559 was elected Master of
Pembroke. In December,. 1562, he
was one of the first group of Elizabethan
bishops after Parker's consecration,-
being consecrated to the see of London ;
and at the same time Cox to the see of
Ely ; Barlow, late of Bath and Wells,
was at the same time inducted into
Chichester ; and Scory, late of Chiches
ter, into Hereford. These, together with

GRINDAL

308

GROSSETESTE

Archbishop Parker, joined in a petition
to the queen not to deteriorate the sees
of the Church by taking advantage of
the Act which allowed her to take their
lands in exchange for the impropriate
tithes which- the Crown had received
from the monasteries, offering each
to pay her a certain annuity during
their lives ; but without avail. He
administered his diocese with such an
absence of firmness towards the Non
conformists — with whom he sympa
thised—that Parker, feeling the need
of more energetic support in London,
procured his promotion to York. Here,
having to deal with favourers of the
old religion rather than with fana
tical holders of new opinions, he found
scope for his zeal in bringing his clergy
to Conformity, and wisely endeavoured
by providing learned and able preachers
to bring the laity to a cordial accept
ance of the Reformation.
On the death of Parker Grindal suc
ceeded to Canterbury, February 15th,
1575 ; but at once fell under the queen's
displeasure. The Puritan clergy had
organised meetings up and down the
country called Prophesyings. Ministers
who had been silenced sometimes took
advantage of these opportunities to
publish their opinions ; laymen showed
their gifts in " prophesying " ; and the
meetings were often used as a means for
the dissemination of opinions contrary
to those received by the Church. The
queen required from the archbishop the
suppression of these ' ' prophesyings. "
Grindal (Dec. 20th, 1576) replied that
his conscience would not allow him to
comply with her commands. The queen
thereupon, in virtue of the supremacy,
issued her commands to the bishops
generally to forbid these exercises
and prophesyings, and to silence all
preachers and teachers not lawfully
called. The archbishop's jurisdiction
was sequestrated, and himself confined
to his house ; two civilians were ap
pointed to manage the ordinary affairs
of the see, and the archbishop received
licence from time to time to do such acts
as were necessary to be performed by the

archbishop in person. The archbishop
was perhaps right from a modern point
of view in resisting-the queen's attempt
to overrule him in the rule of his clergy ;
but she was in her right according )to
the view then taken of the supremacy.
In 1580, on the meeting of Convocation;
it was first moved .that no business
should be transacted in the absence of
the archbishop ; but it was thought
better to petition the queen for the
restoration of the archbishop, a petition
which received no reply. At length,
1582, Grindal was induced to make
some submission, and was restored.
By this time, however, he had become
blind, and was afflicted with chronic
disease, and desired to resign. There
was some delay in effecting a formal
resignation ; perhaps it was not formally
completed owing to the objection of
Whitgift, who had been chosen as his
successor, to enter upon the see so long
as Grindal lived. But the delay did
not last long. The archbishop died at
Croydon, 6th July, 1583, and was buried
in the parish church there, where his
monumental effigy still remains.
GROSSETESTE, Robert, Bishop of
Lincoln, bom 1175, died 1253 ; was
bom about 1175, in Suffolk, of peasant
parentage ; is said to have received hj| j
early education at Lincoln, and after
wards at Oxford, whence he went to
Paris, which was then the most famous
school of Europe. The first contem
porary notice of him is in a letter from
the historian Giraldus Cambrensis to
the Bishop of Hereford, in which he
recommends to his kindness ' ' the young
scholar, Master Robert Grosseteste,
whom, as 1 have gladly heard, you
have lately received into your family ;
that the reward he obtains from you
should equal his merit, for I know that
his help in your various affairs, in your
decisions of causes, and in the care of
your bodily health, will soon be made
doubly, nay, manifoldly necessary to
you." He goes on to praise him not
only for his skill in law and physic,
but also that "beyond all the rest of
the good qualities in which he excels,

GROSSETESTE

309

GROSSETESTE

he is conspicuous in trustworthiness
and fidelity." The bishop, however,
died soon after, and Grosseteste returned
to Oxford, where he continued to live
chiefly for the next thirty years. Here
he rose into great repute for learn
ing. He is said to have been skilled
both in Greek and Hebrew ; he was
elected Rector of the Schools (an office
equivalent to the modern office of Vice-
Chancellor). Especially, like Roger
Bacon, his pupil, he devoted himself
to physical science, and shared with
him to some extent the vulgar charge of
sorcery, which experiments in physical
science are always enough to suggest to
an ignorant and superstitious age.
His reputation gained him prefer
ment. In 1214 he was Archdeacon of
Wilts, till 1221, when he was made
Archdeacon of Northampton, with a,
stall in Lincoln ; this again he ex
changed for the Archdeaconry of Leices
ter, under the same bishop, with the
Rectorship of St. Margaret's, Leicester.
But after a while he was troubled in
conscience about the lawfulness of hold
ing several preferments, or about his
power of fulfilling all their duties, and
resigned everything but his Lincoln
Prebend, and continued to reside at
Oxford until 1235, with nothing to
distract him from his studies.
Meantime, in 1224, the Franciscan
friars had first come to England ; a
party of them had soon established a
house and opened school in Oxford,
and their piety and learning had gained
them great influence in the university
and in the country. Grosseteste was
one who, from the ascetic and enthusi
astic tone of his piety, was likely to sym
pathise with them, and he was on terms
of intimate friendship with someof them.
His friend and patron, Wells, Bishop
of Lincoln, died in 1235. The chapter
elected Prebendary Grosseteste to be
his successor ; and he was consecrated
probably on the 17th June, being
sixty years of age. He very early gave
a sample of the spirit in which he
would rule his diocese: A monk
brought him for institution to a benefice

a deacon dressed in bright-coloured
clothes, adorned with rings, and alto
gether with the exterior of a foppish
layman. The bishop examined him,
and found him quite illiterate. Where
upon he bitterly reproached both monk
and deacon : " Our Lord Jesus Christ
gave His precious blood, yea, His very
life, to save and quicken each indi
vidual soul ; and do you seek to hand
over so great a number of souls to one
who by his bad example will betray
and destroy those souls, for each of
which Christ gave His whole life! The
sheep which you buy for twelve pence
you would not give up to the wolf;
and the soul which Christ bought with
His precious Blood, which is a price
incomparably greater than the whole
creation, you endeavour to hand over
to the destroyer. . . You, who thus
dishonour Christ and His precious
Blood, are you not manifestly on your
way to perdition ? "
One of the first works which ho
undertook was a general visitation of
his vast diocese, which extended from
the Humber to the Thames, over nine
great counties.
With a view to the work, he gathered
about him a staff of friars who might
assist him in the herculean under
taking. He wrote to Alardus, the
English Provincial of the Dominicans,
to lend him John de St. Giles and
Geoffrey de Clive for a year ; to Helias,
the Minister-General of the Franciscans,
he wrote, asking for four of his friars
to help him in "the preaching of the
Word, the hearing of confessions, the
appointing of penances ; " for he intended
not merely a formal visitation of the
clergy, but a "mission" to both clergy
and laity ; an endeavour not only to
correct ecclesiastical abuses, but also to
revive spiritual religion throughout his
diocese. He himself gives an account
of his visitation : "I, as soon as I was
made bishop, considered myself to be
the overseer and pastor of souls,- and
therefore I held it necessary, lest the
blood of the sheep should be required
at my hand in the strict Judgment, to

GROSSETESTE

310

GROSSETESTE

visit the sheep committed to me with
diligence, as the Scripture orders and
commands. Wherefore, at the com
mencement of my episcopate, I began
to go round through the several arch
deaconries, and in the archdeaconries
through the several rural deaneries,
causing the clergy of each deanery to
be called together at a certain day and
place, and the people to be warned that
in the same day and place they should
be present, with the children to be
confirmed, and in order to hear the
Word of God, and to confess. When
clergy and people were assembled, I
myself was accustomed to preach the
Word of God to the clergy, and some
friar, either preacher or minorite, to
the people ; at the same time four
friars were employed in hearing con
fessions and enjoining penances ; and
when the children had been confirmed,
on that and the following day, I and
my clerks gave our attention to in
quiries, corrections, and reformations,
such as belong to the office of inquiry. "
In the course of his visitation he
found great abuses, and dealt with
them with a severity which was per
haps not greater than the circumstances
demanded. He removed from their
places seven abbots and four priors,
and suspended many rectors of churches.
He set himself to improve the condition
of the parishes by loosening the grasp
of the monasteries on the revenues of
the parochial benefices, insisting on
their providing sufficiently endowed
vicarages in their impropriate parishes,
and opposing the prevalent practice
of their farming benefices. The Orders
of the Cistercians, Templars, and Hos
pitallers, and many individual monas
teries of other Orders, and alien priories,
were exempt, by papal privileges, from
Episcopal visitation. Grosseteste went
to Lyons to the pope, to seek powers
for correcting the abuses of these Orders
and houses within his diocese, and
while there he addressed to the pope
and cardinals a statement and remon
strance on the abuses of the Church,
charging the Court of Rome with being

the greatest offender in these abuses?
and the example of them to all the rest
of the Church. He obtained from the
pope power to compel the exempt Orders-
to found vicarages in their appropriated
benefices, and to augment the value of
all vicarages which were too slenderly
endowed. The bishop did not limit his endeav
ours to the removal of ecclesiastical
abuses and the amendment of the lives
of the clergy ; he extended his pastoral
care over the laity also. " To such an
extent did he proceed thatihe made
strict inquisition through the arch- ,
deacons and deans of his see concerning,
the continence and morals, both' of
noble and ignoble, to the immense in
jury of the character of many, and
great scandal. He considered it right,
even, to put the accused on oath that
they should either confess the sins of
which they were accused, and do suit
able penance, or should clear themselves
by their oath ; " but the king inter
posed to shield his subjects from this
inquisition. When the bishop made known his
intention to visit the cathedral, which
involved a similar strict inquiry into
every dignity and every prebend, with
the churches dependent upon them,
the chapter denied his authority to
visit them, and a great controversy
ensued. The question was can'ied to
Rome, and at length the decision there
not only gave the bishop a victory in
the present case, but secured the right
of a bishop to visit the cathedral body
in all other dioceses.
Throughout the struggle of the
barons against the foreign favourites of
the king, Henry III., and the exactions
of the Court of Rome, Grosseteste took
the constitutional side. He was the
friend and counsellor of Simon de
Montfort, and the tutor of his children ;
he was the strenuous opponent of the
Archbishop Boniface (a young prince
of Savoy, the queen's uncle), who di
lapidated the estates of the see, and
multiplied exactions on the whole
Church, to support hi3 own ostentatious

GROSSETESTE

311

GROSSETESTE

expenditure, and the political interests
of his family.
At length the bishop found himself
opposed to the pope himself in resisting
these abuses of patronage. Popular
feeling against the foreign incumbents
had caused the formation of a secret
society against them, which broke out
into riots, plundering their tithe barns
and selling their contents to the poor.
In the earlier years of his episcopate
ho had protested against these papal
appointments, and thrown the respon
sibility on the pope ; but at last he
determined to resist. ' ' To such a pitch
had the avarice of the Romans been
allowed to grow, and such a point had
it reached, that the Bishop of Lincoln,
being struck with amazement' at it,
caused his clerks carefully to reckon
and estimate all the revenues of for
eigners in England, and it was dis
covered and found for truth, that . . .
the revenue of the alien clerks whom
the present pope had planted in Eng
land amounted to more than 70,000
marks. The king's revenue could hot
be reckoned at more than a third part
of this sum " (Matt. Paris).
The crisis of Grosseteste's resistance
came when the pope commanded that
his nephew should be installed in the
next vacant canonry and prebend in
Lincoln, setting aside all legal obstacles,
"all customs, statutes, oaths or con
firmations of the Apostolic see, or any
other security ; " exempting his nephew
from "making oath to observe the
customs of the Church," and threaten
ing all who should oppose the carrying
out of this mandate. Hereupon Grosse
teste determined to resist, and set forth
the reasons for his refusal in along letter,
in which he grounds his refusal on his
duty to the See of Rome and to the
Church. He .argues that ' ' it cannot be
that the most holy Apostolic See to
which, by the Holy of holy ones, the
Lord Jesus Christ, has been given all
sorts of power, as the Apostle witnesseth,
' for edification, and not for destruction, '
can either command or enjoin anything
so hateful,, detestable, abominable, and

utterly destructive to the human race
(as he has previously shewn this ap
pointment of incompetent pastors in
tho Church to be), or can make any
attempt at such thing. For this would
evidently amount to a falling off, a,
corruption, a misusing of its most holy
and plenary power, a complete depar
ture from the throne of the glory of
Jesus Christ, and a very close sitting
side by side with the two principles of
darkness in the pestilent seat of hellish
punishments. Nor can any one who
is subject and faithful to the said see
in immaculate and sincere obedience
obey commands, or precepts, or at
tempts of any description of such a
character as this, from whatever quarter
they may come, even if it should be
from the highest1 order of angels ; but
must of necessity with his whole strength
contradict them, and rebel against
them. On this ground, I, . . . out of
my filial affection and obedience, refuse
to obey — I oppose them and rebel
against them."
When the letter was made known to
the Pope, "he could not contain him
self for anger and indignation," says
Matthew Paris. "With fierce looks
and arrogant spirit he exclaimed, ' Who
is this doting old man, deaf both in
hearing and mind, who judges things
in this bold and daring fashion ? By
Peter and Paul, were it not for my
natural mildness of disposition, I would
hurl him to such a headlong ruin that
he would be to the whole world a tale,
an astonishment, an example, and a
prodigy. Is not the King of England
our vassal, ' I should rather say our
slave ? — and can we not at our nod cast
him (i. e. the bishop) into prison and
give him over to disgrace ? ' While
these things were said among the car
dinals they scarce were able to restrain
the impetuousness of the pope, saying
to him, ' It would not be expedient,
my lord, that we should take any harsh
measures against that bishop, for, to.
confess the truth, the things which he
says are true. We cannot condemn
him ; he is catholic and most holy ;

GROSSETESTE

312

GUILD

more religious, more saintly, and of
more excellent life than we are, so that
he is thought not to have a superior,
nor even an equal, among bishops.
This is known <to the whole clergy of
France and England, so that our opposi
tion would not avail. The truth of
such a letter which has now become
known to many, perhaps, would have
the power of stirring up many against
ns ; for he is held a great philosopher,
learned to the full in Latin and Greek
lore, a zealous lover of justice, a pro
fessor of theology in the schools, a
lover of chastity, a persecutor of simoni-
acal persons. ' These things were said
by the Lord Cardinal Giles the Spaniard,
and others who were touched by their
own consciences."
Whether he was or was not excom
municated is uncertain. Mr. Luard,
the editor of his letters in the Rolls
Series, says that he can find no au
thority for the tradition that he was
excommunicated. In either case he
continued the work of his diocese as
usual, and in this particular matter he
addressed a letter to the "nobles, the
citizens of London, and the commons
of the wholo kingdom," calling upon
them to resist the extortion of Rome in
general, and this abuse of ' provisions '
in particular. In 1253 his health gave
way ; he died at the manor of Buckden,
belonging to the see, and was buried in
the south transept of his cathedral.
Miracles were attributed to his remains ;
his tomb became a place of pilgrimage ;
but his opposition to the Roman See
prevented his formal canonisation. His
popularity in modern times rests upon
his opposition to the Roman See ; but
a careful consideration of his whole
conduct will shew that he was only
one of many who at that time, and at
other times, vehemently opposed the
administrative abuses of the papacy,
and laboured zealously for a correction
of moral evils, but who all the while
believed in the pretensions of the papal
see to a supremacy over the Church,
and generally ' ' adhered to the strictest
orthodoxy of his time." ('The Life

and Times of Robert Grosseteste,' br
Rev. G. G. Percy : S. P. C. K. ' The
Letters of Grosseteste,' by H. R.
Luard : the Roll Series. )
GUILD (from Saxon gildan, to pay,
because the members paid a contribu
tion to the common stock of the fra
ternity) is a society or fraternity formed
for the common welfare of its members,
with trade, social, or religious objects,
or a mixture of these objects. Such
guilds, which were spread throughout
Western Christendom in the Middle
Ages, are said to have had their origin
in England, and to have been of remote
antiquity here. The Anglo-Saxon
custom of frank-pledge, which bound
groups of neighbours together in bonds
of mutual aid and responsibility for one
another before the law, is said to have.
been the custom out of which the medi-.
aeval social and religious guilds sprang.
The social guild was a voluntary as-,
sociation of men (not excluding women)
for mutual aid in the exigencies of life —
in sickness, old age, poverty, — if. cot
brought on by their own folly, — in
wrongful imprisonment, in losses by
fire, water, or shipwreck, in burial..
So far it was a benefit club on a wide
basis. But the idea of the guild in->
eluded' also mutual aid in spiritual.
things, in prayers for all the members,
living and dead. The guild usually
put itself under the name and protec
tion of the Holy Trinity, or of some
saint ; and once a year at least it took
measures to have a special service in
church on its behalf, and held an.
annual feast. The richer guilds often
had a chaplain, or more than one, of
their own, and frequent services. In
such cases the guild practically main-,-
tained a chantry, and usually had a
portion of the parish church assigned
as their chapel; where prayers were-
continually said by the guild priest for
the good estate of the living, and repose-
of the departed, brothers and sisters of
the guild. E. g. the guild at Ludlow:
had seven chaplains, and maintained'
two deacons and four choristers to sing
Divine service in the parish church;

GUILD

313

GUILD

they supported a grammar school, an
almshouse with thirty-two almspeople,
and bestowed gifts on the poor. Leland
says that the Guild of St. John,
in St. Botolph's church, Boston, had
ten priests, ' ' living in a fayre house at
the west end of the parish churchyard. "
In St. Mary's church, Lichfield, was a
guild which had five priests.
The trade guilds had for their cen
tral object the regulation and protec-
.tion of their particular trade. Their
organisation consisted of a masler,
wardens, &c. ; their laws included the
regulation of freemen, apprentices, &c. ,
the quality, &c, of their goods, and
constituted a trade monopoly. But in
addition to these purely commercial
objects, the trade guild also embraced
all the usual features of a social and
religious guild above-mentioned. The
trade guild often had its guildhall, and
other buildings necessary to the conduct
of its affairs ; and its guild chapel,
which was sometimes a portion of, or
an addition to, the parish church, and
sometimes a separate building attached
perhaps to their guildhall.
These guilds were very numerous.
In mercantile towns there were of
course both social and trade guilds :
e.g. at Norwich there were twelve of
one kind or other ; in Lynn as many;
in Lincoln six ; at Wymondham, Nor
folk, ten ; at Hingham seven ; seven
also at Swaffham ; at Yarmouth seven
teen, &c. At Chelmsford, which has
but one church, there were three guilds —
of St. John, of Corpus Christi, and of
Our Lady. At Maldon, with three
churches, there were three guilds ; all
of them were endowed, and each main
tained a chaplain. Usually the duty
of the guild priest was to celebrate at
the altar of the guild chapel, to help
to serve the cure, and in some cases to
keep school. Not only in towns, but
in country parishes there were social
guilds ; not in every parish, but the
inhabitants of neighbouring parishes
became members of some conveniently
central guild.
The great trade guilds were often

wealthy corporations, and their halls
were handsome buildings ; and they
took great pride' in the splendour of
their pageantry, in the value of their
plate, and the sumptuousness of their
hospitality ; and the honorary fra
ternity of their guilds was accepted as
a compliment by men of rank and dis
tinction. Many of the country guilds
had no property, except perhaps a few
cooking utensils and a loving cup.
Some had a "stock," which sometimes
consisted of a number of sheep or cattle
— a common mode of investing money
for profit in those days ; the subscription
of the members, and occasional volun
tary contributions to meet an emergency,
were their principal income, with the
addition of numerous small legacies.
People of all ranks took part in these
guilds. The same person might be a
member of several of them. The mem
bers generally wore a special livery at
their meetings, at the ecclesiastical
festivals and religious processions, and
at the annual guild feast. The officers
were distinguished by a silver badge,
usually in the form of an escutcheon,
with the arms or emblem of the guild
upon it.
Besides the normal social aiid trade
guilds, there were some societies which
had associated themselves under the
same general regulations, but with
some special object. For example, there
were Kalendar Guilds, so called be
cause they met on the kalends (i. o. the
first day) of each month. They con
sisted for the most part, though not
exclusively, of clergymen ; and little
or nothing is known of their objects or
regulations. The Kalendar Guild of
Bristol dated from before the Norman
Conquest; from an inquiry made.by the
bishop in 1387 it appeared that the
guild kept the ancient records of Bristol
and elsewhere. The guild stated that
in the twelfth century they had founded
a school for Jews and others to be
brought up in Christianity under tho
said fraternity, which school they still
maintained. At York, among other
guilds of the usual kind, there was a

GUILD

314

GUILD

Guild of the Lord's Prayer. It arose
in this way. At some date unknown,
but previous to the year 1389, which
is the date of the existing record of it,
a Miracle Play of the Lord's Prayer
had been performed in York, in which
all manner of vices and sins were held
up to scorn, and the virtues held up to
praise ; the play met with so much
favour that a guild was founded for the
express purpose of keeping up the per
formance of this play. The guild had
the usual charitable and religious cus
toms ; but besides, the members were
bound, to illustrate in their lives the
scorn of vice and praise of virtue which
were the object of the play, and to
shun company and business which were
unworthy. -This guild maintained a
candle-bearer of seven lights, to hang in
York Cathedral, to be lighted on all
Sundays and feast-days, in token of the
seven supplications of the Lord's Prayer,
to the honour and glory of Almighty
God, the Maker of that Prayer. And
they maintained a tablet shewing the
whole meaning and use of the Lord's
Prayer, hanging against a pillar of the
cathedral near the aforesaid candle-
bearer. Whenever the play was per
formed in York, the guild were to ride
with the players through the principal
streets, clad in one suit, and to keep
order during the play.
Blomfield gives the guild prayer of
the Guild of St. Christopher, Norwich,
which we recognise at once as a short
form of the ordinary Bidding Prayer,
with special petitions for the brethren
and sisters of the guild.
On the feast-days of the greater
guilds they often made a procession
and pageant in the streets on their way
to church, and from church to their
hall ; the show of the Lord Mayor of
London is perhaps the last surviving
example of the custom. Thus at Bever
ley, the Guild of St. Helen (founded
1378), on their feast-day, wentto church
in procession ; a fair youth was dressed
to represent the Empress, and old men
went before carrying, a cross and a
spade, in token of the finding of the

holy cross, and the brethren and sisters
followed two and two, all fairly clad,
and went with music to the church of
the Friars Minors, where mass was
celebrated. Then they returned to the
guild-house, elected officers for the
year, and dined off bread, cheese, and
ale. The Guild of St. Mary (founded
1355), in the same town, on their anni
versary exhibited a pageant represent
ing the Blessed Virgin Mary^ St.
Joseph, and St. Simeon, with .two
angels carrying a candle-bearer witk :
twenty-four thick wax lights. "With
these and other great lights borne be
fore them they went in procession, witk
music, to the church, pacing slowly,
each carrying a wax light weighing a
pound. When there, a representation
was made of the Blessed Virgin offering
her Son to St. Simeon at the high
altar. All having been solemnly done,
they returned, elected their officersj
and dined in their hall.
In the 15th century, when the re
ligious houses had lost public favour,
these guilds or fraternities came to
be one form in which the religious
munificence of the time found scope
for its exercise. For example, about
1469 the Guild or Fraternity of Jesus
was founded in the church of Prittle-
well, Essex, to consist of one master
and tw-o wardens, persons ecclesiastical.
or secular, and other persons of either
sex as perpetual brethren and sisters'.;
the east end of the south aisle of the
church was appropriated as their chapel,
and called the Jesus Chapel ; they had
a chaplain, called the Jesus Priest, who
celebrated daily in the chapel, and was
Master of the school which the guild
maintained. They had a guild-house
in the village, called the Jesus House.
The guild also had the usual religious
and charitable rules and observances.
In 1545 an,Act of Parliament put all
these guilds, together with the chant
ries, into King Henry's hands; the
fact that prayers for the departed
formed one of their observances af
fording the pretext of "superstitious
uses." His death delayed their de-

GUTHLAC

315

GUTHLAC

struction, but early in the reign of
Edward VI. a new Act was passed,
these institutions were suppressed, and
their property and goods seized. Some
of the principal schools were re-endowed
by the Crown, but the bulk of the
property was lost to the uses of religion
and charity.
'Guilds' (Early English Text So
ciety), by S. Toulmin Smith, and Dr.
Luijo Brentano. Consult also ' Monu-
menta Franciscana,' II. xxvii.
GUTHLAC, saint and hermit, born
699, died 714. His life, written by a
Monk, Felix, about thirty-four years
after the saint's death, is an important
monument of Anglo-Saxon literature,
succeeding as it does the writings of
Bede. From this we learn that he was
of a noble family in Mercia : in early
manhood he took up arms, and gathered
a band of followers and waged a petty
war against his enemies (perhaps the
British, for a guerilla warfare was still
going on between the two races on the
Welsh marches).
After eight or nine years of this
warlike life he resolved to devote the
rest of his days to religion, and re
tired to a monastery at Repton, a
mixed house under an abbess, and there
received the tonsure. He incurred dis
favour with the brethren through ab
staining from strong drink. In two
years he had learnt the psalms, can
ticles, hymns, and prayers. Fired with
the desire to live the life of a solitary,
he left the monastery and wandered to
Grantchester (near Cambridge), on the
borders of the wild fenland, which in
those days covered great part of the
counties of Cambridge, Huntingdon,
Norfolk, and Suffolk. Here one Tat-
wine told him of an island called Crow-
land, in the midst of the fen country,
known to few, and guided him to it,
travelling by boat on the rivers and
meres, which formed the only highway
through the country. In a hollow
which had been made in old times by
searchers for hidden treasure, on the
summit of a barrow, he built his cell
and cultivated , the land, together with

two companions of his religious life.
His fame soon began to be noised
abroad, and others joined him, each
erecting a little cell for himself in the
neighbourhood. Visitors came to con
sult him or to ask his prayers. His
bishop, Hidda of Lichfield, came and
conferred the priesthood on him, and
henceforward the little group of her
mits had their chapel and their altar-
services. Ethelbald, the exiled heir of Mercia,
sought security with him in the fast
nesses of the fens. Guthlac predicted
his future royalty ; and when Ethelbald
did at length ascend the throne, after
the death of Guthlac, whose fame as a
saint was now universally established,
he founded the Abbey of Crowland in
his memory.
The special characteristic of Guthlac's
religious experiences was his conflicts
with demons, of the barbarous type of
northern mythology, with whom the
island in the fens was haunted. In
the stillness of the night it appeared to
the overwrought mind of the solitary
inhabitant of this melancholy land as
if "they flocked about him, with great
heads, long necks, lean visages, squalid
beards, rough ears, ugly faces, horse
teeth; grating voices, crooked shanks,
big knees. " But after the second year
of his conflicts with these "devils of
Crowland " he was comforted with
heavenly visions, ' ' at even and at day
break God sent the angel of my comfort
to me." In another place we gather
that the supernatural visitant was his
patron, St. Bartholomew, who appeared
in celestial splendour, and "opened to
me the heavenly mysteries which it is
not lawful for man to tell, and the
hardness of my conflict he quite softened
with heavenly, angelic discourses."
On his death he was buried in the
oratory, in a winding-sheet and leaden
sarcophagus which the Abbess of Rep
ton had sent him some time before, and
over his tomb, from Ethelbald's foun
dation, grew up one of the noblest
monasteries in the east of England.
('Dictionary of Christian Biography.').

HAMPTON COURT

316

HEREFORD

HAMPTON COURT CONFERENCE,
THE. The accession of James I. to
the throne of England gave great
hopes to the Puritan and Noncon
formist parties in England that a king
bred up in Calvinism would be friendly
to their cause, and would use his
authority to initiate changes in their
favour in the ecclesiastical system in
England. Accordingly on his way from
Scotland southward, the famous Mil
lenary Petition, so called because signed,
it was said, by a thousand ministers,
was presented to him, asking for such
intervention. In response to the expectations thus
raised, and the consequent uncertainty
in the public mind, it seemed good to
the king to summon a conference of
divines chosen as the ablest represent
atives of the Church on one side, and the
Nonconformists on the other, to meet
before himself and his Council. The
conference was held at Hampton Court,
from which it has taken its popular
name. The king, who with all his
faults, did really possess a considerable
amount of learning, and was an acute
and skilful dialectician, regulated the
discussion with the authority of a
practised -moderator ; but more and
more as the discussion proceeded he
expressed his dissatisfaction with the
unreasonableness of the Puritan objec
tions to the Prayer Book ; and at length,
on the third day, he abruptly broke
up the conference as not likely to lead
to any satisfactory result. The Bishops
did, however, note some of the objec
tions taken to the Prayer Book which
had been, and a few modifications were
made, of which the following is a list : —
1. The words, "or remission of
sins " were added to the title of the
Absolution. .
2. The Prayer for the Royal Family
was placed at the end of the Litany ;
and .also the Thanksgivings for Rain,
for Fair Weather, for Plenty, for Peace
and Victory, and for Deliverance from
the Plague.

3. Two slight verbal changes were'
made at the beginning of the GospeLi
for the Second Sunday after Easter
and the Twentieth Sunday after Trinity;
viz. Jesus said to them, instead of ' Jesus
said to His disciples. '
4. An alteration was made in one of
the rubrics for private Baptism ; viz. in
stead of ' they that ministered, ' was put,.
'the curate or lawful minister presents
5. The title of the Confirmation^
Service was enlarged by the addition
of " or the Laying on of Hands. "
6. The latter part of the Catechism.
respecting the Sacraments was added. >.
7. Some slight changes were made
in the Calendar.
HATCHMENT. [See Achievement.]
HEREFORD, DIOCESE OF. Arch
bishop Usher says that a bishop of
Hereford was present in 544 at a synod
convened by the Archbishop of Mercia.
Again in 676 Putta, Bishop of Rochester,
was placed at Hereford by Sexwulf,-
Bishop of Mercia ; but the history of.
the see really begins with the division
of the diocese of Mercia by Archbishop
Theodore, when part of that diocese
was assigned as the bishopric of Putta.
Of the subsequent history down to the
Norman Conquest, little is known. Of its
bishops since that period, these are brief'
notes : Athelstan (1012 — 1056) entirely;
rebuilt his cathedral. Robert de Loring
(1079—1095) again rebuilt the cathe
dral. Gilbert Ffoliot (1148, trans. 1163),
the able and inflexible opponent of
Thomas Beeket, is best known as Bishop
of London. Peter d'Acquablanca (1240
— 1268) was one of the foreign favourites
of Henry III. ; in 1520 he went as a
pilgrim to the Holy Land, under the
banner of the King of France, leaving
his cathedral and diocese in great
neglect. Thomas Cantelupe (1275 —
1282) was the last Englishman canon
ised before the Reformation. Adam
Orleton (1317, trans. 1327) was engaged
in the civil wars of Edward II. on the-
side of the Barons ; in 1323 he was
impeached in Parliament, but refused
as a Churchman to recognise the tri
bunal ; then he was brought before tho

HERESY

317

HERESY

bar of the King's Bench, but the Arch
bishops of Canterbury, . York, and
Dublin, with their crosses erected, came
into court, and carried him away with
them. The bishop was, however, tried
in his absence (the first English bishop
brought to trial in a temporal court)
found guilty, and his temporalities con
fiscated ; they were, however, after
wards restored. Godwin (1617 — 1633),
author of the ' Catalogue of the Bishops
of England,' and other valuable works.
The diocese now consists of the
county of Hereford, with parts of
Salop, Worcester, Radnor, and Mont
gomery, and portions of adjacent conn-
ties. Population, 229,609 ; 2 arch
deaconries, Hereford and Ludlow ; 21
rural deaneries ; 365 benefices.
HERESY (from a'lptaig, a choosing)
is the wilful maintenance of doctrines
contrary to those of the Catholic faith.
It is not every erroneous opinion, but
only such as is in matters which are
de fide, which makes a man a heretic ;
neither is it the holding of an erroneous
opinion in a matter which is de fide in
ignorance, or even in inability to see the
matter otherwise ; but the contumacious
maintenance .of "such opinion against
authoritative declaration of the truth.
The earlier history of the Church of
England is singularly free from heresy.
In the Romano-British Church the
heresy of Pelagius seems to have spread
widely, and perhaps to have been in-
fluentially supported. [See Romano-
British Period.] In the Saxon Church
the differences between the Celtic and
the Roman schools did not involve
anything approaching heresy, and are
only mentioned because they created
as much controversy and party an
tagonism as if they had done so. The
mediaeval Church of England escaped
the taint of the heresies which at times
attained large proportion on the Con
tinent, down to the middle of the four
teenth century. In all that period
there are no cases on record of prosecu
tion for : heresy. John Wiclif is. the
first important person against whom
proceedings were taken ; and. though

his opinions on certain points were con
demned, he was not personally molested.
Many of Wiclifs followers were pro
ceeded against and excommunications
issued against them ; but the delin
quents submitted and recanted, and
escaped further penalty. The continued
spread of fanatical opinions, combined
with political opinions dangerous to
society, led to fresh legislation. By
the old common law unbelievers and
apostates were liable to be proceeded
against and burnt by the sheriff ; but
this had never been acted upon"; and
the spiritual courts could only inflict
spiritual censures. But in the year
1501 the statute de heretico comburendo
gave the bishop authority to arrest,
imprison, and try the criminal within
three months, to detain him in his own
court, and to give him up to the sheriff
or the local magistrate to undergo the
punishment of burning, recognised in
those ages as the appropriate penalty
of this offence.
Sawtre, a priest, was the first who
suffered in 1401 ; Lord Cobham in
1419 ; and from this time, at intervals
of a few years, several persons suffered
down to 1440. There is. then an inter
val of 33 years, when in 1473 Granter
suffered; in 1494 Dame Joan Broughton;
and five others in the reign of Henry
VII. During the progress of the Re
formation the opinions which men up
held were more rigorously inquired
into, and the bitterness of feeling and
the great issues at stake made the
authorities less scrupulous in putting
in force the horrid sentence of the law.
Adherents of the old religion suffered
under Henry VIII. and Edward VI.,
and the prominent supporters of the
Reformation under Mary. Under
Elizabeth a number of priests who had
ventured into the country in disguise,
and who were assumed to be all engaged
(as some of them undoubtedly were) in
political conspiracies, suffered nominally
for treason.
In the first year of Elizabeth an Act
passed for the trial of heretics enacted
that such persons to whom the Queen

HERETIC

318

HERMIT

shall by letters patent under the great
seal give authority to exercise any juris
diction spiritual, shall not in any wise
have power to adjudge any matter or
cause to be heresy, but only such as
heretofore have been adjudged to_ be
heresy by the authority of the canonical
Scriptures, or by some of the first four
General Councils, or by any General
Council wherein the same was declared
heresy by the express and plain words
of the said Canonical Scriptures, or such
as shall hereafter be judged or deter
mined' to be heresy by the high court
of Parliament, with the assent of the
clergy in their convocation. No prosecu
tions took place under this statute. It
continued in force with certain modi
fications till 29 Charles II. c. 9 ; since
which time heresy has been left entirely
to the cognisance of the Ecclesiastical
Courts. The Toleration Acts have
withdrawn many who might have been
determined to be heretics from the
penal consequences of heresy. [See
quotation from Archbishop Seeker, at
the end of article on Creeds.]
HERETIC. One who holds, openly
teaches, and obstinately defends doc
trines, de fide, which are false. [See
Heresy.] HERMIT, ipnuirtis, a dweller in the
wilderness. The first Christian ascetics
were the solitaries of the Libyan desert,
and they have always had imitators in
the Christian Church ; or it would per
haps be more correct to say, that similar
temperament and similar circumstances
have in every age of the Church led
men and women to flee from society
and seek a solitary life, supported and
consoled by religion.
There was a period in the history of
the Celtic Church when this was con
sidered to be the highest phase of the
spiritual life, and the wilds of Wales,
Northern England, and Scotland, were
dotted over with these solitaries, whose
ascetic life kindled the admiration and
devotion of the surrounding country,
and who thus became the centres of
evangelisation in their several neigh
bourhoods. Some of the churches of

Cornwall, Wales, as well as of Scotland^
Ireland, and Germany, occupy sites
which were at first the oratories; of
these solitaries ; and many of the holy
wells obtained their reputation for
sanctity from having served the needs.
of a hermit in his neighbouring cell,.;'
and probably afforded the water for the.
baptism of the first generation of Chris
tians in the neighbourhood. Even the
inmates of .monastic communities be
lieved that they took a further step
towards spiritual perfection when they
shut themselves up in a cell within the
monastic enclosure, or in its neighbour
hood, to live a life of solitary medita
tion. [See Culdees.] The present article,,
however, relates more particularly to
the hermits who were numerous, all
over England, from the Conquest to
the Reformation. Throughout the
mediaeval period there were doubt
less always a few solitaries of the
ancient type, living in caves in the
hills, and bowers in the forests. But
the passion in those ages for the
regulation of. all modes of life soon
extended even to this wildest phase of
religious enthusiasm, and reduced it to
system and rule. It became a regular
Order of Religion, into which a man
was admitted by the bishop of the
diocese, with a. formal service; and
just as a bishop did not ordain a man
to holy orders until he had obtained a
" title," i. e. a place in which to exer
cise his office, and a competent main
tenance, so a bishop did not admit?*
man or woman to be a hermit or solitary
until he or she had obtained a hermitt
age or cell in which to exercise their
vocation, and a prospect of a mainte
nance. So that the typical mediaeval
hermit is hot a half-crazed enthusiast,
harbouring in a cave, clad in sackcloth
or skins, feeding on roots, but rather a
solitary monk ; living sometimes in »
room or series of rooms hollowed out of
a rocky hillside, as that of St. Eoberfi
of Knaresborough, or the cave at Row-
sley, Derbyshire, or the rock chambers
at Lenton, near Nottingham, and at
Bewdley, Worcestershire ; but usually

HERMIT

319

HERMIT

the hermitage was a comfortable little
house of stone or timber, with a living
room and a chapel. Sometimes the
hermit had a priest to say mass for
him, and a servant to wait on him.
His maintenance was derived sometimes
in part from an endowment, always in
part from the casual offerings which
people made to him, and from small
bequests which people left him in their
wills. It is necessary here to distinguish
between a hermit and a recluse. A

times difficult of access ; but sometimes
by the highway, and frequently at a
point where some highway crossed a
river by a ford ; and it was part of tho
hermit's duty to give hospitality to
belated travellers, or to guide them
through the difficulties of the way.
They also very frequently lived in the
churchyards of towns, the churchyard
being accepted as a solitary place within
the town. In these cases the hermitage
was sometimes a little timber house
abutting on the church ; and tho small

Hermits and Hermitages. 14th cent, MS., British Museum, Domitian, A, xvii.

hermit might leave the enclosure of his
hermitage, and in some cases, to be
shortly mentioned, it was part of his
duty to leave it ; but a recluse was
confined to his cell, and, indeed, in some
cases, when the recluse had entered, the
door was walled up behind him, and
he was as it were buried alive. There
are cases of male recluses, perhaps of
female hermits, but generally the male
solitaries seem to have been hermits,
and the females to have been recluses.
It will be convenient to speak of her
mits here and of recluses under that
special title. [See Recluse.]
The locality of hermitages was some
times in secluded places, and some-

" side- windows " in churches, which
have exercised the ingenuity of anti
quaries, were in some eases (not in all)
intended to allow the hermit to "as
sist " at mass without leaving his cell ;
sometimes a room in the church itself,
or over the porch, or in the upper part
of the tower, was used as a hermit's
cell. Throughout this period there is
to be found also a survival of the old
Culdee idea : many monasteries having
a solitary's cell within the church or
precincts. There was one in Westr
minster Abbey.
The most famous of the mediaeval
hermits was St. Richard of Hampole
{which see], whose life has been recently

HERSE

320

HIGH CHURCH

for the first time published by the Early
English Text Society, with some of his
writings, which shew that the reputa
tion which he had as a devotional writer
was not undeserved. Some interesting
details about hermits will be found in
'Scenes and Characters of the Middle
Ages ' (Virtue and Co. ).
HERSE. From Low Latin, hcrcia;
French, herze, a harrow. An iron
framework, made to carry the numerous
candles which were burnt around the
corps* of a distinguished person while
lying in state. They were usually
adorned with shields and banners of
arms. A herse was sometimes per
manently placed over a recumbent
monumental effigy, as that, of brass,
which protects the effigy of Richard,
Earl of Warwick, in the Beauchamp
Chapel, Warwick. On certain occasions
a rich pall was thrown over the herse.
The word is now used for the carriage
on which a coffin is borne to the church
and grave.
HEXHAM, DIOCESE OF. [Set Lin
disfarne.] HIERARCHY (Upapxia, from Upbg,
sacred, and dpx>), a rule), the whole
body of consecrated persons who, in a
series of subordinate orders and offices,
form the governing and ministering
body in the. Church.
HIGH CHURCH. The terms High
Church and Low Church, as designating
two different parties in the Church,
came into use in the period subsequent
to the Revolution.
The High Church party were those
who still maintained the view of the
Church derived from primitive times,
which the Reformers of the first phase
of the English Reformation had success
fully vindicated from the Papal usurp
ations, and the - doctrinal accretions of
the middle ages ; which the Laudian
school had reasserted after the Puritan
perversion ; which seemed to be threat
ened anew by the policy of William III.
and the Latitudinarian Court party.
The great body of the clergy, and
gentry, and country people, belonged
to this school of thought, combining

with its principles a distrust of the poli
tical policy of William, a dread of the
religious results of the Hanoverigm
succession, and a consequent sympathy^
with the dethroned dynasty ; i.e. . the
High Churchmen in religion were
generally Tories and Jacobites.
The ejection in 1690 of the non-jurprs,
including 9 bishops, about 400 clergy
men, and a considerable number of lay- :
men, who were the very flower of the
High Church party, and the substitution
in their vacant places of the leading
men of the Low Church school, greatly
affected the balance of the two parties,
and had a powerful effect upon the con
dition of the Church for the next cen
tury and a half. The Low Church party
was influential in public affairs. High
Churchmen ceased to be a party. They
were still, however, numerous ; a re
markable proportion of them were men
of the highest literary attainments,
who by their writings exercised a con
siderable influence upon the mind of
their day. Some of their works are
among the most valuable of the theo
logical treasures of the Church of
England. We may name as Church
antiquaries and historians, Johnson,
Gibson, Wilkins, Bingham, Le Neve ;
as saintly prelates of the highest type,
Beveridge, Wilson, Ken; as theologians,
Bull, Pearson, Butler, Lowth, w»l|h
Waterland. In the earlier half of the nineteenth
century there were still a few isolated
clergymen who had inherited the learn
ing and the principles of the old
High Church school. The revivaLiof
the party as one of the modern schools
of thought in the Church began in
Oxford about the year 1825.- Some
account of its earliest movements will
be found under the word Tractarian.
It arose out of a natural reaction against
the defects of the Evangelical system,
and was a revival of the views of. the
earlier Reformers, and the Reformers of
the Jacobean period of our history ; but
its leaders did not go back to either one
period or the other for their opinions;
they dorived their theology and their

HIGH CHURCH

321

HIGH CHURCH

Church principles from an original and
profound study of the Holy Scrip
tures, and of the Fathers and Doctors
and historians of the Early Church.
Dr. Pusey, Canon of Christ Church, and
Hebrew Professor, was one of the most
conspicuous of the leaders of the new
school, which took its nickname of
" Puseyite " from him.
In a series of ' Tracts for the Times '
they brought the results of their reading
under the notice of thinking men, and
from these Tracts the school acquired
its name of Tractarian [which see].
Keble's ' Christian Year ' did much to
recommend the new school to popular
acceptance. Its more permanent name
of " High Church " is derived from the
seventeenth century ; but it must be
carefully remembered that as the mod
ern " Low Church ' ' or Evangelical school
diffors very much from the Low Church
of the Revolution period, so does the
modern High Church school differ from
the High Church of those earlier days.*
The " High " Church teaching of the
Tracts was ably and practically soconded
by Dr. Hook of Leeds, in his ' Chris
tian taught by the Church Services.'
The doctrinal revival soon led to im
provement in outward worship. Fre
quent celebrations of Holy Communion,
improved psalmody, ' repair and orna
mentation of dilapidated and dingy
churches, took place in every direction" ;
the sermon was no longer treated as
the only essential part of the proceed
ings in church, and, when it touched
upon doctrine, was definite, and not
confined to a single point in the mystery
of godliness. Meanwhile a movement
had originated in the sister university in
favour of Christian art. Tho Cambridge
Camden Society roused a wide-spread
interest in the ecclesiastical buildings of
England, and in the principles of the
so-called " Gothic " styles in which they
were built : and so became a valuable as
sistant to the revival. This now began
* The High Churchman of the eighteenth
century was a decided Tory ; the High
Churchman .of the nineteenth may be, as the
phrase is, an " advanced Liberal."

to take the name of "the Catholic
movement," leading, as it did, to the
fuller recognition of the idea of the
Holy Catholic Church : an idea which
had been so obscured by the especial
prominence given by the Evangelicals
to the Protestant character of tho
Church of England, that the name of
Catholic was surrendered to Rome, and
it was supposed that Catholic and
Protestant were opposed and contra
dictory terms ; whereas the contra.
dictory of " Protestant " is "Papal;"
that of "Catholic" 13 "heretic" or
"schismatic." The teaching and practices of the
"High Church" school were not ac
cepted readily. The Evangelicals in
their early days were the victims of
persecution from those whom they pain
fully awaked from their slumbers. The
high standard of personal holiness, the
entire faith in and submission to a
Divine Master, which they preached to
a self-indulgent world, was but rudely
received. They were derided, thwarted,
and sometimes personally assaulted.
Just so had the " Tractarians " to suffer.
The clergy were debarred from hope of
advancement, refused licenses, inhibited
from officiating, treated with personal
insult and violence. Riots were sys
tematically organised in their churches,
their services interrupted, and the orna
ments and the very fabrics damaged
and sometimes destroyed. But neither
the earlier nor the later movements,
neither "Low" nor "High" Church,
neither " Evangelical " nor "Catholic,"
was stopped in its course by tho oppo
sition of the world to the faithful re-
assertion of forgotten truths.
The dangers of the school are in the
main the correlatives of those of the
Evangelical. There is a tendency to
exaggerate the value of externals, and
to press upon reluctant people an
amount of ritual which, though help
ful to those who understand it, is
unedifying to those who do not, and
are consequently prejudiced against it :
to add to, or to alter,* without adequate
authority, that which is prescribed in

HILDA

322

HOADLEY

the written rules of the Church ; to
confuse the teaching of a school of
thought with that of the whole Church,
and so to give opinions the force of
Articles of the Creed. And the reaction
from the ultra-Protestant notion that
everything belonging to the Church of
Rome is detestable and abominable,
and the consequent discovery that part
of Roman teaching and Roman practice
is Catholic and good, has led to the
error of mistaking some things purely
Roman, or rather Papal, for Catholic
and primitive.
We cannot but thankfully admire the
order in which these two great revivals '
were brought about. Had tho " High "
Church been first we might have had a
scientific theology, and a mechanical
ritual, without unction and fervency ;
had it not succeeded the Evangelical,
we might have sunk into a Protestant
pietism, without definite teaching .or
hearty worship. As it is, the earlier
movement laid deep the one Foundation,
the later adorned it with gold and silver
and precious stones.
HILDA, saint and abbess, bom 614,
died 17th November, 680, was a
daughter of Hereric, nephew of Edwin,
King of Northumbria. When Edwin
received baptism at the hands of Paul
inus, Hilda, a girl of thirteen, wa3 one
of those of his family who were bap
tised with him. Her sister Hereswitha
(afterwards wife of Ethelhere, King of
the East Angles) had withdrawn to
the convent of Chelles, near Paris, and
Hilda (about 647) was desirous of fol
lowing her sister thither ; but Aidan,
.Bishop of Lindisfarne, appointed her
(649) as abbess of a small monastery at
Hartlepool. Here she acquired reput
ation by her sanctity, learning, wisdom,
and tho successful rule of her house.
In 657, having come into possession of
a small estate at Whitby, she founded
there a new monastery, which obtained
a great reputation. It was the type of
the double monasteries, of which others
existed at Coldhingham, Barking, Rep
ton, Wimborne, &c, one house con
taining nuns and the other monks,

the wholo being nnder the rule rf
an abbess. [See Abbess.] It was in
this abbey that the famous Council
was held in 664, when the discussion
took place between the Celtic and
the Continental Schools on the differ
ences between them in the time of
Easter, the tonsure, &c. The poet
Caedmon [which see] was one of her
monks. HISTORY of the Church of England.
A sketch of the leading events will bo
found divided under the titles, Romano-
British Period, Celtic Period, Saxon
Period, Mediaeval Period, Reformation,
Great Rebellion, Revolution, Modern
Period. HOADLEY, Benjamin, Bishop of
Winchester, bom 1676, died 1761,
occupied a great share of the public
attention in the reigns of Anne and the
first George. He was the son of the
Rector of Westerham, Kent, was edu
cated at St. Catherine's Hall, Cam
bridge, and fellow of his college ; Lec
turer of St. Mildred in the Poultry,
and afterwards of St. Peter le Poor.
He began to distinguish himself as a
controversial writer at the beginning
of the eighteenth century, and con
tinued engaged in one controversy after
another nearly all the rest of his long
life. He provoked the animadversions
of others by his own ecclesiastical
Views, which may perhaps not unfairly
be described as Erastian in government
and latitudinarian in doctrine. Ho
was a writer of great ability ; his views
were in favour at the Court of Georgo
I. ; and he was greatly admired by
those whose opinions were averse to
the received polity and doctrine of the
Church. It was while Bishop of Ban
gor (1715) that he published a famous
Erastian sermon on the text, "My
kingdom is not of this world," which
gave occasion to a new outbreak of
controversy, which is known by tho
name of the Bangorian controversy,
Williami Law was perhaps the most
able of his opponents. Hoadley was
translated from Bangor successively to
Hereford) Salisbury, and Winchester,

HOLY DAYS

323

HOLY ORDERS

of which last see he was bishop for
twenty-six years, dying at the age of
eighty-five, 17th April, 1761, and was
buried in Winchester Cathedral.
HOLY DAYS. [See Festivals and
HOLY ORDERS. Order is defined,
in the ' Necessary Doctrine and Erudi
tion of a Christian Man,' to be "a gift
or grace of ministration in Christ's
Church, given by God to Christian men,
by the consecration and imposition of the
bishop's hands upon them." The Preface
to the Ordinal in the Prayer Book says,
"It is evident to all men diligently
reading the Holy Scripture and ancient
authors, that from the Apostles' time
there have been these Orders of Ministers
in Christ's Church — bishops, priests,
and deacons. Which offices were ever
more had in such reverend estimation
that no man might presume to execute
any of them except he were first called,
tried, examined, and known to have
such qualities as are required for the
same ; and also by public prayer, with
imposition of hands, were approved and
admitted thereto by lawful authority. "
There are only these three Holy
Orders — bishop, priest, and deacon.
There are many offices, as archbishop
(which is not a higher order than
bishop, but the president, primus inter-
pares, of a provincial college of bishops),
dean, archdeacon, rector, &c, &c.
In the Middle Ages a number of the
inferior ministers of the Church, as
sub-deacons, readers, &c, were admitted
into their offices with prayer and bene
diction, and were reckoned as Minor
Orders [which see]. [See Apostolical
Succession — Bishop, Priest, Deacon.]
There is so general an absence of
knowledge of the various stages through
which a man has to pass before he is
entrusted with the care of a parish, that
it is perhaps desirable to indicate them
in one view.
Usually the candidate for Holy Orders
has been educated at one of the national
universities, and there has received the
general liberal education which is given
to those who are destined to the pro

fessions, to the service of the State,
or to high social position. Then he
has to prepare himself for the bishop's
examination, which includes a know
ledge of Latin and Greek, Church his
tory, and theology : this he may acquire
either by private reading and tuition, or
in one of the theological colleges insti
tuted to prepare candidates for Ploly
Orders by special instruction and by
spiritual discipline.
When offering himself to the bishop
as a candidate for Holy Orders, he must
present testimonials from the author
ities of his college, or from three bene
ficed clergymen, as to his good moral
character and conduct. Moreover, pub
lication (called a Si quis) is made in the
parish church in which he has usually
resided, stating that he proposes to
present himself as a candidate for Holy
Orders, and requiring any one who may
know any reason why he is not a fit and
proper person to be ordained to state
his objections to the bishop.
Then he must obtain a title, i.e. he
must find some beneficed clergyman
who, with the consent of the bishop, is
willing to accept him as an assistant
curate in his parish, and to give him
a suitable stipend ; for the bishop i3
forbidden by the canons to ordain any
man unless he has a definite sphere of
work provided for him, and a suitable
maintenance. These preliminaries being' satis
factorily arranged, the candidate has
next to submit to the bishop's examin
ation, which is directed to ascertain his
fitness, in general knowledge, in special
theological acquirements, and in moral
and spiritual character and motives.
Having satisfied the bishop, he is or
dained deacon, and passes to the pari:;h
to which he has been ordained, there to
fulfil the duties of that office.
Usually, at the end of the first year
of his diaconate, the bishop will enter
tain his application to be ordained to
the higher office of priest. The bishop
makes inquiries of the incumbent of the
parish in which he has worked as to his
character and conduct, and promise of

HOLY ORDERS

324

HOLY WATER

ministerial efficiency. He has to undergo
another bishop's examination, directed
less to mere general scholastic attain
ment and more to ecclesiastical and
spiritual fitness. If he satisfies the
bishop he is ordained priest, and returns
to his curacy, for he was ordained deacon
with the condition that he should remain
at least two years in his first .curacy. On
removing, with the bishop's consent,
to another curacy, he must again take
testimonials from three beneficed clergy
men of his good character and conduct,
as a condition of obtaining the bishop's
licence to labour in his new position.
To the obtaining of an independent
cure as incumbent of a parish the fol
lowing are the requisite steps. First,
a patron to nominate him to a benefice
by a formal legal document called a
' Presentation. ' Then he must present
to the bishop the testimonials of three
beneficed clergymen, who have known
him personally for three years last past,
as to his good character and conduct.
The bishop also may examine him as
to his sufficiency in learning and sound
ness in the faith. He must subscribe
to the Oath of Supremacy, and to the
Thirty-nine Articles as a guarantee of
his soundness in the faith.
Having thus proved his fitness for
the charge, he is instituted by the
bishop [see Institution] into the cure
of souls ; and inducted [see Induction]
into the temporalities of the benefice
by the bishop or his commissary. He
must satisfy the parishioners of his
soundness in the faith by "reading
himself in," i.e. by reading the service
of the Prayer Book and the Thirty-
nine Articles, and declaring his un
feigned assent and consent to the same,
and must present to the bishop a certi
ficate from the churchwardens that he
has done so. Afterwards lie has to
make an annual return to the bishop
as to his performance of the duties of
his office ; the churchwardens also make
an annual return in which they are
required to " present" any irregularity
in the performance of the duties. The
rural dean, the archdeacon, and the

bishop make their regular inquisitions
into the conduct of the incumbent ; and
he is liable to censure or to legal pro
ceedings for any fault in character or
conduct, or any failure in the legal
duties of his office. Should he bS-
presented to another living, he must
vacate the first, the holding of two
livings being now only permitted where
they are close together, and where one
of them is of small value ; the bishop
has a right to satisfy himself by exam
ination or otherwise, of his sufficiency
in learning, character, and soundness*
in the faith ; finally he is instituted
and inducted as before.
HOLY SEPULCHRE, Canons Regu
lar of the Order of the, were instituted
in the beginning of the twelfth century,
in imitation of the Regulars of the
Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem, and with
the object of contributing to the re
covering of the Holy Land. The Earl
of Warwick introduced them into Eng
land at Warwick before 1122. After
tho loss of Jerusalem in 1188 the Order
fell into decay, and only two houses
continued till the Dissolution, at War
wick and Lincoln.
HOLY THURSDAY, another name
for Ascension Day [which see].
HOLY WATER. It was an ancient
custom, whose beginning is attributed
to Pope Alexander I., to bless a vessel
of water with a little salt in it ; then
this blessing was supposed to be con
veyed to all persons or things upon
whom it was sprinkled. The people
were allowed to take some of it away
with them wherewith to sprinkle their
houses, fields, &c. In the Middle
Ages the parish clerk on Sundays
and holidays went through the parish
sprinkling the people. [See Parish
Clerk. ] In many of our old churches
a stoup is carved in the stone work
on the right side of the external
face of the doorway, which was filled
with holy water, into which the con
gregation dipped their fingers (and per
haps signed themselves on the forehead
with a cross) as they entered to worship.
In modern Roman churches there is a

HOLY WEEK

325

HOOD

basin of holy water inside the church
door ; and we find some ancient ex
amples of stoups like small columns,
with the capital hollowed into a basin
which perhaps stood inside the church.
A little salt was put into the water,
partly for practical, partly for sym
bolical reasons. The Rev. H. T.
Kingdon, in a paper on 'An Early
Vernacular Service,' read before the
Wilts Archaeological Society, 1877,
gives a service for sprinkling holy
water, date about 1470, in which we
see that the baptismal symbolism was
specially brought before the minds of
the congregation in it : —
Remember youre promys made yn baptism,
And Chrystys mercifull bloudshedyng ;
By the whyche most holy spryuklyng
Off all youre sins youe haue fre perdun.
This verse was accompanied by musical
notation in four lines. Mr. Kingdon
shows that Latimer probably saw the
book and adopted the service for use
in his diocese in the following century.
('Church Quarterly,' 18, p. 448.)
HOLY WEEK, the week before Easter
Day. It used to be popularly called
Passion Week, but this latter name in
mediaeval times, and still by the
Churches of the Roman Communion,
is appropriated to the week before Holy
Week, and this distinction has been
lately revived among English Church
people. HOMILIES, Books of. A Homily is
a kind of sermon. Amidst the several
publications which were put forth in
the course of the Reformation to ex
plain and recommend its doctrines to
the people, a volume of twelve Homilies
was put forth in the beginning of the
reign of Edward VI., composed, it is
believed, by Cranmer, Ridley, Latimer,
Becon, and perhaps others, and they
were ordered, when there was no sermon,
to be read in the place of the sermon.
Again in the reign of Elizabeth (1562)
the book of Homilies, was reprinted,
together with a second book containing
twenty-one new Homilies, and they
were again ordered to be read in
churches when there was no sermon.

They are' important as containing
an ample exposition of the opinions
of the leaders of the Reformation on
various questions. The thirty-fifth of
the Thirty-nine Articles makes -them-a"
standard of doctrine, declaring them
to ' ' contain a godly and wholesome
doctrine." They deserve more study
on the part of the laity as well as of
the clergy than they probably receive.
The two books are published by the
Christian Knowledge Society at a
cheap price.
HOOD, a part of academical dress,
originally a garment of general use for
the protection of the head and shouL
ders. The sumptuary laws of Uni
versities, which dictated of what
material, colour, and trimming, various
academical ranks should wear both
gown and hood, made the hood distinc
tive of academical rank, and so caused
the continuance of its use as a badge of
degree long after it had ceased to be
actually worn as a garment. And the
fifty-eighth canon of 1603, requiring
that every minister, if a graduate,
shall, while ministering, wear over his
surplice the hood proper to his degree,
has introduced these academic distinc
tions into every church in the kingdom.
The various theological colleges have
also adopted distinctive hoods. A
literate also wears a distinctive hood.
The following are notes of those
hoods which are usually worn in
church : —
Oxford — B.A., black stuff (some
times silk) trimmed with white fur.
M.A., black silk lined with crimson.
B.D., black silk lined with lustrous
black. D.D., scarlet cloth lined with
black silk. S. C. L. , blue silk. B.C.L.,
blue silk trimmed with white fur.
D.C.L., scarlet cloth lined with pink
silk. Mus. B., blue silk trimmed with
white fur. Mus. D., white brocade
silk lined with crimson silk.
Cambridge — B.A., black stuff
trimmed with white fur. M. A. , black
silk lined with white silk. B.D.,
black silk lined with black silk. D.D.,
scarlet cloth lined wife pink silk.

HOOD

326

HOSPITAL

LL.B., black silk lined with black silk.
LL.D., scarlet cloth lined with pink
silk. Mus. B., blue silk lined with
black silk. Mus. D., buff silk lined
with cerise silk.
Durham — B.A., black stuff bound
with white fur. M.A., black silk lined
with purple. B. D. , black corded silk
lined with black silk. B. C. L. , purple
silk bound with white fur. D. C.L.,
scarlet cassimere lined with white silk.
Dublin — B.A., black silk trimmed
with white fur. M.A., black silk lined
with dark blue silk. B.D., black silk
lined with black silk. D.D., scarlet
cloth lined with black silk.
Theological Colleges.
King's College— A. K.C. (Associate of
King's College), black lined, with puce.
St. Bee's — Black partly lined with
violet. Queen's, Birmingham — Black lined
with violet.
St . Aidan's, Birkenhead — Black lined
with silver-grey.
Lichfield Theological — Black stuff
with narrow border of gold-coloured
silk. London College of Divinity, High
bury — Black with maroon-coloured
lining. Gloucester Theological— Black stuff
trimmed with puce-coloured satin.
St. Augustine's, Canterbury — Black
alpaca bordered with two inches of red
cloth. • Lampeter — B.A., black trimmed with
white fur with black spots. B.D.,
black silk lined with puce silk.
Literate hood, black stuff without
lining. The Archbishop of Canterbury, by
virtue of his dispensing power, has
power to confer degrees. As this power
is infrequently exercised, and only in
the case of persons of learning and
merit, these Lambeth degrees are an
honourable distinction.
It will be convenient to note that in
all the four Universities of Oxford,
Cambridge, Durham, and Dublin, a
hood with white fur trimming is a

badge of the Baccalaureate in all the
faculties ; one of black silk with coloured
lining of the M.A. degree ; one of red
cloth of the Doctorate in all the
faculties. HOOKER, Richard, author of tho
'Ecclesiastical Polity,' bom 1554, died
1600, was born at Heavitree, near Exe
ter, of poor parents, who, however, on
the urgent representation by his school
master of their son's extraordin ary talent,
allowed him to continue at school. Ho
was brought under the notice of Bishop
Jewel, who sent him to Corpus Christi
College, Oxford, and provided him a
maintenance. He became fellow of his
college ; but being an unsuspecting,
unworldly man, was drawn into an un
fortunate marriage, which cost him his
fellowship, and left him without pre,
ferment. In 1585, his case having been
made known in high quarters, he was
made Master of the Temple, which ho
resigned at his own solicitation (1591)
for a country living, Boscombe, Wilts,
to which was added a prebend in
Salisbury, and the sub-deanery. In
1595 Queen Elizabeth presented him
to Bishopsboume in Kent, where he
died, in his forty-seventh year, No
vember 2, 1600, He is the author of
several books and sermons ; but his
great work on the '' Laws of Ecclesias
tical Polity ' is the result of a scholar
ship so wide and accurate, reasoning
powers so acute and masculine, a
moderation so judicious, and an elo
quence so sustained and majestic, all
bestowed upon a theme so great, that
it may be declared to be one of tho
greatest works which the English
Church has produced. Book V. of the
' Ecclesiastical Polity ' especially is re
quired by most of our bishops to be
read by candidates for Holy Orders,
and should be read by the layman who
wishes to be well-grounded in church
principles. HOSPITAL (old French hospital.
Low Latin hospitale, from Latin liospti- ;
stem of hospes, vulgarly 'Spital). The J
word was used in a wider signification A
in the Middle Ages than with us : it

HOSPITAL

327

HOSPITAL

was appropriated (1) to houses built
at popular places of pilgrimage, and
along the high roads leading to them,
to afford temporary shelter and food to
the poorer sort of pilgrims ; (2) to
houses intended for the treatment of
sickness and disease ; (3) to houses for
the permanent maintenance of a certain
number of poor persons, often with
some condition of particular trade or
locality, or otherwise. In some cases
two or more of these various charitable
objects were combined in the same
foundation. Of the first kind, for example, there
were at Bury St. Edmunds three, St.
John's Hospital, or God's House, with
out the south gate ; and St. Nicholas'
Hospital, without the east gate ; and
St. Peter's Hospital, without the Risley
gate, all founded and endowed by abbots
of St. Edmunds. At Reading there was
the Hospital of St. Lawrence for twenty-
six poor people, and for the entertain
ment of strangers and pilgrims, founded
by an Abbot of Reading. There was
one at the gate of Fountains Abbey for
poor persons and travellers, &c.
The second kind of hospital had a
"hospital staff," consisting of a com
munity living under monastic vows
and rule, viz. a prior and a number of
brethren educated and trained to the
treatment of sickness and disease, one
or more of whom were also priests ; a
college, in short, of clerical chaplains,
physicians, surgeons, dressers, nurses,
who devoted themselves to the service
of the sick as an act of religion, and
had always in mind our Lord's words,
" Inasmuch as ye do it to one of the
least of these My brethren, ye do it
unto Me." One of the striking features
of the Church revival of this generation
is the resumption by ladies of this
work of nursing in the hospitals as a
work of religion. St. Bartholomew's
Hospital, still existing in London, is
perhaps the most illustrious example
of these ancient hospitals for the sick.
It was founded by Rahere, who had
been the king's minstrel, to be an
infirmary for the sick and infirm poor,

and a lying-in hospital for women ; it
had a staff of prior and canons who
were under the Augustinian rule, and
had also a staff of sisters. If the women
admitted to the hospital happened to
die in childbed their children were
taken care of till they were seven years
of age. In the still existing church of
this hospital in Smithfield is a monu
ment of the founder, which is, however,
of much later date, probably of about
1410 A.D. (engraved in the 'Vetusta
Monumenta,' vol. ii. plate xxxvi.).
The commonest form of these hos
pitals seems to have been a great hall
divided by arcades into a centre, and
aisles, in which rows of beds were
arranged, with a chapel at the east
end of the hall and open to it, so that
all the patients could join in the ser
vices ; the apartments of the brethren
and sisters and other buildings being
arranged round the courtyard of which
the hall and chapel formed one side.
The hospital of Peterborough Minster
had a body and two aisles with eastern
chapel ; that of Norwich Cathedral had
a body and one aisle with eastern chapel.
A very interesting example remains at
Leeds, though the great hall has been'
divided by floors into two storeys, and
by partitions into a number of separate
rooms for the accommodation of the
alms-people who still occupy it.
There is an interesting record in
existence (dated 1244), respecting a
hospital at North Allerton, which gives
a picture of the usual arrangements of
these establishments. The government
of the house was vested in the warden,
who had a servirig-man, two foot-boys
and three horses, for his convenience.
Two chaplains, each with his clerk,
had direct charge of the spiritual wel
fare of the inmates. Five brethren,
who might be either clerics or laymen,
had each his allotted work in house
and garden; one being specially charged
with the care of the sick and bed-ridden.
The comfort of the latter was further
cared for by their being placed under
the care of sisters. A sisterhood of
three, who wore the usual dress and

HOSPITAL

328

HOSPITALLERS

kept the usual rules of a sisterhood, were
attached to the house ; two watched by
the sick at night, and all took share in
the household work. A baker and a
brewer, with a boy to help, and a cook
with his kitchen-boy, formed part of
the household. Beds were provided for
thirteen sick or infirm poor, who were
to be attended kindly, and provided
With delicate and tempting food, until
either returning health or death released
them from their suffering. Every day,
in the evening, thirty poor persons were
relieved at the gate with half a loaf
(seven hundred and twenty-five loaves
to the bushel of flour) and a mess of
pottage : if any of them were too in
firm to proceed on their journey, they
had a night's lodging in the hospitium
beside the gate. It was provided that
if the income of the hospital should
increase, a corresponding augmentation
should be made in its expenditure both
on the resident sick and on the poor
at the gate.
The third kind of hospital for the
poor had usually a little chamber for
each inmate, with a common hall in
which they took their meals in common,
and a chapel for their united worship.
A very interesting survival of this kind
of hospital still remains at St. Cross,
Winchester. Thirteen (the number of"
our Lord and His Apostles) was a
favourite number, in such foundations.
They were usually under the care of
one or more clergymen who were under
the Augustinian rule ; and there were
always special statutes for regulation
of the discipline of the alms people,
who were regarded as forming a re
ligious community. They wore a
uniform habit, with frequently some
distinguishing badge on their gowns.
E.g. at the hospital of St. John the
Baptist, Coventry, the prior and canons
wore a cross on the breast of their
black cassocks, and on the shoulder
of their cloaks, and the bedesmen
would doubtless wear a similar cross
upon their gowns. It was a Christ
like way of dignifying the poverty
of the worthy poor, and of affording

them the supports and consolations of
religion, which happily has not been
altogether lacking in later times ; but
the principle might well be carried put
on a large scale in modem times by
the erection of separate "hospitals"
as substitutes for the infirm wards of
our workhouses, just as happily the
helpless children have in some instances
been sent to schools in the country
away from the neighbourhood of the'
vicious poverty of "the House," and
the vagabond population of the casual
ward. Many of these hospitals were
leper houses, a disease of this kind
being common in England in the Middle
Ages. [See Leper House.]
The editors of the last edition of
the 'Monasticon' enumerate three
hundred and seventy of these charitable
foundations. Some of them were rescued
from the ruthless hands of the.spoliators
of the Reformation period, and still
exist. Examples of the ancient build
ings still continue in the Bede houses
in Higham Ferrers churchyard, built
by Archbishop Chichele in 1422 ; in St.
Thomas's Hospital, Leicester; Ford's
Hospital, Coventry ; the Aims-Houses
at Sherborne ; the Leicester Hospital
at Warwick ; the Greenway Alms-houses '
at Tiverton, &c. Mr. Turner, in his
' Domestic Architecture, ' says that there
exists a complete chronological series of
them from the twelfth century down
wards. HOSPITALLERS. [See Military.
Orders.] The Hospitallers were not
originally a military order. They were
founded about 1092 by some nameless
merchants of Amalfi for the purpose of
affording hospitality to Latin pilgrims
to the holy places of Palestine. Their
chief house was in Jerusalem, near the
Church of the Holy Sepulchre ; and
they had also houses at the sea-ports,
and at the holy places frequented by
pilgrims. Their kindness to the sick
and wounded in the first crusade brought
them into note ; several of the crusading
princes endowed them with estates, and;
many of the crusaders, instead of return
ing home, laid down their arms and

HOSPITALLERS

329

HOSPITALLERS

joined the brotherhood of the hospital.
At length, in the reign of Baldwin II.,
incited by the example of the recently
founded Order of the Knights of the
Temple, the Hospitallers reconstituted
themselves as a military order for the
protection of pilgrims on their journeys,
and for military service in defence of
the Kingdom of Jerusalem, while they
still maintained their original work of
hospitality to pilgrims. They had
three classes of brethren — the knights,
chaplains, and serving brethren ; they
had also sisters who took charge of the
female pilgrims.
Like the other great orders of friars,
they obtained exemption from episcopal
visitation. It is only needful here in
the briefest way to record, that when
Palestine was finally lost to the Chris
tians by the fall of Acre (a.d. 1291),
the Knights of St. John made the Isle
of Cyprus their head-quarters ; then
(1310) the Island of Rhodes; and
finally (1530) the Island of Malta;
maintaining a constant warfare against
the infidel, and doing good service to
Christendom in checking the westward
progress of the Mohammedan arms.
In the latter part of their history, and
down to a recent period, they conferred
great benefits on civilisation by check
ing the ravages of the Corsairs of North
Africa on the commerce of the Mediter
ranean, and the coast towns of Southern
Europe. They patrolled the sea in
war galleys, rowed by galley slaves,
each of which carried a force of armed
soldiers, inferior brethren of the order,
officered by its knights.
Our interest in them in England is
in connection with the branch houses
which existed upon their estates here.
The order was first introduced into
England in the reign of Henry I. at
Clerkenwell, which continued to be the
principal house of the order in England,
and was called "the Hospital." They
had dependent houses, called Com-
manderies,* on their various English
estates, to the number of 753 in all,
which were only cells inhabited by a
• Perhaps from Commenda, a benefice.

small number of brothers to manage
the estate for the support > of the
order. Besides these there were smaller
houses called Camerae, or Chambers,
mere farm houses, managed by a bailiff,
or sometimes let to farm. The supe
rior of the order in England sat in
Parliament, and was accounted the
first lay baron. On duty the knights
wore the armour of their time, with a
red surcoat marked with a white cross
of eight points on the breast, and a red
mantle with a similar cross on the
shoulder. One of their commande-
ries at Clibburn, Northumberland, re
mains, and is described and engraved
in Turner's 'Domestic Architecture,'
iii. p. 197 ; it has a rectangular chapel.
Some of their churches possibly had
circular naves like those of the Temp7
lars ; for one out of the four English
"round churches," viz. Maplestead,
Essex, seems to have been built by
them. There was only one house of
sisters in England. The English houses
and property of the orde.r were seized
by Henry VIII., and the order sup
pressed in this country.
In 1675 Charles II. declared war
against the pirates of Tripoli, and his
ships were received and assisted in the
ports of the Knights of Malta, and the
king afterwards wrote to thank tho
Grand Master for his courtesy. When
the Revolution broke out in France, the
estates of the Order of St. John in that
country were confiscated, and many of
the knights seized, imprisoned, and
executed as aristocrats ; the principal
house of the order in Paris called the
Temple was converted into a prison,
and there Louis XIV. and his family
were confined. In 1798 Napoleon
appeared before Malta with the French
fleet ; sedition broke out among the
islanders, the knights were compelled
to capitulate, and Malta was declared
part of France. In the following
September, 1798, Nelson took the island
from the French, and it has ever since
remained in bur hands. In this way
the ancient order ceased to be a sove
reign power, and practically its history

HOST

330

HOUR-GLASS STANDS

came to an end. In 1826 the English
Langue was revived, and still exists as
a society for succouring the sick and
aiding the wounded.
List of the houses of the Order of St.
John in England. Melchboume, Beds ;
Brimpton, Berks ; Hogshaw, Bucks ;
Chippenham, Shingay, and Great
AVilbraham, Cambs ; Barrow, Cheshire ;
Treby, Cornwall ; Yeaveley and Wain-
grif, Derbysh. ; Fryer-Mayne, Dorset ;
Temple Cressing, and Little Maples-
lead, Essex ; Quennington, Gloster ;
Baddesley and Godesfield, Hants ; Din-
more, Herefordsh. ; Temple Dynnesley
and Standon, Herts ; Peckham, Swing-
field, and Sutton, Kent ; Dalby,
Heather, Temple Rothley, and Swinford,
Leicestersh. ; Temple Brewer, Eagle,
Wilketon, Mere, Maltby, Witham,
Aslackby, and Skirbeck, Lincolnsh. ;
Clerkenwell and Hampton, Middlesex ;
Carbrooke and Holstone (or Hawston),
Norfolk ; Dingley, Northants ; Temple
Cowley (or Sandford) and Gosford,
Oxon. ; Temple Combe, Somerset ;
Battisford and Gislingham, Suffolk ;
Poling, Sussex ; Warwick and Temple
Balsall, Warwieksh, ; Anstey and
Temple Rockley, Wilts ; Beverley,
Newland, Mount St. John, and Rib-
stone, Yorks ; Selbeck, Wales. A
house of nuns at Buckland, Somerset.
Some of the above were originally
preceptories of the Templars conveyed
to the Hospitallers on the dissolution
of that order.
HOST (hostia, victim, sacrifice), the
name given in the Roman Communion
to the wafer used in the celebration of
the Eucharist. It is of unleavened
bread, made thin and circular in form,
and has certain emblematic devices — as
a lamb, &c. — stamped upon it. [See
Ritual Judgments.]
HOUR-GLASS STANDS. About the
time of the Reformation hour-glasses
were introduced into churches for the
purpose of enabling the prer.cher to
regulate the length of his discourse,
and they very soon became regular
articles of church furniture. The hour
glass was generally placed on the left-

hand-side of the pulpit, in a convenient
position for being seen by the preacher.
It was supported upon a stand and
bracket fixed either to the pulpit itself
or to the adjacent wall. These stands'
still remain in many of our churches.
They are usually made of narrow bari.
iron, one ineh wide, and ,'r of an inch
thick ; two pieces of bar are crossed at
right angles to form the base on which
the glass rests, and then bent upwards,
so as to form the four uprights at
the side, which are connected at the
top by a circular rim, the glass being"
thus prevented from being knocked
over. This stand is supported either
upon an upright bar fixed to the
pulpit, as at St. Michael's Church, St.
Alban's, Hertfordshire, or attached to
a swinging bracket, as at Stratford
Church, Wiltshire. The stands and
brackets are often artistically designed
specimens of the wrought-iron work of
the period. Dated examples exist at
Leigh Church, Kent (a.d. 15 . . 7), and
at Hurst Church, Berkshire (a.d. 1636),
the latter being the most interesting
one, containing the old hour-glass, and
having a plate fixed to the wall near
it, with the words, "As this glasse
runneth, so man's life passethe." The
dimensions of the stands are about six
inches deep j the sizes of the brackets
vary according to their position with
regard to the preacher.
Entries in church accounts referring
to hour-glass stands are not uncommon,
as at Christ Church, St. Catharine's,
Aldgate, under the year 1564 : "Paid
for an hour-glass that hangeth by the
pulpitt, when the preacher doth make
a sermon, that he may know how the
hour passeth away." Hour-glasses are
also referred to by contemporary writers,
as by Butler, in ' Hudibras ' (Pt. 1.
Canto iii. v. 1061):
" As gifted brethren preaching by
A carnal hour-glass do imply."
Hour-glasses were used by Roman
Catholic preachers as well as by Pro
testants. They ceased to be in general
use after the Restoration.

HOURS

331

HOURS, CANONICAL

Mention of several localities where
hour-glass stands still remain, occur in
Murray's 'Guides' to the different
counties, and also in Parker's 'Eccl.
Topog.,' Paper by F. W. Fairholt, in
'Jour. Brit. Archosol. Assoc.,' vol. iii.
p. 130; E. T. Steven's ' Stonehenge
Excursion,' p. 47; 'Gent's. Mag.,'
1822, Pt. II. p. 200.— J. R. A.
HOURS of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
This was not1 a Service-Book of the
Church, but a manual of private devo
tion for the use of the laity, It was
usual for pious lay people to -have
such a book of devotions, and it was a
fashion to bestow considerable expense
upon it. Many of the most gorgeous
MSS. which have como down to us
are of this class, enriched with exqui
site illuminations and miniatures. In
the ' Calendar ' are illustrations of the
characteristic occupations of each month,
and pictures of tho principal saints
whose days occur in the month ; and
scattered through the book are pictures
of Scripture subjects, especially of the.
Life of our Lord, and others. Often
on the lower margin of the pages are
curious pictures of legendary stories or
of satirical subjects. Often the title-
page has the armorial bearings of the
person for whom the book was executed,
and sometimes his portrait. These
books always contain in the first place
the office of the Hours of the Blessed
Virgin Mary, commonly called also
the Little Office Hours, according to
Baronius, first drawn up by ' Peter
Damian, a.d. 1056. A canon of the
Council of Claremont, 1096, made it
obligatory upon the clergy, but the
obligation was taken away by Pius V.
in regulating the Breviary. The Hours
of the Little Office were said at the same
time as the canonical Hours. The use
of this office was very popular among
the laity, and, as we see, it formed the
bulk of their books of private devotion.
To this other things are added accord
ing to the taste of the compiler, or the
wishes of the person for whom the book
was executed ; as the Creed, Our Father,
Hail Mary, Ten Commandments, Seven

Penitential Psalms, Litany, Placebo,
Dirige, and ' Commendations ' (Ps.
cxix.), and the Fifteen (Gradual) Psalms
(viz. cxxix. — cxxxiv. ). In some editions
there were additional devotions, or in
structions relating to the Passion, the
Seven Words from the Cross, the Gos
pel Harmony, the XV. Oes, Devotions
at Mass, Devout Prayers, the Hours of
the Passion, a list of the Seven Deadly
Sins. [See Prymer.]
After the introduction of the art of
printing, sumptuous editions of the
Hours of the Blessed Virgin Mary were
produced, with all the usual ornament
ation and pictures of the MSS. repro
duced in copper-plate engravings. A
novel and favourite introduction into
the illustrations of the printed Hours
was the Dance of Death, which is used
as an ornamental border. The most
beautiful of these editions are those by
Kerver and Simon Vostre of Paris:
HOURS, CANONICAL. Certain re
ligious services, called "Hours," be
cause they were to be said at certain
specified hours of the day ; called
'"Canonical," because they were obli
gatory on the members of religious
orders by their statutes, and on the
secular clergy by the Canons of the
Church. There are plain indications in the
Old Testament of a 'custom of offering
prayer and praise to God at three stated
hours. "In the evening, and morn
ing, and at noonday will I pray" (Ps.
Iv. 18). Daniel's custom was "to
kneel on his knees three times a day,
to pray and give thanks before his
God" (Dan. vi. 10). These three oc
casions were nine a.m. and three p.m.,
the hours of the morning and evening
sacrifice, and noon — the third, sixth,
and ninth hours. When the Psalmist
in the 119th Psalm says, "seven times
a day do I praise thee,'' he may be
using the "seven" in its mystical
sense as the perfect number, and can
not safely be taken literally.
The three hours of prayer were"
carried over into the Christian dis
pensation. The disciples were gathered.

HOURS, CANONICAL

332

HOURS, CANONICAL

together on the day of Pentecost, at
" the third hour of the day " (Acts ii.
36). Peter and John went up to the
temple at the hour of prayer, which
is the ninth hour (Acts iii. 1). Ter-
tullian, Clement of Alexandria, and
Jerome, all distinctly speak of three
hours of prayer, viz. : the third, sixth,
and ninth hours. Cyprian says, "that
two others had been recently added,
in the morning and the evening,
making five hours." St. Basil also
mentions the same five. In the fourth
century there was a desire, to which
Ambrose gives expression, to conform
the number of hours of prayer to the
Psalmist's " seven times a day ; " and
Cassian (a.d. 424) claims for the mon
astery of Bethlehem, where he was
educated, that it first definitely adopted
this rule of seven hours, by adding a
service between matins and the third
hour. Finally, in the sixth century,
the last prayer before going to bed
was developed into a distinct service
under the name of Compline. * It was
probably the popularity of the Rule of
St. Benedict, in which the seven hours
were adopted as their Rule of Prayer,
which made the Hours so popular
throughout Europe.
It has been said that the secular
clergy were required by the Canons to
say the Hours. But they were accus
tomed to "accumulate" them, i. e. to
say several of them together ; e. g.
Matins and Prime, in the morning im
mediately before Mass, and Vespers and
Compline in the evening. They were
required to say Matins and Evensong
in church on Sundays and festivals,
and encouraged to say them in church
every day ; and it was customary for
lay people to attend them. In the
Romances, which are pictures of the
manners of the period, it is a common
place that " on the morrow they heard
mass and after went to dinner," and
" so they went home and unarmed them
and so to evensong and supper," and
• The only artificial name ; it is said to be
derived from Complet-nium, because it ful
filled the day's course of prayer.

the ' Young Children's Book ' t directs
them —
"Aryse betime out of thi bedde
And blysse { thi brest and thi forhede.
* * * *
Then go to the chyrche and here a masse,
There ask mercy for thi trespasse.
When thou hast done go brake thy faste :
With mete and drynk of gode repast."
From an early period the devout im
agination was busy in enriching th'ese
services with additional signifipan|ei
When there were three Hours they were
connected with the persons of the
Trinity. When they had grown to seven
they were connected with events of the'
Passion of our Lord,§ as indicated in
some Latin verses thus translated into
English :—
" At Matins bound ; at Prime reviled; con
demned to death at Terce;
Nailed to the cross at Sext : at None tho
blessed side they pierced ;
They take Him down at Vesper-tide, in
grave at Compline lay ;
Who henceforth bids His Church observe,
her Seven-fold Hours alway."
These Hour Services were made very
elaborate by a multitude of differences.
in the hymns, psalms, chapters, anti->
phons, &c, for different days of the.
week or different seasons of the year.
Still it is not difficult to give a notion;
of the substance of each Hour, stripped
of its antiphons and other occasional
appendages ; and this is done in the
following tabular form for the sake of
comparing them one with another, and
moreover, of showing how the daily
Morning and Evening Prayer of the
First Book of Edward VI. was com
piled out of the Hours by accumulating
them in two groups, and by eliminating
from the groups the mere repetitions ;
so that in the end, the Morning and
Evening Prayer contained the substance
of the Hours without the omission of
any essential feature : —
t 'The Babees Book,' Early English Text
Society, p. 266.
X By making the sign of the cross on them.
§ After the introduction of the Little
Hours, or Hours of the Blessed Virgin Mary,
each hour was similarly connected with an
event in the life of the Virgin Mother.

Matins.

Our Father
0 God, make
speed, &c.
Glory he, &c.
Alleluia

VeniteHymnPsalms LessonsTe Deum

Lauds.

V. and R.

0 God, make
speed, &e.
Glory, &c.
Alleluia

Psalms Cantate
Short Chapter
HymnBenedictus

Suffrages

1st Collect -
2nd Collect

Prime.

InvocationOur Father
0 God, make
speed, &c.
Glory, &c.
Alleluia

HymnPsalms Athanasian Creed
Short Chapter

Short Litany
Our Father
[Creed] Suff
rages
Confession and
Absolution
3rd Collect
Intercessory Prayers

Terce. Sext. None.

Each of these
Hours has its
special Hymns
and Psalms,
but they add
no special
feature.

1st Book of Ed. Vt.
Morning Prayer.

Our Father
0 Lord, open, &c.
0 God, make
speed, &c.
Glory be, &c.
Praise, &c.
The Lord's name
Venite Psalms
1st Lesson
Te Deum, or
Benedictite
2nd Lesson
Benedictus "
Creed
Short Litany
Our Father
Suffrages

1st Collect
2nd „ .
3rd „ .

2nd Book of Ed. VI.
Book of Elizabeth.

Same as in First
Book through
out, with these
additions.
SentencesExhortation Confession
Absolution

Jubilate as al-
"temative chant.

Revision of 1604.

Same as before,
with these ad
tions.

Intercessory Prayers
Memorials for
Sovereign
Royal Family
Clergy
Prayer of St.
Chrysostom
Grace of our
Lord, &c.

Revision 1662.

Same as be
fore, with
these ad
ditions.

Pr. for Parlt.
All sorts and
conditions.
General Thanks
giving and
other oc
casional
prayers and
thanksgivings.

COMPARISON OF MEDIEVAL HOURS WITH PRESENT PRAYER BOOK.

Vespers.

Compline.

Invocation

Invocation

Our Father

Our Father

0 God, make

0 God, make

speed, &c.

speed, &c.

Psalms

Psalms

Short Chapter

Hymn

Magnificat

Short Chapter
Hymn
Nunc Dimittis
Short Litany
Short Litany
Our Father
Our Father
Suffrages
Suffrages [Creed]
Confession and
Absolution
1st Collect
2nd Collect
3rd Collect.
Intercessory
Prayers
First Prayer Book of
Ed. VI.
Evening Prayer.
Our Father
0 God, make
speed, &c.
Psalms1st Lesson
Magnificat2nd Lesson
Nunc Dimittis
Short Litany
Our Father
Suffrages
1st Collect
2nd Collect
3rd Collect
2nd Book of Ed. VI,
and Book of Eliza
beth.
Same as First
Book, with these
additions. ,
Cantate as~ alter
native Canticle
Deus
Misereatur
as alternative
Canticle.
1604 Revision of
James.
Same as before.
1662 Revision of Charles.
Same as before, with
these additions.
Sentences Exhortation
Confession Absolution
Intercessory Prayers
for Sovereigns
Royal Family
Clergy
All sorts and con
ditions. ."- ¦'
General thanksgivings
Prayer of St. Chry-
sostom
Grace of our Lord, &c.
And other occasional
HUGH

335

HUGH

HUGH, de Avalon, St., Bi3hop of
Lincoln, born about 1135, died 1200,
of the noble family of De Avalon, in
Burgundy. On his mother's death his
father retired from the world into the
neighbouring Priory of Villarbeuvil, a
house of Regular Canons, dependent upon
the cathedral church of Grenoble, tak
ing his son of eight years old with him.
He was educated in the school of the
priory, and at that early age showed a
precocious sanctity of character and
disposition for the religious life. At
nineteen he was ordained deacon ; at
twenty-four entrusted with the rule of
the Cell of St. Maximinus, a neigh
bouring estate of the priory, where,
with an aged brother canon in priest's
orders as his companion, he had charge
of the parish. Having accompanied
the prior on a visit to the neighbouring
monastery of the Grand Chatreuse, he
was fired with admiration of the strict
ness of the Carthusian rule and life,
and about 1160 quitted his priory, and
the Order of Regular Canons, to embrace
the Carthusian rule as a monk of its
chief house. While here he was or
dained priest. After about ten years
of residence he was made Procurator of
the house, which involved the general
management of the house and of its
secular affairs.
The fame of the Carthusian Order
had spread over Europe, and Henry II.
of England founded a monastery of the
Order at Witham, Somerset, obtaining
the first inmates of his house from the
Great Chatreuse. But the first prior
of Witham was discouraged by the
difficulties of his task, and returned ;
the second died soon after his arrival
in England, and the new foundation
seemed likely to collapse ; when the
king was advised to ask to have Hugh
of Avalon sent to his aid. Hugh ac
cordingly, on the command of his
bishop, unwillingly left the brethren,
who unwillingly spared him, and came
to England about 1175. It would seem
that the niggardliness of the king had
been the great cause of the difficulties
of tho new foundation. Hugh found

the two or three monks living in tem
porary wooden huts ; the permanent
house had not been begun ; the very
sites of the churches had not been
marked out. Hugh applied to the
king for funds once or twice, and re
ceived promises from him, but nothing
else ; but in a personal interview he
won the king's confidence and good
will, and henceforward the means were
not lacking for the building. In eleven
years the monastery was completed,
the prior and his twelve brethren were
located in their several cells, opening
upon the courtyard which surrounded
a handsome church, and at a littlo
distance the buildings of the lay bro-
thren, also surrounding their church,*
which is possibly the present parish
church of Witham, and the good report
of the new Order had spread through
out the land.
At the end of April, 1186, Henry
summoned the Canons of Lincoln to
his palace of Woodstock, to elect a
bishop to fill the vacancy of nearly two
years' duration, left by the translation
of Walter of Constance. The wealthy
and dignified canons, several of them
holding office in the royal household
and government, presented first one
and then another of their own body,
whom the king declined. At length
he had Hugh suggested to them as a
man who would he acceptable to the
king, but they received the suggestion
at first ' ' with a burst of laughter ; " and
then when it became evident that the
king desired the appointment of this
obscure foreign monk, th ey were ' ' struck
with horror." But the king's will
prevailed, and Hugh was elected to
this great and wealthy see, stretch
ing from the Humber to the Thames,
over nine wide counties, containing
many great cities and an innumerable
people. When messengers were sent
to announce to him his new dignity,
and summon him to the king, Hugh
declined to accept the election. He
* The early Carthusian houses had two
buildings, each with its own church — one for
the monks, the other for the lay brethren.

HUGH

336 ¦ HUNTINGDON'S CONNECTION

was not surprised that the king should
desire his promotion, nor that the
archbishop should bo content with it,
since he almost alone of the bishops
valued the regular discipline ; but he
would not recognise such an election.
The election to a bishopric, he said,
ought not to take place in a royal
palace, nor in a pontifical council, but
in the chapter of the cathedral. " There,
with the inspiration of the Holy Spirit,
having not the wish of kings and
princes, but only the fear of God be
fore your eyes, make your election of a
ruler of your Church. Go, therefore,
and the good angel of God go with
you." No doubt the canons found
"that they had to do with a man of
great and strong character ; his insist-
ance upon their freedom of election
would be pleasing to them ; he might
turn out to be a man who could defend
the rights of his Church against all
comers ; they were reconciled to the
king's nomination, and in a regular
meeting of the Chapter, they unanim
ously elected him a second time. Still
Hugh declined to accept the dignity
offered him without the approval of
his superior, the Prior of the Grande
Chartreuse ; and an embassy was ac
cordingly sent to the Grand Prior to
ask his consent for one of his monks to
accept one of the greatest bishoprics
in England. At length, after three
months' delay, all difficulties had been
overcome, and Hugh took leave of his
little Somersetshire monastery, and set
out towards London to receive his con
secration from the archbishop. He
was attended by his clerks in rich at
tire, with gilded horse-furniture, while
he rode in the midst on his mule, with
a great bundle containing all his lug
gage strapped behind his saddle, until
his mortified companions contrived to
cut it away unknown to him.
He was consecrated 21st Sep., 1186,
the king making munificent offerings,
and bearing the whole expense of the
ceremonial. Eight days after, in the
midst of a grand procession, he walked
barefoot through the great west doors

of his cathedral, and was installed' by
the archbishop on his episcopal throne.
The remainder of his life consists of
the history of his personal piety and
asceticism, and of his vigorous adminis
tration of his vast diocese, of his de
fence of it from the royal exactions,
and his primitive courage and plain-
spokenness in rebuking the vices of the
kings. He died Nov. 16th, 1200, at
London. His body was conveyed in a
procession, which was met by crowds at
every town it passed through, until on
the sixth day it reached Lincoln. King
John happened to be holding a council
in the city ; and he and the nobles
and prelates assisted at a magnificent
funeral. Twenty years later the popu
lar verdict of his sanctity was confirmed
by the Roman See ; and his body was
translated to a shrine behind the high
altar of the cathedral. His cultus he-
came as popular in the north as that of
Thomas Becket in the south of Eng
land, and the offerings of the pilgrims
brought wealth to the cathedral. Sixty
years later his remains were again
translated, in the presence of King
Edward I. and his Queen, to a new
shrine, said to have been of gold, pre
pared for them in the new and magnifi
cent choir of the cathedral.
'Vita S. Hugonis,' in the Rolls
Series, Rev. J. F. Dimock ; 'St.
Hugh of Lincoln,' Rev. G. G. Perry.
1879. Murray : London.
HUNTINGDON'S CONNECTION,
LADY. Lady Huntingdon was a dis
ciple of the Wesleys in the infancy of
their revival. When the differences
between the Wesleys and Whitfield
took place in 1748, Lady Huntingdon j
followed Whitfield to his Tabernacle iii j
Moorfields, and took great interest in
his work. At her suggestion, and
largely by help of her money, the
temporary Tabernacle was, in 1755,
replaced by a permanent building to
hold 4000, and in the following, year
another large mefeting-house was built
in Tottenham Court Road. Lady
Huntingdon had made Whitfield her
chaplain, in order to confer upon him ,;

HUNTINGDON'S CONNECTION 337

HYMNS

the status and exceptional privileges
and immunities of a nobleman's chap
lain ; and it was intended to get the new
meeting-hbuse licensed, as if it had been
the Countess's private chapel. On its
being ascertained that this could not
legally be done, the chapel was licensed
as a meeting-house ; and from this
event may be dated the foundation of
Lady Huntindon's Connection. Other
chapels were erected at Lady Hunting
don's cost in various parts of England
and Wales, and clergymen of the Church
of England accepted her invitation to
act as their ministers. Her zeal in
creasing with her success, she pro
ceeded to hire chapels, and not finding
a sufficient number of clergymen will
ing to minister in them, she proceeded
to found a college at Trevecca, in South
Wales, for the education and mainten
ance during their education of young
men, who, at the end of their three
years' training, were at liberty either to
seek ordination in the Church of Eng
land, or to join the ministry of any
body of orthodox Dissenters. In 1781,
she organised a staff of itinerant
preachers, with the view of their
preaching throughout the towns and
villages of the entire kingdom. Their
success was considerable, and helped
largely to swell the success of the
revival in which the Evangelical party
and the Wesleys were also engaged.
This first success of the Lady Hunting
don Connection, however, gradually
slackened, while the work of the other
parties continued to grow and increase.
At length the bishops found them
selves obliged to refuse to sanction the
irregularities of the clergy engaged in
Lady Huntingdon's service, and to
refuse to ordain her students. She
and her friends thereupon determined
to establish their organisation as a
Secession Church, retaining the liturgy
and vestments and customs of wor
ship of the Church, but establishing a
Presbyterian ordination and form of
Church government, and imposing an
eclectic set of doctrinal articles. The
first of these ordinations took place in

1783, and thus the secession was com
pleted. Rules for the management of
the Connection were drawn up in 1785,
and all who desired to be members of
it were required to subscribe to them.
During her life-time Lady Hunting-'
don was to her Connection very much
what John Wesley was to his. She
appointed and removed at pleasure the
ministers who officiated in her chapels ;
and appointed laymen, termed man
agers, in each congregation, to super
intend its secular affairs. On her
death, 17th June, 1791, aged 83, her
chapels were devised to four trustee.!,
possessed in all respects of tho same
powers which she had exercised.
In 1762, the Trevecca College was
removed to Cheshunt, where it con
tinues to be one of the wealthiest of
the Dissenting training colleges. The
number of the chapels of the Con
nection in 1857 was 109.
HYMNARIUM, Hymnal. One of
the old Service Books. The earliest
Latin writer to whom hymns are with.
any certainty attributed is St. Ambrose,
and from that time downwards they
wore being continually added. In the
Hymnary they were arranged in the
order of the days upon which they
would occur in the Offices of the Hours,
and they were usually accompanied by
their proper tunes ; some of them have
several tunes, more or less elaborate for
various occasions. The Hymnary was
often included in the same volume with
the Psalter. The English versions of
some of these ancient Latin hymns are
among the popular items in our modern
hymn-books. The fullest collection of
these ancient hymns, with a commen
tary, is the ' Thesaurus Hymnologicus,'
by H. Daniel.
There was an ' Expositio Hymnarii, '
a commentary on the hymns of the
Church, for the instruction of boys in
school. ' Hymns and other Poetry of the
Latin Church, ' T. D. Morgan. London :
Rivingtons, 1880.
HYMNS. The Early Church had
many beautiful hymns, both Greek'

HYMNS

338

IMPROPRIATE

and Latin, some written by the great
saints of the Church, and the Hours of
tho Breviary had each its hymn ; but
the services of the Post-Reformation
Church did not use these devotional
exercises. This might be wondered at,
seeing the fine German hymns which
were written by the German Reformers,
and which were so helpful in recom
mending their doctrine to the people.
But, on the other hand, . Calvin, whose
influence so largely affected the develop
ment of our Reformation, was not
favourable to the use of anything be
sides the Psalms.
The use of hymns in modern Eng
land began with the Dissenters. Isaac
Watts's ' Hymns and Spiritual Songs, '
one of the first collections, was published
in 1707, and obtained a great reputation
among Dissenters ; he also published
a paraphrastic version of the Psalms.
Many of them are of great merit, and
are adopted in our Church collections,
e.g. "Jesus shall reign where'er the
sun ; " " 0 God, our help in ages past ; "
" From all that dwell below the skies,"
&c. Philip Doddridge's Hymns were pub
lished 1755 ; though generally dry,
there are some which live, and will
live, e.g. "Hark! the glad sound;"
" My God, and is Thy table spread ; "
"Ye servants of the Lord ; " "Eternal
source of every joy." Other writers
added each a few hymns to the number
which are likely to last in the per
manent hymnal of the English-speaking
Churches. But the next great hymn-book is
that of the Wesleys. Charles was the
Poet of the Wesleyan revival, and his
hymns had no small share in its success.
He wrote the amazing number of over
6000 hymns, and many of them are of
the highest order of devotional poetry,
and are sure to hold an honoured place
in all English hymnals.
The next important collection was
the Olney Hymns, of which John
Newton wrote 286 and Cowper 62.
Some of them are still to be found in
every collection — such as Cowper's,

"Oh! for a closer walk with God,"
' ' There is a fountain filled with blood, "
"God moves in a mysterious way."
The next important writer of hymns
was James Montgomery, to whom we
owe, "Hail to the Lord's anointed,"
"Holy, Holy, Holy Lord," "Hark the
song of Jubilee," "Angels from the
realms of glory," "Hark the herald
angels sing," "Forever with the Lord,"
"Servant of God, well done," "Prayer
is the soul's sincere desire," "What
are these in bright array ? "
The High Church rivival of our own
day has also produced its hymnals, the
earliest of which was perhaps the
' Hymnal Noted, ' containing many
translations of the ancient Latin hymns
of the Church by Neale and others.
Mant, Heber, Milman, Keble, Newman,
and a host of others have made valuable
contributions to our modern hymnals.
The most popular collections are the
'Hymns Ancient and Modern,' and
the ' Church Hymns ' of the Christian!
Knowledge Society, and Bishop Bicker-
steth's collection. Probably when the
time is come, Convocation may out of
the existing hymnals compile one which
shall have ecclesiastical authority for
its general use in churches. See Intro
duction to Church hymns, S . P. 0 K.
Article on hymns in McClintock and
Strong's Cyclopedia.

IMPROPRIATE Parishes. [See Ap
propriate Parishes.] At the dissolu
tion of the religious houses at the
Reformation, it might have been ex
pected that the appropriated tithes
would have been disentangled from the
rest of their property, and either re
stored to the parishes, or used for the
creation of the additional pastoral
agency made necessary by the wholesale
destruction of monks, friars, chantry
priests, &c. But it was not so. The
parochial tithes were included as part
of the confiscated property, which the
king retained or granted to his courtiers.
This was the origin of tho anomaly

INA

339

INCENSE

of lay impropriators, or lay rectors,
who are simply the holders of the tithes
of parishes thus confiscated, with the
liabilities and rights attached to them.
In the reign of ¦ Elizabeth, the Crown
got an Act of Parliament passed, au
thorising it to compel tho bishops to
give up landed estate of the sees in
exchange for great tithes in the hands
of the Crown. [See Grindal.]
INA (Ine, or Ini), King of the West
Saxons, reigned from 688 to 726 ; was a
son of Cenred, a sub-king of the West
Saxons, possibly in Somersetshire. It
has been conjectured that his mother
was a British lady, and that through
her he was the half-brother of the
British Prince Ceadwalla ( ' Transac
tions of Somersetshire Archaeological
Society,' xviii. 28, paper by E. A. Free
man), and that he succeeded to the rule
of the West Saxons (688) on the abdica
tion of Ceadwalla. ina is an important
person in ecclesiastical as well as in
civil history. His laws, passed in the
early part of his reign, are (next after
the Kentish laws) the earliest example
of Saxon legislation which has come
down to us. He states that they were
made with the advice of his father
Cenred, his bishop Hedda (fifth bishop
of the West Saxons), and his bishop
Earconwald [bishop of the East Saxons.
It is suggested ('Diet. Eccl. Biog.')
that Earconwald may have had influ
ence in Surrey, which lay within Ina's
dominions] ; and at the Witan at which
they were accepted were present also
the Ealdormen, and a large company
of "God's servants," probably priests
and monks. The ecclesiastical clauses
of these laws prescribe (among other
things) the baptism of children within
a month of birth ; fines for working on
Sundays ; payment of Church-scot at
Martinmas ; and the law of sanctuary.
Ina was an active patron of religion
and learning. He subdivided the see
into two sees — at Sherborne and Win
chester, and placed the learned Aldhelm
[which see] at the former. Winifred
had been selected by him as an en
voy to the Archbishop of Canterbury,

before he became, under the name of
Boniface, the Apostle of Germany. He
founded, or was a great benefactor to,
several monasteries, which were then
the great schools of religion and learn
ing. Glastonbury was rebuilt, Malmes
bury founded, Abingdon endowed,
Wimborne, Nursling, Tisbury, Wal-
tham, Sherborne, Bradford, and Frome
flourished during his reign.
After a great and prosperous reign of
thirty-seven years, Ina followed the
example of several of the Saxon princes
by resigning his throne, and retiring to
spend the rest of his life in religious
exercises. Not contenting himself with
a monastery at home, he went to Rome
with his wife Ethelburga, and there
lived like a private person for the two
or three remaining years of his life.
He is said to have founded the English
schools at Rome for the benefit of Eng
lish students, and is said to have im
posed a tax (Rome scot) of a penny a
year on every house in Wessex for the
support of these schools. But it is,
doubtful whether these two acts are
truly ascribed to the West Saxon king ;
they are also attributed, with greater
probability, to Offa, King of the Mer
cians. INCENSE, a combination of sweet
gums, burnt on the altar of incense in
the Holy Place of the Temple, in con
nection with the morning and evening
sacrifice. Its symbolical meaning
seems to be explained in Rev. v. 8 :
' ' Golden vessels full of odours (M. R. ,
incense), which are the prayers of
saints ; " while Rev. viii. 2 seems to
indicate that the incense symbolises
something which "is offered with the.
prayers of all saints upon the golden
altar which was before the throne,"
i. e. it symbolises the Intercession of
Christ. The use of incense was not
continued by the Christian Church,
perhaps because it was so largely used
in pagan worship as to discredit it.
Arnobius (contra ' Gent.,' 2), Tertullian
('Apol.,' 30), and Lactantius (i. 20)
distinctly .state that " Christians do
not burn incense," as pagans do. It

z 2

INCISED SLABS

340

INCISED SLABS

gradually, however, came into use in
churches. It is mentioned in the
Apostolical Canons ; and Evagrius (vi.
c. 21) says that Chosroes gave golden
censers to the church at Constantinople.
But the first clear proof of its use
at the celebration of the Eucharist is
by Gregory the Great in the sixth
century. It was not merely burnt in a stand
ing censer, while the smoke was allowed
to ascend heavenward, in accordance
with the above symbolism ; but in
course of time it was placed in a censer
suspended from a ring by three chains,
so that it could be swung to and fro,
thus fanning the fire and raising a cloud
of the perfumed smoke. To swing it
thus before a thing or person was a
token of reverence for the thing or per
son so censed. It was the custom to
cense the Gospels, the celebrant, &c,
&c. At the Reformation the censing of
persons and things was forbidden, by
the Visitation Articles of Cranmer.
But its use seems not to have been
altogether forbidden, and numerous
examples of its post-reformation use
are adduced in the ' Hierurgia Angli-
cana' (see p. xix). For the recent
decison against the legality of its use
see Ritual Judgments.
INCISED SLABS. [See Sepulchral
Monuments.] A common kind of
monumental memorial was a slab of
stone, very commonly of alabaster, on
which the effigy of the deceased was
sculptured in bold lines, which were
filled in with some black composition ;
the effigy was often placed under a
canopy, accompanied by shields of
arms, and was usually enclosed within
a border formed of the inscription
carried round the margin of the slab.
The most ancient example which is
known is that of one of the Byttons,
Bishops of Wells, of whom one died
1264, the other 1274. There is another
of a knight of the same family at
Bitton, Somerset, of early fourteenth
century ; another of Adam de Tranton,
1325, and his widow, at Wyverton,

Lincolnshire ; * another of Sir John dc
Wydville ; f another of Sir Robert dc
Malvesyn, at Malvesyn Ridware, Staf
ford; J another very fine one of Sii
Johan le Botiler on a coffin-shaped
slab at St. Bride's, Glamorganshire,! of
about the middle of the thirteenth cen
tury; an ecclesiastic at Morthoe, Devon,
probably 1322. They were, however,
much more frequently used in the
fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. The
design and execution of these incised
slabs is in the same style, but often
inferior to that on the brasses. The
latter were comparatively portable, and
were no doubt made at central manu
factories, and sent all over the country;
the great alabaster slab could not be
so easily transported, and was probably
often executed by local artists. Some
veiy fine examples, however, remain.
Among the finest are the monuments of
Alice Lady Tyrrell (1425), j| in East
Horndon Church, Essex ; and of Sic
John Cherowin (1441),1f in Brading
Church, Isle of Wight. Others of Sir
J. StreHey,1T in Strelley Church, of a
priest, II in Ratcliffe-on-Soar, with a
whole series of others ; of Sir Bryan
Stapleton,1F in Stapleton Church, all
in Notts (1551) ; of John Rowe Vicar, 1
of Aldbourne, Wilts. Morley Church,
Derbyshire, contains a very interest
ing series of late designs, among
them Henry Sacheverell, 1639, in the
usual Charles I. costume, with a cloak
reaching to the knee, and a sword by
his side ; another on a coffin-shaped
stone of his sister Dorothy, a young
lady of sixteen, who died the same year,
1639 ; another of Richard Harper,
rector of tho church, 1660, a half-
length portrait within an oval medal
lion, the whole design being exactly
* Engraved in Gough's ' Sepulchral Monu
ments,' I. 89.
t Ibid., II. 282.
J Engraved in Shaw's 'History of Stafford
shire,' I. rt. xii.
§ Engraved in Cutts's 'Manual of Sepul
chral Slabs,' Pt. xxxii.
|| Engraved in the ' Transactions of the
Essex Archaeological Society,' Vol. v. p. 294.
1 All engraved in the 'Church Builder'
for 1876. pp. 99, 29, 33, 147, 149.

INCORPORATED CHURCH 341 INCORPORATED CHURCH

like the portraits of the Caroline
Divines, with which we are familiar on
the frontispieces of their folios. They
have usually suffered greatly from the
wear and tear to which they have been
subjected for three or four centuries,
and cannot usually be copied as the
brasses so easily are, by the mechanical
process of rubbing. The consequence
is, that few of them have been engraved,
and that a descriptive catalogue of
them, and engraved illustrations of
them before they became altogether
obliterated, are greatly to bo desired.
INCORPORATED CHURCH BUILD
ING SOCIETY . The want of increased
Church accommodation for the rapidly
growing populations of the great towns
in the early part of the present century,
led, in the first place, to an appeal to
the government on the subject. Mr.
J. Bowdler is usually regarded as the
organiser of the movement, which re
sulted in a petition to Lord Liverpool,
then at the head of the Government,
in which the subscribers state their
" extreme alarm at the danger to which
the constitution of this country, both
in Church and State, is exposed from
tho want of places of public worship,
particularly for persons of the middle
and lower classes, in many parts of the
United Kingdom, and especially in the
metropolis and its neighbourhood.
*****
" To cure this dreadful evil by pro
viding churches or chapels adequate to
the wants of the inhabitants is beyond
the power of private or parochial con
tributions. Parliament alone can do it ;
and we conceive it to be one of its chief
duties to provide places of worship for
the members of the Established re
ligion," &c. This was signed by a long
list of eminent laymen only, among
whom are the names of Sir R. H.
Inglis, William Wilberforcc, Sir T.
Ackland, Joshua Watson, Joseph and
William Cotton, and many other well-
known and honoured names in the
various Church works of this century.
The country, however, was suffering
from the heavy burdens of the war only

recently concluded, and the Govern
ment did not think it proper to make
an appeal to Parliament at that time.
It may be mentioned here that it did
appeal to Parliament in 1818 to make
a grant of a million for the building
new churches in the great towns as a
thank-offering on the conclusion of the
war, and a subsequent grant of half a
million more in 1826, the only sums
which the State has contributed to
the maintenance or extension of the
Church. The promoters of the movement
thereupon called a meeting of the
signers of the Petition, at tho City of
London tavern, on 23rd May, 18.17, to
receive a, report of their proceedings,
and to consider whether any plan could
be adopted which would tend to pro
mote the object of that memorial. The
result of the meeting was, that it was
determined to form a society for pro
moting public worship by providing
additional church room, especially for
the lower classes. The idea was warmly
supported. The Duke of York accepted
the office of patron, the Archbishop of
Canterbury consented to be president,
the Archbishop of York and all the
other bishops to be vice-presidents,
with twenty-five lay peers and com
moners ; and a committee was formed
consisting of thirty-six members, of
whom two-thirds * were to be laymen.
The first meeting of the society thus
constituted was held in February, 1818 ;
the amount of funds out of which the
society began to make grants at its
June meeting in the same year was
nearly £50,000.
In 1828 the Government consented
to aid the Church by the yearly issue
of royal letters on behalf of some of the
works of the Church, and this Society
was incorporated by Act of Parliament
(9 Geo. IV. c. 42) to authorise it to
receive part of the proceeds of the col
lections in churches given in response
to the royal letters, and to apply them,
* On tho incorporation of the Society in
1S2S it was provided that one-half of the
committee should be laymen.

INCUMBENT

342

INDEPENDENTS

together with its other funds, for the
objects for which the society had been
formed. From 1828 to 1851 the society
roceived the collections under eight
royal letters, given usually at intervals
of three years, amounting to £257,969.
The total sum expended in grants during
its existence up to the end of 1885 is
£923,603. The society has exercised a great and
beneficial influence on the whole church
building and restoration of the century,
through the agency of its committee
of architects, consisting always of some
of the most eminent men of the profes
sion, to whom all plans for building
and restoration have been submitted,
and according to whose advice the pre
servation of ancient features in restora
tion, and sound workmanship and good
design in new buildings, have been
more or less secured.
The creation of Diocesan Church
Building Societies in nearly every dio
cese has to a great extent superseded
the parent society in the ordinary work
of church building and restoration ; but
fields of usefulness are probably still
open to it, (1) in the accentuating of
the special object of its original forma
tion, viz. to provide ' ' places of public
worship, particularly for persons of the
middle and lower classes ; " and (2) in
the energetic promotion of plans for
the erection of small chapels in the
outlying hamlets of country places,
and the mission buildings which are
found to be needed for the effectual
working of town parishes. For other
particulars consult the Annual Reports
of the Society, and its quarterly pub
lication, the 'Church Builder,' to be
obtained at the office of the Society,
2, Dean's Yard, Westminster.
INCUMBENT, the holder of any
benefice. INDEPENDENTS, or CONGREGA-
TIONALISTS. A sect which believes
that any body of men who may agree
to do so, may form themselves into a
Church ; that such Church is an inde
pendent body, which has power to elect
its own ministers, settle its own faith,

and exercise discipline over its own
members, without interference from
other Churches.
The first person who gathered a
" Church " on these principles was R.
Browne, a clergyman in the reign of
Elizabeth (about 1542). He formed ¦
several congregations in the diocese of
Norwich ; was arrested and imprisoned,
but soon set at liberty, and left England
with some of his co-religionists for
Zealand. He returned to England,
was reconciled to the Church, and died
rector of Thorpe church, after forty
years' incumbency, in 1580.
But H. Barrow, a barrister, and J.
Greenwood, a young clergyman, took
up the leadership which Browne had
abandoned, and the sect increased
rapidly in England. Some of its tenets
brought the new sect into collision with
the Government. In 15S3, Thacker and
Copping were executed at Bury St.
Edmunds for treasonable language ;
Burrows, Greenwood, and Peny, were
executed in 1593 in London, out of
a considerable number who had been
arrested ; some of these when set at
liberty sought refuge in Amsterdam.
H. Jacob, a Kentish clergyman,
opened a conventicle at Blackfriars,
London, in 1616, which is sometimes
considered the first Independent Church
in England. He was succeeded by
another clergyman, J. Lathrop. In the
year 1620 a party of English Inde
pendents living at Leyden, organised :
an emigration to New England, and \
several of the English Independents
joining in the undertaking, a ship, the
" Mayflower," was chartered' to convey
the whole party, one hundred in all,
from Plymouth. They sailed August
21, 1620, and arrived in New England,
November 11. Theincident has caught
the imagination of the modern Inde
pendents, who have perhaps somewhat
exaggerated its political and religious
importance. In the great rebellion the Independ
ents gradually acquired an influence
in the army, which at length enabled
them to dominate the Presbyterian

INDEPENDENTS

343

INDULGENCE

Parliament, and to place their leader
Cromwell in the Protector's chair.
They made use of their power to place
Independent ministers in many of the
benefices of the Church, who did not
scruple to accept the status of minis
ters of the establishment and to live
on tithes. At the Restoration, the
number of those who retired from the
Church's benefices rather than conform
was no doubt greatly swelled by the
Independent and Baptist ministers.
The result of the secession was the
immediate formation of a consider
able number of Independent congrega
tions outside the Church ; and down
to the formal separation of the Wes
leyans from the Church, the Inde
pendents formed the great bulk of the
dissenters. In the early part of the
reign of William III. a State paper
prepared for the King's information
estimated the religious divisions of
the population as : — Church people,
4,954,508; Dissenters, 217,152; Pa
pists, 27,712 ('Sir J. Dalrymple's
Memoirs,' Appendix to Part II. p. 14).
The Independent Declaration of Faith,
Church Order, and Discipline is set
forth in the Congregational Year-Book
for 1871.
The Congregational Union maintains
colleges in various parts of England
for the education of its ministers.
The London Missionary Society is
chiefly supported by it, and the British
and Foreign School Society, supported
by it and by the Baptists, with large
help from Churchmen, aids it in the
religious education of the children of
the poorer classes.
The principles of Church government
held by the Independents, which are
the republican ideal applied to Church
government, must make the Congre-
gationalists always irreconcilably an-
tagonisticto the ChurcW The Independ
ents therefore natural form the main
strength of the mojiment for the dis
establishment andySsendowment of the
Church. Simula they succeed in this,
their principles would logically lead
them to further steps to coerce the

Church into the recognition of that
religious equality between the denom
inations which is of the essence of the
Congregational idea. That is to say,
should the Church and nation again
allow the Independents to snatch for
awhile the powers of the Government,
it is only reasonable to expect a repeti
tion of as strong measures against the
Church, as when, under the tyranny
of the Commonwealth, the clergy were
deprived, imprisoned, and exiled ; and
the Prayer Book forbidden, under
penalties, to be used in public or in
private. (Curteis, ' Bampton Lectures. ')
INDUCTION, the putting a presentee
into actual possession of the benefice to
which he is presented. It is the bishop's
office to induct, but he generally does
it by commission to some neighbouring
clergyman, who, acting on his behalf,
takes the presentee to the church,
places his hand upon the key of the
church door, and says, " I induct
you into the real and actual possession
of the rectory (or vicarage) of  ,
with all its profits and appurtenances."
Then the new rector or vicar, entering
the church, takes possession, and rings
one of the bells of the church, either as
an act of authority in the church, or
as a notice to the parishioners. This
ceremony puts the new incumbent into
legal possession of his freehold with all
that belongs thereto. The incumbent
has been previously admitted to the
spiritual part of his office by the cere
mony of Institution [which see].
INDULGENCE originally meant the
relaxation, for sufficient reason, by the
bishop, of the penance inflicted upon
any one, on evidence of his repentance.
The mediaeval Roman theory on the
subject is, that after the remission of
the guilt and eternal penalty of sin,
there remains a certain amount of pain
to be endured as the punishment of the
sin either in this world or the next.
That the merits of the saints, over and
above the holiness necessary to their
own salvation, constitute a treasury
of merit. That the Church, by its
bishops, has the power to apply out

INSPIRATION

344

INSPIRATION

of this treasury of the merits of the
saints to atone for the shortcomings
.of sinners ; and this application of so
many days' or years' remission of pain
thus obtained is called an Indulgence.
The sale of Indulgences on a great
scale as a means of raising funds for
the rebuilding of St. Peter's at Rome,
and the coarse, superstitious addresses
of Texel in pressing his wares upon the
people in Germany, was one of the
immediate causes which stirred up
Luther to the open opposition to Rome
which led to the great reform move
ments of the sixteenth century.
INSPIRATION [ = inbreathing], the
influence of the Holy Spirit upon the
human faculties : which may be ex
traordinary and miraculous, as the
¦ inspiration of prophets and apostles,
&c. ; or ordinary, as in tho conveyance
of the gifts and graces of the Spirit
in the Church. By ' ' gifts " being meant
those necessary for special offices, as
in the ordination of the clergy ; by
" graces " tho influences necessary to all
¦Christians to growth in faith and holi
ness. That these " gifts " are believed
in by the Church of England is proved
by the singing of the Veni Creator over
kneeling candidates for ordination, and
the words for ordination and consecra
tion, ' ' Receive the Holy Ghost for the
work of a priest," or "of a bishop,"
&c. That these " graces " are believed
in is proved by tho whole Office for
Confirmation, and by many passages of
the prayers, e. g. by the Collect for the
Fifth, Sunday after Easter — "Grant
that by Thy holy inspiration we may
think those things that be good ; " and
the prayer for the Church Militant,
" Beseeching Thee to inspire continu
ally the universal Church with the
spirit of truth, unity, and concord."
See also the collects for ninth, seven
teenth, and nineteenth Sundays after
Trinity. INSPIRATION of Holy Scripture.
All Christians are agreed that the Holy
Scriptures of the Old and New Testa
ments are inspired, i. e. were written
under the influence of the Holy Spirit

(2 Tim. iii. 16 ; 2 Pet. i. 21 ; iii. 16).
The Church has never authoritatively
put forth any theory of the mode of
inspiration. A theory of inspiration,
largely held in the last generation,
has been productive of a great number
of the " difficulties of the Bible," which
afford arguments to unbelievers, and
perplex the faithful. It seems desirable
to say a few words on the subject.
The inspiration of the Holy Scriptures
is supernatural ; not only different iii
degree, but different in kind from the
Divine influence which may aid the
philosopher, or poet, or inventor. In
spiration is different from revelation:
revelation is the making known to a
man what, from the nature of the thing
made known, or from the circumstances
of the man, could not have been known
to him, except by special communica
tion from God ; inspiration is an in
fluence brought to bear upon a man
speaking or writing of things of which
he may have some natural knowledge,, , ,
The theory of "verbal inspiration,"
entertained by many pious persons, is
that the sacred writers were merely tho
mechanical writers of actual words put
into their minds by the Holy Spirit,
and does not leave room for any human
element in the Scriptures ; whereas
there is abundant evidence of the exist
ence of a human element as well as of
a Divine element in the Scriptures.
The one fact of the difference in
"style" between different books is
enough to prove the action in them of
the mental character of their human
authors. The other theory which has obtained
a general reception in the present day
is called the "dynamical theory": it
suggests that God selected the writer,
and put it into his mind to write, and
exercised an influence over him during
his writing as it-yjthe subject matter of
his work ; perils.,-^ exalted his natural
qualities of men^y, judgment, elo
quence ; above all, ^tqiarded him from
putting on record anything which was
erroneous, at least so far as related to
tho great moral and religious subject of

INSTITUTION

345

INTERDICT

his writing ; though it might leave him
no better informed than his contempo
raries on questions of science, &c. , out
side the great subject, and so liable to
use language on those outside questions
not strictly accurate.
So that there is a strong human
element in the Scriptures : at one time
the writer simply states in his own way,
in his own words, some incident within
his own knowledge ; at another time
what he relates is a direct revelation
from heaven ; at other times the writing
is composed in various degrees of the
Divine and human element ; but always
both elements co-exist in the Scrip
tures, and at all times the writer is
"inspired." Again, in the transmission of the
Holy Scriptures from age to age, God
has made the Church, of the earlier
and of the later dispensations, the
guardian of the Scriptures ; and we
believe that an over-ruling Providence
has watched over the preservation,
collection, and transmission of the
works ; but not to the exclusion of a
human element. The operation of this
human element is seen in the questions
which existed in early times, whether
. this or that book was rightly included
iii the canon ; and in later times,
whether this man or that was the
author of one of the books ; and at
all times, in the various readings which
have crept into the text through the
carelessness of copyists, and the endea
vours of editors to remove those errors.
This full admission of a human
element in the writing of the Scrip
tures, and in their transmission, ac
counts for those phenomena of human
character, and it may be even of human
fallibility, which cannot be denied to
exist in them, while it leaves unshaken
our entire confidence in the Bible, as
we have it, as the Inspired Word of God.
INSTITUTION. The presentee to a
benefice, after having taken the oaths
of allegiance and supremacy and canon
ical obedience, and subscribed to the
Biok of Common Prayer and the Thirty-
nine Articles, is solemnly instituted by

the Bishop, or his Commissary, into
"the cure of the souls of the parish
ioners and the government of the
church of tho parish " in the following
manner : the clerk kneels before the
bishop, who reads the words of -institu
tion from a written instrument sealed
with the episcopal seal, which seal the
clerk during the ceremony holds in
his hands, and finally receives the docu
ment as evidence of his institution.
He is "inducted" into the tempo
ralities of the benefice in the mode
described under the title Induction.
INTERDICT, a general sentence of
lesser excommunication against a num
ber of persons collectively. There is no
instance of such a use of ecclesiastical
censures until the eleventh century ;
in the twelfth and thirteenth it 'was
frequently employed by the Roman
Court against offenders and opponents.
A church or a churchyard might be
interdicted because of bloodshed com
mitted in them, and might not be used
until they were "reconciled" by the
bishop, or under his commission. A
community of persons might be inter
dicted, that is, shut out from Divine
services, because some unknown indi
viduals of the community had com
mitted an offence ; it was a rough way
of interesting the whole community in
giving up the offenders, or atoning for
the offence. The great instance of
interdict in our English history is that
which Pope Alexander III. inflicted
upon the whole Church of England, to
coerce King John, into the acceptance of
Langton as Archbishop. The effect of
the sentence was that, with some ex
ceptions, the churches and chapels of
the kingdom were closed against the
people for the usual daily services, and
the usual Sunday masses. Children
might be baptised, confirmation ad
ministered, Holy Communion given in
cases of necessity, the dead buried, but
all with "maimed rites," and on the
great feasts the services might be per
formed as usual. The exceptions in
this case were that several bishops
defied the Interdict, and it was only

INTROIT

346

IRVINGITES

partially observed in their dioceses,
and that some of the religious orders
claimed and exercised the right to con
tinue their ordinary services for their
own community, notwithstanding the
Interdict. It continued for five years,
from 1208 to 1213, to cast a gloom over
the land ; it was an act of indefensible
spiritual tyranny ; and the general effect
of keeping the people for all that period
from the ordinary worship of God and
the use of the means of grace must, one
would think, have been injurious to
religion. INTROIT. In the ancient office for
Holy Communion, and in that of the
first book of Edward VI., a psalm or
other composition was sung as the
clergy were entering the chancel and
taking their places before the altar,
which was therefore called the Introitus,
the psalm of Entry.
IRVINGITES. This remarkable out
come of the j'eligious revival of the
Victorian age began in 1831 in connec
tion with the National Scotch Church,
in Regent Square in London, of which
the eloquent Rev. Edward Irving was
the minister. His assistant minister,
the Rev. A. J. Scott, held strongly the
belief that the miraculous gifts of the
Apostolic age were not exceptional, but
part of the inheritance of the Church
in all ages. On a visit to Scotland in
1830 he led some pious and enthusiastic
people there to embrace his views and
to share his expectation of some speedy
special outpouring of the Holy Spirit.
One of these, Mary Campbell of Ferni-
carry, while engaged with others in a
devotional meeting, began to utter
"tongues and prophesyings." Soon
after similar phenomena were mani
fested in a family of the name of Mac-
donald of Port Glasgow. One of the
daughters of the family was supposed
to be restored from a dangerous sickness
by the prayers of her brother ; Mary
Campbell also was supposed to be raised
up from the brink of death by his
instrumentality. Mr. Cardale, a Londbn- solicitor, and
two others went down from London to

Scotland to inquire into these reports,
were convinced of their truth, and after
their return, October 30, 1830, devo
tional meetings were held in London
to pray for a special outpouring of the
Holy Spirit. In the following April at
one of these meetings Mrs. Cardale
"spake with tongues and prophesied."
Just at this time Mary Campbell (now
Mrs. Caird) came up to London as the
guest of Irving, and took a prominent
part in the subsequent proceedings.
In the course of the year other persons
manifested the same phenomena. The
first man who spoke "in the tongue"
was Mr. Taplin, who had been a school
master, and he was the first to be
formally recognised as a Prophet. Five
at least of the Apostles were subse
quently called by him, and he took a
leading part in the movement. But a
more important adherent was Mr. Henry
Drummond, the banker, whose adhe
sion at once gave a prestige to the
strange new movement, while his wealth
lavishly sustained it. Irving's eloquence
attracted crowded congregations, who
regarded him as the leader of the move
ment ; but in truth his Life reveals the
man of genius, bewildered amidst these
supernatural manifestations, which his
theory did not allow him to repudiate; <
but his instinctive good sense led him *
to distrust, carried along by the move
ment with painful struggles and mis
givings. Thus gradually a number of persons
came to be recognised as Prophets ; of
these seven formed a council, whose
inspired utterances directed the whole
movement : these seven were, Mr.t
Mrs.-, and Miss Cardale, Mr. and Lady
H. Drummond, Mr. Taylor, and Mr.
Bayford. A Mr, Baxter, of Doncaster, here
gave a powerful impulse to the develop
ment of the movement. Coming up
to London, he heard Mr. Taplin and
Miss Cardale speaking "in the tongue,"
and himself catching the infection
prophesied with so much power and
authority that he soon took a lead and
was acknowledged by all as a Prophet

IRVINGITES

347

IRVINGITES

of exceptional gifts. Among other
prophecies he declared that " in 1260
days from June 1832 the Lord Jesus
would come again in glory, the living
saints be caught up to meet Him, and
the dead saints raised." He it was
who started the idea of a revival of the
Order of Apostles, which became the
fundamental article of their creed.
Meantime the Presbytery of the
Scotch Church in London had brought
Irving to trial for his share in these
proceedings, pronounced sentence of
expulsion on him May 2, 1832, and
the doors of his chapel were closed
against him by its trustees. His ad
herents removed to a building in New
man Street, October 24, and it was
hero a few days after its opening that
Mr. Cardale was called by the voice of
the Prophets to be the first Apostle ;
eleven months after Mr. Drummond
was called ; and the number of twelve
was gradually filled up by the end of
1835. The whole number of Apostles
then repaired to the house of Mr. H.
Drummond, at Albury, in Surrey,
where they spent two and a half years,
and where the remainder of the system
was elaborated, which we briefly sum
up as it now stands.
Tho adherents of this movement
look upon it as a new outpouring of
the Pentecostal gifts, and a restoration
of the decayed and defective organisa
tion of the Church, for the purpose of
preparing the Church and the world for
the speedy second coming of Christ.
They adopt the belief in a conversion
and restoration of the Jews to their own
land, to become a great agency in the
subsequent religious progress. They
believe in the Millennium of a thou
sand years, which will be followed by a
great apostasy, and then the end will
come. In the main doctrines of Christianity
they appear to be sound and earnest
believers. In organisation they have
created » new hierarchy of Apostle,
Prophet, Evangelist, Pastor. In a
fully constituted Church there is a
thief pastor, whom they call the Angel ;

they have an order of Deacons, who
assist at Holy Communion and take
care of the temporal affairs of the
Church, and they teach the duty of
paying a tithe of their income to the
Church. In ritual they have drawn
up a liturgy and offices, chiefly from
Eastern sources, they use the ancient
ecclesiastical ornaments and vestments,
and present a very grand and imposing
ceremonial. They imitate all the sacra
ments and orders of the Church, and
have revived the use of unction of the
sick. The erection of a very fine church in
Gordon Square, one of the finest modern
churches in London, which was opened
on Christmas Eve, 1853, by its archi
tectural importance and the beauty of
its services, helped to give character to
the body to which it belonged.
It is obvious that the whole elaborate
and imposing organisation rests upon
the foundation of the revived Aposto
late. A number of earnest Presby
terians, studying the New Testament
for themselves, came to the conclusion
that the organisation of the Church is
incomplete without an Apostolate ; not
possessing such an order in the body to
which they belonged, they concluded
that the order had been allowed by
the Church to lapse. Had they been
acquainted with sound Church teaching
they would have known that the
Apostolate did not lapse, but was con
tinued in the bishops of the Church.
So that the "revived Apostolate" is
simply the setting up of a new rival
claimant to the authority which the
bishops derive in regular succession
from the first Apostolate appointed
by Christ Himself. [See Apostolical
Succession. ]
Again, the authority of the revived
Apostolate rests upon the reality of
the Divine inspiration of the Prophets
who called them. When the Church
is called upon to recognise a new reve
lation and to accept the rule of a
new Apostolate, we are entitled to ask
for the credentials of this new dis*
pensation, and they are offered in the

IRVINGITES

348

IRVINGITES

Pentecostal signs of miracle, and tongue,
and prophecy.
But when we examine the alleged
miracles they are all found to be of the
kind which are well known to attend
nearly every occasion of "great religious
revival," which depend upon the won
derful effect of powerful excitement on
the nervous system, and which we
cannot for a moment allow to be the
sufficient miraculous evidence of a new
Divine revelation.
Mary Campbell thought tho tongue
she spoke might be the language of
some tribe of Pacific Islanders. It was
declared by learned men that the
"tongues" were not (like those of
Pentecost) human languages at all.
This was then admitted, but it was
claimed that they were the "unknown
tongues" spoken of in 1 Cor. xiv. ; a
claim which it might be as difficult to
disprove as it is easy to assert ; but we
have some testimony on the subject
which is enough to make us regard all
these "unknown tongues" with great
suspicion, e. g. the Rev. H. McNeile,
the late Dean of Ripon, who was then
Vicar of Albury, and not unfavourably
disposed towards the movement in its
infancy, says, "I heard Mr. Taplin,
and what I heard was this, — I write it
in all seriousness before God, without
scoff, sneer, or ridicule, but simply as
a bond fide description of what I heard.
It was neither more or less than what
is commonly called jargon, uttered ore
rotundo, and mingled with Latin words,
among which I heard more than once,
'Amamini, amaminor.'" That is to
say, Mr. Taplin, being an ex-school-
rnaster, when he had lost self-control
and broken out into an ecstatic utter
ance, the familiar principal parts of a
Latin verb came rolling unconsciously
off his tongue, and were accepted as a
supernatural "tongue." Rhapsodical
utterances which cannot be verified as
known languages, " unknown tongues "
of so suspicious a character on the face
of them, cannot be accepted as sufficient
evidence of a new Divine revelation.
Of the prophecies some were vague

enough to bear ingenious after-adapta-,
tion to events ; but some were definite .
enough to supply a clear test of their
inspiration, e.g. Mr. Baxter's prophecy
that the second advent would happen
on July 14, 1S32, was not fulfilled ; but
it was ingeniously explained, and the
event was postponed to July 14, 1835 ;
when a large expectant congregation
assembled in the church in Gordon
Square, and again the prophecy was
not fulfilled. The test of prophecy
fails, then, as completely as those of
miracle and. of tongue.
In reading the history of the move
ment it is not difficult to detect the
mixture of fanaticism and imposture
which is usual in such movements.
Mary Campbell (Mrs. Caird) confessed
in a letter to Mr. Story, the pastor of
her parish, "her sin and error in call
ing her own impressions the word of
God." Mr. Baxter, the originator ' of
the idea of the new Apostolate, after
a few months recognised that he had
been under a delusion, and came up to
London again to tell Irving and Cardale,
"We have all been speaking by a lying
spirit, and not by the Spirit of God."
Prophet contradicted Prophet, Car-
dale saying of the utterances of Taplin
that "he had been deluded ; the whole
being a suggestion of Satan." On
another occasion Miss Cardale rebuked
Taplin for rebuking Irving, and after
some days Taplin admitted that he had
spoken this rebuke "by the power of
an evil spirit."
Of the twelve Apostles called, one,
Mr. Tudor, never went to the sphere of
labour allotted to him. Another, Mr.
Drew, declined to take up the office ;
Mr. Mackenzie was appointed in the
place of this "Judas," and he after
a short time retired from the body.
Finally, tne duties assigned to these
twelve Apostles were that each should
go into the country opened to him,
and there seal 12,000, and then the
end should, come. , But they did not
even go to the countries assigned
them ; and they are all but one dead ;,;
how can they seal them now? An

JEWEL

JEWS

ingenious explanation is forthcoming ;
we are told they are sealing them in
paradise !
The incredulous world will probably
conclude that the failure of the Aposto
late ought to seal the failure of one of
the most remarkable excrescences of the
religious movement of this century.
At present they claim to have 104
places of public worship in England
and Wales, and they have scattered
adherents in other places who usually
attend the services of the Church of

aid evident testimony out of any father
or famous writer who flourished within
600 years after Christ, of the existence
pf any one of the articles which the
Romanists maintain against the Church
'of England. In the following year,
January 21, 1560, he was consecrated
Bishop of Salisbury, and in the year after
that published his famous 'Apologia
Ecolesiee Anglican se ' — an apology for tho
Church of England, which was accepted
by the Church of that day as its formal
defence in the face of Christendom. It

England. The whole number of their Was published with the formal approval
adherents is probably not large, and, in jot the queen and consent of the bishops,
spite of a recent proselytising effort, h.) and was ordered by Elizabeth, James,

of

gradually diminishing. (' Life
Irving,' ' History and Doctrines of
Irvingism,' E. Miller ; Article in
'Church Quarterly Review, ' 1878, p.- 34. )

JEWEL, John, Bishop of Salisbury,
born 1522, died 1571, was born at
Buden, Devonshire, educated at Barn
staple and Merton College, Oxford,
scholar (1539) of Corpus Christi, Oxford,
Rector of Sunninghill, Berks. On the
accession of Edward VI. Jewel joined
the party of advanced reformers, and
entered into an intimacy with Peter
Martyr, then Professor of Divinity at
Oxford, whose lectures he used to take
down in shorthand. On the accession
of Mary, his college deprived him of
his fellowship, on the ground of some
irregularity in the qualification ; but
the university elected him public
orator. He subscribed the adhesion
to the papal doctrine required of him
with great reluctance ; and finding that,
notwithstanding this, he was in danger
on account of his opinions, he went into
exile to Frankfort, Strasburg, and
Zurich. The ' year after the accession
of Elizabeth Jewel returned to England,
and his great learning and ability se
cured him the notice of the authorities.
He greatly distinguished himself by a
sermon at Paul's Cross, in which he gave
a challenge to all the Roman Catholics
in the world to produce but one clear

and Charles, and by four successive
archbishops, to be placed in all the
churches of England and Wales for the
instruction of the people. It is the
nature of controversies to shift their
ground from generation to generation,
and the fate of controversial books to
become obsolete. Jewel's famous work
did great service in its day, and must
always have its value, but it does not
meet the present state of the controversy
between the Churches. He wrote other
controversialbooksandsermons, publish
ed with a ' Life ' by the Parker Society.
JEWS. Throughout the Middle
Ages the Jews held a very conspicuous
place in England, as in the other Chris
tian nations of Europe. Christians-
hated the Jews as disbelievers in Chris
tianity. This hatred was fanned into
fanaticism by the general crusading
spirit against unbelievers : the Mahom-
medans persecuted Christians in tho
Holy Land, and we hated Jews here.
This fanatical hatred was kept burning
by the belief that Jews offered Christian
children in sacrifice at their passover.
One story of this kind gained such
credence as to add one of the little
supposed martyrs to the medipeval
calendar, viz. Little St. Hugh of Lin
coln. [See Chaucer's Prioress's Tale.]
This hatred of the Jews was exagger
ated by other causes. It was thought
wrong by Christians to lend money at
interest ; the Jews, denied permission
to hold land, had turned their attention

JURISDICTION

350

JUXON

to finance as well as commerce, and
were willing to lend money (not to
their, brethren, but to Christians) on
interest. The Jews therefore were re
garded as taking advantage of the
necessities and misfortunes of Chris
tians, and gathering up the wealth of
the country by a usury whose wicked
ness seemed to be proved by the fact
that Christians might not practise it at
all, and that Jews might not practise
it on their brethren.
Jews were only allowed to live in
separate quarters in certain of the prin- j
cipal cities, as London, Norwich, York, (
Lincoln, called the Jewry ; wore a par
ticular badge ; and were under civil
disabilities. Having no feudal rights,
they were the king's ' ' men, " under his
protection and at his mercy. The king
liad little scruple in supplying the
necessities of the State by exacting
from them large benevolences out of
the money which they had unlawfully
wrung out of the people. And the
people had little scruple, when stirred
up to it by some new fanatical stoiy,
in maltreating the Jews and sacking
their houses.
It was hot till 1845 that an Act of
Parliament enabled Jews to hold muni
cipal offices, and not till 1858 that they
were allowed to sit in Parliament by
a resolution of the House of Commons.
JURISDICTION. The theoiy of
spiritual jurisdiction enters so largely
into the history and actual status of
the Church of England, that it is desir
able to have clear ideas upon it.
In general the word means lawful
authority, and power to enforce the
sentence of lawful authority. Eccle
siastical jurisdiction means the lawful
authority of the Church, and power to
enforce its sentences.
This ecclesiastical jurisdiction divides
it-elf into two distinct portions. (1)
The spiritual jurisdiction which is in
herent in bishops and priests of Christ's
Church, delegated to them by Christ,
the Head of the Church, as may
be established out of Holy Scripture,
and regulated by the canons of the

Church. The obedience of members of
the Church to this jurisdiction is vol
untary, and in theory the only modes
of enforcing it are by spiritual censures,
as admonition and excommunication.
But in practice the Church imposes
certain penances, which, in fact, amount
to punishments, personal and pecuni-iJ
ary, and which are submitted to by
the penitent rather than incur the
heavier sentence of excommunication.
(2) Is the coercive jurisdiction which the
Government of a countiy confers upon
\Ni Church in that countiy. A Chris-
\ "i Government recognises the duty of
L.ithng the Church in its work of con
ducting the Divine -Worship, and pro
moting the godliness of the people.
It also recognises in the Church a
valuable ally in the maintenance of
peace and order, and the promotion of
virtue, industry, and prosperity. There
fore the State lends the assistance of
the temporal power to carry out the
sentences of the rulers of the Church,"
or gives the rulers of the Church au
thority to carry out its own sentences
by force. This constitutes the coercive
jurisdiction of the Church.
It is clearly in the province of the
State to set limits to the jurisdiction
which it may think proper to confer
on the Church, and to decide by what
agency it shall be carried out, and
to maintain a supervision over its
proper exercise. And in the history of
the Church of England, the extent of
jurisdiction conferred, and the mode
of exercising it, has been modified from
time to time, and perhaps needs at this
time a. new revision. [See< Royal Su
premacy, Ecclesiastical Courts.]
JUXON, William, Archbishop, born
1582, died 1663 ; was born at Chichester;
educated, at St. John's College, Oxford,
where ho took a fellowship, 1598 ;'
Vicar of St. Giles, Oxford, and Rector
of Somerton, 1614 ; in 1621 was chosen
president of his college, after which he
rose rapidly, by the influence of Laud,"
to be successively Dean of Worcester,
Clerk of the Closet, Bishop of Hereford,
Dean of the Chapels Royal, and 16.33

KEN

351

KEN

Bishop of London. His amiable temper
and benevolence made him a general
favourite ; while his ability led Laud
to appoint him to the office of Lord
High Treasurer in 1625, which great
office of State ho held till 1641, with
general approval of his conduct in it.
He remained firm in his loyalty to King
Charles, by whom he was frequently
consulted ; was in attendance upon
him at the treaty in the Isle of Wight,
and during his trial, and upon the
scaffold. On the abolition of the Epis
copate by Parliament, Juxon retired to
his own estate at Little Compton,
Gloucestershire, where he lived through
tho Commonwealth unmolested. At
the Restoration the universal opinion
marked him out for the See of Canter
bury, to which he was appointed, 1660.
During the short time he held the see
ho was a great benefactor to it. He
died June 4, 1663. One of the last of
the long line of statesman bishops.

K
KEN, Thomas, Bishop of Bath and
Wells (deprived), born 1637, died 1711 ;
was born at Little Berkhampstead,
Herts, his father being an attorney, of
an ancient Somersetshire family ; was
educated at Winchester and New Col
lege, Oxford ; took his B.A. 1661, and
M.A. 1664. The date of his ordination
is uncertain. In 1663 he was presented
to Little Easton Rectory, Essex ; 1666
he was elected a fellow of Winchester,
and was appointed his chaplain by
Morley, Bishop of Winchester, and
resigned Easton; 1667 was Rector of
Brighstone", Isle of Wight, which he
resigned two years after, being made
Prebendary of Winchester, and Rector
of Wodhay, 1669, which latter he re
signed in 1672. It was about this time
that he wrote his ' Manual of Prayers '
for Winchester scholars. The three
hymns for morning, evening, and mid
night, by which he is best known, were
first published in an edition of the
'Manual' in 1700.
In 1675 Ken made a tour through

France and Italy. In 1679 ho was
appointed chaplain at the Hague to the
Princess Mary, wife of William Prince of
Orange, a position of great delicacy and
difficulty, for which his gentle, amiable
nature, apostolic simplicity, integrity,
and firmness well fitted him. On
his return in 1680 he was appointed
chaplain to the king. It was now the
incident occurred which is always
quoted as illustrative of his fearless
maintenance of right. On one of
Charles II. 's visits to Winchester, the
king was about to make a considerable
stay in the city, where he proposed
to build himself a palace ; he was
lodged at the deanery, and the principal
courtiers were lodged in others of the
best houses of tho town, Among others
the royal "harbinger" selected the
prebendal house of Dr. Ken for Nell
Gwynne's residence ; but Ken refused
to allow her the use of his house,
declaring that a woman of ill-repute
ought not to be endured in the house
of a clergyman, especially of the king's
chaplain. It is to the honour of Charles
that, thoroughly vicious as he was, he
could admire the holy severity of a
man like Ken, who gained rather than
lost favour by his boldness. In 1683
he went as chaplain of the fleet which
Lord Dartmouth took to Tangiers,
where the infamous Kirke was governor,
to destroy the fortifications, withdraw
the garrison and English residents, and
abandon the place. In the year after
his return he lost by death his brother-
in-law, Izaac Walton, the author of
the 'Complete Angler,' and Bishop
Morley, his patron and friend. The
translation of Dr. Mews from Bath
and Wells to Winchester in Morley's
place left the former see vacant. When
candidates for this vacancy were being
suggested to the king, he replied at
length, " Where is the good little man
who refused to give poor Nell a lodging ?
let him have it. " He was consecrated
January 25, 1685. Instead of the costly
dinner which it was customary for a
new bishop to give, he gave the cost of
it in the way indicated in this entry in

KEN

352

KEN

the list of subscribers to the rebuilding
of St. Paul's Cathedral, lately destroyed
in the great fire, January 26, 1684-5 : —
' ' Dr. Thomas Ken, Lord Bishop of Bath
and Wells, in lieu of his consecration
dinner and gloves, £100 " (equivalent
to about £400 or £500 now). On that
same Sunday of Ken's consecration,
in the evening, this is tho scene at
Court which Evelyn in his 'Diary'
describes: "1 can never forget the
inexpressible luxury and profaneness,
gaming and dissoluteness, and, as it
were, total forgetfulness of God (it being
Sunday evening), which I was witness
of — the king sitting and toying with
his concubines, Portsmouth, Cleveland,
and Mazarine, &c. , a French boy sing
ing love-songs in that glorious gallery,
whilst about twenty of the great cour
tiers and other dissolute persons were
at basset round a large table, a bank
of at least £2000 in gold before them.
Six days after all was in the dust."
Within the week the king was suddenly
seized with his mortal sickness. ' ' Arch
bishop Sancroft and the Bishops of
London and Ely were present, but
more especially Dr. Ken, Bishop of
Bath and Wells," who " gave a close
attendance by the royal bed without
any intermission at least for three whole
days and nights, watching at proper
intervals to suggest pious and proper
thoughts, and ejaculations on so serious
an occasion." (Evelyn.) Bishop Burnet
( ' History of his own Times ' ) says Ken
applied himself much to awakening the
king's conscience. ' ' Ho spoke with great
elevation, both of thought and expres
sion, like a man inspired, as those who
were present told me. He resumed the
matter often, and pronounced many
short ejaculations and prayers, which
affected all that were present, except
him that was the most concerned, who
seemed to take no notice of him, and
made no answers to him. He pressed
the king six or seven times to take the
Sacrament, but the king always de
clined it, saying he was very weak. A
table with the elements upon it, ready
to be consecrated, was brought into

the room, which occasioned a report to
be then spread about that he had re
ceived it."
On the refusal of the bishops- to
order the reading in the churches of
James II. 's illegal Declaration of In
dulgence, Ken was one of the seven
who signed the petition to the king, and
were committed to the Tower. But he
was also one of those who, when William
and Mary were declared sovereigns by
the Convention Barliament, declined to
take the oath of allegiance to them, on
the ground that they had already taken
that oath to James II. ; and, so long as
he claimed their allegiance, although' .
willing to accept William and Mary as
sovereigns de facto, they did not feel
at liberty to take the oath to any other.
For this he, together with the other non
jurors, was deprived of his see ; thus
creating the new difficulty, whether, '•
while he lived and maintained his claim 1
to the see, any other could be lawful
bishop of his diocese.
Before quitting he took leave of the
people in the cathedral, from his pastoral
chair, and also in the Market Square,
publicly asserting his canonical right,
professing that he esteemed himself the
canonical bishop of the diocese, and
that he should be ready on all occasions
to perform his pastoral duties.
The see was offered to Dr. Beveridge,
who refused it on the ground that he
was not satisfied that the see was
canonically vacant. Next it was offered
to Dr. Kidder, who was very reluctant
to accept it. He did not agree with
Beveridge in thinking it unlawful, but
knew very well that he should be able
to do less good if he came into a
bishopric " void by deprivation ; " but
at last he accepted. Viscount W ymouth,
a former college friend, offered the
ejected bishop a home in his house of
Long Leat, where he spent the remain
ing twenty years of his uneventful but
saintly and honoured life, and solaced
himself with study, prayer, and medi
tation, with poetry, and the converse
of friends. While acting with self-'
sacrificing fidelity to what he esteemed ,

KEN

353

LAITY

to be the claims of conscience and duty,
Ken kept his soul free from the bitter
ness which is perhaps the special
temptation of suffering for conscience
sake. He found no fault with others
whose consciences allowed them to take
the oaths which he refused. He did
nothing to hinder his successor in his
see, or to alienate his clergy from him.
He did not concur with Sancroft and
the other non-juring bishops and clergy,
who declared the conforming bishops
and clergy to be in schism ; and stead
fastly declined to countenance the per
petuation of a separation by the con
secration and ordination of bishops and
priests in the non-juring succession.
On the accession of Queen Anne, she
was desirous of restoring Ken to his
diocese by the translation of Kidder to
a vacancy, but Ken declined. On the
sudden death of Kidder, 26 November,
1703, the offer of his restoration was
again made to Ken ; but he again
declined, and formally resigned the
see in favour of his friend Hooper, who
was consecrated as his successor.
Lastly, being the only surviving
non-juring bishop, he declared strongly
against the perpetuation of the schism,
and on his recommendation Nelson,
Dodwell, and other leading men among
the non-jurors went to Church with
their families on the first Sunday in
Lent, 1710.
On the 19th of March, 1711, after a
severe illness, feeling that his end was
oome, he himself put on his shroud, and
so peacefully died. He was buried, as
he had desired, "in the churchyard of
the nearest parish within his diocese,
under the east window of the chancel,
just at sun-rising, without any manner
of pomp or ceremony besides that of
the order for burial in the Liturgy
of the Church of England," "being
carried to the grave by the six poorest
men in the parish." In the will in
which he gave these directions for his
burial, he also left a declaration of his
faith. "As for my religion, I die in
the Holy Catholic and Apostolic Faith,
professed by the whole Church before

the disunion of East and West ; more
particularly I die in the Communion of
the Church of England as it stands dis
tinguished from all papal and puritan
innovations, and as it adheres to the
doctrine of the cross. "
A man of cheerful and even facetious
temper, of poetic turn of mind, of
primitive piety, of apostolic boldness,
deserving the canonisation which the
general voice of the Church has given
him as the ' ' Saintly Ken. "

LAITY (from \abg = the people), the
word used from very early times to
distinguish the members of the Church
who are not in Orders, as the word
Clergy distinguishes those who are in
Orders ; so that the whole body of
the Church is made up of clergy and
laity. The terms by which the laity
are called in the New Testament are
"the brethren," "the faithful," and
"the saints" — words which, perhaps,
better express the idea of the spiritual
and sacred character of the lay mem
bers of the Church and Body of
Christ, as compared with those who
are outside that Divine institution.
For it must always be- borne in mind
that it is the Church as a whole which
is the Body of Christ ; that the Spirit
dwells in this Body as a whole, and in
every member of it ; that the Church
as a whole is a "chosen generation, a
royal priesthood, an holy nation, a pecu
liar people " (1 Peter ii. 9); "an holy
priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices
to God by Jesus Christ " (1 Peter ii. 5) ;
that we have all in a sense been made
"kings and priests unto God in His
Church " (Rev. i. 6) ; that the clergy
are the organs through which this Body
acts towards God, the mouth through
which it speaks, the hands by which it
ministers. This "priesthood of the
laity " has always been recognised
in the Church ; though the Church
exercises its sacerdotal functions
through the clergy, it has always been
understood that the whole body takes

LAMBETH CONFERENCE 354

LANFRANC

part in them. The alternate singing
of the Psalms in the daily service,
which are the essential part of that
service, and the "Aniens" of the
Eucharistic office, are formal provisions
for the exercise of these functions on
the part of the laity.
LAMBETH CONFERENCE. [See
Pan-Anglican Synods.]
LANFRANC, Archbishop of Canter
bury, born 1005, died 1089, was born
at Pavia, his father, Harbald, being of
"senatorial rank," i.e. probably one
of the magistrates or governing body
of the city. He studied in the uni
versity of his native city, which at that
time was the most famous school of
law in Europe, and subsequently prac
tised in its courts, and gained a high
reputation as an advocate. It was
probably some political revolution which
caused him to abandon Pavia, and to
seek his fortune in Normandy. About
1039 he opened school at Avranches,
and the learning, eloquence, and fame
of the Lombard teacher soon attracted
a crowd of pupils. Here one of those
spiritual crises occurred to him which
sometimes alter a man's whole character
and life, and which led him to resolve
to forsake the world and undertake the
monastic life. Without notice to any
one, he left his pupils behind, and
set off across the countiy towards the
monastery of Ouche, which he had
learnt was one of the strictest of the
religious houses of Normandy. On
the way, however, he was robbed,
stripped, and bound to a tree ; when
released by some passing travellers, he
betook himself to the neighbouring
monastery of Bee. This had been
lately founded by Herluin, a noble by
birth, who, seized with the desire of an
ascetic life, and finding no monastery
whose life was sufficiently austere, had
retired to his own estate, and there in
the seclusion of a little valley, watered
by the Reise, had built a few rude
buildings, and gathered a few followers,
over whom he ruled as abbot, under a
simple but severely ascetic rule. Lan
franc found here the seclusion and

severity of which he was in search, and
became one of Herluin's monks. They
were apparently ill-suited to one an
other ; for while Lanfranc was one of
the great scholars of his time, Herluin
was unable to read and write ; but
in reality they did suit one another.;
Herluin admired the talent of his
learned and eloquent monk, and Lan
franc appreciated the noble simplicity
and piety of his abbot ; moreover, Her
luin possessed a knowledge of Scripture
which Lanfranc apparently lacked, and
the spiritual experience and the power
of guiding the spiritual life of others,
which was what the new convert espe
cially desired. So the Lombard scholar
continued for three years in the seclu
sion of Bee, leading a, life of ascetic
piety. But his fame could not long be
hid, and again crowds of scholars re
sorted to him. Herluin consented to
the conversion of his secluded retreat
into a great school ; the buildings were
enlarged to accommodate the new
comers, and the humble abbey in time
became one of the most famous of the
monasteries of Western Europe. , ,-
While Prior of Bee he. became in
volved in a controversy with Beren-
garius, an old friend and fellow student,
on the subject which was then agitating
the minds of scholars, on the mode of
the presence of Christ in the Sacrament
of the Eucharist, Lanfranc taking the
view which was then beginning to pre
vail, and which was ultimately known
under the name of Transubstantiation.1
He also became involved in controversy
on the legality of the marriage which
William, Duke of Normandy, had lately
contracted with Matilda, daughter of
the Earl of Flanders (1053), who was
related to him within the degrees pro
hibited by the Church of Rome. After
an ineffectual attempt to win over tho
learned Prior of Bee to his side, William
ordered him to leave his dominions ;
but on his journey to Rouen, the prior
accidentally met the duke. A conversa
tion ensued ; Lanfranc seems to havo
pointed out to William the wisdom of
seeking a. dispensation from Rome

LANFRANC

355

LANGTON

rather than quarrelling with the
Church, and William at once commis
sioned the learned doctor of law to pro
ceed to Rome and solicit the dispensa
tion. Lanfranc succeeded in his errand,
and obtained the dispensation, on con
dition that William and Matilda should
build two monasteries and four hos
pitals. The two monasteries were built
at Caen, one for monks, the other for
nuns, and their churches still remain.
As soon as the Monastery of St. Stephen,
for monks, was completed, the duke
desired Lanfranc to take the office of
its abbot, and the duty of acting as
tutor to his children. Here he or
ganised his convent, and established
his school, and wrote books, and grew
in reputation. In the year 1067, after
the Conquest, Lanfranc was elected
to the vacant Archbishopric of Rouen,
but persistently refused to accept the
office. In 1070, on the deposition of
Stigand, William desired to make
Lanfranc Archbishop of Canterbury ;
again he refused, and persisted in
his refusal, against the urgency of
the Queen Matilda, and of his old
abbot, Herluin of Bee, but yielded
at last to the injunctions of the Pope,
Alexander II., who had been his own
pupil. Having accepted the office of its
archbishop, he set himself to put in
order the affairs of the distracted Eng
lish Church, a task for which he proved
himself well qualified. Though he had
made his reputation as a scholar, he
was pre-eminently a man of strong sense
and practical ability. Though an Italian,
he was not of the party which at that
time, under the powerful influence of
Hildebrand, was endeavouring to ex
tend the power of the papacy over both
mitre and crown. He recognised in
deed, with the whole Church of Nor
mandy, a visitatorial right in the Roman
bishop as Patriarch of the West ; but
he was heartily with William in the
laws which he made for the limitation
of the papal authority. in his new king
dom. The history of the changes
effected in the Church at this time is

narrated elsewhere. [See Mediaeval
Period of Church History.]
Lanfranc found his own cathedral in
ruins from the effect of a fire three years
before his consecration, and rebuilt it
with considerable magnificence ; he also
converted the capitular body of canons
into a convent of Benedictine monks,
the dean and majority of the canons con
curring in the change. He gave his
new convent a rule, which was little
more than the Benedictine rule, with
certain modifications to adapt it to the
special case of a metropolitan Church,
which is still extant among his works.
On the death of William (1087) the
archbishop continued to have, the same
influence in the counsels of his son and
successor ; but he did not live much
longer to exercise this beneficial influ
ence. He died in his new monastery at
Canterbury on 24th May, 1089, having
deserved well of his sovereign, and of
the Church,and of the realm of England.
'Opera Lanfranc,' edited by Dr.
Giles ; ' Life of Lanfranc, ' by Dean
Church ; Dean Hook's ' Lives of the
Archbishops. '
LANGTON, Stephen, Cardinal, died
1228, was an Englishman, but the
place and date of his birth are not
known ; was educated in the schools
of Paris, where he became famous as
a scholar ; held two prebends, one in
Notre Dame, Paris, the other in York
Cathedral ; and was Rector Scholarum
— a position corresponding with that of
vice-chancellor — in Paris. Pope Inno
cent III., who had been his fellow-
student and friend at Paris, on his own
election to the papacy, gave Langton
an appointment in his household, and
(1206) raised him to the cardinalate.
On the death of Hubert, Archbishop of
Canterbury (1205), a disputed election
to the vacancy occurred : a party of
the monks hastily and secretly elected
their sub-prior, Reginald, enthroned
him, and sent him off at once to Rome
to obtain his confirmation ; but King
John desired to promote one of his
chief councillors, John de Grey, Bishop
of Norwich, and recommended him to

LANGTON

356

LANGTON

the chapter. He was regularly elected
without opposition, enthroned, invested
with the temporalities of the see, and
Elias of Brantfred was sent to Rome to
obtain his confirmation. Thirdly, the
bishops of tho province, who claimed a
right of election with the chapter, also
sent a deputation to Rome to dispute
both elections. Innocent took advan
tage of the opportunity to take the
' appointment into his own hands. He
set aside all three elections as invalid,
commanded the monks of Canterbury
who were present to proceed to a new
election in his presence, and, further,
he commanded them to elect Langton.
They raised objections, which he over
ruled ; pleaded that they had taken
oaths not to accept any other, from
which he at once absolved them ; final
ly, he threatened them with the cen
sures of the Church, and they obeyed
(Dec. 1206), and Langton was elected.
Innocent tried to recommend his
nominee to the king in a conciliatory
letter, to which John replied with
spirit, denouncing the refusal to con
firm the Bishop of Norwich as unjust,
and the nomination of Langton as an
audacious encroachment on the rights
of his crown, and the liberties of the
Church and nation ; threatening to
restrain his subjects from appealing to
Rome, and to prevent the wealth of
the kingdom from enriching the papal
treasuiy. The pope replied with
haughty insolence, and proceeded to
consecrate Langton at Viterbo, 17th
June, 1207. The king banished the
monks of Canterbury ;' seized their
property and the revenues of the see ;
and called upon their rivals, the monks
of St. Augustine, Canterbury, to take
up the duties of the cathedral chapter.
The pope retorted with one of the most
terrible weapons in his spiritual ar
moury, he threatened to place the king
dom under interdict. John rejoined that
if his clergy obeyed the interdict he
would banish the whole body and con
fiscate their goods, and that if he found
any of the Roman clergy in his dominions
h? Would send them back to Rome with

their eyes plucked out and their noses
slit. On the 23rd of March three
English bishops, whom the pope had
commissioned, proclaimed the interdict
and fled for their lives ; and the king
immediately sequestrated the property
of all the clergy who should obey tho
sentence. It was only partially obeyed.
Three bishops — Winchester, Durham,
and Norwich — disregarded the interdict,
and many other individual clergymen ;
and even where the interdict was ob
served, in the monasteries people could
attend service on the Sundays ; mar
riages and churchings were allowed,
but only at the church door ; sermons,
but only in the open - air. Children
might be baptised ; but the Holy Com
munion administered only to the dying.
John opened negotiations with the pope,
but refused the conditions offered, and
the pope threatened to excommuni
cate him. The barons and people stood
by the king in the quarrel, but his own
conduct gradually alienated them ; he
outraged the nobles by his licentious
intrigues in their families, and alienated '¦¦
the clergy by tyranny and exactions.
He was condemned by the Court of
France as guilty of the murder of his
nephew, Prince Arthur, and his duke
dom of Normandy was seized by the
suzerain king. The pope at length
pronounced the King of England to
be deposed, and proclaimed a crusade,
under the command of the King of
France, to execute the sentence. The
barons and people again rallied round
the king, on the threat of a French
invasion, and mustered an army of
60,000 men on Barham Downs. But
instead of fighting France, John made
his submission to the pope. On the
13th May the king met Pandulf, the
legate, at Dover, and there surrendered
crown and kingdom to the papal see ;
and on consenting to pay homage and
tribute, received them back as tho
pope's vassal. The king's surrender
involved his acceptance of Langton as
archbishop. The archbishop met the
king at Winchester, where he absolved .
him, and celebrated the Eucharist there

LANGTON

357

LANGTON

in spite of the interdict ; it wafc not till
1214 that the interdict was removed,
after having lasted six years, three
months, and fourteen days.
In order to understand the action of
Langton in the establishment of the
liberties of England, it is necessary to
remember that hitherto the king had
governed by the advice and aid of a
council, consisting of certain prelates
and barons ; that there was no regular
army ; every baron, and every prelate
also, had his own following of knights
and armed men. The king had the
largest following of them all, and a
right besides to summon his barons and
prelates to take the field in certain
contingencies. So that while the king
was more powerful than the greatest of
his barons, yet a combination of power
ful barons was more powerful than the
king. It was Langton who, in the
very year that he came into England,
organised the barons and prelates into
a political party, to resist the tyranny
of the king, and to compel him to sign
the Great Charter, by which the liber
ties of the people were formally secured.
At a meeting held at St. Paul's, Lon
don, Aug. 1213, the archbishop read
to the nobles the charter of liberties
granted by Henry I. at his coronation,
and confirmed by Henry II., which
was in effect a declaration of the old
English liberties, as opposed to the
arbitrary rights of conquest which the
Conqueror and Rufus had exercised.
This it was determined by the assembly
to make the foundation of their claims ;
and the prelates and barons took oath
to stand by one another. The pope
now tried to support the king against
his nobles. The king tried, by taking
the cross, to invest himself with the
immunities of a crusader ; he enlisted
foreign mercenaries. But he found
himself deserted by all but his habitual
courtiers. The barons mustered their
forces and marched on London, where
the citizens sympathised with them,
and at length compelled the king at
Runnymede, on 15th June, 1215, to
sign the Great Charter, which estab

lished the ancient liberties of the people
under the later Saxon kings, together
with such new securities as late usurp
ations had made necessary. The charter
sets forth that the Church of England
shall have all her rights and liberties
without diminution or disturbance, and
the freedom of electing bishops is re
cognised as the most necessary and
fundamental privilege of the Church of
England. Langton was censured and
suspended by the pope for the part
which he had taken in the matter.
He notwithstanding went to Rome,
and attended the Fourth Lateran Coun
cil, in which, among other things, the
doctrine of transubstantiation was for
the first time synodically authorised,
and confession was made generally
obligatory. On the death of John, Langton re
turned to England (1218). Soon after
his return the young king solemnly
confirmed the Magna Gharta, to which
(notwithstanding the pope's condemna
tion of the charter) Langton affixed his
seal. On 17th May, 1220, Hemy III.
was a second time crowned and anointed
by Langton, who thereby sanctioned the
setting aside of Eleanor of Brittany,
who was the direct heir to the throne.
In 1222 Langton held a Council at
Osney, near Oxford, from which we
learn that many of the secular clergy
still persisted in having wives, since
canons 28 and 30 threaten them with
excommunication and deprivation for
this offence against former canons.
This council also condemned to be
burnt a deacon who had apostatised to
Judaism in order to many a Jewess :
the only capital condemnation for
heresy which we read of till the passing
of the Act de Iwclico comburendo in
A.D. 1400.
The Dominican and Franciscan Or
ders were introduced into England in
Langton's episcopate,— the former in
1221, the latter in 1224,— and were
authorised to preach in his province.
After the death of John,_ Langton
seems to have played no important
part in politics, and his episcopate was

LATIMER

358

LATIMER

uneventful. He died 9th July, 1228,
and was buried in his cathedral.
LATIMER, Hugh, Bishop of Worces
ter, martyr ; born 1470, died 16th Oct.,
1555 ; was the son of a tenant-farmer at
Thurcaston in Leicestershire, educated
at a grammar-school, and at Cambridge,
where he took priest's orders. He was
at first a zealous opponent of the "new
learning," but being converted by Bil-
ney to the principles of the Reforma
tion, made himself conspicuous for the
zeal with which he propagated them in
the university ; his talent as a popular
preacher giving him a considerable in
fluence. At length the Bishop of Ely,
as visitor of the university, silenced
Latimer ; but Dr. Barnes, the Prior of
the house of Austin Friars in Cam
bridge, which was exempt from episco
pal jurisdiction, allowed him to preach
there, where crowds assembled to hear
him. Bilney, Latimer, and others were
cited before the Court of Heresy, which
Wolsey had established. Bilney re
canted, submitted to penance, and was
pardoned ; the rest were dismissed.
Bilney retired to Norfolk, and Latimer
remained the popular leader of the
reforming party in Cambridge.- He
preached several times before the king
at Windsor, and was favourably noticed
by him. On the issue of the royal
proclamation, directed against Tyndal's
New Testament, forbidding the use of
the Bible in English, Latimer had the
courage to write a letter of remonstrance
to the king, which the king received
with thanks for his well-intended ad
vice. When Dr. Butt, the king's phy
sician, came to Cambridge to promote
the acknowledgment of the royal su
premacy, he found Latimer forward to
use his influence with his friends in
that direction, and when he returned to
Court took Latimer with him. Crom
well soon gave him a benefice, AVest
Kington, AVilts, to which Latimer at
once repaired, notwithstanding the re
monstrances of his worldly-wise friend,
and gave himself to his duties. His
popular style of preaching made him a
great favourite in Wilts, and he was

invited " to preach in neighbouring
places, and in Bristol, advocating the
principles of the rising reformation.
For the opinions thus put forth he was
cited (1532) to appear before the Arch
bishop's Court ; he appealed to the
king, who referred his case to Convo
cation. He submitted to the censure
of that body, acknowledging that he
had ' ' erred not only in discretion, but
in doctrine," though the errors are not
set out particularly, was absolved, and,
at the king's request, taken into favour
again. Soon after Latimer was pre
ferred by the king to the See of Wor
cester, and administered his diocese
with great diligence. At the Convoca
tion of 1536 Latimer was nominated
by Archbishop Cranmer to preach the
opening sermon. In 1539 he was again
summoned to Parliament and Convo
cation, and preached a sermon before
the Court against the abuses in the
Church ; he was accused to the king of
preaching sedition, but his explanations
were accepted. On the passing by this
Parliament of the Act of Six Articles,
Latimer resigned his bishopric, and
retired into the country ; but returning
to London, he was sent to the Tower,
where he passed the six remaining years
of King Henry's reign. On the acces
sion of Edward VI. his restoration to
his see was pressed upon him, but he
declined it on account of his age, and
accepted Cranmer's invitation to take
up his abode at Lambeth ; where he
lived a retired life, chiefly employed in
hearing the complaints and redressing '
the wrongs of the poor people, of whom
he had daily a crowded levee. He as
sisted in composing the first book of
'Homilies,' and preached the Lent
sermons before the king for the first
three years of his reign. After the
death of the Duke of Somerset, and
the Duke of Northumberland's acces
sion to the chief conduct of the Govern
ment, Latimer retired to the country,
and made use of the king's license as a
general preacher in those parts where
he thought his services most likely to
be useful. On the accession of Mary

LATITUDINARIANISM

359

LAUD

Latimer was cited before the Council,
and was sent to the Tower, with Cran
mer and Ridley. In his examination
he did not display the learning of
Ridley and Cranmer, which indeed he
did not possess, but contented himself
with plain answers to the questions put
¦ to him, and resigned himself to the
fate which he foresaw awaited him. He
was burnt with Ridley at Oxford, 16th
Oct., 1555. When tied to the stake he
addressed to his companion the famous
encouragement: "Be of good cheer,
brother, we shall this day kindle such
a torch in England as I trust in God
shall never be extinguished. "
His is a character which attracts
liking : a simple, honest, pious, im
pulsive man ; not learned, not skilful
in affairs ; a popular preacher, col
loquial, impassioned, full of homely
illustrations and quaint sayings, not
free from coarseness ; it was the style
of preaching of the friars, used on the
side of the Reformation, to which no
doubt it rendered services important
enough to entitle Latimer to the dis
tinction of being one of its chief pro
moters. His sermons have been often
published and are worth reading, not
only as sermons, but also for the light
they throw on the manners and morals
of the time.
LATITUDINARIANISM is a phase
of thought, rather than a school of
opinion, which favours a wide compre
hensiveness in the Church, disliking
theological tests, thinking forms of
government unimportant, caring chiefly
for morality of life. Pope defines it in
his famous lines —
" For forms and creeds let senseless bigots
fight,
He can't be wrong whose life is in the
right."
A phrase which begs the question that
a man's life can be in the right except
on the basis of true religion. A greatly
admired writer of the present generation
would have extended this comprehen
sion of the Church to " all who profess
and call themselves Christians," which
would include all heretics of past and

present times. Of all the phases of
thought through which the popular
mind is passing in the present day this
is perhaps one of the most dangerous to
the truth. The average preaching of
the Clergy is so deficient in systematic
teaching ; the average English mind is
so averse from what seem to it to be
theological subtleties ; there seems so
much breadth of view, and largeness of
heart, and kindliness of spirit in this
Latitudinarianism, that it has a great
attraction for many minds, . and almost
threatens to crystallise into a definite
school of thought under the specious
name of "our common Christianity."
But when we have laid aside, one after
another, the doctrines which divide
one section of Christians from another,
and have arrived at last at the basis
on which all agree, then we find that
the resultant " common Christianity "
is a form of Christianity which every
section of Christians would repudiate.
In seeking, at various crises of its
history, for tenable standards of com
prehension, the Church of England
has found itself again and again driven
back and back, and compelled at last
to take its stand upon the Holy Scrip
tures; the Creeds, the General Coun
cils of the undivided Church, and the
consensus of the ancient Fathers.
Amidst the actual strife of sects there is
no good in crying peace where there is
no peace ; and if peace could be obtained
among them, even peace must not be
purchased at the price of truth.
LAUD, Archbishop of Canterbury,
born 7th Oct., 1573, died 1645 ; born of
a wealthy family engaged in trade at
Reading, i. e. his father was a clothier,
his mother was the sister of Sir Wm.
Webb, Lord Mayor of London in 1591.
Was educated in the free school of his
native town, and at sixteen years of
age sent to St. John's College, Oxford,
where his tutor, Dr. Buckeridge, after
wards president of his college, and after
wards Bishop of Rochester and of Ely,
was one of those who maintained the
doctrines of the Reformation against
puritan as well as against papist attacks.

LAUD

360

LAUD

He was made fellow of his college in
1593, took his degree of B.A. in 1594,
M.A. in 1598, and was at once made
tutor in his college. In 1600 he was
ordained, and the Bishop of Rochester
(Oxford being vacant), who ordained
him, remarked that his reading had
not been limited to the divines then
in fashion, but that his theology had
been built upon "the noble foundation
of the Fathers, the Councils, and the
ecclesiastical historians." Holding
such opinions, the clever, rising young
tutor was a marked man in the uni
versity. For the prevailing theology
was strongly Calvinistic, and" the chief
authorities firm upholders of the puri
tan party.
Tne theory of Calvinistic predestina
tion was held as an essential point of a
true creed ; the efficacy of the Sacra
ments was disputed ; the very existence
of a visible Church during the Middle
Ages was denied — unless indeed it
existed in the Waldenses and other
such bodies, who (such were the ex
igencies of the argument) were sup
posed to have existed continuously
from Apostolic times ; the Church of
England was regarded as one of these
bodies, which sprang into existence in
the period of the Reformation..
The leader of the puritan party in
the university was Dr. Abbot, Master
of University College, and afterwards
Archbishop of Canterbury, who in a
book on the subject had endeavoured
to trace a continuous visible Church
through the Berengarians, Albigenses,
Wiclifites, and Hussites, down to the
Reformation. He was especially angiy
with this young tutor of St. John's,
who, in sermons before the university
and in other ways, ventured boldly to
impugn the popular beliefs, and to
revive the doctrines of the earlier phase
of the English Reformation. But, in
truth, there was a growing reaction in
the university against the Calvinism
which had so long predominated.
Laud's learning, ability, and zeal put
him at the head of this reaction ;
he had a considerable and increasing

force of opinion behind him ; and party
feeling ran high.
In this period of his life he com
mitted the act which has always been
the great blot on his memory. In 1603
he had been appointed by the Earl of
Devonshire as his chaplain. The earl
had had a criminal intrigue with the
Lady Penelope Devereux, who in con
sequence had been divorced by her
husband, Lord Rich. The earl desired
to marry the lady, and sought to ob
tain an Act of Parliament to enable
him to do so, but the bill was success
fully opposed.
The earl then asked his chaplain to
perform the marriage ceremony between ¦:
them, though it could have no legal
force ; and Laud unhappily consented
to do so. He afterwards bitterly re
pented of his error, and kept the anni
versary of the marriage as a day of
fasting and penitence.
In 1607 he was presented to the
Vicarage of Stanford, Leicester, in the
following year obtained the advowson
of North Kilworth, in the same county,
and in the same year took his degree
of D.D. Through Neile, Bishop of
Rochester, who had taken him as his
chaplain, he was introduced into notice
at Court, and preached before the king.
In order to be nearer his patron, he ex
changed Kilworth for West Tilbury in
Essex ; and soon afterwards the bishop
gave him Cuckstone, in Kent, upon
which he resigned his fellowship and
settled at Cuckstone. ' ' Laud's invari
able practice when invested with these
livings was to furnish the churches,
put the parsonage houses into thorough
repair, and to grant to twelve poor
people a constant allowance out of
the income of the benefice" (Hook,
vi. 15).
In 1610, the presidency of his college
being vacant by the promotion of Dr.
Buckeridge to the See of Rochester,
Laud seemed, for his learning and
abilities, to be the fittest of the fellows
for the vacant post ; but Abbot, now
archbishop elect, endeavoured to obtain
the interference of the chancellor of the

LAUD

361

LAUD

university and of the king to prevent
his election. Laud was a papist* at
heart, he asserted, and his appointment
to a place of such dignity and influence
would be to the great detriment of
religion. The attempt was, however,
ineffectual, and Laud received a ma
jority of the votes of the fellows ; but
thereupon one of the fellows seized the
paper containing the scrutiny and tore
it in pieces ; and another attempt was
made by his enemies to get the election
disallowed. The case was heard by
the Bishop of Winchester as visitor ;
then was taken by appeal before the
king ; and both upheld the validity of
the election. Moreover, the king was
so well pleased with the way in which
Laud conducted his case, that he made
him one of the royal chaplains. Bishop
Neile gave him a prebend in Lincoln
cathedral. The Crown promoted him
to the Deanery of Gloucester, where he
set on foot the repair of the dilapidated
cathedral, and reformed the puritanical
style of service ; for which the people
raised the " no Popery " cry, and the
bishop never again, during the eight
remaining years of his episcopate, set
foot within his cathedral.
When James I. visited Scotland in
1616, with several bishops, in the hope
of inducing the Scotch to adopt the
English Service-Book, Laud accom
panied him as chaplain. In 1621 he
was made Bishop of St. David's, and
began to exercise an influence in the
king's counsels ; not directly, indeed,
but through Buckingham ; for the
gallant, accomplished, splendid Buck
ingham was the minister of the king,
and the learned, awkward, conscien
tious churchman was the confidential
friend with whom the minister took
counsel. These relations with Bucking
ham brought Laud into friendly rela
tions with Prince Charles, and made
him an influential person at Court.
On the death of James, Laud acted
* Clarendon (I. p. 148) said of the Calvin
istic faction, "According to their useful
maxim and practice, they call every man they
do not Live papist."

as Dean of Westminster at the coron
ation, and was appointed to preach the
sermon. He was trusted by the king,
and consulted in the affairs of tho
Church ; but it was not until early in
1627 that he was made a member of
the Privy .Council. Iii 1628, on the
promotion of Montaigne to York, Laud
was made Bishop of London, and con
tinued to rise in the king's confidence.
On the death of Buckingham, Laud's
counsel became still more valuable to
the king, and he must be reckoned
among the king's chief advisers, and as
sharing in the praise or blame of the
measures which led himself and his
master to the scaffold. The view
which will be taken of his conduct as a
minister will of course vary according
to the religious and political prejudices
of the person who forms the judgment.
He was one of that party who in politics
upheld the royal prerogative, as it had
descended through Tudor and Stuart
to the present king. He was a leader
of that party in the Church which
revived the school of theology then
inaccurately called Arminian, which
we now call Anglican. He was a man
of considerable learning and consider
able ability, thoroughly conscientious,
rugged in manner, and hasty in temper,
thus often giving offence which after
tokens of regret could never atone for ;
firm, but not harsh, in his administra
tion. It is not pretended that he was
a perfect man, or that the government in
which he took part was always right or
always wise ; but much of the popular
blame which is thrown upon it arises
from this fact, that it was not success
ful. It is doubtful whether any other
policy would have succeeded in allaying
the popular discontent, and defeating
the well-organised political opposition
with which Charles had to contend,
except a policy of firm, unsparing
tyranny, which was not in the nature
either of the archbishop or the king.
The political parties of our own time,
the revival again of the school of
Churchmanship of which Laud was the
champion in his days, have helped us

LAUD

362

LAUD

to take a keener interest in that by
gone passage of history, and perhaps
the better to estimate it. The same
dangers to State and Church again
threaten us ; and, needing again men
who are prepared to uphold the ancient
Constitution of England at the risk
of life, we can the better honour men
who, like Laud, are content to lose
their life for the right, cheered by the
assurance that that supreme sacrifice
will help greatly to hasten a reaction
against wrong, and to make the right
cause for which they died venerable in
the eyes of succeeding generations.
On the death of Abbot, Charles at
once nominated Laud as his successor
(1633). His new position gave him
greater authority and wider scope for it
in regulating the affairs of the Church ;
and he used them diligently in check
ing the organised illegality of the puri
tan party, in the restoration of rever
ence and dignity in the externals of
religion, and in the encouragement of
what he held to be a sound theology.
It is external points of ritual more than
questions of theology which most catch
the popular attention ; and his require
ment that the holy table should be
placed at the east end of the chancel
on a raised platform, and railed in ;
that copes should be worn in cathedrals
and colleges at the celebration of the
Holy Communion ; that lecturers should
say the prayers in their surplices before
preaching, and should preach in their
gowns, not in Geneva cloaks, brought
the archbishop's "innovations" and
"popish leanings" home to every one.
The truth is, that his ' ' innovations "
were on recent lax practice," and were
only "restorations" to the practice
required by law, in the Reformation as
it had been settled in the early part
of Elizabeth's reign, before the Puritan
party had introduced their "innova
tions." And the truth is, that Laud
had no "popish leanings." In the
early part of his episcopate he was
called on to argue against the Jesuit
Fisher, who had almost effected the
perversion of the mother of the Duke

of Buckingham, and displayed a deep
scholarship, a skill in argument, and
moreover a readiness of wit, which
helped to establish his reputation. To
this book, which was regarded at the
time as a masterpiece of controversy,
he adhered to the end of his life, as a
true statement of his opinions, and an
ample vindication from the charges of
his enemies. Moreover, in the later
years of his life, though he proceeded
against the illegal practices of the
puritans, he acted with no less vigour
against the papists. It was while he
was Charles's adviser that the queen's
popish priests were sent out of the
kingdom, because they were not con
tent to minister to their mistress, but
were seeking to proselytise among the
nobility. It was under his advice that
the popish Bishop of Chalcedon, who
was the chief and director of the papal
party here, was banished from the
countiy. The following extract from the pre,
face to his book against the Jesuit
Fisher gives Laud's view of the eccle- •¦
siastical situation, which has a special
interest in the present condition of
religion in England.
" Let me be bold to observe to your
Majesty in particular, concerning your
great charge in the Church of England.
She is in hard condition. She professes
the ancient Catholic faith, and yet the
Romanist Condemns her for novelty in
her doctrine. She practises Church
government as it hath been in use in
all ages and all places where the Church
of Christ hath been established, both ,
in and since the days of the apostles,'
and yet the Separatist condemns her
for anti-Christianism in her discipline.
The plain truth is, she is, between these
two factions as between two millstones,
and unless your Majesty look to it, to
whose trust she is committed, she will
be ground to powder, to an irreparable
dishonour and loss to this kingdom.
And it is very remarkable that while
both these press hard upon the Church
of England, both of them cry out
against persecution, like froward chil-

LAUD

363

LAUD

dren, who scratch, and kick, and bite,
and yet cry out all the while as if they
were killed.
' ' Now to the Romanist I shall say
this : The errors of the Church of Rome
are grown now (many of them) very
old, and when errors are grown, by
age and continuance, to strength, they
which speak for the truth, though it
bo older, are usually challenged for the
bringers in of new opinions. And
there is no greater absurdity stirring
this day in Christendom, than that
the reformation of an old corrupted
Church, whether we will or not, must
be taken for the building of a new. And
were not this so, we should never be
troubled with that idle and impertinent
question of theirs, Where was your
Church before Luther ? for it was just
there where theirs is now, one and the
same Church still. No doubt of that ;
one in substance, but not one in con
dition of state and purity : their part
of Jhe Church remaining in corruption,
and our part of the same Church under
reformation. The same Naaman and the
Syrian still, but leprous with them, and
cleansed with us : the same man still.
"And for the Separatist, and him
that lays his ground for separation on
change of discipline ; though all he
says or can say be, in truth of divinity,
and among learned men, little better
than ridiculous ; yet still those fond
opinions have gained some ground
among the people ; to such among them
as are wilfully set to follow their blind
guides through thick and thin till they
fall into the ditch together, I shall say
nothing. But for so many of them as
mean well, and are only misled by arti
fice and cunning, concerning them I
shall say this much only ; they are bells
of passing good metal and tuneable
enough of themselves, and a world of
pity it is that they are rung so miser
ably out of time as they are by them
that have acquired power in and over
their consciences. And for this there
is remedy enough ; but how long there
will be I know not.
"The Scripture, where it is plain,

should guide tho Church; and the
Church, where there is doubt or diffi
culty, should expound the Scripture ;
yet so as neither the Scripture should
be forced nor the Church so bound up
as that, upon just and further evidence,
she may not revive that which in any
case hath slept by her. What success
the great distemper caused by the col
lision of two such factions may have I
know not, I cannot prophesy. And
though I cannot prophesy, yet I fear
that atheism and irreligion gather
strength, while the truth is thus
weakened by an unworthy way of con
tending for it. And while they thus
contend neither party consider that
they^are in a way to induce upon them
selves and others that contrary ex
treme. The Catholic Church of Christ
is neither Rome nor a conventicle ;
out of that there is no salvation, I
easily confess it ; but out of Rome
there is, and out of a conventicle too.
Salvation is not shut up into such a
narrow conclave. In this discourse I
have endeavoured, therefore, to lay
open those wider gates of the Catholic
Church, confined to no age, time, or
place, nor knowing any bounds but
that faith, which was once, and but
once for all, delivered to the saints.
And in my pursuit of this way I
have searched after, and delivered
with a single heart, that truth which
I profess. In the publishing whereof
I have obeyed your Majesty, discharged
my duty, to my power, to the Church
of England, given account of the hope
that is in me, and so testified to the
world that faith in which I have lived,
and by God's blessing and favour pur
pose to die. "
The later years of Laud's life are a
part of the general histoiy of the po
litico-ecclesiastical movement by which
the Puritan party at length obtained
a triumph for Parliamentarism and
Presbytery over the monarchy and the
Church, and in the moment of their
triumph found Parliamentarism under
the feet of a military dictator, and
Presbytery overthrown by fanaticism.

LAUDS

364

LECTOR

On the meeting of the Long Parlia
ment in 1640, Strafford was impeached
of high treason by the Commons, com
mitted to the custody of Black Rod,
and shortly after sent to the Tower.
A few days afterwards, in the same
way, the Archbishop was impeached of
high treason, committed to the custody
of Black Rod, and on the 1st of March
he also was sent to the Tower. Strafford
was put on his trial before the House
of Lords, but the Act, 1 Ed. VI. c. 12,
had strictly defined the crime of trea
son ; it was not found possible to bring
any of the minister's proceedings within
the definition of the Act ; it was suc
cessfully argued that no number of
separate acts which were not themselves
treasonable could by mere accumulation
constitute treason ; and the prosecution
was baffled. But the Commons were
resolved to have the minister's life ;
and they proceeded by way of a Bill of
Attainder ; it was passed by the Com
mons, by the Lords, was assented to
by the king, and Strafford, having
paused under Laud's window in the
Tower to receive the blessing which
the Archbishop's outstretched hands
conveyed to his friend and colleague,
passed on to the block on Tower Hill.
Laud remained in the Tower for
three years before his turn came. The
trial was a repetition of that of Straf
ford. His line of defence was similar ;
his speech was able, dignified, and
convincing ; the Commons were again
obliged to achieve their end by means
of a Bill of Attainder. It passed readily
in the Commons ; it was found difficult
to get it through the Lords, where at
length a very small house of, some say
twelve, some six members, agreed to
, the bill ; the assent of the king was no
longer sought by a Parliament which
made war on the king in the king's
name ; and Laud followed Strafford,
with the same calm courage, to the
block on Jan. 10th, 1645. He was
buried in Barking Church.
LAUDS. [See Hours.]
LAY, adjective, meaning of or be
longing to the laity. [See Laity.]

LAYMEN, HOUSE OF, for the pro.
vince of Canterbury. The Convocations
of the Clergy, constitutional bodies
sitting concurrently with Parliament,
have by form of circumstances come to
be the form in which, for some centuries
past, the synods of the clergy of the
two provinces of the Church of England
have been organised ; the two Houses of
Parliament sufficiently representing the
laity of the Church. This condition
of things is perhaps no longer in har
mony with the changed circumstances
of modern times ; and there is a wide
spread desire for a re-formation of the
Convocations in the direction of the
constitution of a National Synod. In
the mean time both houses of the Con
vocation of Canterbury, on July 8, 1885,
agreed to the constitution of a House
of Laymen, to be elected by the lay
members of the Diocesan Conferences,:.
which, while it could have no constitu-'
tional status, might from time to time
give to the clergy of that convocation
the aid of lay counsel on questions
submitted to it. The Convocation re
quested the bishops of the province to
call upon the lay members of their
several conferences to send delegates to
such a House of Laymen. All except
the Bishop of Worcester, in which
diocese a conference does not at present
exist, complied with the request, and
the House of Laymen assembled for the
first time on Feb. 16, 1886.
LAY RECTORS. [See Impropriate
LAZAR-HOUSE. [Sec Leper House.]
LECTERN, or Lecturn, the desk or
stand from which the Lessons are read
in Morning and Evening Prayer. It
is sometimes of brass, and in the fashion
of an eagle with outspread wings, on
which the Bible is laid, as if the
celestial bird had brought it down
from heaven.
LECTOR ( = reader), the lowest but
one of the five Minor Orders [which
see] of the mediaeval clergy. His duty
was to read the lessons. He was ap
pointed to the office by the bishop with
solemn benediction and the delivery to

LEGATE

365

LEGATE

him of the Lectionary — the Book of
Lessons. LEGATE, from legalus, an ambassador,
a deputy. The only legates we are con
cerned with here are those of the Bishops
of Rome, and their connection with this
country. In the exercise of their visitatorial
authority over the churches of Conti
nental Europe, conceded to the bishops
of Rome as early as the time of King
Pepin, it was convenient to them to
send, as occasion arose, trustworthy
persons, furnished with full powers to
inquire into matters, and sometimes to
decide, on the spot. Legates visited
England on several occasions during
the Anglo-Saxon period of our history,
were present at Synods, always exercised
considerable influence as the representa
tives of the Great See to which England
looked up with veneration ; and on
more than one occasion they brought
the pope's decision of questions specially
submitted to his arbitration ; but they
did not assume any authority over the
Church of England, its ministers, or
affairs. The Norman Conquest had the result
of bringing the Church of England
imder the Patriarchal visitatorial juris
diction of the see of Rome ; but with
a reservation of the rights of the Crown ;
so that no legate was to be sent unless
asked for by the sovereign, and no bulls
were to be published unless with his
permission. At the king's desire two
legates presided over the Synod of
Winchester in 1070, to regulate the
affairs of the Church, thrown into con
fusion by Stigand's alleged uncanonical
consecration as archbishop.
"The employment by the Roman
see of legates, which had been frequent
under the earlier popes, was by Gregory
VII. made a part of the ordinary
government of the Church ; and the
doctrine that the whole episcopal juris
diction exists by delegation from the
chair of St. Peter, although not formu
lated so distinctly as by Pope Martin
V., was acted upon by the Hilde-
brandine lawyers. England resisted

the intrusion of foreign legates sent
from time to time to interfere in do
mestic matters, and to supersede the
action of the metropolitans ; it was a
part of the royal prerogative to forbid
the visits of these functionaries ; and
not only the king, but archbishops
like Anselm remonstrated against the
aggression. According to Anselm the
Archbishops of Canterbury by the law
and custom of the Church possessed all
the rights and powers that were by the
delegation of the pope's powers bestowed
upon the legates ; a statement which
interpreted by history means that they
were customarily free and independent
of foreign interference in the adminis
tration of their province. But the
practical decision of the investiture
controversy on the side of the popes
and clergy seems to have impressed
the English bishops with the belief
that it was better to seek for them
selves the office of legate than to
leave the Church open to arbitrary
and mischievous interference from
without." William of Corbeil claimed and ob
tained the office in 1127, and it was
held by the archbishops, with occa
sional interruptions, till Cranmer dis
avowed it in Convocation in 1534.
The archbishops accepted the office
rather than have a legate appointed
over their heads, and it added to their
dignity and authority in the eyes of
the Chnrch ; the popes were glad to
give them the office because it turned
into supporters of the papal authority
in the Church of England those who
would else have been its bitterest and
most powerful opponents ; and gave to
much of the constitutional authority
which they exercised as archbishops
the appearance of being exercised as
the delegated authority of the "Apos
tolic See.''
These ex officio legates whom the
popes found it convenient to appoint in
other Churches besides England, were
called Legati Nati, i. e. born, or ex
officio, legates.
But the popes continued from time

LEGENDA

366

LEPER-HOUSE

to time to send special legates, Legati
d latere, i. e. from beside himself, on
special occasions, and their authority for
the time superseded that of the Legatus
natus. Thus Pandulph was sent to
receive King John's surrender and oath
of fealty. Otho and Othobon were
sent in Henry III. 's reign to regulate
and plunder the Church which John's
surrender had placed at the mercy of
the Court of Rome. Cardinal Beaufort
exercised the office for a while in Henry
VI. 's reign. Wolsey, while Archbishop
of York, obtained a commission as Lega
tus a latere, which placed his authority
for the time above that of Archbishop
Warham, the Legatus natus. Campeius
was joined in special commission with
Wolsey to try the matrimonial cause
of Henry and Katherine. Finally,
Cardinal Pole was sent as Legatus a
latere to reconcile and regulate the
Church. LEGENDA. One of the ancient
books which contained the lections to
be read at Matins. Some of these
lections were from the Old Testament
Scriptures, the Epistles of St. Paul,
and the lives and homilies of the saints.
The Legenda comprehends an arrange
ment of six books mentioned by Duran-
dus and Ducange, viz. the ' Legen-
darius,' 'Lectionarius,' ' Sermologus,'
'Passion arius,' 'Homilarius,' and the
' Bibliotheca. ' *
LENT means simply Spring, and is
the name given to the great Spring fast
of the Church. From a veiy early
time a fast was observed before Easter,
but at first there was no general rule
as to the duration of the fast ; and the
degree of fasting also greatly varied.
The Church of England, since its
foundation, has kept the fast of forty
days suggested by the fast of our Lord
at the commencement of His ministry,
beginning at Ash Wednesday, and
ending on Easter Eve, inclusive. [See
Fasting.] LEPER-HOUSE, a hospital for lepers.
The disease of -leprosy was very com
mon in England for several centuries
* I.e. the Bible.

of the Middle Ages. It seems to have
attracted general attention, and to have
called forth the special charity of the
Church, in the early part of the thir
teenth century, and it seems almost
entirely to disappear from our history
in the fifteenth century.
The separation of lepers from the
society of their fellow-men, in the be
lief that the disease was contagious,
seems to have been universal in ancient
times as it still is in the countries +
where it still rages. Special houses
for the reception of the unhappy per
sons stricken with the disease were
provided by the charity of pious indi
viduals, which were sometimes called
spitals (a contraction of hospitals), and
sometimes by the more distinctivo
name of Lazar Houses, under the idea,
it may be conjectured, that Lazarus
who lay at the gate of Dives "full of
sores " was a leper. They were generally
dedicated to St. Leonard.
The prevalence of the disease is
illustrated by the fact that there were
several hundreds of these houses for the
reception of its victims. Most of them
were small houses with from five to ten
inmates ; but some, as at Sherburne,
Exeter, Norwich, &c, were large estab
lishments for the reception and treat
ment of the disease. The hospital at
Burton Lazars, Leicestershire, was the
chief of all the 'spitals or leper-houses
in England, and it was affiliated to
the leper hospital outside the walls of
Jerusalem. At Burton the foundation
consisted of a master and eight sound,
as well as several poor leprous brethren.
At the Hospital of St. Mary Magdalene,
Colchester, also, the foundation con
sisted of a master and four leprous
brethren, i. e. the lepers were not
all merely eleemosynary recipients of
the kind offices of the community, but
some of them were members of the
community. At the first institution
of the Franciscan friars their founder
bade his brothers devote themselves
to personal attendance on lepers, and
t Norway, Cyprus, and the Greek Islands,
New Brunswick, and the Sandwich Island?.

LESSONS

367

LIBRARIES

the amelioration of their wretched
condition. It is to this segregation and
wise treatment of the disease, and to
the gradual improvement in the sani
tary condition of the great towns, that
the extinction of the disease during
the last three centuries is (always with
God's blessing) to be attributed.
It is supposed by some people that
one use, at least, of the low windows
which are found in so many of our old
churches was for the lepers to confess
at them, they remaining outside the
church while the priest sat within ; to
give them a view of the altar during
the celebration of the Holy Communion,
and to administer the Sacrament to
them. A curious illustration of this
occurs in a despatch from the Hon.
A. Gordon to the Secretary of State
for the Colonies, dated April 13, 1863.
The writer, who was the Lieutenant-
Governor of New Brunswick, describ
ing the Lazaretto of Tracadie in that
colony, says: "The hospital contains
two large rooms, the one devoted to
the male, the other to the female
patients. ... In the rear of these
rooms is a small chapel so arranged
that a window, obliquely traversing the
wall on each side of the partition which
divides the two rooms, enables the
patients of either sex to witness the
celebration of mass without meeting.
Through the same apertures confessions
are received and the Holy Communion
administered." ('History of Burton
Lazars, ' ' Lazar Houses, ' by M. Walcott,
Article in 'Journal of Archaeological
Institute.') LESSONS, short portions of Holy
Scriptures or of other writings read for
edification in the course of the Daily
Office. Before the Reformation the
lessons were usually short, often only
a verse, seldom more than half-a-
dozen verses of Scripture, and the
lessons for Saints' days frequently con
sisted of extracts from the lives, or the
writings, or both, of the Saints com
memorated. One of the valuable
changes in the Daily Office at the time
of the Reformation was the expansion

of the series of lessons into the read
ing of consecutive chapters, one from
the Old Testament, the other from the
New, at Matins and at Evensong ; so
that the greater part of the Old Testa
ment was read through once a year,
and the greater part of the New Testa
ment twice a year. In 1874 a Royal
Commission suggested, Convocation ac
cepted, and the Crown authorised, a
new table of ¦ lessons, which retained
the general plan of the old table, but
introduced some improvements in the
more natural division of some chapters,
and in the more fitting appropriation
of special lessons to certain occasions,
It is to be noted that the Sunday
lessons from the Old Testament are a
separate series ; chosen in the earlier
part to bring out the great events of
the religious history of mankind, and
in the later part to give a representation
of the principal poetical and prophetic
books. This intercalation of the Sun
day series into the daily series, has the
awkward result that the chapters of
the consecutive daily series which are
put down for Sunday do not get read
at all. The difficulty might be over
come by a direction that the Sunday
Matins chapter should be read at the
Saturday Evensong, and the Sunday
Evensong chapter at the Matins next
morning, in addition to the proper first
lessons. LIBRARIES, PAROCHIAL. In many
parishes there exist libraries which have
been given or bequeathed by some
benefactor, for the special use of the
clergyman of the parish, kept either
in the rectory house, as at Heathfield,
Sussex, &c, or in some room adjoining
the church, as at Bradfield, Yorkshire,
Ashby de la Zouch, &c. An Act of
Queen Anne (7 Ann. c. xiv. § 1)
made provision for the safe custody
and preservation of such libraries. By
§ 3 they were put under the visitation
of the Ordinary, who is "to inquire
into the state and condition of such
libraries, and to amend and redress
the grievances and defects of and con
cerning the same ; and by § 9 to

LICENCE

368

LICHFIELD

make new rules from time to time
concerning their preservation and use.
Sec. 2 requires that a new incumbent
shall enter into security for tho pre
servation of the library, and observance
of the rules made by the founder re
specting it, and § 4, that he shall,
within six months, make a new cata
logue, and sign the same, a copy of it
to be registered in the court of the
Ordinary. Some of these libraries are for a
wider area than that of a parish, as the
Cheetham Library, Manchester ; Arch
bishop Harsnett's Library at Colchester ;
Dr. Plume's Library at Maldon, Essex,
which is for the use of the clergy of
the whole archdeaconry ; of Sion College,
London, for the use of the clergy of
the city of London.
LICENCE, or Faculty. The terms,
though nearly synonymous, are ordin
arily differently applied — the former
referring, colloquially, rather to indi
viduals, and the latter to things.
Licences are granted by the Ordinary
for the performance of Divine Service
in an unconsecrated place ; to clergymen
to officiate within the jurisdiction, or
to a curate, chaplain, or lecturer, or to
a parish clerk, or for marriages. The
ordinary marriage licence is simply a
dispensation from the triple publication
of banns in the churches of the parishes
in which the parties respectively reside.
Such licences are granted either by the
Master of the Faculties of the Arch
bishop of Canterbury, who, as Primate
of all England, exercises this authority
throughout England and Wales ; the
Vicar-General, or Chancellor, of each
archbishop, whose jurisdiction extends
throughout his province ; each bishop
in his diocese ; and others having
minor jurisdiction, down to some Pe
culiars probably still subsisting, whose
power is limited to perhaps a single
parish. A special licence is granted by the
archbishop only ; it may dispense not
only with the publication of banns, but
with the canonical restrictions of time
and place, and permit a marriage any

where and at any hour ; it is only
granted upon special application and
under the sanction of the archbishop
and his chancellor individually, and
even then the time and place are usu
ally limited.
LICHFIELD, DIOCESE OF. Of the
seven Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, Mercia
was the last formed, and it consisted of
an aggregate of small bodies of invaders
of various tribes, who, finding the coasts
already occupied by their countrymen,
pushed inland, slowly driving back the
British, spread over the country from
the Lincolnshire coast to the Severn
and the Wye, from the Humber almost
to the Thames ; and then were probably
gathered into one kingdom, as the re
sult of a series of contests among them
selves. It was in the time of Penda, :
the third king, who had ruled over the
Middle Angles, south of the Trent, as
well as over Mercia proper, that tho
gospel was first preached among tho
Mercians. The family of the fierce old heathen,
Penda, was already connected by mar
riage with the saintly royal family of
Northumbria ; for Alchfrid, the son of
King Oswy, had married a daughter of
King Penda. In 652, Peada, the son
of Penda and sub-king of the Middle
Angles, sought a daughter of Oswy as
his wife. The difficulty of giving her i
to a heathen was happily removed by
Peada's conversion to Christianity, with -t
all his attendants ; and when the royal
pair returned to Mercia, they took back
with them four Northumbrian priests
— Ceadd, tho brother of St. Chadd,
and afterwards Bishop of the East Sax
ons ; Adda, Betti, and Diuma, who
preached chiefly round Leicester, and
as far north as Repton, without any
hindrance from Penda.
At length, in the autumn of 655,
Penda made another attack upon North
umbria, was utterly defeated and slain,
and Oswy became overlord of Mercia,
leaving Peada still sub-king of the
Mid-Angles. Christianity was now zealously
preached throughout Mercia, Diuma-

LICHFIELD

369

LICHFIELD

being consecrated as bishop of the whole
kingdom. He and his immediate suc
cessors had no settled abode and no
cathedral church, but established cen
tres for work here and there, and spent
their time among them ; Repton was
perhaps the chief of them, and here
Diuma died, and was buried, after a
short episcopate of two years. He was
succeeded (a.d. 658) by Ceolla, of
British descent. But within a year,
the Mercians rose against Oswy and
drove him away, and placed Wulfhere,
son of Penda, on the throne. Ceolla
fled with his king, and Trumhere was
appointed by Wulfhere to the see (659).
He was succeeded by Jaruman (662),
who, Bishop Cedd being dead, paid a
visit, with a company of priests and
teachers, to Essex, and stayed the pro
gress of a reactionary movement which
had followed a visitation of the plague.
On Jaruman's death (667), "Wilfred
of York, whose seat was occupied by
Chadd, acted as bishop here. On the
advent of Theodore of Canterbury,
Wilfred took up his work at York, and
Chadd was shortly transferred to Mercia.
Chadd fixed his head-quarters at Lich
field, where at the eastern end of Stowe
Pool ho built a small church and mon
astery. King Wulfhere gave him a
tract of land then largely consisting of
bush and swamp, but which in after years,
when cleared and drained, formed a
large and valuable domain. In his time
also the king founded a monastery at
Barton-on-Humber. On Chadd's death
Winfrid succeeded (672). In the autumn
of the same year, the Synod of Hertford
resolved that the sees should be sub
divided, but Wulfhere resisted the divi
sion of Mercia, and on the king's death
Winfrid resigned and returned to his
monastery rather than consent to the
subdivision of the see. Sexwulf, Abbot
of Peterborough, succeeded, and under
him the vast diocese was divided. ' ' The
Hwiccas of Herefordshire," the most
distant and troublesome, he gave to
Putta, refugee Bishop of Rochester, a
noted teacher of Church music. _ Two
years afterwards a portion of Lindsey

was taken from Mercia by conquest, but
soon recovered. In 680, the Council
of Hatfield decreed, that the Hwiccas
of the lower Severn valley should be
formed into a see which took the name
of Worcester. The Middle Angles were
shepherded from Leicester ; the Lin
colnshire men formed the bishopric of
Stowe ; while the newly-conquered, races
of the south may have been given to
Dorchester. The Middle English and
their Cheshire neighbours were the
largest charge of all, and they remained
to Lichfield. Shortly afterwards Leices
ter fell to Sexwulf again, and he was
bishop of both until his death in 691.
After Sexwulf came Hedda (691), who
built a church dedicated to St. Peter,
into which he translated St. Chad's re
mains from Stowe, and which was the
forerunner of the present cathedral.
Then came Aldwin or Wor (721—737) ;
Wicta, Witta or Hwitta (737—752) ;
Hemele (752—764).
King Offa came to the throne in 755,
"the English Charlemagne," for he
made himself overlord of all England,
and Charles the Great styled him ' ' Em
peror of the West," he himself being
Emperor of the East. He drove the
Kingof Powis from his capital at Shrews
bury, and added Salop to his kingdom
and to the diocese of Lichfield, which
from this time remained unchanged in
its boundaries down to the time of Henry
VIII. Next came Cuthfrith or Guthred
(765—768) ; Berthun (768—779) ; and
Higbert (779 — 801). In his episcopate,
Offa applied to have his kingdom erected
into a province under the primacy of
Lichfield, and his influence obtained
the consent of the Council of Cealchythe
to the arrangement in 785, and the
Pope recognised it by sending the com
plimentary pall to Higbert. But on
Offa's death (793), the arrangement fell
through; the new suffragans of Lichfield
did not wait for any formal decision,
but sought consecration at Canterbury ;
and in 803 the Council of Cloveshoo
formally restored Mercia to the province
of Canterbury, the pope assenting to
the measure. Aldulf succeeded to the

LICHFIELD

370

LICHFIELD

see in 801, and .Ethelwald in 818. In
the last year of his episcopate Mercia
was conquered by Egbert of Wessex ;
in 829 Northumbria tendered its alle
giance, and Egbert virtually united the
kingdoms into one.
Tho whole diocese suffered from 868
onwards from the depredations of the
Danes. When the Danes had settled
down into peaceful subjects, and had
been converted, the princes and bishops
began the work of restoring the Church
out of its ruins. During this period
new collegiate centres were planted in
the principal towns : two such, All
Saints and St. Alkmunds, at Derby ;
one in Stafford, Gnossall, Penkridge,
Wolverhampton, and Tettenhall, and
one, perhaps, at Tamworth ; two in
Chester, and four in Shrewsbury ; each
of which had its body of canons (Staf
ford, thirteen ; Penkridge, nine). It
would seem that the royal chapels of
the old Mercian border set up a claim
for exemption from episcopal visitation.
The collegiate churches at Stafford,
Penkridge, Gnossall, and Wolverhamp
ton, all considered themselves "free
chapels ; " and in spite of the occasional
attempts of bishops to visit them, main
tained their privileges to a recent period.
Relics of the parish churches of this
period are said to be still visible at
St. Chad's, Stafford, Repton, Marston,
Montgomery, Stanton-by-Bridge, Cald
well chapel in Stapenhill parish ; San-
diacre, Sawley. (See the Cheshire and
Lancashire Historical Society's Trans
actions. )
_ There were few monasteries in the
diocese before the Norman Conquest,
but towards the end of the Saxon
period they began to be founded. In
1002, Wulfric Spot, one of the Mer
cian earls, founded Barton Abbey, and
Leofrie his son founded Coventry some
thirty years afterwards. The nunnery at
Polesworth seems to have been already
in existence, and another at Stone
founded by Wulfhere's queen. The
Priory of Lapley was founded by Algar,
grandson of Wulfric Spot, and made
dependent on the Abbey of St. Remi-

gius of Rheims, out of regard for the
wishes of a dying son who had been
nursed in that abbey.
How the last Saxon bishop died is
not known ; the facts that it was in
1016, and that the Conqueror made
terrible havoc of the episcopal estates,
and that a rebellion broke out three
years after of which Stafford was the
rallying point, may lead to the con
viction that he diedt with Harold, on
the field of Senlac. Peter, one of
William's chaplains, was made bishop
(1066-1084) ; and when the Council
of London decreed that the sees should
be transferred to the large towns, he
transferred his see from Lichfield, then
a poor little place with forty acres of
meadow surrounded by the woods, to
Chester, which then contained between
four hundred and five hundred houses ;
and for many centuries afterwards his
successors bore tho title of Bishop of
Chester, though none of them were ever
enthroned there. Peter founded two
important churches at Chester. St.
John's had a dean and seven canons,
founded by Earl Leofrie, but appointed
by the Bishop of Lichfield ; here the
bishop established his see. St. Wer-
burgh's was a royal free chapel, with a :
dean and twelve prebendaries ; the Earls
of Chester were its patrons, and on his
death-bed, Hugh the Wolf turned it
into a grand Benedictine Abbey. The
Palatine Earls and the grand Abbey
eclipsed the bishop and his smaller
college ; and Peter's successor, Robert
de Lymesey (1086—1117), took steps
to increase the importance of the see.
On the death of the Abbot of Coventry,
in 1095, Robert obtained (probably by
purchase) the king's (Rufus) leave to
farm the abbey until a new head should
be appointed ; at the end of seven
years he purchased the barony of the
king (Henry I.), and was nominated
abbot ; when, with the pope's licence,
he removed his bishop's see to the
abbey church. His successors, also,
held the abbey as a grant from the
Crown, renewed from bishop to bishop,
for a hundred years. The curious rela-

LICHFIELD

371

LICHFIELD

' tion of the bishop to his original church
i of Lichfield, to the church of Chester,
both of secular canons, and to the
monastery of Coventry, gave all three
bodies a voice in the election of bishop,
and let to complications at nearly every
election. In 1080, Hemy de Ferrers gave the
rectories of Broughton, Norbury, and
Doveridge, to found a priory at Tutbury
' as a dependency on the Abbey of St.
Peter's near Dinan in Normandy.
About the same time, William Rufus
gave Ashburn and Chesterfield to Lin
coln Cathedral, and Henry I. added
Worksworth. On the death of Lymesey another
Robert, a married man, succeeded,
whom the monks nicknamed Peccatum,
or Peche (1121—1126).
The Earl of Derby founded a house
of Augustinian Canons just outside that
town, giving it the churches of Uttoxe-
ter and Crich, a tithe of all his rents
in Derby, and some land. There were
already six churches in Derby, with at
least seventeen clergymen. Hugh, the
Dean of. Derby, gave the canons a site
at Darley, a few miles away, on which
they built Darley Abbey. Similar
priories of Austin Canons were founded
about the same time : at Gresley, at Ro;
cester (1146) ; at Trentham, founded by
Randle, second Earl of Chester ; Stone
Priory was founded by the Baron of
Stafford ; Caulke, by Maude, widow of
the founder of Trentham (1172), after
wards removed to Repton ; Ranton,
founded by Robert Fitznoel, was a cell
to Haughmond which William Fitzalan
built in 1110. Bishop Richard Peche,
in 1180, founded a house of the same
order near Stafford ; Richard de Bel-
meis, Dean of the collegiate church of
St. Alkmund, Shrewsbury, transferred
the endowments of his church to Lilies-
hall, where the Austin Canons built an
abbey. There were two small Clugniac
colls, at Dudley (1161), and St. James's,
Derby (1140). There was a great Bene
dictine Abbey at Shrewsbury.
Roger de Clinton (1129—1148), who
succeeded Peche, reorganised the church

of Lichfield, by adding largely to the
number of canons, and assigning pre
bends to them out of the episcopal
estates. He rebuilt the old Saxon
cathedral of St. Peter, and rededicated
it to St. Chad — a massive cruciform
structure with a rounded eastern apse.
He fortified the close, and enrolled men-
at-arms for its defence. The same bishop
founded a house of Austin Canons out
side the south gate of the city ; a
nunnery at Fairwell, three miles off ;
and a Cistercian abbey at Buildwas.
In 1176, Bertram de Verdun founded
a Cistercian abbey at Croxden. A
Cistercian priory of nuns had already
been founded at Brewood, and another
house of the same order was founded by
Randle, third Earl of Chester, at Dieu-
lacres, 1214. Bishop Clinton finished
his life as a crusader at Antioch in 1148.
The Hospitallers had a chamber at
Barrow-on-Trent, and an extensive
commandery at Yeaveley ; the Templars
had a preceptory at Balston in War
wickshire. There were hermitages at
Armitage near Lichfield on a rock over
looking the Trent ; at Calwich by the
Dove ; at Sandwell, near Wolverhamp
ton ; at Yeaveley, near Ashbornc, and
elsewhere. In a retreat of this sort on
Cannock Chase, a band of men had
settled and were living under strict
rules. On the death of Bishop Clinton, King
Stephen gave the monks of Coventry
and the canons of Lichfield and Chester,
licence to elect to the vacancy. The
monks assumed the sole right of elec
tion, and though the canons disputed
the election it was confirmed.
In the latter half of the twelfth
century, the spread of leprosy in Eng
land (probably brought back by the
returning Crusaders) caused the foun
dation of the Maisons-Dieu or leper
hospitals, generally dedicated to St.
Leonard. There were such at Derby,
Chesterfield, Ashborne, Locko, Stafford,
Lichfield, and elsewhere, usually about
half a mile outside the towns.
In 1183, Robert Fitz-Ralf founded a
Prasmonstratensian abbey near Sheffield,

LICHFIELD

372

LICHFIELD

dedicated to' the Beauchief (the beauti
ful bead) of St. Thomas a Becket.
Before the end of the twelfth century
the diocese was permanently divided
into the four archdeaconries of Derby,
Stafford, Chester, and Coventry.
Of the remarkable bishops, we have
only space to mention Nunant (1184 —
1199), the hater of monks and aggran-
diser of his see, who took the part of
John against Richard, was imprisoned by
Richard, and only recovered his liberty
and his see by payment of a heavy fine.
He, however, rebuilt and lengthened
the choir of the cathedral, and the
earliest extant statutes (or consuetu-
dinal) of the cathedral are of his time.
Bishop Alexander de Stavenby was a
close friend of Grosseteste of Lincoln,
and like him an active and reforming
bishop ; compelling the monks to found
vicarages in their parishes, and en
couraging the friars. In his days began
the institution of chantries, the bishop
himself founding one in the cathedral
of Lichfield.
Many a noble family owes the foster
ing of its early greatness to the abbeys.
" Nicolas, Prior of St. Thomas, Staf
ford, did manumit Richard Norman,
Ralph Norman, and John Norman,
sons of William Norman," 'nativos suos,'
18 Rich. II." — is the record at the
head of the pedigree of a noble family.
The noble house of Aston, long settled
at Tixall Hall, sprang from Bishop
Molent's dapifer or steward. The
Abbot of Whalley, on the other hand,
was the last to sell a slave in Lancashire,
having in 1309, for one hundred shil
lings sterling, sold ' ' one native with all
his family and effects."
In the case of Bishop Meuling or
Molent (1256 — 1295), who was a natural
son of William Longespee, Earl of Salis
bury, we have an instance of an un
usual exercise of ecclesiastical discipline.
The bishop neglected his see, which
gave scope for great disorders in it ;
Archbishop Peckham visited it in 1282,
and set right some of the abuses ; he
also ordered the bishop into residence,
and since he could not speak English,

he required him to provide an English
speaking suffragan to visit the diocese ;
two years afterwards the archbishop
took a still stronger measure in ap
pointing Elias de Napton, Archdeacon
of Derby, as coadjutor bishop, assigning
him one hundred marks out of the
bishopric, and requiring the bishop to
consult him in every official act. Never
theless, Bishop Molent did something
for the see : he obtained from the king
a gift of Cannock Chase ; he brought
from abroad the design for the west
front of Lichfield cathedral, and began
the building of it ; and he built a
noble town house for the see on the
site where Somerset House now stands.
Patteshull's short episcopate of a
year and a half (1239—1242) produced
a new set of cathedral statutes : he
forbade talking or laughing in choir,
and ordered bowing to the altar on en
tering, leaving, or crossing the chancel.
As a rule services were to be said stand
ing, but the choir might sit during the
Psalms of the night office, as well as
through the lessons, and when not
singing in the antiphonal parts of the
services. During the Glorias they were
to turn to the East. They were to
wear black capes with surplices, and
amices or hoods, but red might be used
on great festivals.
Walter de Langton (1296— 1321) was
Lord High Treasurer, and the friend
and trusted adviser of Edward I. in
his latter years, and no doubt received
his bishopric as the reward of his poli
tical services, but he was a good and
active administrator of his see.
Bishop Roger de Norbury's (1322—
1359) Register leaves the record of an
active episcopate, and gives many in
teresting details of the clerical life of
the time. Mr. Beresford's ' History of
the Diocese,' in the S.P.C.K. series,
gives a valuable summary of the whole
of this mediaeval story. It is to be
noted that the office of Lord President
of Wales was laid upon several suc
cessive bishops of Lichfield, which en
tailed residence at Ludlow Castle, and
a mass of secular business. - •

LICHFIELD

373

LICHFIELD

At the Reformation the diocese has
the usual record of destruction and
plunder of the religious houses. Mr.
J. C. Cox, in his 'Derbyshire Churches,'
gives a list of ninety-five chapels in
that county alone which have disap
peared since Henry and Edward robbed
'them of the resources out of which
they were sustained : and a similar
abstraction of the opportunities of wor
ship and of pastoral care took place all
over the kingdom. On the other side
the diocese was divided, the counties of
Cheshire and Lancashire being consti
tuted into a new bishopric of Chester
with the abbey church of St. Werburg
for its cathedral : the bishop being
domiciled in the abbot's lodge ; the dean
in St. Thomas's chapel ; and a grammar
school set up in the refectory.
Bishop Sampson was burnt as a
heretic at Lichfield in the beginning
of Mary's reign. Baine (1554 — 1558),
who succeeded him, resigned the see on
tho accession of Elizabeth, and Thomas
Bentham (1560 — 1579) succeeded him.
The series of Diocesan Registers is
pomplete from Langton, 1297, to Ben
tham, 1578 ; then with the exception of
a few Acts of Overton, and the Registers
of Morton, 1618—31, and of Hackett,
1662 — 70, the series is not resumed till
1692, from which date it is complete to
the present time.
During the Tudor period grammar
schools struck root. Derby, one of the
oldest in the diocese, had been founded
as an abbey school by Bishop Durdent.
Stafford, about 1450 ; Wolverhamp
ton, 1515 ; Sutton Coldfield, 1519 ; and
Bridgenorth, 1503 ; were all probably
schools of the New Learning. Edward
VI. and Elizabeth augmented them out
of the wreck of Church property, and
founded others. Shrewsbury Abbey
School was saved from perishing by the
gift of a share of the spoils of the royal
collegiate church of St. Mary, Salop.
Bridgenorth, in 1547, got part of the
plunder of the chantries of the town.
Walsall was similarly augmented by
Queen Mary in 1553 ; Birmingham in
1552, by King Edward VI. ; Nuneaton

in 1553, out of Trinity Guild, Coventry ;
Wellington, 1549. In Mary's reign the
bishop augmented Lichfield grammar
school. Queen Elizabeth founded Ash-
borne, 1585 ; Chesterfield, Tamworth,
Atherstone, 1573. In her reign a num
ber of schools wero endowed by private
individuals. Lawrence Sheriff, 1567,
founded Rugby, settling on it the en
dowments of Brownsover Parsonage.
Sir John Port, in 1557, bought part of
the ruins of Repton Priory, and founded
a school there. Thomas Allen founded
Stone and Uttoxeter schools. On the
ruins of Coventry cathedral a school
had been grafted by Henry VIII.
The siege of Lichfield has its special
page in the history of the Civil AVars
of the Great Rebellion, and its striking
incident. The Cathedral Close was
the side first assailed. Lord Brook, the
General of the Parliamentary forces, as
he approached, prayed for a token from
heaven that the destruction which ho
designed for it was of God. On St.
Chad's day, 1643, "Dumb Dyott" saw
him from the central tower, and aimed
a bullet at him which struck a piece of
timber and glanced off into his brain.
When the Close was at length taken,
the Roundheads wrecked the church,
destroying monuments, burning records,
breaking painted windows, organs, and
bells ; they stabled their horses in the
aisles, and "christened" a calf in the
font. All the dignitaries of Lichfield
were deprived ; Higgens the Precentor
was shot at as he went to prayers in the
minster. When the Close was attacked
Jie got away to the king's army, and
ere long found himself a prisoner at
Coventry. He bought his liberty at
a high price, and retired to his living at
Stoke-on-Tern. His wife and family
were turned into the street at Stoke,
the neighbours being forbidden to give
them shelter. When he got his " fifth "
of the living he set up a little school,
but was deprived even of that, and his
family were reduced to beggary. "I
myself," wrote his son, "not having
tasted a bit of bread for two or threo
days, have been glad to satisfy my

LICH-GATE

374

LINCOLN

hunger on crabs and hedge fruit. " The
Archdeacon of Coventry "was urged
with drawn swords and bloody halberds
to serve the idol " (so he called the
Covenant) ; "they offered me £400 per
annum, sweetened with commendation
of my abilities, to bow to it." At
Alford in Cheshire, soldiers drove the
rector's wife mad, by carrying her out
of the. house to abuse her on a dung
hill. The rector of Clifton, C'ampville,
was thrown into Coventry gaol when
the plague was there. Mr. Langley
was deprived of St. Mary's, Lichfield,
because he had preached and admin
istered the Sacrament on Christinas
Day. Soldiers broke into Staunton
Rectoiy, Salop, at midnight with
cocked pistols, seized "the rogu?," as
they called the rector, and ripped open
his beds to make sacks in which to
carry away his tithe-corn. When Dr.
Temple, Vicar of Burton-on-Trent, was
going to London to meet his persecutors,
his wife was dragged out of child-bed
and placed in a chair in the churchyard
in the middle of a cold night. The
livings were left vacant, or filled with
makeshifts often of the poorest sort.
One Peartree, a pedlar, succeeded Dr.
Arnway, at Hodnet ; Crutchlow, a
butler, followed Mr. Orpe, at Staunton ;
and Hopkins, a glover, became quasi-
vicar of High Ercall. In later times
we can only name Bishops Ryder, Lons
dale, and Selwyn. [See Selwyn. ]
The diocese now consists of the entire
county of Stafford, parts of Salop and
Warwick, and portions of adjacent
counties: population, 1,565,150; 3
archdeaconrios : Stafford, Stoke-upon-
Trent, and Salop ; 29 rural deaneries ;
691 parishes.
LICH-GATE (from Anglo-Saxon,
lich, a corpse), a churchyard-gate with
a roof over it, under which, on the
occasion of a funeral, the corpse and
its bearers may await the coming of the
officiating minister. They are some
times of stone, as at Birstal, Yorks ;
but more frequently of timber, and
form £ picturesque and suitable entry
to the churchyard,

Some of these gates have chambers
over them, as at Barking, Essex, where
the one chamber was formerly called
the Chapel of the Holy Rood ; and at
Bray, Berks. , where the two chambers
are connected with some charitable be
quest. At Tawstock, Devon, there is a
small room on each side of the gate,
having seats on three sides, and a table
in the middle.
There is also sometimes, especially
in Cornwall, at the churchyard-gate, a
great stone called the Lich stone, on
which the coffin can be placed while
the funeral procession is waiting, as at
St. Winnow, Cornwall. Such stones
are sometimes found at a distance from
tho churchyard as a resting-place for
the coffin on its way to burial, as at
Lustleigh, Devon.
LINCOLN, DIOCESE OF. Paulinus,
the Bishop of Northumbria, preached
the gospel as far south as Lincoln,
where Blsecca, the "prsefect" of the
city, was converted, and built a stone
church, which possibly was on the site
of the present church of St. Paul, near
the old Roman north gate of the city, i
Soon after, it would seem, Lincolnshire
was brought under the power of Mercia, j
and formed part of the vast Mercian
diocese, whose see was at Lichfield.
In 678 Egfrid of Northumbria recovered
Lindsey, — the northern part of Lincoln
shire, — and erected it into a separate
diocese, whose see was at Sidnacester,
which is in all probability now repre
sented by the village of Stow. A
succession of bishops can be traced here
till 869, when it probably came to an
end owing to the conquest of that part
of the country by the Danes. After an
interval of near a century there appears
again a bishop of Lindsey, Leofwin, who
in 953 removed the see to Dorchester.
Archbishop Theodore divided the see
of Mercia, erecting a new see at Leicester
(680), which continued till 869, when
on the death of Ceolred, the Danes
having conquered that part of the
country, and made Leicester1 one of
their strongholds, the see was removed
to Dorchester, Oxon,

LINCOLN

375

LINCOLN

Dorchester had formerly been for
forty years (634—676) the seat of the
West Saxon bishopric, till Headda (676)
removed it to Winchester. After the
removal of the see of Leicester, about
870, to Dorchester, there i3 a succession
of eleven bishops there, from Alheard
to Wulfwy in 1067.
On the death of AATulfwy, the Con
queror gave the bishopric to Remigius,
or Remi, a Benedictine monk of Fecamp,
who for greater security removed the
see to Lincoln, before the Council of
London in 1075 had ordered the re
moval of sees to the chief towns. He
built a new cathedral in the south-east
quarter of the old Roman city, and placed
twenty-one canons in it ; the Conqueror
at the same time building a castle in
its south-west quarter. This well-chosen
site, on the brow of a hill rising from
the river, has contributed largely to the
effect of the magnificent building, which
under successive prelates rose on the
foundations first laid by the Norman
Remi. At this time the diocese stretched
from the Thames to the Humber, ex
tending over the counties of Oxford,
Buckingham, Northampton, Bedford,
Huntingdon, Leicester, Rutland, Cam
bridgeshire, and Lincoln. As it was
an aggregate of other more ancient
dioceses, so in time it underwent sub
division into new dioceses : in 1109
Cambridgeshire was separated into the
diocese of Ely ; at the Reformation
Northants and. Rutland were divided
from it (1541), and created into the
diocese of Peterborough, and (1542)
Oxfordshire into the diocese of Oxford ;
and in our day (1885), Nottinghamshire
has been cut off from it, and formed into
the dioeese of Southwell.
Among the bishops we find a large
proportion of statesmen : Blois (1094 —
1123) was the chancellor of Rufus ;
Alexander (1123—1148) was Chief-
Justice. On the death of Robert de
Chesney (1148 — 1167) the see remained
vacant for seventeen years. For seven
of these years (1173—1180) Geoffrey
Plantagenet was nominally bishop, and
received the temporalities, but was

never consecrated, and at length re
signed his position. St. Hugh of
Avalon (1186—1200) was one of tho
most remarkable of the whole line of
bishops. [See Hugh of Avalon.] Another
almost equally great man was Grosseteste
(1235—1253), of whom also a sketch
will be found under his name. It was
in the time of Henry of Lexington
(1254—1258) that the Jews of Lincoln
were persecuted, and thirty -two of them
put to death on a charge of having
sacrificed a child, who was burned in
the cathedral, and canonised under the
name of "little Saint Hugh," to dis
tinguish him from the bishop and
saint. In the time of Oliver Sutton
(1280—1299) the cathedral close was
surrounded by a wall "because of the
homicides and other atrocities perpe
trated by thieves and malefactors"
[see Cathedral Close] ; this bishop built
a house for the Vicar's Choral ; St.
Hugh's shrine was translated into the
new presbytery, Edward I. and his
queen, and many other great personages,
being present. Cardinal Beaufort [see
Beaufort] was bishop here (1398 — 1405)
for seven years before his translation
to Winchester. Philip of Repingdon
(1405 — 1419), before he was made
bishop, was accused of being a Lollard,
and made a recantation at Paul's cross.
Accepting a cardinalate, he incurred a
"premunire," and his political enemies
obtained his resignation of the see.
John Longland (1521 — 1547) encoun
tered the first anxieties of the Reform
ation ; in his time Peterborough and
Oxford dioceses were taken out of
Lincoln. Henry Holbeach (1547 — 1551)
had to steer his diocese through 1ho
worst of the troubled waters of the
Reformation ; in the reign of Edward
VI. he resigned the greater part of
the property of the see to the Crown.
John Taylor (1552 — 1554) was deprived
under Queen Mary, but escaped further
proceedings by his timely death. John
Williams (1621—1641) was one of the
latest of the long line of statesman
bishops ; on the removal of Lord
Bacon in 1621 Williams was made

LITANY

LITURGY

chancellor, and in the same month
bishop of Lincoln ; he was trans
lated to York, 1641, and continued
one of the chief advisers of the Crown
till his death. Thomas Winniffe (1642)
was expelled from his see during the
Great Rebellion, and died in retirement.
On the rest or.i tion, Robert Sanderson
(1660 — 1663), an eminent divine, was
appointed. Bishop Wordsworth (1869
— 1885) revived the office of suffragan
bishop in his diocese, and ultimately
procured the erection of Notts into a
separate diocese of Southwell.
LITANY (\iravtia — prayer) was
applied especially to prayers said by
the clergy and people in procession,
either about the church, or the church
yard, or through the streets of the
town. The prayers were usually broken
into very brief petitions, chanted by
one or more of the ministers, with a
response chanted by the whole body
of the clergy and people. Such pro
cessional prayers were in use in the
East in the middle of the 3rd century,
and how much earlier we do not know.
It was a very impressive and solemn,
and therefore a very popular, form of
devotion. In the early times of our
Reformation (1544), it was the first of
our services to be translated into
English, purged from superstitions, and
commended anew to popular use under
the name of ' ' The Common Prayer of
Procession. " The royal letter to Cran
mer authorising its use says : " Being
resolved to have continually from
henceforth general processions in all
cities, towns, churches, and parishes
of this our realm, said and sung with
such reverence and devotion as apper-
taineth ... we have set forth certain
godly prayers and suffrages in our
native English tongue, " &c.
Our Litany as it stands divides itself
into two principal parts, the first down
to the Lord's Prayer (exclusive), the
second from the Lord's Prayer to the
end. The first part seems to have been
sung in procession round the church,
so timed that the second part might be
sung by the minister or ministers (in

some of our cathedrals two lay clerks
sing it in unison), kneeling at the
litany stool at the chancel step.
The first part subdivides into the
Invocations, Deprecations, Obsecra
tions, Supplications, concluding with
the brief echo of the opening Invoca
tions, " Lo?-d (the Father), have mercy
upon us; Christ, have mercy, &c. ;
Lord (the Holy Ghost), have mercy,
&c." The secoud part is very com
plex in its construction. The Lord's
Prayer, naturally suggested by the
"lesser litany," which usually, in all
the offices, precedes it, is almost an
indispensable part of a service intended
to be complete in itself. The versicles
and collects are usual features. The
verse, 0 God, we have heard with our
ears, he. , preceded and followed by the
response, 0 Lord, arise, &c, are the
first and last verses of Ps. xliv. In
the Old Sarum Litany this Psalm
formed part of the Introduction, sung
before the procession set out ; in accord
ance with a common usage in mediaeval
offices, the first verse is retained as a
representation of the whole Psalm,,
while the last verse is used as an
Antiphon [which see].
LITURGY (Xeirovpyia — public min
istry or service). The word is more
properly restricted to the service for
Holy Communion ; but in common
usage it is often applied to the office of
morning and evening prayer as well.
[See Liturgy, British; Missal for tho
use of Sarum; and Communion Ser
vice ; and generally the articles classi
fied under Liturgical in the tables at
the beginning of this book.]
LITURGY, BRITISH. The Liturgy
in the exact form used by the British
Church has not come down to us ; but
a very early form of the Gallican Liturgy
has been preserved, and the Mosarabic
Liturgy of the early Church of Spain,
and we know that the British Liturgy
was of the same family, and probably
closely resembled them. The following
sketch of the ancient Gallican Liturgy
alluded to may therefore be taken as
fairly representing, in its general outline

LIVERPOOL

377

LLANDAFF

and main features, the original form
according to which the British Church
celebrated the Holy Eucharist.
The ancient Gallican Liturgy began
with an anthem, followed by a pre
paratory exhortation. After the
mutual salutation of the priest and
. people a collect was said. Then the
. Trisagium was sung, followed by the
canticle Benedictus. Then came les
sons from the prophets and the apos
tolic writings ; after which the Bene-
dicite was sung. Then the gospel was
read, before and after which the Trisa
gium was again sung, and the people
gave the response (still continued
by tradition in the English Church),
"Glory be to Thee, 0 Lord." After
wards the bishop preached, or a homily
was read. Then the appointed prayers
were read by a deacon for the children
and catechumens. After their dis
mission the bread and wine were
brought in, and an oblation of them
was made, while an anthem was sung,
which answered to the offertory of
later times. Then the Diptych, con
taining the names of Christian worthies,
was read ; the Collect post nomina was
said ; the kiss of peace given ; and the
collect ad pacem was said ; after which
the lesson followed, which was very
short. After the consecration came
the prayer post secreta ; ' ' postea fiebat
confractio et commixtus corporis
Christi." In the mean time the choir
sung an anthem. This was followed
by a collect, the Lord's Prayer, another
collect, and the blessing, " Pax, fides
et caritas et communicatio corporis et
sanguinis Domini sit semper vobiscum. "
During communion an anthem was
sung, then one or perhaps two collects
were said, and the people were dismissed.
LIVERPOOL, DIOCESE OF. The
vast growth of the great seaport of
Liverpool led some of its leading Church
men to desire to get it made into an
independent see, "as the only means of
uniting and stimulating the clergy and
laity in the great church works neces
sary to keep pace with the rapid in
crease of population " (' Diary of the

late Mr. Torr of Liverpool,' under date
Jan. 1864). A general meeting was
held in Jan. 1875 in the Town Hall,
when it was proposed to unite Liver
pool to Sodor and Man. But Liverpool
objected to having only half a bishop,
and the Isle of Man objected to have
the best part of its bishop's energies
taken away ; and it was resolved to
raise a capital sum to endow a distinct
see for Liverpool. The town was ac
cordingly included in the New Bishop
rics Act of 1878, and was founded
in 1880. The church of St. Peter,
Liverpool, was chosen as the pro-
cathedral. Fifteen honorary canons
were appointed. The diocese consists
of part of Lancashire, and contains
1,085,624 population ; 2 archdeacon
ries, of Liverpool and Warrington ; 9
rural deaneries ; 196 benefices.
LLANDAFF, DIOCESE OF. The
legend which says that Lucius, King
of Britain, sent for missionaries to
Rome, and built for them at Llandaff
the first church in Britain, must be
dismissed as totally unhistorical. On
the removal of the Roman authority
Wales divided itself into four Princi
palities, of which Gwent (Monmouth
shire) was one ; Dyfryg, or Dubricius,
became its first bishop, and placed his
see here, which after his name was
called Llan-dyf, the Church of Dyfryg.
He died in 612. His successor, St.
Teilo, was so famous as to be regarded
as the principal founder ; the cathedral
church was dedicated to him as its
builder, and the diocese was sometimes
called the Diocese of Teilo, and the
bishop, the Bishop of Teilo. The Book
of Llandaff, compiled 1120—1133, con
tains numerous legendary stories, names
of bishops, and other records of the
diocese, but they are of very little
historical value. From the end of the
9th century there is evidence that the
South Welsh dioceses were in close
communion with the English Church,
consequent upon the subjection of Wales
to English princes ; and it is asserted
that Cyfeiliawg was consecrated bishop
by JJthelred, Archbishop of Canter-

LOLLARDS

378

LOLLARDS

bury, and that all the bishops of this
see from about 972 were consecrated
by the Archbishop of Canterbury ; but
they were elected by the prince, clergy,
and people of their own diocese until,
in 1107, Urban .was nominated by
Rufus and consecrated by Anselm, and
imposed upon the see. He built the
cathedral. Bishop Henry (1193—1218)
organised the chapter of Llandaff, con
sisting of 14 prebends, 8 of which were
filled by priests, 4 by deacons, and 2
by sub-deacons ; before this time the
lands of the see had been held in
common and not apportioned between
the bishop and his clergy. Bishop
Kitchin, on the accession of Elizabeth,
took the oath of supremacy, and retained
his see, and assisted at the consecration
of Parker as archbishop.
The diocese contains the counties of
Monmouth, Glamorgan, and parts of
Brecknock and Hereford. Population,
603,020 ; 2 archdeaconries, Monmouth
and Llandaff; 20 rural deaneries, 221
parishes. (See ' A Popular History of
the Ancient British Church,' E. J.
Newell, 1887.)
LOLLARDS, probably from the Ger
man Lullard, but assumed by their
opponents to be from Lolium, a tare,
as if they were tares among the wheat.
It is commonly assumed that they
were the disciples of Wiclif, but in
fact they existed in England before
Wiclif began to teach, and were the
English representatives of a certain
school of opinion, opposed to exist
ing institutions in Church and State,
which appeared sporadically through
out Europe, under various names, as
Paterines, Picards, AValdenjes, in the
thirteenth and fourteenth centuries.
Wiclif adopted some of the opinions
of this school ; its disciples gladly
claimed him as one of themselves ; and.
he is not altogether unfairly reckoned
as their foremost man. [See Wiclif.]
Among the doctrines which they
maintained and taught were these :
That the Church is the synagogue of
Satan, and that its baptism put a child
in a worse condition than before ; they

denied the necessity for Episcopal ordin
ation, and took it on themselves to ordain
ministers for themselves, maintaining
that every Christian man or woman,
being without sin, is entitled to conse
crate the Eucharist. They maintained
that cohabitation by mutual consent
constituted a lawful marriage, without
the forms of the Church : that all ought
to marry, or at least to have an inten
tion and disposition for that state, if
they desire to be saved ; otherwise
they are guilty of murder, and prevent
the holy posterity which should people
the new Jerusalem. They held that
neither the Lord's day nor any other
festival should be kept holy. With
these religious extravagances they com
bined cognate opinions on civil govern^
ment, which if carried out would have'
ended in socialism and anarchy. These
opinions they held with fanatical earn
estness and propagated with great zeal,
and were ready to use force in order to
establish them. To add to the danger,
many so-called prophecies were spread
abroad by them which had a political
aim, and which had a tendency to ful
fil themselves. Many persons of the
better classes encouraged and protected
the preachers of these doctrines, but
their strength lay chiefly among tho
ignorant classes, especially in London
and some of the large towns.
The rebellion of Wat Tyler showed
the extent to which these opinions had
spread among the people, and the danger
they constituted to Church and State.
BothParliamentand Convocation during
the reign of Richard II. took steps to
stop the preachers of heresy and sedition.
On the accession of Henry IV. a still
stronger measure was taken by the
passing of the Act de heretico com-
burendo, which enacted that persons
convicted of heresy by the Ecclesi
astical Courts should be handed over
to the custody of the sheriff, by whom
they should suffer the death which the
ancient laws assigned to that offence,
viz. death by fire. To prove that this
was no mere threat, and to strike terror
into the minds of the Lollard preachers,

LONDON

379

LONDON

William Sawtre, priest of St. Osyth's,
in London, a well-known leader of the
party, being condemned as a relapsed
heretic, was the same year (1401) de
graded and burnt. Only one other,
Thomas Bradley, a tailor, is known
to have suffered in that reign ; he was
offered his life at the stake on condition
of recantation, and refused.
On the accession of Henry V. another
Act was passed (1414) requiring the
sheriffs and all officials on entering upon
office to take an oath to destroy Lollards.
In 1418, Sir J. Oldcastle, who had put
himself at the head of the malcontents
and threatened civil war, was taken and
executed, and several of his supporters
with him. Only one more execution,
of Taylor, a priest, took place in the
reign of Henry V. The Wars of the
Roses turned men's minds into new
channels, and Lollardism as a political
party died out ; though some of the
heretical opinions of the Lollards still
survived, and in the reigns of Henry
VII. and VIII., and Ed. VI. several
persons were brought to the stake on
account of them. Of these sufferers
for religion many were fanatical re
ligionists of an extreme type ; their
cruel deaths have won for them a
universal sympathy to which their
opinions, if left unpersecuted, would
never have entitled them.
LONDON, DIOCESE OF. Of the
three British bishops present at the
Council of Aries in 314, one was
Restitutus, Bishop of London, from
which we learn, that when Britain was
a province of the Roman Empire,
London, which was already the prin
cipal emporium of foreign commerce,
was an episcopal see. Of the subse
quent history, however, of the see
down to the Saxon Conquest we know
nothing. Whatever the fate of London
at that crisis, — whether it was taken
and sacked and ruined by the con
querors, like the rest of the towns of
the unhappy province, or whether it
formed an exception to the general fate,
and was powerful enough to hold its
pwn against the Saxon invaders, and to

retain the position of a privileged,
almost a free, city in the midst of "the
East Saxon kingdom, — in either case
the episcopal succession seems to have
been interrupted, and the Church of
London to have disappeared.
When Ethelbert of Kent was urging
the acceptance of Christianity upon the
neighbouring kingdoms under his in
fluence, his nephew Sabert, king of the
East Saxons, consented to the planting
of the Church among his people ; Mel
litus was consecrated their bishop, with
London for his see, and Ethelbert built
him a "magnificent church" there, on
the site which has ever since been
occupied by the cathedral. When
Ethelbert died his sons apostatised,
and the work of the Italian Mission
was everywhere thrown into confusion.
Mellitus went to Rome to consult Gre
gory, the founder and patron of the
enterprise ; on his return the pagan
Londoners refused to receive him, he
retired to Kent, and soon after, on the
death of Laurentius (619), succeeded to
the See of Canterbury. The see re
mained vacant for thirty years, and the
Italian work among the East Saxons
entirely died out.
The effectual conversion of the people,
and the permanent planting of the
Church among them, was the work of
the Celtic Mission of Lindisfarne.
Sigebert, king of the East Saxons, on
a visit to the Court of Northumbria,
was converted to the faith, and on his
return brought back Cedd (brother of
St. Chadd of Lichfield) and another
Northumbrian priest to convert his
people. Cedd established two mission
centres, one at Tilaberg (East Tilbury),
on the Thames, and another at Ythana-
cester (Bradwell), on tho east coast,
but we have no history of any establish
ment or missionary work in London ;
the name Chadwell, of a hamlet (and
station on the Eastern Counties rail
way) between Ilford and Romford,
affords a tradition of his presence
and work in the western part of his
diocese. He was succeeded in 675 by '
Earkenwald; a man of noble birth, who

LONDON

380

LONDON

had founded for himself a monastery at
Chertsey, his sister having also founded
for herself a nunnery at Barking. He was
reputed a saint and worker of miracles,
and his tomb in the cathedral was an
object of pilgrimage for many succeed
ing centuries. Then succeeds a long
list of names, of which that of Dunstan
is the only one known to history, and
he belongs to Glastonbury and Canter
bury rather than to London, for he
held this see only for a time in com-
mendam. Ailward was appointed by
Canute, to whom he was related, some
time before 1035. In 1044 Edward
the Confessor appointed Robert, Abbot
of Jumieges ; and on his elevation to
Canterbury, William, another Norman,
succeeded in 1051. On his intercession
the Conqueror restored and confirmed
the ancient privileges of the city of
London, and the grateful citizens down
to the time of Elizabeth made an annual
procession to his tomb in the nave, in
commemoration of his good deed. His
successor, Hugh de Orivalle (1075 —
1085), became a victim to the horrible
disease of leprosy, which was then
spreading in England, but seems to
have retained his dignity, though many
of its duties must have been performed
by proxy. In the second year of
Maurice (1086—1106) the old Saxon
cathedral founded by Ethelbert was
destroyed by fire, and the bishop com
menced a new church, which is described
as having been' among tho noblest
churches, not of England only, but of
all Christendom. The work was con
tinued and completed by his successor,
Richard de Belmeis (1106—1126), and
the two bishops seem to have contri
buted the larger part of the cost.
After the time of the Norman kings,
London became more and more the
political capital of the kingdom ; Bishop
de Belmeis, fired with the ambition of
obtaining a dignity corresponding to
the political importance of his see,
sought an archbishop's pall at the
hands of the Pope ; Anselm opposed
the application, and it came to nothing ;
the prestige of Canterbury continued to

outweigh the practical claims of London
to be the metropolitan see ; half a
century later Archbishop Baldwin ac
quired the Manor of Lambeth ; and
though his contemplated erection of a
new cathedral there came to nothing,
yet the erection of the principal palace
of Canterbury opposite the royal palace
of Westminster was an outwardevidence
of the metropolitan dignity and au
thority of the occupants of the chair of
Augustine. The see was occupied by a
succession of great prelates and states
men, whose history belongs to the his
tory of the nation and of the Church
rather than to the history of the soe. The
bishop of the capital, the dignitaries "of
St. Paul's, the clergy of the city of Lon
don, have naturally always taken a lead
ing part in the affairs of the national
Church, but the history of the diocese
does not offer many such characteristic
features as need be mentioned in so
brief a sketch as this. The cathedral
is of such exceptional interest that it
may justify a few notes on its history.
Probably before the grand Norman
church to which Maurice and Richard
de Belmeis had devoted forty years of
care and income was quite finished, a
great fire, which consumed half London,
included the cathedral in its destructivo
flames. Bishop Ralph Niger (1229—
1241) began at once to rebuild it, with
a lengthened choir, in the Gothic style,
and it was sufficiently advanced to be
rededicated in 1240. At this time
London had 40,000 inhabitants and
120 churches. Bishop Ralph obtained
a law, formally assented to by tho
citizens of London in council, that they
should pay a certain assessment in the
pound on their property as offerings
to the clergy. This constitution con
tinued till the fire of Ldndon ; an Act
of Parliament then regulated the emolu
ments of those churches which had
been burnt, leaving the ancient rights
of the others untouched. This bishop
was canonised by the popular voice, and
his tomb became a place of pilgrimage.
The new cathedral, begun by Bishop
Ralph Niger, was declared complete,

LONDON

381

LORD'S SUPPER

and the spire was dedicated by Bishop
Segrave in 1315. The churchyard was
enclosed by a wall, in which six gates
gave access from the streets facing the
doors of the church. The cloister, of
two stories high, was in the angle
between the transept and nave ; within
it stood the octagonal chapter-house, and
the church of St. Gregory was some
where on this side ; the houses of the
Residentiaries to the west of the cloister,
and the deanery on its present site.
Tho bishop's palace-was within the walls
in the N.E. corner; beyond which east
ward was Pardon Church, in which
Gilbert Becket, Sheriff of London, in
the reign of Stephen, built a chapel.
Eastward of this stood the college of
minor canons, with Canons' Alley lead
ing to the north door of the cathedral.
There also stood a chapel called Jhe
Charnel. East of Canon Alley, and
not far from the N.E. corner of the
cathedral, was an open space, where
the citizens from time immemorial had
held their folk motes, and within this
space was a churchyard cross ; at an
early period a pulpit of wood was ereciipd
against the cross for out-door sermons
to the people, which Bishop T. Kemp
(1422—1426) replaced by a splendid
preaching cross of stone. The church
was set on fire by lightning in 1561,
, and greatly injured, and the repairs
were not completed when the democrats
of the Commonwealth wrecked it anew;
and while the authorities were debating
what should be done with it, the great
fire of London settled the question by
its entire destruction. Sir Christopher
AVren was the architect of the new
cathedral, in classic style, which, ex
ternally, is, next to St. Peter's at Rome,
the finest church of the style in Chris
tendom. Munificent donations helped,
but the greater part of the cost of re
building this and the other churches
destroyed by the fire was raised by
levying a tax on coal brought into
London — a tax which has been con
tinued for one or another useful metro
politan improvement to the present
•day. Stokesley, Bonner, and Ridley, j

and Bonner again, were the bishops
of the Reformation period ; Grindal
the Bishop of the Elizabethan settle
ment of the reform ; Laud and Juxon
of the time of the Great Rebellion ; but
their history belongs to the general
history of those periods. The see con
tinued down to modern times to include
all the ancient kingdom of the East
Saxons (Essex, Middlesex, and part of
Herts), and never included the southern
part of the metropolis south of the
Thames. Modern re-arrangements of
diocesan boundaries have resulted in
the creation of the Essex and Herts
portion of the old diocese into a new
bishopric, with a see at St. Alban's.
The diocese now consists of the en
tire county of Middlesex, with part of
Herts; population, 2,920,362 ; divided
into two archdeaconries, viz. London
and Middlesex ; 25 rural deaneries, and
564 benefices.
LORD'S SUPPER, The, was not one
of the original or very early names for
the Holy Communion.* It seems to
be first used in reference to it by St.
Augustine, and then not as one of the
names by which it was commonly
known ; in fact, it was not a usual
name for the Sacrament until the
Reformation. Then the term was used
in the Augsburg Confession ; it was
also adopted by Calvin ; and hence no
doubt its adoption and wide use among
ourselves. Thus the title of the liturgy
in the First Prayer Book of Edward
VI. is "The Supper of the Lord and
the Holy Communion commonly called
the Mass ; " and in the Second Book it
is, "The Order of the administration
of the Lord's Supper or Holy Com
munion, " and has so continued through
all the subsequent revisions. It is the
title used exclusively in the Catechism
and in the Thirty-nine Articles.
The title, thus, like other titles,
brings into prominence one aspect of
the service, viz. that it is the feast at
which God feeds us at His own table
with "the banquet of that most
heavenly food." * In 1 Cor. xv.

LORD'S TABLE

382

LOW CHURCH

LORD'S TABLE, another name for
the Christian altar. The altar, by Jews
and heathens, was always regarded also
as a table of the deity ; and the words
Table and Altar were used indifferently.
No doubt in our use of them there is
a difference of meaning conveyed. The
word Altar brings into prominence the
sacrificial aspect of the Holy Com
munion, and the word Table brings
into prominence its sacramental aspect
as a feast upon the sacrifice ; a feast of
reconciliation in which God receives us
as His guests ; a feast in which we are fed
with the Body and the Blood of Christ.
In the reign of Edward VI., under
the influence of the extreme opinions
adopted by the Government, an order
of Council directed the taking away of
stone altars and .setting up of tables
in their stead.
As soon as Elizabeth came to the
throne (1559) she issued Injunctions
wherein she states that in some places
the altars have been removed and
tables placed, and in other places they
have not been taken away, in expecta
tion of some new direction .on the
subject, that whether there be altar
or table ' ' seemeth no matter of great
moment so that the Sacrament be duly
and reverently administered ; yet for
observation of one uniformity through
the whole realm, and for the better
imitation of the law in that behalf, it
is ordered that no altar be taken down
but by the curate of the church and the
churchwardens, or one at least of them,
wherein no riotous or disordered manner
be used. And the holy table in every
church be decently made and set in the
place where the altar stood, and there
commonly covered as thereto belongeth. ' '
The Bishops, in their " Interpreta
tions " of the " Injunctions," direct
' ' that the table be removed out of the
choir into the body of the church, be
fore the chancel-door, where either the
choir seemeth to be too little, or at
great feasts of receivings. And at^ the
end of the Communion to be set up
again [at the east end of the chancel]
according to the Injunctions."

In practice the holy table was in
some places permanently placed in the
middle of the chancel, and seats were
placed round it, forming a Communion
pew. In some of the churches in Jersey,,
down to the middle of the present cen
tury, movable boards and trestles were
put up to form a holy table in the mid
dle aisle under the reading-desk, which
probably represented another Puritan
usage common in England in the six
teenth century.
Among Laud's revivals of earlier
customs he ordered the holy, table to be
permanently placed at the east end of
the chancel altar-wise, and to be fenced
with an altar-rail. A curious illustration
of the subject is to be found in tho
case of Beckington, diocese of Bath apd
AVells, where the table "had for seventy
years stood in the midst of the chancel,
enclosed with a very decent wainscot
border and a door, with seats for the
communicants to receive in round
about it," when Bishop Pierce re
quired that it should be placed at the
east end altar-wise and railed in. The
churchwardens, refusing to change then'
arrangement, were cited to the bishop's
court and excommunicated. Their
appeal to the archbishop's court was
disallowed ; after a year of contumacy
they were imprisoned ; and on submis
sion were sentenced to stand in the
middle of the church on Sunday, and
there, after reading the gospel, make
open confession and submission, and to
repeat the same at Frorne and Bath on
the following Sunday ( ' Diocesan Hist.
Bath and Wells,' S.P.C.K. p. 197).
LOW CHURCH, as the designation
for a party in the Church of Eng
land, was introduced in the period
immediately after the Revolution. It
differed greatly from the Puritan party
which preceded it, having no love for
the Calvinistic theology, no zeal for the
Presbyterian platform, and being con
tent to accept things as they stood, It
accepted the Church as the existing
organisation of religion in England,
and Episcopacy as the actual mode of
its government, and the whole system

MAISON DIEU

383

MANIPLE

of the Church as agreeable to the Word
of God. At that time Church questions
were mixed up with political questions,
and both were associated with dynastic
preferences. While the High Church
man was usually a Tory and a well-
wisher of the Stuarts, the Low Church
man was usually a AVhig and a n adherent
of the House of Hanover. But while
it preferred the Church system, it was
tolerant of dissent in every form, and,
as represented by Hoadley in 1717, was
accused by the other party of leaning
to Socinianism.
The names High Church and Low
Church have long ceased to have any
political significance. They now de
note schools of thought in the Church.
The Low Church of the 17th century
here described must not be confounded
with the Evangelical School of the
eighteenth and nineteenth centuries
[which see]. R. T.
M
MAISON DIEU, a name frequently
given to hospitals.
MAN, Diocese of Sodor and Man.
[See Sodor.]
MANCHESTER, DIOCESE OF. The
first report of the Ecclesiastical Com
mission in 1836 recommended the for
mation of two new dioceses in the
province of York, viz. Ripon and
Manchester. Ripon was at once con
stituted, but circumstances delayed the
foundation of Manchester till 1847.
The new diocese was chiefly taken
out of the old diocese of Chester ; the
line collegiate church of Manchester
afforded a suitable cathedral, and the
master and fellows of the collegiate
staff were converted into the dean and
canons of the new foundation.
From a very early period Manchester
seems to have been the most important
town in Lancashire. It seems to have
consisted of two towns, one Aldport,
i. c. the Old Port, near the camp-field,
the site of the chief fortress of the
Roman Maneunium ; the other, the
New Town, situated near the confluence

of the Irwell and the Irk. From the
Conquest there had been two churches :
the one near Aldport dedicated to St.
Michael, the other, in the New Town,
dedicated to St. Mary. They were
rude buildings of timber, but were
richly endowed by the Gresleys and
de la Warrs, the ancient lords of Man
chester. The Rector of Manchester
was the first of the secular clergy
resident in Lancashire, and in so re
mote a part of the diocese (Lichfield)
was no doubt a great personage.
At the beginning of the 15th cen
tury, Thomas de la Warre, the Rector,
succeeding to the family peerage on
the death of his brother; desired to
mark the event by some benefaction
to the town. Accordingly, with the
assent of the parishioners, he turned
the parish church into a collegiate
church of a warden and four canons, (?)
erecting the collegiate buildings at his
own expense, and increasing the endow
ment of the church to £200 (equal to
£3000 of our money) a year. The
bishop gave the new institution a body
of statutes, which occupy a large space
in his ' Register ' ( ' Diocesan History of
Lichfield, ' Rev. W. Beresford, S. P. C. K. ,
p. 159).
James Prince Lee (1848—1869) was
the first bishop, and was succeeded by
James Fraser (1869 — 1885) ; on whose
death James Moorhouse, Bishop of Mel
bourne, was translated to this diocese.
The diocese made wonderful progress
under its new organisation, especially
under Bishop Fraser's energetic admin
istration. The diocese now consists of part of
the county of Lancaster, with portions
of Chester and York ; population,
2,297,015 ; 3 archdeaconries, Man
chester, Lancaster, Blackburn, 21 rural
deaneries, 491 parochial benefices.
(Halley's ' Lancashire Nonconformity. ')
MANIPLE, one of the ancient eccle
siastical vestments. No doubt, origin
ally, it was a napkin, and was probably
used either in wiping the lip of the
chalice at the time of administration
of the Holy Communion, or in cleansing

MANUAL

384

MASS

the sacred vessels after their use, or
in both. But in very early times —
as eariy as the ninth century — it had
become a merely ornamental symbolical
narrow strip of rich material, embroid
ered, and fringed at the ends, worn
dependent from the left wrist of
bishops, priests, and deacons, and in
the eleventh century it was also allowed
to be worn by subdeacons. It will be
seen in the wood-cuts on p. 83.
MANUAL (from manus), a hand-book.
One of the old Service Books, con
taining the occasional offices, and rites
and ceremonies, which the parish priest,
in the discharge of his ordinary duties,
might be called upon to perform : as the
orders for baptism, matrimony, visita
tion of the sick, churching of women,
extreme unction, and burial ; but be
sides these we find a number of other
offices now obsolete : as the offices for
blessing of salt ; of water ; of bread on
the Sundays ; of lights on the Feast of
Purification ; of palms on Palm Sunday ;
the office for the Ember Days ; for bless
ing pilgrims ; for enclosing recluses ;
for separating lepers ; for blessing the
sword of the new knight ; of flesh,
cheese, butter ; of Paschal eggs ; of new
fruits ; of any seed ; of anything you
like (benedictio ad omnia qucscunque
volueris) ; of apples on St. James's
day ; of alms ; of shield and club for a
duel ; of weak eyes ; of a ship ; of the
table ; acts of thanksgiving (gratiarum
actiones). MARRIAGE. [See Matrimony.]
MASS, the old English title of the
Holy Communion. The derivation of
the word involves a double difficulty.
The Latin word for the Holy Com
munion is Missa, which is found as
early as the fourth century. This is said
to be derived from the words Ite Missa
est, with which the deacon concluded
the service. What the words were in
tended to mean is uncertain. Some
say that the words Missa est meant
that the offering had been sent up
to heaven ; but the vast weight of
authority is in favour of the. explana
tion that the words were merely an

announcement to the congregation that
all was done, and they were at liberty
to depart: "Go, you are dismissed."
AVhatever may have been the mean
ing of the phrase, or whether the title
Missa for the Holy Communion was or
was not derived from it, it is certain
that Missa was one of the titles by
which the service was known, from
very early times, in all the countries of
Europe. Whether our English word Mass is
simply a corruption of Missa is not
undisputed ; for there is a Saxon word
Mcesse which means feast, from which
the title Mass for the Eucharistic feast
may possibly have been derived ; thus
the words Christmas, Michaelmas, may
mean the Feast of Christ, the Feast of
St. Michael, without any direct allu
sion to the celebration of the Holy
Communion on those days.
Whether derived from the Latin
missa or the Saxon mcesse, it is certain
that the word mass was the vernacular
title for the Holy Communion from
the earliest days of the Saxon Church
down to the Reformation ; and since in
either case the word seems free from
any superstitious allusion, it is at first
sight a little difficult to understand the
clear distinction made at the Reforma
tion between the Roman Mass and the
Reformed Communion Service, illus
trated in the command which Henry
VIII. addressed to Cranmer, "to pen
a form for the alteration of the Mass
into a Communion," which Cranmer
obeyed by adding some exhortations,
prayers, and sentences of administration
in English to the existing Latin service.
[See Communion Service, The First
Reformed. ] A little study of the usage
seems to show that the Reformers took
the word Mass as representing in a word
the unreformed Service with the whole
of the objectionable surroundings — the
doctrine of transubstantiation, the usual
solitary participation of the priest, the
administration to the laity in one kind,
the abuse of mortuaiy, "Masses," &c,
while they took the titles Lord's Supper
or Holy Communion as representing in

MATINS

385

MATRIMONY, HOLY

a phrase the whole idea of the Service
as changed in these particulars. In
the First Prayer Book of Ed. VI. the
real identity of the two services is re
cognised in the title, "The Supper of
the Lord and the Holy Communion,
commonly called the Mass ; " but the
old name was entirely dropped in the
Second Book ; and has been commonly
used in modern times in the sense which
the Reformers put upon it, as a con
venient -designation for the old service
-with its surroundings.
MATINS, or MATTINS. [See Hours.]
MATINS (or Mattins), the name of
¦one of the ancient " Hour " services of-
the Church ; was appropriated at the;
Reformation to the Morning Prayer,
formed by a condensation of the three
morning "Hours," Matins, Lauds, and :
Prime. [See Hours.]
MATRIMONY, HOLY (Latin) ; MAR
RIAGE (French); WEDDING (Eng-
lish). The life-long union of one hus
band with one wife, for the propagation
of the race, is the original, divinely-
appointed institution of marriage. It
is the highest instance known to us of
the great mystery of Nature, by which
life reproduces itself in another life,
and multiplies itself. The statement
that woman was not an independent
-creation, but was " taken out of man,"
is the preamble to the statement that
in marriage " they shall be one flosh " ;
man is not perfect by himself, or woman
by herself ; it is the unionof these two
complementary halves of human nature
which make up, as it were, one perfect
human being, capable of reproducing
itself. "And God blessed them and
said, Be fruitful and multiply, and re
plenish theearth, and subdue it." This
natural mystery is raised by the Divine
revelations about it into the region of
the most sacred mysteries of our being ;
it is taken as the typo of Divine
relations — of the union of the Divine
Nature with the human nature in
Christ ; of Christ with the Church ; of
the individual soul with God. The
essentials of holy matrimony are the
consent of . the parties, the publication c

of that^ consent, God's -blessing through
His minister, and the consummation
of the union.
The usual symbolical ceremonies of
a marriage are of primitive antiquity.;
in the very first marriage of which we
have any account — the marriage of
Isaac and Rebecca — we find the betroth
al, when the bride and her relatives
consent to the marriage ; and the bride
groom's betrothal presents ; and we find
dthe bride taking ' ' a veil and covering
herself" when about to be given to her
husband (Gen. xxiv.). The ring' worn
by the bride as a token of her married
condition was an ancient Roman custom-,
and perhaps was thence introduced into
the customary marriage rites of the
Church. As a security against illegal mar
riages, the Church requires that public
notice of every intended marriage shall
be given in church, on three preceding
Sundays, or Holy days. [See Banns.]
But this notice may be superseded by
the archbishop of the province, or tho
bishop of the diocese, or their proper
officers, by the issue of a licence to the
parties to be married without public
ation of banns. By a special licence
from the Archbishop of Canterbury,
not only may the marriage take place
without publication of banns, but also
out of the legal .hours, and even out of
church — anywhere, at any time, speci
fied in such special licence. The legal
hours, which were from 8 to 12 in the
morning, were by Act of Parliament in
1886 extended to 3 o'clock in the
afternoon. Forbidden degrees of Marriage.
Not any man may marry any woman.
There are certain relationships within
which marriage is prohibited.
These prohibitions rest entirely on
the Word of God ; put th at aside, and
no sufficient reason can be given why
any man should be forbidden to marry
any -woman, or any number of women,
or any woman to marry any man, or
any number of men. It is only in the
name of God, pointing to the law of
God, that the Church claims to forbid

MATRIMONY, HOLY

386

MATRIMONY, HOLY

polygamy, concubinage, divorce, and
incest ; to call them sins ; to exclude
those guilty of them from the Church ;
and to threaten them with exclusion
from heaven.
God has revealed that the union of
persons nearly related to one another is
a sin, and stigmatises the sin as one of
moral foulness — "it is wickedness " — •
(Lev. xviii. 17). The degree of near
ness of kin within which marriage is
forbidden, is illustrated in the chapter
above quoted, and elsewhere, by a num
ber of instances which at first sight
look arbitrary, selecting some relation
ships, and omitting others which are
like. But on a study of these examples
it is found that they give us two per
fectly clear, well-defined, consistent
principles. 1. That what is said of man is to "be
¦Understood equally of woman : c. g. it
says that a man may not many his
mother, and leaves the inference that
equally a woman may not marry her
father. 2. That all marriages are forbidden
¦within the third degree of relationship
inclusive, and none outside that degree.
3. God has also revealed that the
•union of man and wife is such that the
relations of one become the relations of
the other, in such a way that the pro
hibition of marriage extends not only
to relations by consanguinity, but to
relations by affinity ; and union between
those who are too near akin by affinity
also is denounced as a sin of moral
foulness. Again this is illustrated by
examples (Lev. xviii. passim) ; and a
study of these examples leads to the
same two principles on which the pro
hibitions of marriage by consanguinity
are founded. So that it is clearly
proved that, by the Law of God, in the
ancient Church, marriage within the
third degree of relationship either by
blood or by marriage was prohibited.
But these prohibitions were not
merely Levitical, applying to the Jewish
people and the Mosaic dispensation
only ; they were involved in the original
marriage relation which made man and

wife " one flesh ; " they were part of
the common law of the whole race ; it
was by the general violation of this
law, as well as by other sins of still
fouler kind, that the nations of Canaan
are said to have brought destruction
upon themselves (Lev. xviii.).
When our Lord Jesus Christ laid the
broad and deep principles which were
to govern the renovated and purified
condition of human relations in His
Church, He dealt with this subject
among others, and laid down the prin
ciples which were to be observed with
respect to it. He reverted to the
original Institution of Marriage in
Paradise, including the limitation^ in
volved in the mysterious unity between
man and wife as " one flesh ; " expressly
declaring that certain laxities which
had been permitted in patriarchal and
in Jewish times (such as the polygamy
of many of the patriarchs and kings,
the marriage of Abraham with his half-
sister, of Jacob with two sisters, &c),
were no longer to be permitted under
the Christian dispensation (Matthew
xix. 4 — 10).
The Christian law of marriage, there
fore, is that one man must have but
one wife, that the marriage is indis
soluble, "except for the cause of forni
cation, " whatever that phrase may be
determined to mean, and that mar
riage is forbidden between persons who
are within the third degree of relation
ship either by blood or marriage.
The way of reckoning degrees of re
lationship between two persons is from
one person up to the common ancestor,
and down again to the other person,
each step being a degree : e. g. from son
to father, or father to son, is one
degree ; from son up to father and
down to another son is two steps, so
that the relationship between brothers
is in the second degree ; \mcle and
niece stand in the third degree, for
from the niece up to her father is one
degree, up again to his father (who is
the common ancestor) is two degrees,
down again to her uncle is three
Cousins stand in the fourth

MATRIMONY, HOLY

387

MATRIMONY, HOLY

degree, for from one cousin up to his
father is one degree, up again to his
grandfather (the common ancestor) is
two degrees, and so down to the other
cousin is two degrees more. Note that
while a man's father and mother, his
son and daughter are in the first degree
of relationship to him, his wife is one
with himself.
" The Table of kindred and affinity,
within which whosoever are related are
forbidden by Scripture and our laws to
many together," was drawn up for the
information of the people, and ordered
by a Canon of 1603 to be hung up in
churches. To prove that the table of
forbidden degrees is contained in Scrip
ture, the following method may be
adopted: — (1) Take the table, and
underline all the items in it which are
found expressly mentioned, in so many
words, in Scripture ; and this remark
able result will be apparent, that every
item on the male side of the table is
underlined, and very few of those on
the female side. So that it is expressly
said that a man may not marry his
daughter, but it is not said that a
woman may not marry her son ; neither
is it expressly said that a woman may
not marry her father ; it is expressly
said that a man may not marry his
sister-in-law, but not that u woman
may not marry her brother-in-law, &c.
The explanation of this fact is obvious,
when Scripture forbids an act as sinful
to a man, it equally forbids it to a
woman. So here, when Scripture ex
pressly forbids marriage in a particular
relationship to a man, it forbids it in
the corresponding relationship to a
woman. Otherwise a man may not
many his daughter, but a woman may
marry her son, &c.
(2) Applying this principle to the
table of forbidden degrees, underline
on the female side all the relationships
which correspond with those already
underlined on the male side ; and the
final result is that every item in the
whole Table is underlined, as forbidden,
expressly or by inevitable consequence,
in Holy Scripture,

Then examine the table, and it will
be found to include all relationships
by consanguinity within the third
degree, and also all relationships by
affinity within the third degree, and no
others. AVhen considering any plea for any
particular relaxation of the law of mar
riage, we have to deal with definite
principles. To the plea that affinity
is not the same thing as consanguinity,
the reply is that nobody says that it is.
What the Christian marriage law says
is that marriage between persons who
are related by affinity within three
degrees, is plainly forbidden by Holy
Scripture. To the plea for relaxation in
a particular instance, e. g. in the case of
a wife's sister, the reply is that there
would then be no principle upon which
to maintain the prohibition of mar
riage between any other persons related
by affinity in the third degree. To
the argument founded on the command
that a brother should marry the child
less wife of his brother, the reply is
first, that it is doubtful whether the
words do mean literally brother and
sister, or only nearest of kin, i. e.
nearest of marriageable kin ; and
secondly, if they do mean literally
brother and sister, that this Mosaic
exception to the strict law was only
temporary, for a special object which
no longer exists. The plea of expe
diency, and the plea ad misericordiam,
are met by equally good contrary ar
guments. The true reply is that
there is no power in the Church to
give . a dispensation from the Divine
law. If, therefore, the State were to make
such connections legal, it would put
the law of England into contradiction
to the Divine law ; and would begin
a course of deterioration of the law of
the land which we ought to oppose,
as citizens interested in maintaining
the highest standard of Christian
civilisation. Such marriages, though
made legal by the State, must con
tinue to be unlawful in the eyes of
the Church, and subject to all the

MATRIMONY, HOLY

383 MEDIAEVAL PERIOD, THE

spiritual penalties of such unlawful
connections. There is a popular difficulty which
may here be met. Why may two
brothers (say John and James) many
two sisters (say Mary and Ann) ?
Answer. John marries (becomes one
with) Mary, and therefore becomes the
brother of her sisters, and might not
"marry any of them ; but his brother
James is not in this oneness with Mary,
and does not therefore become the
In-other of her sisters, and may marry
one of them. Or take it the other way
• — Mary being married to (having be
come one with) John, his brothers
become her brothers, so that she may
not many James ; but Ann has not
become one with John, his brothers are
not her brothers, so that she may
marry James. There is absolutely no
relationship of affinity between James
and Ann. A popular error may also
be contradicted, viz. that while first
cousins may many, second cousins may
not. The fact is, that first cousins being
in the fourth degree of relationship
may marry, and second cousins being
in the sixth degree may marry a fortiori.
In 1835 a statute was passed entitled
an Act to render certain marriages valid,
and to alter the law with respect to
certain voidable marriages, the effect
of which is sometimes misunderstood.
Before the passing of this Act, marriages
contracted Within the forbidden degrees
were "voidable," i.e. they were liable
to be objected to, and, the objection
being proved, would be pronounced by
the court void ab initio; only the
objection must be brought and the
nullity pronounced during the life-time
of the parties ; the court would not
entertain the case (e. g. for the sake of
establishing the illegitimacy of the issue)
after their death. The Act began by
condoning past offences, ani freeing
those who had contracted marriages
within the forbidden degree, and their
children, from liability to the legal dis
abilities consequent thereon ; but, on
the other hand, it cleared up all am
biguity for the future by declaring all

such marriages — not merely "voidable,"
but — "absolutely null and void to all
intents and purposes."
Fleet Marriages. For upwards of
half a century prior to the year 1754
marriages were allowed to be celebrated
by clergymen residing within the
¦liberties of the Fleet and the Mint, at
Mr. Keith's chapel in May Fair, and
at Lion Chapel, Hampstead, which gave
occasion to great irregularities. They
were at length suppressed by an Act of
Parliament which came into operation
March 25, 1754. 'History of Parish
Registers,' p. 117, J. S. Burn.
MEDLEVAL PERIOD, THE. The
Norman Conquest resulted in two im
portant modifications — (1) in the. rela
tions between the English Church and
the Churches of Western Christendom',
and (2) between the Church and the
State. Hitherto the Church of England
had been autocephalous, i.e. while in full
communion with the other Churches
of the West it had been independent
of them. In the ecclesiastical constitu
tion of England the dioceses had been
grouped into two provinces : the Arch
bishop of Canterbury was the metro
politan of the southern province, and
the Archbishop of York of the northern
province ; the Archbishop of Canter
bury was also Primate of all England,
and at one time exercised a Primacy
also over the Churches of Scotland,
Ireland, and the Isles adjacent [see
Archbishop], and was sometimes styled
Patriarch ; and he had no ecclesiastical
superior. The Bishop of Rome had,
since the days of the Carolingian em
perors, been recognised as the Patriarch
of Continental Europe, but his patri
archal authority had not extended -over
these Britannic Islands.
Just before the Conquest, however,
under the influence of Hildebrand, the
bishops of Rome were extending their
pretensions ; and the foreign ecclesias
tics appointed by the Confessor were
not concerned to maintain the ancient
independence of the English Church; on
the contrary, they were disposed, in
their new character of English .hishopa,

MEDIEVAL . PERIOD, THE 389 MEDIAEVAL PERIOD, THE

to continue to recognise the allegiance
to Rome in which, as continental eccle
siastics, they had been trained ; so that
the ecclesiastical independence of Eng
land was already undermined when the
Conquest placed William on the throne,
and William placed Lanfranc in the
Primacy, and king and archbishop
recognised the patriarchate of Rome.,
It was this which opened the door to
all the future encroachments of Rome
upon the independent rights of the
English Crown and the English Church.
1. The prompt submission of the
Witenagemote after the fatal battle of
Hastings saved the Saxon nobles and
prelates at first from disturbance in,
their rights ; but after the great re
bellion William began to exercise the
right of conquest, and to take measures
against further troubles. Desiring to
place the powerful influence, of the
Church in safer hands, William in
vited Pope Alexander to send legates
to preside over a council. Stigand
the Archbishop was specially aimed at.
He had been the chief statesman of the
anti-Norman party in the reign of the
Confessor ; he had opposed William's
qlaim to inherit under Edward's will ;
arid he had crowned Harold. His
prompt submission after the battle of
Senlac did not suffice to save him.
The pretexts for his deposition were,
(1) That he had recognised Alexander's
rival, Benedict, and received his pall
from the anti-pope ; and (2) That he
had held Winchester in commendam
with Canterbury. With him were de
posed his brother, iEthelmer, Bishop
of Elmham, and jEthelric, Bishop of
Selsey, who had been consecrated
by him. Further depositions were
spared by the fact that the brother
bishops of Durham had incurred the
penalties of treason ; York and Lich
field were vacant by death ; Dorchester
had been filled up by a Norman ;
Hereford, AVells, Ramsbury, Exeter,
London, were already in the hands of
the foreigners of the Confessor's appoint
ment; the two remaining ones, Wor
cester, and Rochester, were allowed to

retain their native bishops. All the
bishops of William's appointment were
Normans ; all able statesmen, many of
them learned, all of them builders of
noble cathedrals. Not till the reign
of Henry I. was an Englishman again
raised to the Episcopate. The abbeys
were also gradually put under Norman
abbots. At the Synod of London, 1075, some
of • the sees which were in villages were
removed to the principal cities within.
their jurisdiction. Thus Sherborne was
transferred to Old Sarum (afterwards
transferred again to Salisbury, 1218),
Selsey to Chichester, Lichfield to
Chester (afterwards to Coventry in
1095), Elmham to Thetford (moved
again to Norwich in 1094), and subse
quently, in 1095, Dorchester to Lincoln.
2. Hardly less important than the
alteration in the relation of the Church,
of England to that of Rome was the
alteration which William made in the,
relation of the State to the Church, by
the separation of the Civil from the
Ecclesiastical Courts. The details of
the change will be found under the
title Ecclesiastical Courts. The result
was to place the Church in a position
of privilege, which largely conduced to
the growth of its influence in the suc
ceeding century, and which it retained
until the Reformation.
Still, in his personal relations, both
with the Papacy and with the National
Church, William took a clear and firm
attitude.. Between the rival popes,
Alexander and Benedict, he claimed
the right to recognise him in whose
favour he should decide. He refused
the claim to fealty made by Gregory
VII., He prohibited any legate from
exercising authority, or even landing
in England without his licence. He
did not allow the National Church
Councils to enact or prohibit anything
but what had been first approved by
himself ; and he kept the nomination
of the sees and great abbacies in his
own hands.
The Normans gave a new impulse to
the monastic institution in England. .

MEDIAEVAL PERIOD, THE 390 MEDIAEVAL PERIOD, THE

The Revised Benedictine Orders of the
continent had led to a great revival of
learning and religion there. Lanfranc
had been Abbot of the Norman abbey
of Bee ; Anselm succeeded him at Bee,
as afterwards in the See of Canterbury.
William and Matilda had built two
great abbeys at Caen. The king and
his nobles founded many religious
houses on their new English estates,
and for a century or more after the
Conquest this was the form in which
the religious zeal of the wealthier
classes showed itself, at the expense
of the ancient Saxon endowments of
parishes, which were in very many
cases given to swell the revenues of the
monks and nuns. [See Impropriation.]
The Normans introduced also a new
and grander style of architecture, and
filled the land not only with castles,
but with great monasteries and stately
churches of stone on a grander scale
than the Saxon buildings.
The twelfth century is marked by the
strife between the Crown and the Mitre.
First the quarrel of Investiture, between
Anselm and Rufus and Henry I. , the
subject of which was whether the king
or the pope should control the election
of bishops. A compromise denied to
the king the right of investiture by
the delivery of ring and staff into the
spiritual office, but reserved to him the
right of admission by homage into the
temporalities of the see. The substan
tial victory remained with the king,
for at first, by his influence with the
chapters, and before long by a letter
which accompanied the congi d'elire,
he retained the practical nomination.
The second quarrel was that between
Henry II. and his archbishop, Becket,
and the subject of it was the exemption
which the clergy claimed from the
jurisdiction of the royal courts. If it
seems, on one hand, that the king was
right in demanding jurisdiction over
all men and in all causes within his
dominions, it must be remembered, on
the other hand, that the right to be
judged in their own courts had been
given to the clergy at the Conquest ;

and that in those days of tyranny and
injustice the privilege was one which
its possessors were prudent in seeking
to retain. The murder of the arch
bishop, as the result of some hasty
words of the king, created such a state'
of feeling that the king was obliged
to yield, and the Church retained the
privileges in dispute.
The Papacy obtained a complete
victory in the next generation, when
John surrendered his crown into the
hands of Pandulf the legate, and
received it again as the pope's liege
man, bound to fealty and tribute. Yet
in this reign Stephen Langton, at the
head of the barons, WTung the great
charter from John, and another charter
which secured to the Church the right of
canonical election. Henry III. , accom
plished but feeble, thought himself
obliged to act upon his father's con
cessions to the pope, and allowed
legates to ride over England in regal
pomp, and plunder the Church of its-
treasures, and dispose of its benefices.
The great event of this reign is tin*
contest of the barons against the Crown
for constitutional freedom. In all these
struggles for the liberties of the people
the Church took a prominent and in--
fluential part. Archbishop Stephen,
Langton had headed the confederacy
of the nobles against John. St. Ed
mund of Canterbury was the adviser of
the banishment of the foreign favourites
of Henry III. Grosseteste, Bishop of
Lincoln, was the bosom friend and
adviser of Simon de Montfort. After
the king had fallen into the hands of
the barons at the battle of Lewes,
Berkstead, Bishop of Chichester, with
Simon de Montfort and the Earl of
Gloucester, were placed by the Parlia
ment of 1254 at the head of the consti-;
tutional government, and St. Thomas
of Cantilupe (the last canonised English
man) was the Chancellor of this baronial
regency. The thirteenth century was a great
architectural period ; and a new style,
with pointed arches and a soaring up
ward tendency of lines, symbolised the

MEDIEVAL PERIOD, THE 391 MEDIAEVAL PERIOD, THE

energy and grand aspirations of the life
of the period. This age was the age of
civic life ; the age of the war of the
barons and the prelates for constitu
tional government ; of the organisation
of civic life in guilds and corporations.
The monastic institution had culmin
ated in the last age. The great buildings
. of this age were not castles and monas
teries, but cathedrals and churches.
Nearly every one of the Normari
cathedrals was in whole or in part
rebuilt during this period on a grander
scale. This marks the gradual recovery
by the secular clergy of their place as
the active ministers of religion among
the people, while the monasteries have
become great schools of learning and
religion, great and enterprising land
lords. This same thirteenth century
saw the foundation of the Orders of
Friars, who spread so rapidly over
Europe, and effected for a time a
revival of religion like that of which
Wesley and Whitfield were the prime
movers in a later age.
The great characteristic of the four
teenth century is the growth of the
middle class into wealth and consider
ation, through the success of agriculture
and commerce. The friars, after half
a century of a wonderful success, had
begun to display the inherent faults of
the system, and to fall into disrepute,
and men's thoughts were strongly
turned in the direction of a general
reform of the abuses of the Church.
This feeling is represented in our
Church history by the name of Wiclif,
its extreme representative, and by the
wide spread of Lollardism after his
death. The Crown took the steps
within its province to force back the
Papacy from the encroachments it had
made upon the rights of the Crown and
the liberties of the National Church ;
and on the other hand it took steps to
regulate the relations of the Crown to
the National Church. The statute of
Mortmain in 1279, enforced by similar
acts in the subsequent reign, forbade
the further acquisition of landed pro
perty by the Church without the royal

assent. The Parliaments of Edward I.
and II. repudiated the pope's claim to
fealty. Edward I. compelled the pay
ment of taxes to the Crown by the
clergy by the threat of outlawry.
Edward III., by the statute of Pro-
visors (1350), protected the rights of
patrons of ecclesiastical benefices against
the rapacity of the papal court. In
1353 the statute of Premunire forbade
any papal bulls to be introduced into
England without the king's assent,
under pain of outlawry, confiscation,
and banishment. In 1367 the king
refused to pay the arrears of tribute
entailed by the surrender of King
John ; and in 1399 the Parliament
declared that the Crown and realm of
England had been in all time past so
free, that neither pope nor any other-
outside the realm had a right to meddle
therewith. In the fifteenth centuiy the Wars
of the Roses distracted the country,
destroyed the old feudal houses, and
greatly augmented the power of the
Crown. The monasteries had perhaps
ceased to confer any benefit on the
Church and realm proportioned to their
wealth ; the friars, fallen from their
first purity and usefulness, had sunk
into disrepute, and diminished in num
bers and influence ; the secular clergy
were not distinguished for learning of
zeal, and the state of religion was alto*
gether languishing.
The centuiy was marked by efforts
to effect a general reform of the Church
"in its head and members," but the
councils at Pisa (1409), Constance
(1414), Basle (1431), and Florence
(1438) were frustrated by the intrigues
of the papal court ; and on their failure,
various nations took such measures of
domestic reform as they could. The
steps taken in England in this direction
by the great Cardinal-minister, Wolsey,
will find place more conveniently in
the history of the Reformation.
This Mediaeval Period includes the
whole history of the organic connection
of the Church of' England with the
Roman See. It did not exist before the

MENDICANTS

392 METHODISM, WESLEYAN

Norman Conquest. Then the Church
of England put itself under the patri
archal authority of the See of Rome,
stringently limited and defined. The
Roman See encroached beyond these
limits upon the liberties of the Church
and Crown, and this encroachment
reached its maximum in the reigns of
John and Henry III. It was resisted
by the Edwards, and sharply curbed by
the Statutes of Provision and Premunire.
The history of its repudiation belongs
to the Reformation period.
The principal doctrinal corruptions
which were repudiated at the Reform
ation were introduced during this
period, and will be found detailed
Under the title Popery.
During all this period, from Lanfranc
to Wolsey, the Church supplied the
sovereign with his chief advisers, and
with some of his principal ministers
for the administration of the govern
ment. MENDICANTS, the begging Orders,
viz. the Friars [which see].
METHODISM, WESLEYAN. The life
of John Wesley [see Wesley] contains
the history of the remarkable religious
movement of which he was the author
up to the date of his death, on March
2, 1791, at the great age of eighty-eight
years. The object of this article is- to
sketch the history and principles of
the sect which sprung out of that
religious movement. With this object
it is necessary to 'look back into the
history of Wesley's life in order to
recognise the sources to which the
great features of the scheme may be
traced. The opening of the Foundry House
in London, and the building of the
Preaching House at Bristol, both in
the year 1739, were the beginning- of
the gathering of separate congregations.
The unwilling permission to Maxwell,
the first lay preacher, to preach in
public, in 1741, was the beginning
of an unauthorised ministry. Both
measures were ecclesiastically lawful
in themselves under proper ecclesias
tical control; but depending upon, the

authority of an individual, they were
liable at any time to escape from
control, and to become rival churches
and a rival ministry. This impatience
of control and this tendency to sec
tarianism soon showed itself.
In 1749 Wesley tried to check tho
tendency to separation from, tho
Church : " Are we not unawares, by
little and little, tending to a. separ
ation from the Church ? Oh ! remove
every tendency thereto with all.
diligence.. (1) Let all our preachers:
go to church. (2) Let all our people,.
go constantly. (3) Receive the sacra
ment at every opportunity. (4) Warn
all against niceness in hearing, a great.
prevailing evil. (5) Warn them biker
wise against despising the prayers of
the- Church. (.6) Against calling our
Society a Church or the Church. (7).,
Against calling our preachers ministers,'.
our houses meeting houses (call them
plain preaching-houses). (8) Do not
license them as such. (9) Do not
license yourself till you are constrained,
and then not as a Dissenter, but a
Methodist Preacher. It is time enough;
when you are prosecuted to take the,
oaths whereby you are licensed.
The ordination in 1784 of Coke and.
Asbury as bishops, and others as priests.
(under the thinly disguised names of
superintendents and elders), . for the.
Wesleyan^Mission in America, was the;
fatal and irrecoverable error of Wesley's
administration of his society. His
latest step in the progress towards.
avowed antagonism to the Church was
taken in 1788, only two years before
his death, when assistants were allowed
to read the Prayer Book in the preach-;
ing-houses on Sunday mornings; except
on the "Sacrament, Sunday," in the
parish church.
Wesley continued to bo a member
of the Church of England to his death. .
In the very year of his death, 1790, ho.
formally put forth this statement, in.
his 'Arminian Magazine,,' p, 287 : "I
hold'-, all the doctrines of the Church
of England, and I love- her liturgy,.
and I approve her plan of discipline,,

METHODISM, WESLEYAN 393 METHODISM, WESLEYAN

and only wish it could be. put in
execution." But for a long time previous to his
death it was only his personal influence
which had kept back the inevitable
tendency of his followers to separation
from the Church and the erection of
the society into a sect. For a few
years, indeed, the older members of
the society struggled to withstand the
onward pressure, and keep things as
they were". Thus in the first Confer
ence1 (1791) after Wesley's death it was
resolved, " We engage to follow strictly
the plan which Mr. Wesley left us at
his death." In 1792 it was resolved
that "no ordination shall take place
in the Methodist connection without
the consent of the Conference first
obtained, " and that ' ' the Lord's Supper
shall not be administered by any person
among our societies in England and
Ireland for the ensuing year, on any
consideration whatever, except in
London." In 1793 an address of the Conference
said, "AVe are determined in a body
to remain in connection with the
Church of England. We have never
sanctioned ordination in England,
either in this Conference or any other,
in any degree, or ever attempted to
do it." But in the same Conference
it had been resolved that, " The Sacra
ment of the Lord's Supper shall not
be administered by the preachers in
any part of, our connection, except
when the whole society is unanimous
for it, and will not be contented with
out it." The statement of principle
in the beginning of these resolutions
is curiously contrasted with the per
mitted exceptional violation of the
principle in the conclusion of them ;
and this contrast is the evidence of the
contest 'which was going on between
the older men, who desired at least to
go no further in their departure from
the Church of England, and the
younger men, who wished to form
themselves into a distinct Wesleyan
Church. The contest came to a head
in the Conference of 1795, and was

embodied in certain ' ' Articles of Agree-
.ment for General Pacification," which
allowed "the Sacrament of the Lord's
Supper" to be administered in any
chapel where the majority of the
trustees and the majority of the
stewards and leaders desired it, with,
the consent of Conference. The, ad
ministration of baptism, the burial of
the dead, and service in church hours,.
to be determined in the same way as
above. The petitions to Conference for
the grant of these liberties to individual
chapels were numerous for the next
few years, and before long the chapels,
almost universally possessed them.
The usual mode of appointing minis-,,
ters continued to be by "setting them.
apart " with prayer ; but in 1836, ordin-.
ation by imposition of hands was intro
duced, and completed the history of
the conversion of Wesley's societies
into a sect.
The spirit of Wesley's movement,
and the nature of his organisation, will
be best shown by the transcription of
his own careful and complete sketch,
as follows : —
Rules of the society of the people
called Methodists.
1. In the latter end of the year 1739
eight or ten persons came to me in
London, who appeared to be deeply
convinced of sin and earnestly groaning
for redemption. They desired (as, did
two or three more the next day) that I
would spend some time with them in
prayer, and advise them how to flee
from the wrath to come, which they
saw continually hanging over their
heads. That we might have more time
for this great work, I appointed a day
when they might all come together ;•
which from thenceforward they did'
every week, viz. on Thursday in the
evening. To them, and as many more.
as desired to join with them (for their.
number increased daily), I gave those;
advices from time to time which I.
judged most needful for them ; and.
we always concluded our meetings, with)
prayer suitable to their.several, neces
sities.

METHODISM, WESLEYAN 394 METHODISM, WESLEYAN

2. This was the rise of the United
Society, first in London and then in
other places. Such a society is no other
than a company of men "having the
form and seeking the power of godliness ;
united in order to pray together, to
receive the words of exhortation, and to
watch over one another in love, that
they may help each other to work out
their salvation."
3. That it may be the more easily
discerned whether they are indeed
working out their own salvation, each
society is divided into smaller com
panies called classes, according to their
respective places of abode. There are
about twelve persons in every class,
one of whom is styled the leader. It
is his business —
(1) To see each person in his class
once a week at least, in order
To inquire how their souis prosper ;
To advise, reprove, comfort, or
exhort, as occasion may require ;
To receive what they are willing
to give towards the support of
the Gospel.
(2) To meet the ministers and the
stewards of the society once a
week, in order
To inform the minister of any that
are sick, or of any that walk
disorderly, and will not be re
proved ;
To pay to the stewards What they
have received of their several
classes in the week preceding ;
and to show their account of
what each person has con
tributed.
4. There is one only condition pre
viously required of those who desire
admission into these societies, viz. "a
desire to flee from the wrath to come,
and be saved from their sins." But
wherever this is really fixed on the
soul, it will be shown by its fruits. It
is therefore expected of all who continue
therein that they should continue to
evidence their desire of salvation —
First, By doing no harm, by avoiding
evil in every kind, especially

that which is most generally
practised. Such as —
The taking the name of God in
vain ; '
The profaning the day of the Lord,
either by doing ordinary work
thereon, or by buying or .selling ;
Drunkenness, buying or selling
spirituous liquors, or drinking
them, unless in cases of extreme
necessity ;
Fighting, quarrelling, brawling;*)
brother going to law with '
brother, returning evil for evil
or railing for railing, the using
many words in buying or selling ;
The buying or selling unaccustomed
goods ;
The giving or taking things on
usury, viz. unlawful interest ;
Uncharitable or unprofitable con
versation, particularly speaking
evil of magistrates or of minis
ters ;
Doing to others as we would not
they should do unto us ;
Doing what we know is not for the
glory of God, as—
The putting on of gold or costly
apparel ;
The taking such diversions as can
not be used in the name of tho
Lord Jesus ;
The singing those songs, or reading
those books, which do not tend
to the knowledge or love of God j.
Softness, and needless self-indulg
ence ;
Laying up treasure upon earth ;
Borrowing' without a probability
of paying, or taking up goods
without a probability of paying
for them.
5. It is expected of all who continue
in these societies that they should con
tinue to evidence their desire of salva
tion — Secondly, By doing good, by being
in every kind merciful after their
powers, as they have oppor
tunity ; doing good of every
possible sort, and as far as iai
possible to all men.

METHODISM, WESLEYAN 395 METHODISM, WESLEYAN

To their bodies, of the ability that
God giveth, by giving food to
the hungry, by clothing the
naked, by helping or visiting
them that are sick, or in prison.
To their souls, by instructing, re
proving, or ex-horting all we have
any intercourse with ; trampling
underfoot that enthusiastic doc
trine of devils that ' ' we are not
to do good unless our hearts be
free to it."
By doing good, especially to them
that are of the household of faith,
or groaning so to be ; employing
them preferably to others, buy
ing one of another, helping each
other in business ; and so much
the more because the world will
love its own and them only.
By all possible diligence and fru
gality, that the Gospel be not
blamed.
By running with patience the race
that is set before them, denying
themselves, and taking up their
cross daily ; submitting to bear
the reproach of Christ ; to be as
the filth and offscouring of the
world ; and looking that men
should say all manner of evil of
them falsely for the Lord's sake.
6. It is expected of all who desire to
continue in these societies that they
should continue to evidence their desire
of salvation —
Thirdly, By attending on all the
ordinances of God. Such are —
The public worship of God ;
The ministry of the Word either
read or expounded ;
The Supper of the Lord ;
Family and private prayer ;
Searching the Scriptures ;
Fasting and abstinence.
7. These are the general rules of our
societies ; all which we are taught of
God to observe, even in His written
Word, the only rule, and the sufficient
rule, both of our faith and practice ;
and all these we know His Spirit writes
on every truly awakened heart. If
there be any among us who observe

them not, who habitually break any of
them, let it be made known to them who
watch over that soul, as they that must
give an account. We will admonish
him of the error of his ways ; we will
bear with him for a season. But then
if he repent not he hath no more place
among us. We have delivered our own
souls. John Wesley.
May 1, 1743. Chaeles Wesley.
The constitution and discipline of the
individual societies still continue as the
two brothers thus ordered them. The
organisation of the societies into cir
cuits, and the constitution of the Con
ference as the central government of
the Wesleyan body as a whole, as
described by one of themselves (Rev.
AY. Thornton, ' Cyclopaedia of Religious
Denominations'), is as follows —
A number of the Societies (described
in the preceding rules of J. and C.
Wesley) together form a Circuit. This
generally includes a considerable market
town, and the neighbouring villages to
the extent of ten or fifteen miles. To
one circuit, two, three, or four ministers
are appointed, one of whom is styled
the superintendent; and this is the
sphere of their labour for not less than
one and not more than three years.
Once a quarter the minister visits all
the classes, in order to speak personally
with every member. All who have
maintained a consistent walk during
the preceding three months then re
ceive a ticket. These tickets resemble
in some respects the symbols or tesserae
of the ancients, and serve in place of
the commendatory letters spoken of by
St. Paul in 2 Cor. iii. One of their
main uses is to prevent imposture.
After the visitation of the classes, a
Circuit meeting is held, which consists
of ministers, stewards, leaders of classes,
lay preachers, &c. The stewards then
deliver their collections to a circuits
steward, and everything relating to the
financial support of the ministry is thus
publicly settled. Candidates for the
"sacred office" are proposed at this

METHODISM, WESLEYAN 396 METHODISM, WESLEYAN

"Quarterly Meeting ; the presiding min
ister nominates them, and it rests with
the members to approve or negative
the nomination. A similar balance of
power is maintained in the Leaders'
Meeting in regard to the various affairs
of the particular society to which it
belongs. Many of these meetings are
attended by one minister only, or at
most by two or three, while the lay
members are very numerous. No
leader or other officer is appointed but
with the concurrence of a Leaders'
Meeting ; no circuit-steward without
that of the Quarterly Meeting.
A number of circuits, from ten to
twenty, according to their extent, form
a District, the ministers of which meet
at least annually. Every district has
a chairman or president. These as
semblies have authority — (1) To ex
amine candidates for the ministry, and
probationers ; also to try and suspend
ministers who are found immoral, erro
neous in doctrine, unfaithful to their
ordination vows regarding the main
tenance of order and discipline, or de
fective in ability for the work they have
undertaken. (2) To decide preliminary
.questions with regard to the building
of chapels. (3) To review the demands
from the less wealthy circuits, which
draw upon the funds of the connection
for aid in supporting their ministers.
(4) To elect a representative who is
thus made a member of a committee
appointed to act previously to the
meeting of the Conference, in order to
prepare a draught of the stations of all
the ministers for the ensuing year ; re
gard being had to the wishes of the
people, in the allocation of individual
pastors. The judgment of this Station
ing Committee is conclusive until Con
ference, to which an appeal is allowed
im all cases either from ministers or
people. The District Meeting is in
fact a committee of the Conference ;
circuit-stewards, and other laymen
attend all its sittings for financial and
public business, taking part equally
with ministers in all that affects the
general welfare of the body.

The Conference, strictly speaking,
consists of the hundred ministers who
have been introduced into the body,.
according to arrangements prescribed!
in a Deed of Declaration executed by
Mr. Wesley and enrolled in Chancery.
But the representatives just named, and
all the ministers allowed by the District'.
Committees to attend (who may or may 1
not be members of the ' ' Legal Hun- \
dred "), sit and vote usually as one
body ; the "One Hundred " conforming
their decisions. In this clerical as
sembly every minister's character under
goes renewed and strict scrutiny ; and
if any charge be proved against him, ho
is dealt with accordingly. The proceed-
ings of the subordinate meetings are "
here finally reviewed, and the state
of Methodism at large is considered.
Candidates for the ministry are publicly
and privately examined, and their or
dination takes place during the second
week of session.
We append Wesley's deed of Declar
ation by which Conference is defined
and empowered.
"Whereas divers buildings, com
monly called chapels, with a messuage
and dwelling-house, or other appurten
ances, to each of the same belonging,
situate in various parts of Great Britain,
have been given and conveyed from time
to time. . . upon trust, that the trustees
. . . should permit and suffer such
persons ... as should be appointed
at the yearly Conference of the people
called Methodists . . . and no others
to have and enjoy the said premises
for the purposes aforesaid. . . . Now,
therefore, -the. said John Wesley doth
hereby declare that the Conference hath
always heretofore consisted of tho
preachers and expounders of God's
Word ... whom he hath thought
expedient, year after year, to summon
•to meet him, to advise with them for
the promotion of the Gospel of Christ
. . . and for the expulsion of unworthy
and admission of new persons under his
care, and with his connection, to bo
preachers and expounders as aforesaid.

METHODISM, WESLEYAN 397 METHODISTS, WELSH

. . . And these presents further witness
that the several persons hereinafter
named (one hundred in number) . . .
now are the members of the said Con
ference . . . subject to the regulations
hereinafter prescribed ; that is to say,
no act of the Conference shall be had,
taken, or be the act of the Conference
. . . until all the vacancies occasioned
by death or absence shall be filled up by
the election of new members (by co-
optation), so as to make up the number
of one hundred ; and during the as
sembly of the Conference there shall
always be forty members present at the
doing of any act. . . . The duration of
the yearly assembly of the Conference
shall not be less than five days nor
more than three weeks. . . . The Con
ference shall and may expel or put out
from being a member thereof, or from
being in connection therewith, or from
being upon trial, any person . . .
for any cause which to the Conference
may seem fit or necessary. . . . The
Conference shall not appoint any person
for more than three years successively
to the use and enjoyment of any chapels
or premises . . . except ordained mem
bers of the Church of England. . . .
Whenever the said Conference shall
be reduced under the number of forty
members, and continue to be so reduced
for three yearly assemblies thereof sup-
cessively, or whenever the members
thereof shall decline or neglect to meet
together annually for the purposes
aforesaid during the space of three
•years, then the Conference of the people
called Methodists shall be extinguished
. . . and the said chapels, &c. shall
rest on the trustees for the time being
, . . upon trust that they shall appoint
such persons to preach therein ... as
to them" shall seem proper. ..."
. The 'theology of the Wesleyan
Methodists is still formally that of the
Church of England, and more distinc
tively, that of the Theological School
in the Church of England, which in the
days of James I. and Charles was called
"Arminian," as opposed to the Cal
vinistic school, and much of AYesley's

teaching and work was an anticipation
of the High Church revival of the
present day. It accepts the Thirty-
Nine Articles of the Church of England,
and uses its sacramental offices, and the
Morning and Evening Prayer with some
abridgement. The preachers are re
quested to subscribe to Wesley's ser
mons and his Notes to the New Testa
ment as the standard of their teaching.
No doubt there are varieties of indi
vidual opinion in the body, as there are
in the Church of England. The great
theological obstacle between the Wes
leyan body and the Church of England
is the assumption by the AYesleyan
ministers of the sacerdotal character
and functions. No doubt the large
property of the AYesleyan body, and
the terms under which its property
is held, might present a considerable
practical difficulty in the way of re^
union. But surely a consideration of the
manifest interests of the kingdom of
Christ will lend before very long to a
reconciliation of this great body of our
co-religionists with the Mother Church,
from which, through faults which we
confess were not all on one side, they
have been for a while alienated. The
Church has repeatedly of late given
evidence of her yearning for reconcili
ation, and her readiness to make all
concessions possible without sacrifice of
principle. Who can read the ' Life of
Wesley,' and doubt that, if he were
living now, he would thank God for
the change which has come over the
Church since his day, and joyfully
respond to the Church's invitation to a
comprehension. METHODISTS, WELSH CALVIN
ISTIC, sprang out of Wesley's move
ment, and in imitation of it, but was
from the beginning an independent
organisation, and, in its Calvinistic
theology, looks to Whitfield rather
than to Wesley as its father. It was
founded by Howell Harris, who about
1736 began to preach, and to found
societies among his countrymen, after
the example of Wesley and Whitfield.

METHODIST NEW CONNEXION 398 METHODISTS, BRYANITE

Before 1742 ten Welsh clergymen had
joined him, the most eloquent and in
fluential of whom was Daniel Rowlands,
who may be looked upon as a second
founder. The work which Harris and
Rowlands were doing in South Wales
was taken up in North Wales by
Thomas Charles, curate of Bala. It
was the latter who in 1811 completed
the severance of the Welsh Methodists
from the Church by " ordaining " their
preachers, and establishing a system of
rules for the government of the body.
In 1823 a Confession of Faith was agreed
npon by the body, founded on the Con
fession of the Westminster Assembly
of Divines. They are a numerous and
influential body in Wales ; but there
seems to be a movement among them
in the direction of the return of some
of their younger members to the
Church. METHODIST NEW CONNEXION
is a secession from the original body of
Wesleyans, founded by Alexander Kil-
burn, a leading man among the Wes
leyan preachers, in 1797. His disagree
ment with Conference was chiefly on
two points — 1. He demanded freedom
for the people to hold their meetings
for religious worship, and to receive
Baptism and the Lord's Supper from
their own ministers, without the re
strictions imposed by Conference. 2.
He especially demanded that the people
should share with the ministers in all
parts of the government of the society.
The Wesleyan body refusing these con
cessions, Kilburn seceded, and a certain
number of sympathisers with him, and
established the New Connexion, which
has existed ever since. It is not, how
ever, a very large body.
METHODISTS, PRIMITIVE. In
1807 an American Methodist intro
duced into England the system of re
vival services known as "Camp-meet
ings, " and these were taken up by two
local preachers, W. Clowes and H.
Bourne, and caused considerable excite
ment. Conference declared them to be
" highly improper and likely to be pro
ductive of considerable mischief ; " and

Bourne (in 1808) and Clowes (in 1810),
persisting in their methods, were ex
pelled from the connection. Their
sympathisers at once formed themselves
into a new sect, which appealed to a'
less educated class than that which by
this time formed the influential portion
of the Wesleyan body, and revived-the
arts of popular attraction which in the
earlier body had grown almost obsolete,
with the result of a very rapid growth
in numbers.
METHODISTS, UNITED FREE
CHURCH, consists of the union of two
secessions from the main Weslevaa
Connexion, viz. the Associated Method
ists and the Methodist Reformers.
The first of these secessions was
brought about by Dr. J. Warren, a
minister at Manchester, and member
of Conference. He took a line on the
subject of the establishment of the
Wesleyan Theological Institution in
opposition to the rest of the Conference,
and incurred their sentence of expulsion.
Thereupon, in 1835 he and his sym*.
pathisers established a new and rival
sect, which in about two years numbered
20,000 members.
The secession of the Methodist Re
formers was brought about by the
expulsion from the Wesleyan body of
the supposed writers of a series of ' Fly-
Sheets,' which appeared at intervals
from 1844—1848, and which contained
some severe criticisms and rough per
sonalities. The expelled members and
their sympathisers formed a new con
nexion, which in a short time pos
sessed 339 chapels and about 35,000
attendants at their services. In 1837
these two bodies joined together under
the above title, and form a strong
body. METHODISTS, BRYANITE, a se
cession from the main Wesleyan body,
which was founded by an influential
local preacher in Cornwall of the name
of O'Brien, and which continues to
exist chiefly in the western and southern
counties. It differs from the parent
body chiefly in allowing women to
preach, and in giving a larger share of

METRICAL PSALMS

399

MINISTER

the power of government into the hands
of the lay people.
METRICAL PSALMS. Clement Marot
translated the Psalms into French, and
the version became the popular hymn-
book of tho Huguenot party. Beza
followed his example. Sternhold was
the first Englishman who after their
example translated fifty-one Psalms into
English ; Hopkins, one of the Marian
exiles, translated fifty more ; Thomas
Norton in the reign of'Eliz. twenty-
seven ; and Whittingham added five ;
the whole, under the names of Sternhold
and Hopkins, were first published entire
in 1562 by J. Day. The fine version
of the 100th Psalm, which still holds
its place in our hymn-books, was by
Kethe, an exile with Knox at Geneva
in 1555 (Abbey and Overton, ii. 268).
Notwithstanding their general dry and
unpoetical style, they were received with
great affection by the Puritans ; and
were soon (without formal sanction)
introduced into churches. The version,
however, fell into disfavour with the
Presbyterians ; and the Assembly of
Divines being authorised by Parlia
ment to deal with the subject, a
version by Francis Rous, a member of
the Assembly, was examined and ap
proved, and ordered by Parliament to
be. printed. It took the place of the
ancient version, and was extensively
used till the Restoration. In 1651, W.
Barton revised Rous's version, when
it was again licensed for the press, and
this revised version is still used in the
Scottish Church. Sternhold and Hop
kins's was restored to Church use at the
Restoration, and continued in use until
the publication of the new version by
Tate and Brady.
The new version by Nahum Tate,
the Poet Laureate, and Nicholas Brady,
one of the royal chaplains, was "al
lowed by the Court at Kensington," in
1696 — the only authority on which it
rests. Among the best of this version
are — 19th, ' The heavens declare Thy
glory, Lord ; ' 34th, ' Through all the
changing scenes ; ' 42nd, ' As pants the
hart ; ' 84th, ' 0 God of Hosts ; ' 100th,

'With one consent;' 139th, 'Thou,
Lord, by strictest search ; ' and the
Christmas hymn by Tate, 'As shep
herds watched : ' all of which are still
favourites in our modern Hymn-Books.
There have been many other metrical
versions — a modern writer tells us at
least sixty-five — of the whole Book of
Psalms since the Reformation ; but
none others have been used in Church.
METROPOLITAN. [See Archbishop.]
MILITARY ORDERS, THE, which
sprang up in the early part of the
twelfth century, were very curious pro
ducts of the spirit and circumstances of
the times. They anticipated the active
religious self-devotion which was char
acteristic of the friars of the thirteenth
century, as contrasted with the con
templative religious retirement of the
earlier Orders of monks. But while
the Dominicans gave themselves to the
duty of preaching and controversy in
defence and propagation of the faith,
and the Franciscans to the care of lepers
and paupers, and the sick and poor
generally, the Military Orders combined
the spirit of active self-devotion for
others with the chivalrous crusading
spirit of the age. The Hospitallers
devoted themselves to the protection
of the pilgrims to the Holy Land
along the roads with sword and lance,
as well as to their entertainment and
succour at the halting-places. The
Templars devoted themselves to the
defence and propagation of the faith
by ceaseless war against the infidels.
The Augustinian Rule formed the basis
of the discipline of both these Orders.
[See Hospitallers, and Templars.]
MINISTER, is the word sometimes
used both in the Prayer Book, the
Canons, and the Statutes, to signify the
person in holy orders who is the sub
ject of some direction or regulation.
Its meaning is ambiguous ; sometimes
it is used of the person officiating,
whether he be a priest or a deacon, as
in the rubric at the beginning of Morn
ing and Evening Prayer ; sometimes
it denotes the priest alone, as contra
distinguished from the deacon, as in

MINORESSES

400

MISSAL

Canon thirty -two,* and in the rubric
after the consecration prayer in the
Communion Service. The meaning in
any particular case can only be deter
mined from the connection and circum
stances. MINORESSES. [See St. Clare, Nuns
of.] MINORITES. [See Franciscans.]
MINSTER. In Saxon times, and
much later, the title monastery was
applied to a church which had three
or four or more priests attached to it,
which we now call a collegiate Church, j
'In its Englished form of minster, it
has continued to be used in the popular]
¦speech, e.g. Ripon Minster, Southwell)
Minster, Wimbome Minster, &c.
MIRACLE PLAYS. [See Plays.]
MISSAL. The book which, in its!
¦complete form, contained all which J
was necessary for the due perform- '
.ance of the Eucharistic Service, as the !
.Breviary contained all which was neces- i
sary for the performance of the daily i
•office. In earlier times the Service for
:Holy Communion was contained in four
•books — the ' Antiphonary, or Gradual,'
•the 'Lectionary,' the 'Book of the
¦ Gospels, ' and the ' Book of the Sacra
ments, or Sacramentary ' ; it is to this
¦last that, from an unknown antiquity,
.the term missal was specially applied.
Several Sacramentaries of very early
date have come down to us, and are
¦known as the Leonine, the Gelasian,
i and- the Gregorian Sacramentaries ;
but the earliest -probably contains
¦ matter of very much earlier date than
.Pope Leo, from whom it takes its
name ; and " the ' Canon ' of the Sacra
mentaries cannot (as a whole) be given
to any author later than an Apostle "
(Maskell). The missals of the Church of Eng
land will be found described under
the titles, Liturgy, British; Missal
of the Anglo-Saxon Church ; Missal of
• In the rubric prefixed to the Absolution
in Morning and Evening Prayer in the earlier
Prayer Books the minister was directed to,
<fcc. At the latest revision the word was
altered to priest, in order to prevent am
biguity.

the Use of Sarum; and Communion
Service, the First Reformation ; of the
First Book of Edward VI.; of the
Second Book of Edward VI.
MISSAL OF THE ANGLO-SAXON
CHURCH. Three missals . of this period
are known to exist — one of Leofrie,
first Bishop of Exeter, in the Bodleian
Library ; another of Robert, Arch.
bishop of Canterbury, in the Rouen
Library ; -and a third, known as the
' Red Book of Derby,' in the Library
of Corpus Christi, Cambridge. None
of them have been printed in extensa.
The second MS. is pronounced, frorai
internal evidence, to have been executed
at the new minster, Winchester, at the
beginning of the eleventh century.
Osmund, it is probable, did not alter
the words of the Ordinary and Canon
of the Mass as he found them existing
in his Church of Salisbury, but intro
duced novelties taken from the Rouen
Use, in the accessory portions of .the
service, and in the ritual ; so that the
Anglo-Saxon service, in its main fea
tures, is represented by the Ordinary
and Canon of the use of Sarum, which
follows this article. Among the special
features of the Anglo-Saxon use may
be mentioned, that every Sunday and
Festival had its proper preface ; a
solemn Episcopal Benediction, when a
bishop celebrated, was introduced after
the fracture of the Host ; the words. of
the service imply that the laity received
in both kinds ; and it would seem that
they partook of the wine through a
metal reed or pipe. (Other special
features of the Anglo-Saxon Liturgy
are noticed in Dr. Rock's ' Church of
Our Fathers,' passim. )
MISSAL OF THE USE OF SARUM.
The Communion Service of the Medi
aeval Church, according to the use "of
Sarum (Salisbury), was the most popular
in England, and formed the basis of our
reformed service. For its own sake,'as
the English Communion Office from-
the Conquest to the Reformation, and
for the sake of comparison with the
reformed Books, and because it is
inaccessible to ordinary students, it

.MISSAL

401

. MISSAL

seema worth while to give enough of
it here to make, with other connected
.articles, a consecutive history of the
Communion, Services of the Church of
^England. We accordingly give here the
Ordinary and Canon of the Mass, ac
cording to the use of Sarum, as trans
lated by Mr. A. H. Pearson. It must
be carefully borne in mind that many
movable parts of the service, as the
Collect, Epistle and Gospel, Sequence,
&c, and many of the additions made
to the service on holy days, are not
given ; and that in the portion which
,is given many rubrics, and secreta (or
.private prayers of the celebrant), are,
for the sake of brevity, omitted ; what
is, given is that portion which forms
the unchanging and main substance of
'the service. -
While the Priest is putting on the
' sacred vestments, let him say the
¦ hymn,
Come, Holy Ghost, our souls inspire,
fcc. V. Send forth thy Spirit and they
shall be made ;
B. And Thou shalt renew the face
of the earth. The Collect.
God, unto whom all hearts be open,
&c. Amen.
Then shall follow the Anthem. [Introit.]
Antiphon. I will go unto the altar
of God : Ps; xliii. Give sentence with
:me, &c. Glory be, he.
, Antiph. I will go unto the altar of
God, even unto the God of my joy and
gladness. , Lord have mercy.
. Christ have mercy.
Lord have mercy.
Our- Father .... trespass against
us. Hail, Mary, thou that art highly
favoured, the Lord is with thee.
¦Blessed art thou among women, and
blessed is the fruit of thy womb.

[All the preceding is said secretly by the
priest. Then he says aloud,].
V. And lead us not into temptation.
B. But deliver us from evil.
V. Confess unto, the Lord, for He is
gracious. B. And His mercy endureth for
ever. Priest. I confess to God, blessed
Maiy, all saints, and to you, that I
have sinned exceedingly in thought,
word, and. deed, of my fault. I pray
holy Mary, all saints of God, and you,
to pray for me.
Ministers. God Almighty have
mercy upon you, and forgive you all
your sins ; deliver you from every
evil ; confirm and strengthen you in
goodness; and bring you to everlast
ing life.
Priest. Amen.
Then the Ministers say the same con
fession, and the Priest' says the " God
Almighty," and adds,
The Almighty and merciful Lord
grant you pardon and forgiveness of
all your sins, space for true repent
ance, .amendment of life, and the grace
and consolation of the Holy Ghost.
Ministers. Amen.
The bread and wine having been
brought by the assistants, and placed
by the Priest upon the altar, he says,
Receive, 0 Holy Trinity, this obla
tion which I, an unworthy sinner,
offer in Thy honour, blessed Mary's,
and alb thy saints, for my sins and
offences ; for the salvation of the
living and the repose of all the faithful
departed. In the Name of the
Father, and of the Son, and of the
Holy Ghost* let this New Sacrifice be
acceptable to Almighty God.
Then the Priest washes his hands,, with
certain short secret prayers, and
returning to the altar, says :
In the spirit of humility, and with
a contrite heart, let us be accepted of
Thee, 0 Lard ; and, let our sacrifice, be

D D

MISSAL

402

MISSAL

-in such wise in Thy sight, that it may
be accepted of Thee this- day, and
please Thee, 0 Lord, my God.
Then turning to the people,
Brethren and sisters, pray for me,
that my and your sacrifice may alike
be accepted by the Lord our God.
The Ministers answer privately,
The grace of the Holy Spirit illu
mine thy heart and lips, and the Lord
graciously accept this sacrifice of
praise at thy hands, for our sins and
offences. V. Our help is in the name of the
Lord. B. Who hath made heaven and
earth. Vt Blessed be the Name of the
Lord. B. From this time forth for ever
more. Let us pray. \ each to
Lord have mercy upon Us. | be re-
Christ have mercy upon us. \peated
Lord have mercy upon us. J three
— J times.
Glory be to God on high, &c. ...»
in the glory of God the Father.
V. The Lord be withyou.
B. And, with thy spirit.
Let us pray. Thenfollowi
The Collect.
' The Epistle, from the pulpit or from
the choir step.
The Gradual, Alleluia, and Sequence
are sung as the procession goes to the
pulpit, where the Deacon reads
The Gospel.
The Nicene Creed.
V. The Lord be with you.
. B. And with thy spirit.
V. Lift up your hearts.
B. We lift them up; &,a.
V. Let us give thanks, ha.
B. It is meet and right so to do.
It is Very meet and right .....
Everlasting God.
[Here come Proper Prefaces for Christ
mas, Epiphany, Ash Wednesday,

Easter, Ascension Day, Whitsun
Day, Trinity Sunday, Feasts of
Apostles, Evangelists, die., from which
ours are taken with slight alterations
The following is the Preface where,
there is no proper preface.]
Through Christ our Lord, by whom
angels praise Thy majesty, dominions
adore Thee, powers tremble, the
heavens and heavenly hosts and the
blessed Seraphim join with one glad
voice in extolling Thee. Together
with whom we pray Thee suffer our
voices to have entrance, humbly con
fessing Thee, saying :
Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God of
hosts ; heaven and earth are full of
thy glory. Hosannah in the highest.
Blessed is he that cometh in the
name of the Lord. Glory to Thee,. 0
God, in the highest.
[Then follows the Canon of the Mass.]
Thee, therefore, O most merciful
Father, through Jesus Christ, Thy
Son our Lord, we most humbly pray
and entreat to accept and bless these
gifts, these presents, this holy imt
maculate sacrifice, which we offer to
Thee in the first place in behalf of
Thy holy Catholic Church, to which
do Thou deign to give peace, to guard,
to unite, and to govern it, throughout
the whole world : together with Thy
servant our Pope (N), our Bishop (N),
our King (N), all the Orthodox and
maintainers of the Catholic and Apos
tolic Faith.
Remember, 0 Lord, thy servants
and thy handmaids N. and N. (here the
Priest prays for his parents, . relations,
parishioners, &c), and all here pre
sent, whose faith is approved, and
whose devotion is known unto Thee,
on whose behalf we offer unto Thee, or
who are engaged in offering unto Thee
this sacrifice of praise,, for themselves
and for all pertaining to them, for the
redemption of their souls, for the hope
of their salvation and security, and
are paying their vows unto Thee, the
Eternal, Loving, and True God.

MISSAL

403

MISSAL

In communion with and' reverenc
ing the memory, in the first place, of
the glorious and ever-blessed Virgin
Mary, mother of our God and Lord
Jesus Christ, as also of Thy blessed
Apostles and Martyrs Peter and Paul,
Andrew, James, John, Thomas, James,
Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Simon,
and Thaddseus, Linus, Cletus, Clement,
Sixtus, Cornelius, Cyprian, Lawrence,
Chrysogonus, John and Paul, Cosmas
and Damian, and all thy saints ; for
whose sake and prayers grant that in
all things we may be strengthened by
the aid of thy protection. Through
the same Christ our Lord. Amen.
This oblation, therefore, of our
service, and that of the whole Family,
we beseech Thee, 0 Lord, , graciously
to accept, and to dispose our days in
Thy peace, delivering us from eternal
damnation, and causing us to be
numbered among the flock of Thine
elect. Through Christ our Lord.
Amen. Which oblation, we beseech Thee,
0 Almighty God, that Thou wouldst
vouchsafe in all respects to bless, ap
prove, ratify, and make reasonable and
acceptable, that it may become to us
the Body and the Blood of Thy most
dearly beloved Lord Jesus Christ ;
Who on the day before He suffered
took bread into His adorable hands,
and lifting up His eyes to heaven to
Thee, His Father God Almighty, gave
thanks to Thee, blessed and brake
[Here let him touch the Host,- but not
so as to break it, for although the order
of the words seems to imply that Christ
brake before consecrating, tradition
teaches the contrary], and gave it to
His disciples, saying, Take and eat ye
all of this, Foe this is My Body!
Likewise after Supper, taking also
this most excellent chalice into His
Holy and adorable hands, and giving
thanks to Thee, He blessed and gave
it to His disciples, saying, Take and
drink ye all of it. For this is the
cup of my Blood of the new and
everlasting testament, the ' mys
tery of truth, which shall be

SHED FOR YOU AND FOR MANY, FOR
THE REMISSION OF SINS. As oft as ye
shall do this, ye shall do it in remem
brance of Me.
Wherefore also, 0 Lord, we thy
servants, together with Thy holy people,
calling to mind the most blessed pas
sion of the same Christ, Thy Son, our
Lord God, together with His Resurrec
tion from the dead, and His glorious
Ascension into Heaven, offer to Thy
excellent Majesty of Thy gifts and
bounties, a pure, a holy, a spotless
sacrifice, the Holy Bread of eternal
life, and the Cup of everlasting
salvation. Upon which .do Thou vouchsafe to
look with favourable and gracious
countenance, and accept them as Thou
didst accept the gifts of Thy righteous
servant Abel, the sacrifice of our
patriarch Abraham, and the holy
sacrifice, the pure oblation, which Thy
High Priest Melchizedeck offered to
Thee. We humbly entreat Thee, Almighty
God, command these things to be
carried by the hands of Thy holy
Angel to Thy altar on high, before the
sight of Thy Divine Majesty, that as
many of us as shall by partaking at
this altar, receive the most sacred Body
and Blood of Thy Son, may be fulfilled
with all-grace and heavenly benediction,
through the same Christ our Lord.
Amen. Remember also, 0 Lord, the souls of
Thy servants and handmaidens (N. and
N.), who have gone before us with the
sign of the faith, and sleep the sleep
of peace ; to them, 0 Lord, and to all
who rest in Christ, we pray Thee,
grant a place of refreshment, of light,
and of peace. Through the same
Christ our Lord. Amen.
To us also Thy sinful servants, who
hope in the multitude of Thy mercies,
vouchsafe to grant some part and fel
lowship with Thy Holy Apostles and
Martyrs, with John, Stephen, Matthew,
Barnabas, Ignatius, Alexander, Marcel-
linus, Peter, Felicitas,J?erpetua, Agatha,
Lucy, Agnes, Cecilia, Anastasia, and

MISSAL

404

.MISSAL

all Thy saints, into whose company,
not weighing our merits, but pardon
ing our offenses, we beseech Thee to
admit us, through Christ our Lord, by
whom, 0 Lord, Thou ever createst,
sanctifiest, quickenest, blessest, and
bestowest upon us all these things.
By Him, and with Him, and in Him,
is unto Thee, God the Father Almighty,
in the unity of the Holy Ghost, all
honour and glory, world without end.
Amen. Let us pray.
Admonished by saving precepts, and
following the divine institution, we
are bold to say :
Our Father, &c. . . . from evil.
Amen. Deliver us, 0 Lord, we beseech Thee,
from all evils past, present, and. to
come ; and at the intercession of the
blessed and glorious ever Virgin Mary,
mother of God, and of Thy blessed
Apostles Peter, and Paul, and Andrew,
with all . saints, graciously give peace
in our time, that, aided by- the help of
Thy loving kindness, we may both be
ever set free from sin. and secure from
all disquietude. Through the same
Jesus Christ our Lord, who with Thee
liveth and reigneth in the unity of the
Holy Ghost, God, world without end.
Amen. , V. The peace of the Lord be always
with you.
R. And with thy spirit.
V. Bow down yourselves for a bless
ing. R. Tlmnks be to Thee, 0 God.
Then let ' the Bishop give the blessing
to the people.
| 0 Lamb of God, that taketh away the
sin of the world !.
Have mercy upon us.
, 0 Lamb of God,, that taketh away the
sin of the world !
Have mercy upon us.
0 Lamb of God, that taketh away the
sin of the world !
Grant us Thy peace.
Placing a third of the broken host in
the wincy he says :

Let this most holy union of the
Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus'
Christ, be to me, and all who receive
it,, health of mind and body, and a
saving preparation for worthily attain,
ing unto eternal life. Through, &o.
0 Lord, Holy Father, Almighty,
everlasting God, grant me so worthily
to receive, this most holy Body and
Blood of Thy Son our Lord Jesus'
Christ, that I may thereby receive
forgiveness of my sins, and be filled
with Thy Holy Spirit, and have Thy
peace. _ For thou only art God, and
there is no other beside Thee, whose1
kingdom and glorious dominion abideth
ever, world without end. Amen.
Then comes the kiss of peace.' First
the priest kisses the corporal and the
chalice, and then the deacon, saying ;
V. Peace be unto thee, and unto the
Church of God.
R.. And to thy spirit. •
While the Pax is being carried round,
the priest says several secret prayers.
Communicating himself in the Bredd
he says :
Hail for evermore, most holy flesh of
Christ, to ine before all and above all
the highest source of joy The Body
of our Lord Jesus Christ be unto me a
sinner,, the Way and the Life, in the.
Name of the Father, &c. Amen,
Before commun-ieating himself in- the
wine, he says :.
Hail for evermore, Heavenly Drink;
to me before all and above all, the
highest source of joy. The Body and
Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, be
unto me a perpe'tual healing unto
everlasting life. Amen. In the Name
of, &c. Amen.
Then having communicated, he says j
I give thanks unto Thee, 0 Lord,
Holy Father, Almighty Everlasting
God, who> hast refreshed me with the
most sacred Body and Blood of Thy
Son, our Lord Jesus Christ ; and 1
pray that this Sacrament of our salva->
tion of. which I,, unworthy sjnner, haw

MISSION WORK

405

MISSION AVORK

partaken, turn not to judgment nor
condemnation according to my deserts,
but be profitable to the preservation of
my .body and soul unto everlasting life.
Amen. V. The Lord be with you.
R. And with thy spirit.
Let us pray. Then come the post
communions. *
V. The Lord be with you.
R. And with thy spirit.
V. Let us give thanks unto the Lord.
R. Thanks be to God.
V. Ita missa est. (Depart, it is
finished. )
R. Thanks be to God.
MISSION WORK OF THE CHURCH
OF ENGLAND. The missionary energy,
which is so conspicuous a feature of the
Church of the present day, assumes a
still more important significance when
we become aware that it is almost
entirely the growth of the present cen
tury. The Society for Promoting Chris
tian Knowledge (founded 1698), and its
daughter Society for Propagating the
Gospel (founded 1701), had indeed
helped to provide the means of grace
for, our own emigrants in the "Foreign
Plantations," and had encouraged the
preaching of the Gospel from these
centres to the heathen round about
them. The Christian Knowledge Society
had from 1710 generously supported a
little band of Danish missionaries work
ing on the coasts of India. But it was
not till the last year - of the eighteenth
century that the Church Missionary
Society was founded, and it is probable
that not till the first years of the present
centuiy was there a single clergyman of
the Church of England acting among
the heathen as the authorised agent of
the evangelising function of the Church.
Since then the mission - zeal of the
Church has been kindled, and the
missionary work of the Church has
grown so as to form one of the most
* For example, that for the first Sunday in
Advent : May we receive, O Lord, Thy mercy
in the midst of Thy temple, and with due
honour anticipate the approaching solemnity
of our restoration. Through, &c.

striking phenomena of that great re
vival of religion which this century has
witnessed. " Never before, since tho
primary Pentecostal outpouring, has the
work of evangelisation been pressed
•forward on so vast a scale, by such
varied agencies, . at so great a cost, and
over so wide an extent of the' earth's
surface. " A recent writer in the ' Quar
terly Review' (July, 1886) estimates
the income expended on Foreign Mis
sions by the British Empire as follows.:
Church of England Societies £531,918
English mixed ,, 288,850
,, denominational,, 253,770
Scotch, Irish, and Colonial
Societies .... 242,260
£1,316,798
Taking a mean of various estimates,
it is probable that the population of
the globe is about 1,430,000,000, Of
whom Christians number 430,00Q,00O
Mahommedans 172,000,000
Jews . . 8,-000,000
Heathen . 820,000,000 1,000,000,000 1,430,000,000
At what rate is Christianity pro
gressing ? There are three epochs at
which the proportion of the Christian
to the non- Christian inhabitants of the
earth may be said to be approximately
known : in A.D. 250, one to a hundred
and forty-nine ; in a.d. 1786, one to
about three and four-sevenths ; in a.d.
1886, one to about two and one-third.
Not that direct evangelisation has been
the means of bringing about this in
crease ; it is largely owing to the fact
that the Christian races have proved
themselves to be the most energetic
and prolific, and to them the Empire
of the world has accordingly fallen ; no
heathen race now plants colonies, founds
kingdoms, peoples vacant lands. But
the work of direct conversion of hea
thens is assuming brighter and brighter
prospects ; India, China, Japan, Central
Africa are being rapidly opened up to
Christian influences ; and . where those

MITRE

406

MITRE

influences have been long at work the
old heathenisms have been undermined,
have lost their hold on the faith of the
people, and are ready to vanish away.
It is a Hindoo, the well-known Chunder
Sen, who says,"The spirit of Christianity
has already pervaded the whole atmo
sphere of Indian society, and we breathe,
think, feel, and move in a Christian
atmosphere." China and Japan seem
to be going through the early stages
of the same gradual transition. It is
very possible that another generation
or two will witness conversions as
wholesale as those of the northern bar
barians in the last days of the Roman
Empire. ('Comparative Progress of
Ancient and Modern- Missions,' by the
Bishop of Durham, 1880. ' The English
Church in other Lauds. ' W. H. Tucker,
1886.) MITRE, a covering for the head worn
by bishops and some abbots and priors.
It seems to be proved by Dr. Rock
(' Church of our Fathers,' vol. ii. p. 90),
that from the end of the fourth or
beginning of the fifth century, some bis
hops wore a metal coronal, at least when
officiating at the altar. The Benedic-
tional of St. Ethelwold (tenth century)
represents bishops with such a coronal
(' Archseologia,' vol. xxiv.) ; and when
the grave of St. Cuthbert was opened
in the twelfth century, such an orna
ment adorned with jewels was found
upon his head.. At an unknown period
the bishops also began to wear a linen
cloth upon the head, over which, at
one time (we gather from Bede), the
coronal was worn. In time the coronal
was disused, and the linen head-covering
began to develope.
In the eleventh centuiy the bishops
of Rome began to bestow the mitre
(as they had long been accustomed to
bestow the pall) as a mark of favour
upon other distinguished ecclesiastics.
The earliest authority which is ad
duced is of the year 1049, In that
year Archbishop Eberhard, of Treves,
was at Rome, and on Passion Sunday,
Leo IX., in St. Peter's, placed the
Roman mitre on his head, and gave to

him and his successors permission to
wear it after the Roman custom. *
A few years later, in 1063, Alexander
II. granted to Burchard, Bishop of
Halbestadt (though not an archbishop),
the privilege of wearing the pall and
mitre because of special services ren
dered to tha Roman see ; and he
granted, not only to the bishop and
his successors, but to the canons,,
priests, deacons, and sub-deacons of_
his cathedral church to wear it at the
celebration of the eucharist.
Later in the Middle Ages we find
that the clergy of several great churches
had been granted a similar honour ; in
some cathedrals, as Pisa and Lisbon,
and at Bamberg, to all the full canons ;
at Magdeburg, Cologne, Mentz, and
Treves, to seven of each sacred order,
priests, deacons, and sub-deacons ; and
in some churches of France, Poictiers
(in 1163 a.d.), St. Maurice at Vienne,
St. Vincent and St. Peter at Macon.+
To abbots of abbeys who had obtained
from the Pope exemption from episcopal
jurisdiction (?) and to priors of some
great abbeys which had obtained prac
tical autonomy.
The earliest example of a mitre in
the English Church is that which is
represented in an illumination in a MS.
in the British Museum (Claudius A
3), which is of the eleventh century.
It represents a seated figure in archi
episcopal costume, clothed in alb and
stole, dalmatic, chasuble and amice,
pall and mitre. The figure has a nim
bus, and a dove speaking into his ear,
and doubtless represents an archbishop
deceased and canonised ; a smaller figure
in precisely similar costume is kissing
the right foot. An inscription indicates
that there is here a picture of St. Dun
stan, but it is probably the kneeling
figure which represents the living arch
bishop, and the principal figure very
probably J represents St. Gregory.
* " Romana mitra caput vestrum insigna-
vimus, quia et vos et successores vestri in
ecclesiasticis offieiis Romano more semper
utamini." t Rock's * Church of our Fathers,' ii. 112,
113. ! Professor Westwood.

MITRE

407 MODERN PERIOD, THE

The mitre here is simply a round
cap, with an indication of some pat
tern upon it, and two bands called the
infulae attached to the back of it.
In the eleventh century it appears in
the form of a low cap, with an orna
mental band round the forehead, and a
depression in the middle which produces
two blunt horns at the sides. There is
a good representation of this form in the
MS. Cott. Nero, C. iv. f. 34, which has
been engraved by Strutt, Shaw, and
Dr. Rock. The transition from this
shape to the cleft and pointed shape
used in the thirteenth century is well
shown in the MS. Harl. 5, 102, f. 17.
The depression is here deepened into a
partial cleft ; and the mitre is put on
so that the horns come before and
behind, but the horns are still blunt
and rounded. The archbishop's gloves
in this picture are white, like the mitre,
and in shape are not divided into fingers.
Towards the end of the twelfth
century the mitre is turned so that
the horns are over the forehead and
the back of the head, and form a low
triangle, and the depression between
them is so great as to leave the points
prominent. There are numerous illus
trations of it in the MS. Royal, 2 B.
VII. From this time the tendency of
the fashion was to increase the height
of the points of the mitre. Towards
the second half of the sixteenth centuiy,
when the classical taste came in and
affected all the arts, the mitre was
' greatly increased in height, and swelled
out into a bulging shape, which it has
retained to this day.
In fabric the mitre was usually of
white linen or silk (with a stiffening
of parchment when its points became
developed), with a bind and other orna
ments of embroidery, or metal- work and
jewels ; in later times the white silk
ground was often sewn with pearls.
Some mitres were of thin plates of
silver or of gold, and enriched with
jewelleiy according to the taste and
wealth of the wearer.
Different mitres were used on dif
ferent occasions : on ordinary occasions

one of plain material ; on Sundays and
minor feasts one embroidered ; and on
great occasions the mitre was covered
with precious stones.
After the Reformation the mitre
was at least occasionally worn down to
the Coronation of George III. It was
always used freely as an armorial bear
ing. Its personal use is being gradually
revived again in' our own day.
MODERN PERIOD, THE, of Church
History. From the Revolution to the
death of Queen Anne the condition of
the Church was unsettled. In the
earlier part of the period it was still
not impossible that the policy of
the Court might succeed in virtually
presbyterianising the Church in Eng
land ; or, on the other hand, in the
latter part of the period it was possible
that another revolution might restore
the Stuarts and throw the country into
the arms of the Papacy. The majority
of the country clergy had inclinations
towards the "exiled family," which
the anti-church policy of William pro
voked, and the favour which Anne
showed to the Church and the clergy
encouraged. In 1705 Queen Anne returned to the
Church, in the shape of the Bounty
Fund, the first-fruits and tenths
which, since the Reformation, had been
appropriated by the Crown. [See Queen
Anne's Bounty.] During this reign
there was a decided reaction of popular
feeling in favour of the Church. Dr.
Sacheverel's undeserved popularity with
the mob, 1710, and the Schism Act
passed by Parliament the same year,
against occasional conformity, and re
quiring all teachers to conform to the
Established Church, were symptoms
of it.
1714. — The peaceful accession of
George I. settled the constitution and
doctrine of the Church, no less than
the political condition of the State.
The Church questions were now worn
out, and new questions began to agitate
men's minds, which touched the veiy
foundations of revealed religion.
First the Deistic controversy. Locke's

MODERN PERIOD, THE 408 MODERN PERIOD, THE

philosophical system had given a new
impulse to abstract inquiries ; it was
adopted by the deistical writers, and
favoured their views, though Locke him
self was a believer. The chief writers
on the deistic side were Shaftesbury,
in his ' Characteristics ' ; Woolstone,
' Six Discourses on the Miracles ' ;
Toland, ' Christianity not Mysterious ' ;
Collins, ' Discourse on Freethinking ' ;
Tindal, 'Christianity as old as the
Creation ' ; the" latter was the ablest
and foremost man of the school. These
works called forth innumerable replies,
some of which have retained a place as
classical works, as Warburton's ' Divine
Legation of Moses,' Conybeare's 'De
fence of Revealed Religion,' and far
above all, Butler's ' Analogy of Natural
and Revealed Religion.' The deists
were worsted in the discussion ; and
Christianity came out of the trial
strengthened by the apologies which
had been called out on its behalf.
Foreign discussions on the doctrine
of the Trinity had found an echo here ;
and Bishop Bull published, against the
foreign Soeinians, a Drfensio pro Sym-
bolo Nicceno, which at once took a high
place in" theology. The mode of under
standing the mystery had been dis
cussed here, but within the limits of
orthodoxy, until Wharton expressed
opinions which were contrary to the doc
trine itself. Dr. Samuel Clarke, author
of the ' Scripture Doctrine of the
Trinity,' may be regarded as the leader
of the Arian party ; Waterland was his
chief opponent. The discussion led to so
wide a spread of Arian opinions among
the clergy that attempts were made to
obtain an abolition of subscription to
the Thirty-nine Articles. The hetero
dox opinions spread also among the
Dissenters, Dr. Lardner and Dr.
Priestley being their chief maintainers.

On the other side, the writings of Jones
of Nayland and Bishop Horseley did
much to arrest the spread of error and
to recall the public mind to the ortho
dox faith.
One result of all this controversy
had been, to produce among religious
people contentment with orthod<$x
opinions and a respectable morality as
a fulfilment of their Christian life. Con
vocation had been silenced. There were
many admirable bishops, but the tone
of the Episcopal body generally had
deteriorated. Many of the countiy
parishes had non-resident incumbents.
The numbers of the clergy in the
towns were altogether insufficient. The
Church was very respectable and was
generally respected ; but it was doing
nothing to provide additional means
of education and worship amongst a
growing population. " There was little
religious zeal either within or without
the Church. It was an age of spiritual
indifference and lethargy. . . . The
clergy were generally charitable, kindly,
moral, and well-educated — according to
the • standard of the age — in all but
theology. But his spiritual calling sat
lightly upon him. . . . The Noncon
formist ministers, comfortably estab-,
lished among their flocks and enjoy
ing their modest temporalities, shared
the spiritual ease of Churchmen "
(Macaulay's 'Hist, of England,' II. 325).
It was in this condition of society
that the labours of Wesley and Whit
field commenced a great revival of re- '
ligion. A very similar movement on
rather different theological lines was
begun by Lady Huntingdon ; and simul
taneously the evangelical party arose
within the Church. [See Wesley;
Lady Huntingdon ; Evangelical
Party.]

1700 171417781779

Convocation silenced.
Accession of George I. Convocation silenced.
Romanists were relieved from the penalties imposed upon them by the
Act of 1700.
Dissenting Ministers and Schoolmasters' were relieved from the sub
scription to tho Articles required by the Toleration Act.

MODERN PERIOD, THE

409

. 17891800
1818
" 1828
1829
18321833

18351836

1840
1849
1850
1851
18521856
1858
1861 1863

1864
1866

18671869

' united " with that of Ireland on the union of

The French Revolution.
The Church of England '
the two countries.
The first general Church Building Act passed for facilitating the build-
¦• mg and endowment of churches.
Repeal of the Test and Corporation Acts, admits Dissenters into Parlia
ment and all offices.
The Catholic Relief Act, by which Romanists admitted to Parlia
ment.
Tho Reform Act passed.
June 23. A Church Inquiry Commission appointed.
to 1841. The publication of .the 'Tracts for the Times' (Nos. 1—90)
which helped greatly in the revival of the "High Church
party.]'
The Ecclesiastical Commission constituted. [See Eocl. Com.]
The Dissenters' Marriage Act, allowed dissenters to be man-ied in their
meeting-houses, registered for the purpose after due notice to the
Registrar of the district ; or to contract 'a civil marriage before the
Superintendent Registrar.
The Tithe Commutation Act passed. In the course of 15 years the
tithe was oommuted in nearly every parish in England and Wales
[See Tithe.]
An Act of Parliament sanctioned the erection of the two new dioceses
of Ripon and Manchester.
The New Church Discipline Act (3 and 4 Viet. c. 86) passed.
The " Gorham case, " involving the doctrine of baptism.
The Papal aggression [which see].
The Ecclesiastical Titles Bill. [See Papal Aggression.]
Revival of the Convocation of Canterbury.
The Denison case, involving the doctrine of the Holy Communion.
Repeal of the Jewish disabilities, admitting Jews into Parliament.
Revival of the Convocation of York.
Dr. Colenso, Bishop of Natal, publishes a work ' On the Pentateuch. '
The Bishops in Convocation of Canterbury declare that "ifl>
contains errors of the gravest and most dangerous character."
Bishop Colenso deposed by his metropolitan, the Bishop of
Capetown.
March 21. The Privy Council on appeal declare the Bishop of Cape
town's proceedings against the Bishop of Natal null and void, on
the ground that a colonial bishop can have no jurisdiction
except that which is granted by parliament, or by the Colonial
Legislature.
' Essays and Reviews ' condemned by Convocation.
Bishop Colenso excommunicated at Maritzburg by the Bishop of Cape
town.
The Bishop of Capetown declares himself independent, establishes a
synod, and calls the churches under his authority "tho Church of
South Africa. "
The Trustees of the Colonial Bishoprics' Fund directed by the
Master of the Rolls to continue to pay his stipend to Bishop;
Colenso.
Second series of ritualist trials ; case of Martin v. Mackonochie.
.The Irish Church disestablished. The Vatican Council met December 8,.

410

MONACHISM

1870

1872

1874 18761878

18791884

and passed the dogma of Papal Infallibility, July 18, and con,
turned its sittings till October 20, 1870 ; when it was pronounce!
by the Pope suspended until a more opportune and convenient
time, to be named hereafter by the Holy See. r
The "Ritualist Commission" appointed to inquire respecting rubrics
in the Book of Common Prayer, &c.
The first Pan- Anglican Synod [which see] meets.
The Incumbents' Resignation Act passed.
Convocation receives "letters of business," authorising it to draw up
canons for alterations in the Prayer Book.
Case of Shepherd v. Bennett, involving the doctrine of Holy Com
munion. Lord Penzance made Judge of the new Ecclesiastical
Court. (For the letters patent and other instruments appointing
him, see 'Guardian' newspaper for 1877, p. 407; and for
1878, p. 862.)
The Public Worship Regulation Act passed, August 7. _
An Additional Bishoprics' Act sanctioned the formation of the new
dioceses, St. Albans and Truro.
The second PanrAnglican Synod [which see] held, August 16. The
New Bishoprics' Act passed authorising the erection of. four new
sees, viz. Liverpool, Newcastle, Southwell, and Wakefield.
August. Convocation passes the new rubrics.
Separation of dioceses of Gloucester and Bristol sanctioned.

MONACHISM (from Monachus = a
monk). There have always been some
men who, under a strong sense of the
brevity and vanity of life, have disen
gaged themselves from its pleasures,
riches, and cares, to lead a life of ascetic
contemplation : e.g. the Theraputee
among the ancient Egyptians, the
Essenes among the Jews. The gospel
leems to add new motives and the
highest sanction to this spirit, which
"loves not the world, neither the
things which are in the world," which
seeks the blessedness of "a life hid
with Christ in God." Monachism is
the reduction of this ascetic contem
plative life to system and rule.
The institution of monachism began
in Egypt, Pachomius, in the early part
of the fourth century, being the first
who wrote a Rule, i.e. a code of laws
for the regulation of the lives of his
disciples. St. Basil (died 378) intro
duced the institution into Asia Minor ;
Hilarion into Syria ; Athanasius into
Rome ; St. Martin of Tours into Gaul ;
and the monastery of St. Martin was
the school from which the institution
spread into the Celtic Church in

Scotland and Ireland. To the Celtic
monastery of Iona the greater part
of England owes its conversion in
the Saxon period ; St. Augustine and
his forty companions, who converted
Kent, were the prior and monks of a
Roman monastery ; in short, the first
missionary bishop in every kingdom- of
the Heptarchy lived with his clergy
in a religious community ; so that the
monastic idea spread together with
Christianity over the land.
The advantages of the system for
purposes of evangelisation were these :
it was powerful, through the concentra
tion of the workers at the centre of
work; it was economical, for the clergy,
thus living together in the most frugal
mannei, could be maintained as cheaply"
as so many day-labourers ; it was in- '
fluential, for their devoted self-denying
life gave the monks influence over the
people. After Theodore's subdivision of the
dioceses, there was a grand develop
ment of monasticism ; the monastery
continued to be the typical church set
tlement, and the monastic history cast
almost all other into the shade, . '

MONACHISM

411

MONACHISM

The monastic institution, then, was
universal and popular from the begin
ning in the Anglo-Saxon Churches. But
the rules and usages of Anglo-Saxon
monachism were mild and flexible.
The "monks were mostly laymen ; they
made no formal vows, or, if so, they
were not of perpetual obligation ; and
the monk quitted his cloister without
scruple. In course of time Saxon mon
asteries degenerated ; some into houses
of secular clerics living under very lax
regulations ; some into little more than
ordinary, households containing women
and children and servants living under
some kind of religious rule. Saxon
landholders were even accused of turn
ing their houses into quasi-monasteries
merely for the sake of exempting their
estates from their obligations in men
and money to the service of the State.
Many of the Saxon abbeys were here
ditary; the abbot married if he pleased ;
and the discipline of the house was
vested in a prior.
In the tenth century Archbishop
Dunstan [see Dunstan] and his friends,
Oswald Bishop of Worcester, and
Ethelwold Bishop of Winchester, by
a vigorous exercise of their authority
and influence, effected a wide, but not
universal, re-organisation of the mon
asteries on the Benedictine model.
[See Benedictine. ]
But the Benedictine institution was
gradually deteriorating throughout
Europe, and this reform of the English
monasteries was rapidly losing its
strength, when a reaction in favour
of the restoration of discipline again
arose almost simultaneously in several
quarters. At Clugny in Aquitaine
Odo founded a monasteiy (927), in
which he enforced the observance of the
Rule of Benedict, with the addition of
some other regulations. The fame of
the holiness of the brethren of Clugny
spread ; other houses adopted the same
rule, or were coerced into observing it ;
a new zeal in favour of monachism arose,
and new monasteries were founded ac
cording to the Rule of Clugny; so that
by the end of the twelfth century there

were in Europe 2000 monasteries of
this Reformed Order. [See Clugniac.]
In the same way, in 1084, St. Bruno
founded a new order (Carthusian)
at Chartreux, near Grenoble, which
in some respects revived the ancient
mode of life of the Egyptian Laura.
In 1098 a reform was begun in the
monastery of Citeaux, and the fame of
St. Bernard, who joined it in 1113,
gave the Cistercian Order a wide popu
larity. Other reformed Benedictine
Orders arose in a similar manner within
the same (eleventh) century, but may
be omitted here, since those which have
been specified are the principal of those
which extended to England. They
will be found noticed in greater detail
under their proper headings. [See Bene
dictine, Clugniac, Carthusian, Cis
tercian.] The Norman nobles after the Con
quest gave a great impulse to the
monastic institution in England by
founding monasteries upon their newly-
acquired estates. At the Conquest
there were not 100 monasteries ; under
William I. and bis two successors up
wards of 300 new ones were founded.
It is an error of mere ignorance to sup
pose that the monks selected the most
fertile and beautiful sites for their
monasteries. They had no such power
of selection. The land given them
by some great landowner was often a
tract of wild unreclaimed land, for it
was part of the recognised occupations
of the monks to bring such land into
cultivation. The first settlement of
the monks was often attended by great
difficulties and hardships. [See Life of
St. Hugh.]
The convenience of the neighbour
hood of a stream, the principle of
choosing the most sequestered spot
within their limits, rather than the
choice of good taste, led to the selec
tion of a site for their houses. The
agricultural skill of the monks, labour
ing diligently on the same lands for
centuries, made their lands fertile.
As the value of their estates in
creased, and their economical life left

MONACHISM

412

MONACHISM

them with large revenues, they took
pride in spending them on the erection
of magnificent churches to the glory
of God, and stately cloister buildings
under the shadow of the church, for
their own habitation. AVestminster
'Abbey, the Minsters of Ely, Peter-
"borough, Gloucester, Southwell, Ripon,
- Beverley,- may serve as examples of the
vast extent and architectural splendour
of these monastic churches ; and at
. Netley, Tintern, Fountains, and many
other places, are the mournful ruins
. of monastic churches equally grand
and beautiful. England was thickly
. studded with these grand churches and
-the stately monasteries attached to
:'them.
* It is true that in these reformed
.Benedictine foundations, in their turn,
the fervent zeal of their founders
.rapidly cooled down to a calmer level
.of Christian feeling, and that the
monks generally did not mortify them-
. selves with the severity of a St. Bruno
or St. Bernard ; but they lived a life
-above the level of the ordinary life of
.their time ; they cultivated learning as
well as religion ; they were scientific
.farmers of their demesne lands ; good
-landlords to their tenants ; bountiful
.to the poor. With its decline in the
¦ascetic spirit the institution gradually
declined in popular favour. In the I
thirteenth century the new institution I
of the brotherhoods of the active life — '
.the Friars — largely diverted the popular
religious interest from the earlier con
templative communities. Still many
of the monasteries were connected with
Toyal and noble families, and continued
to receive occasional accessions to their
wealth; and new houses were occasion
ally founded by royal and noble persons
on special occasions down to the middle
of the fourteenth centuiy. After 1360
only some half dozen new houses were
founded. Henry V. on his acces
sion founded the famous nunnery of
"Syon" at Isleworth, and the Car
thusian monastery of "Bethlehem"
at Sheen, on the opposite side of the
Thames ; and Henry VII. founded

four houses of Observant Friars. But
in this later period pious munificenee
took the direction of the founding
of Chantries [which see].
By the beginning of the sixteenth.
century it may be that the religious'
value of the monasteries to the nation-, i
al life no longer justified the large
wealth and great position which they
enjoyed ; a reform of the institution
at least was again needed ; perhaps a '
conversion of much of the wealth of
the monasteries to the endowment of
new colleges for the revival of learning,
new bishoprics and rectories for secular
clergy to minister to the increasing
population, new hospitals and alms
houses for the sick and poor. But
that they had not fallen into the state
of moral corruption which was made
the general pretext for their dissolu
tion is proved by the report of the
Royal Commissioners who visited
them at the end of 1536, who, while
condemning the small houses, say,
"in the great solemn monasteries,
thanks be to God, religion is right
well observed and kept up." It may
well be that it would have been wise
to divert a large proportion of the
monastic property to the making of
increased provision for the spiritual
wants of a growing population; but
the almost entire confiscation of the
monastic property was an error of
statesmanship and a wrong to the
Church, and the means which wero
taken to obtain the surrender of the
houses were often indefensibly brutal
and wicked.
The Act for the suppression of tha
religious houses of under £200 a year
value was passed by Parliament in
1536 ; and the Royal Commission for
the visitation of the greater houses
issued. And one by one the abbots and
communities were induced by threats
and cajolery, or bribed by benefices
and pensions, to surrender the houses
into the king's hands. Some, who were
not to be bribed or frightened, Were
found guilty of some act or neglect
which was construed into treason, and

MONASTERY

418

MONASTERY

executed ; and their houses seized as
forfeited to the Crown. Finally, an
Act-of- Parliament title was given to
the new possessors by Act 31 Henry
VIII. c. xiii., which legalised their
seizure by the king. [See " Monas
tery.] MONASTERY (monasterium)* The
name is sometimes given to a com
munity of monks [see Convent], some
times to the building inhabited by

adjunct to it, not it to them. [See
Cathedral and Church.]
Next in importance was the Cloister,
the enclosure within which the monks
led their life secluded from the world.
It was a large quadrangular court which
in the monasteries of the Benedictine
and its reformed Orders (except the
Carthusian) always occupied the angle
formed by the nave and transept of the
phurch, usually on the south side of

Tjntern Abbey..

such a community ; it is used here in
the latter sense.
The principal building of a monas
tery was the. Church ; in the. monasteries
of the greater Orders the church was
not merely of such a size and style
as suited the private chapel of the com
munity ; it was a temple of the Al
mighty as spacious and sumptuous as
their means would allow them to build ;
and the domestic buildings were an

the nave, but sometimes on the north.
[See Cloister.]
The regular domestic buildings of a
monastery were the Chapter House,
Refectory, Dormitory ; and these in the
Benedictine family of monasteries were
ranged round the court in a usual order.
Next to the transept end was a narrow
slip which was sometimes only a pas
sage from the cloister court to the space
eastward of it, but sometimes this slip

414

MONASTERY

415

MONASTERY

was enclosed and formed a narrow cham
ber. Next to this slip was the Chap-
, ( t ter House, which was entered only
j j f from the cloister court. [See Chapter
House.] In Cistercian houses the remainder of
the east, side of the court is occupied
by a building which may have been
the Fratry or Calefactory (answering
to the room which in our colleges at
Oxford and Cambridge is called the
Combination Room, where the fellows
. . i, assemble for conversation, &c). In the
upper story, running over the Chapter
| House and the Calefactory, was the
; long Dormitory, from which, in Cister
cian houses, there was direct access,
jby a winding stair, into the corner of
ithe transept of the church ; so that
the monks could go to their night ser
vices without going into the open. air.
[See Dormitory.]
In Cistercian and some other houses
the Befectory was usually on the side
of the cloister opposite the church,
with its longer axis running north and
south, with the buttery and kitchen
adjoining it. [See Refectory. ]
The Scriptorium was often over
the Chapter House, and was a large
apartment, for it was an important
part of the occupation of the monks
to transcribe books, and one of the
glories of the house to have a large
library. [For much interesting inform
ation about monastic scriptoria and
libraries, see Dr. Maitland's 'Dark
Ages.'] The remaining buildings On this and
on the west side of the court are more
uncertain in their appropriation.
The Cloister Court, with its buildings,
carefully guarded from intrusion, was
peaceful and still ; and within these
guarded precincts the monks led their
secluded life. But there was a little
town of dependent buildings around
this central group of buildings, which
were full of life and action. These were
partly arranged round one or two quad
rangular Court-yards, according to the
universal plan of arrangement in the
middle ages ; -partly they were separate

buildings placed here or there as con
venience required.
First of these was the Hospitium t
hospitality was one of the great duties.
of a monastery, in days when there
were no inns along the high roads,
and great numbers of travellers of all.
degrees availed themselves of the hos
pitality of the clergy and the religious
houses. It was the duty of the abbot
to entertain guests of noble degree, but
the rest fell under the eare of the con
vent ; and it was necessary to have a
hospitium or guest-house proportioned
to their number. In some small houses
a single chamber might be sufficient ;
in others it needed a vast separate range
or quadrangle of buildings. At Canter
bury the guesten-hall still remains, a
noble Norman hall, with an under
croft 150 ft. long by 50 ft. wide. The
spacious guesten-hall at Worcester
also still remains with its fine carved
timber roof. At St. Alban's the guest
house was an enormous range of rooms
with stabling for three hundred
horses. The Infirmary for sick monks, was,
according to the size and wealth of
the monaster}' ; sometimes part of a
subsidiary court, sometimes a detached
house, with its own chapel, kitchen, and
offices. Again, the Abbot's House in small
monasteries was often only a hall and
chamber and offices forming part of
the main building ; but in the greater
houses it was a detached house similar
in size and arrangements to the un
fortified houses of laymen of similar
rank and wealth. [See Abbot' B
House.] If the monastery had a shrine which,
was a popular object of pilgrimage, it
had sometimes a hospital at its gate
for the entertainment of the poorer
sort of them, as at Bury St. Edmunds.
[See Hospital.]
It must not be forgotten that there
was frequently an anchorage within tha
monastery inhabited by a recluse, a
kind of inner citadel of secluded sanc
tity within the seclusion of the cloister,

MONASTERY

416

MONASTERY

e~.g. at Westminster where it was with
in the church, and at Durham where
it was at the east end of the north
Choir aisle. [S ¦• Hermit. ]
- Besides the buildings above enumer
ated, there wn^ barns, store-homes,
stables, and suchlike appurtenances of
a great country establishment. There
was often a mill and mill-house turned
by the little stream which flowed hard
by. There were gardens, orchards,
fish-ponds, perhaps a meadow. All
these were enclosed within a ditch

in the following notes. Ulsi, the sixth
Abbot of St. Albans, in the tenth
century, built three churches, and es
tablished a market in the town which,
had sprung up on the north side of the
Abbey. Nicholas Abbot of Burton,
who died in 1197, founded the town
of Burton-on-Trent, and built the first
street there ; Abbot Melburne, who died
in 1214, enlarged the town from bridge
to bridge ; Abbot Stafford built thq
monks' bridge at Eggington ; in a
time of fire and flood Abbot Lawrence^

Abbey Gateway, St. Alban's.

and fence, or a lofty wall, entered by
it gate-tower, like a castle or a little
town. Not unfrequently a hamlet or
tillage of people who were employed
by the monastery, or who lived by
the pilgrims and other visitors to it,
grew up in its neighbourhood ; and
sometimes the village grew into a town ;
as at Coventry; Ely, Peterborough,
Bury St. Edmunds, Much Wenlock,
Selby, &c. The kind of part which
the monasteries took in the civil life of
the times, and in promoting the general
prosperity of the country,' is indicated

to whom the town belonged, took no-
rent from the people ; during a great
famine Abbot Thomas Packington found,
the people employment in making a
new street. ('Diocesan History of
Lichfield,' S.P.C.K.. p. 106.)
[For the separate buildings see under
their several titles ; for the officers of
the monastery, see Convent ; for a sketch
of the mode of life, see Cistercian,
Monastio Life. For further illustra-,
tion of the whole subject consult, the
' Monasticon Anglicanum,' the ' Comity
Histories,' &c.}

MONASTERY

417

The sum-total of the clear revenues of the greater monasteries
as near as I can compute it (says Tanner) was ...
Of all the lesser monasteries which we have the valuation of
The Knights Hospitallers had belonging to their head house
in London
We have the valuation of only twenty-eight of their houses
in the country, and their clear revenues were ...
The clear revenues of the seven houses of Trinitarian Friars
¦ (which are all we have the Valuation of) amounted to
The Friars Preachers at Langley Regis had clearly
The five houses of Friars at London had together
All the other valuations of Friars' houses in Dugdale or
Speed make no more than

'1,04,919 ^9,702

13 1

3
10

"f 2,345

12

8

3,026

9

5

287
122
309

7
4
16

502

32

At rack rents, and in the modern
. value of money, this would probably
' equal twenty times as much, or about
I £2,800,000. The value of the gold and
silver seized for the king's use was
worth, in modern money, £1,086,883 ;
the value of the precious stones cannot
be estimated.
The total number of Religious Houses
of all kinds is calculated to have been
1100. The number of Religious of all kinds
at the time of the Dissolution is estim
ated at 100,000.
List of the greater monasteries,
viz. those which had revenues
of above £200 per annum,
arranged in counties.
Bedfordshire.
Elstow Abbey. Ben.
Dunstable Priory. C. Aust.
Wardon Abbey. Cist.
Chicksand Abbey. Wh. C. Gilb.
Woburn Abbey. Cist.
Berkshire.
Abingdon Abbey. Ben.
Bustleham Abbey. C. Aust.
Reading Abbey. Ben.
Buckingham.
Missenden Abbey. Ben.
Nutteley Abbey. C. Aust.
Asheridge College. C. Aust.

140,745 6

Cambridgeshire.
Ely Abbey. Ben.
Thorney Abbey. Ben.
Barnwell Priory. C. Aust.
Cheshire.
St. Werburgh's Abbey. Ben.
Combermere Abbey. Cist.
Vale Royal Abbey.
Cornwall.
Bodmin Priory. C. Aust.
St. German's Priory. C. Aust.
Launceston Priory. C. Aust.
Cumberland.
Carlisle Abbey. C. Aust.
Holme Cultram Abbey. Cist.
Derbyshire.
Darley Abbey. C. Aust.
Devonshire.
Tavistock Abbey. Ben.
Plympton Abbey. Cist.
Hertland Abbey. C. Aust.
Ford Abbey. Cist.
Buckfast Abbey. Cist.
Torre Abbey. Prrem.
Dunkeswell Abbey. Cist.
Newenham Abbey. Cist.
Buckland Abbey.
Exon Priory. Clun.

0. Aust. = Canons of St. Augustine : Bl. M. = Black Monks ; Wh. C. = "White Canons ;
Ben. = Benedictines ; Gilb. = Gilbertines ; Praem. = Prasmonstratensians ; Carth.= Car
thusians ; Clun. =Clugniacs i Cist. = Cistercians.
EE

MONASTERY

418

MONASTERY

Dorsetshire.
Sherburn Abbey. Ben.
Shaftesbury Abbey. Ben.
Milton Abbey. Ben.
Cern Abbey. Ben .
Tarent Abbey. Cist.
Abbotsbury Abbey. Ben.
Durham.
Durham Priory. Ben.
Tinmouth Priory. Ben.
Essex.
Barking Abbey. Ben.
Waltham Abbey. C. Aust.
Colchester Abbey. Ben.
Chich. C. Aust.
Stratford Abbey. Cist.
Walden Abbey. Ben.
Coggeshall Abbey. Cist.
Gloucestershire.
Gloucester St. Peter's Abbey. Ben.
Tewksbury Abbey. Ben.
Winchelcombe Abbey. Ben.
Cirencester Abbey. C. Aust.
Lantony Priory. C. Aust.
Hailes Abbey. Cist.
Bristol Abbey. C. Aust.
Hampshire.
'Winchester St. Swithin's Abbey.
" Ben.
Hyde Abbey. Ben.
Romsey Abbey. Ben.
Wherwell Abbey. Ben.
Twinham Priory. C. Aust.
Southwicke Priory. C. Aust.
Bean lieu Abbey. Cist.
Tichfield Abbey. Prami.
Herefordshire.
Wigmore. Leominster. Hertfordshire.
St. Albans Abbey. Ben.
, Huntingdonshire.
St. Neot's Priory. Ben.
Ramsey Abbey. Ben.
Kent: -
Canterbury, Christ Church. Ben.
Canterbury, St. Augustine's. Ben.
Leeds Priory. C. Aust.

Boxley Abbey. Cist.
Feversham Abbey. Clun.
Dartford Priory. C. Aust.
Rochester Priory. Ben.
Mailing Abbey. Ben.
Lancashire.
Furness Abbey. Cist.
Whalley Abbey. Cist.
Leicestershire.
Leicester Abbey. C. Aust.
Leicester St. Mary.
Liunde Priory. C. Aust.
Croxton Abbey. Pram.
Lincolnshire.
Bardney Abbey. Ben.
Crowland Abbey. Ben.
Spalding Abbey. Ben.
Sempringham Abbey. Gilb.
Kirkstead Abbey. Cist.
Thornton Abbey. C. Aust.
Revesby Abbey. Cist.
Lincoln St. Catherine's Pr. Gilb.
Barlings.Eppworth. Carth.
London and Middlesex.
St. Bartholomew's Priory. C. Aust.
Clerkenwell Priory." Hospitallers.
Haliwell Priory. Bl. M.
St. Helen's Priory. Ben.
Chartreuse Priory. Carth.
The Minories Abbey. Minoresses.
St. Mary, E. Smithfield Abbey.
Cist. "
Westminster Abbey. Ben.
Sion Abbey. Bridgettines.
Norfolk.
St. Bennet's, Hulme, Abbey. . Ben.
AYashingham Priory. C. Aust.
Thetford St. Mary Abbey. Clun.
Castleacre Priory. Clun.
Norwich Priory. Ben.
AYestaci'e Priory. Clun.
AYymondham Abbey. Ben.
Dereham. Northamptonshire.
Peterborough Abbey. Ben.
Northampton St. James.
Pipewell Abbey. Cist.
Sulby Abbey. Prsem.

MONASTERY

419

MONK

Northumberland.
Tynemouth Cell. Ben. Nun.
Nottinghamshire.
Worksop Priory. C. Aust.
Lenton Priory. Clun.
Thurgarton Priory. C. Aust.
Welbeck Priory. C. Aust.
Oxfordshire.
Eynsham Abbey. Ben.
Thame Abbey. Cist.
Godstow Nun. Ben.
Oseney Abbey. C. Aust.
Shropshire.
AVenlock Priory. Clun.
Shrewsbury.Hagmond Abbey. C. Aust.
Lilleshall Abbey. C. Aust.
Hales Owen Abbey. Prsem.
Somersetshire.
Glastonbury Abbey. Ben.
Bath Abbey. Ben.
Athelney. Michelney Abbey. Ben.
Bruton Abbey. C. Aust.
Montacute Priory.
Lainton Priory.
Kenysham Abbey. C. Aust.
Buckland Priory. Cist.
Witham Priory. Carth.
Henton Priory. Carth.
Bristol, St. Augustine's. Ben.
Staffordshire.
Burton. Ben.
Dieulacres Abbej\ Cist.
Suffolk.
Bury St. Edmunds Abbey. Ben.
Sibton Abbey. Cist.
Butley Abbey. C. Aust.
Surrey.
Chertsey Abbey. Ben.
Bermondsey Abbey. C. Aust.
St. Mary Overy Abbey. C. Aust.
Merton Priory. . C. Aust.
Aldebury Priory.
Shene Priory. Carth.
Sussex.
Battle Abbey. Bl. M.
Lewes Priory. Clun.
Robert's. Bridge Abbey. Cist.

Warwickshire.
Coventry Priory.
Kenilworth Priory. C. Aust.
Mereval Abbey. Cist.
Combe Abbey. Cist.
Nuneaton Priory Ben.
Wiltshire.
Ambresebury Abbey. Ben.
Malmsbury Abbey. Ben.
Wilton Abbey. Ben.
Kingswood.Bradenstoke Priory. C. Aust.
Edington College. C. Aust.
Worcestershire.
AYorcester Priory.
Pershore Abbey. Cist.
Evesham Abbey. Ben.
Malvern Abbey. Ben.
Bordesley Abbey. Cist.
Yorkshire.
Whitby Abbey Ben.
Watton Priory. C. Au.t.
Selby Abbey. Ben.
York, St. Mary Abbey. Ben.
Pontefract Priory. Clun.
Nostell Priory. C. Aust.
Bolton Abbey. C. Aust.
Kirkham Priory. C. Acst.
Burlington Priory.
Gisburn Priory. C. Aust.
Rivaulx Abbey. Cist.
Fountains Abbey. Cist.
Byland Abbey. Cist.
Newburgh Priory. C. Aust.
Roche Abbey. Cist.
Kirkstall Abbey. Cist.
Meaux Abbey. Cist.
Jervaux Abbey. Cist.
Monk Bretton Priory. Clun.
Mountgrace. Carth.
MONK, from the Greek p.ovaxog,
from uovog, alone, the name originally
applied to the religious men living in
solitude, and still clave to them after
they came to live in communities.
MORNING AND EVENING
PRAYER. The tables under the title ¦
Hours will conveniently show how
the ancient "Hour" services were
condensed into the two daily services -
E 2

MULLION

420 NAG'S HEAD CONTROVERSY

of Morning and Evening Prayer in the
first Reformed Prayer Book of Edward
VI.; and also the additions made to
that book in the subsequent revisions.
MULLION, the name given to the
upright divisions between the lights of
traceried windows, the spaces of screens,
and the panels of ornamental panelling.
In Early English and Decorated work
the mullions are often worked into
round shafts with bases and caps ; in
Perpendicular work they are usually
chamfered to a thin edge, both to
diminish the apparent bulk of the
mullion, and to intercept as little light
as possible.
MYNCHERY was the Saxon name
of a nunnery, and still clings to the
ruins of some ancient religious houses.
MYSTERY PLAYS. [See Plays.]
N
NAG'S HEAD CONTROVERSY, THE.
• In the year 1604, forty- four years after
the consecration of Archbishop Parker,
an exiled Roman priest named Holy-
wood, in a book published at Antwerp,
started the story which has been called
'The Nag's Head Fable.' He stated
that the consecration of Parker was an
irregular ceremony, performed at the
Nag's Head Tavern, a noted London
tavern of those days, which one Neale,
a chaplain of Bishop Bonner's, witnessed
by peeping through a hole in the door.
The story attained a great notoriety
when it was published, and it is still
raked up from time to time by ignorant
or malicious opponents, since it goes
to invalidate the episcopal character of
Parker, and to taint that of all the re
formed bishops who derive their suc
cession through him. The story seems
to have been a pure invention. The
fact is, that the critical nature of
Parker's consecration was fully under
stood, and that great pains were taken
to fulfil all the canonical and legal re
quirements. The Queen issued her
congi d'ilire to the Chapter of Canter
bury, and Parker was duly elected, con
firmed, and received the royal assent.

A commission to consecrate was issued
to Kitchin, Bishop of Llandaff, Barlow,
Scory, Coverdale, and Hodgkin. of
whom Barlow, Hodgkin, Coverdale,
and Scory, were the actual conse-
crators, Barlow taking the chief part.
William Barlow had been Bishop of
Bath and Wells in the time of Henry :
VIII. and Edward VI., but had fled
abroad to avoid the Marian persecution,
he was now elect of Chichester ; John
Scory had been Bishop of Chichester,
and was now elect of Hereford ; Miles
Coverdale had been Bishop of Exeter ;
John Hodgkin was Bishop Suffragan of
Bedford. The consecration took placo
at Lambeth chapel, on the morning of
December 17, 1559. Wo have a full
account of the arrangement of the
chapel, and the order of the, ceremony ;
and it is evident that care was taken
to observe every proper formality, and
to make the ceremony solemn and
stately. With the exception of Cover-
dale, who only wore his gown, tho
bishops were in their episcopal robes,
and Parker in his scarlet Convocation
robes. The officials whose duty it was
to be present were there. The conse
cration was conducted strictly in accord
ance with the Ordinal of the first year
of Edward VI. , except that the pastoral
staff was not delivered. All the bishops
laid their hands on the head of tho
elect, and all repeated tho words of
consecration. The official record still
exists in the register at Lambeth. The
Earl of Nottingham, who was present at
the consecration, gave his testimony in
his place in the House of Lords when it
was first questioned. Several modern
writers have lately re-investigated the
history. See Mr. A. Haddan's ' Apos
tolical Succession,' and Dr. T. F. Lee's
' Validity of the Orders of the Church
of England.' The original documents
given in evidence have been zinco-
graphed and published by Mr. Bailey.
See also the 'validity of the Orders of
the English,' by P.. F., le Courayer (a
Roman Catholic priest), 1723 A.D.,
recently republished at Oxford.
At the Council of Trent, though the

NAVE

421

NEWCASTLE

subject of the character and position of
the Anglican Episcopate was brought
before the assembled Fathers, they dis
tinctly abstained from pronouncing the
English bishops to be no bishops. It
was declared that all bishops duly con
secrated and confirmed by the Holy
Soe were to be had and accounted good
bishops ; but the reverse of the propo
sition (though for some time under con
sideration) was not affirmed (Lee's
' Validity,' &c, p. 243). Courayersays
in his preface, "Learned Roman
Catholics have thought the ordination
of the English valid before me. It was
certainly the opinion of the late M.
Bossuet (Bishop of Meaux). Rome has
never had this question examined juri
dically, nor decided the contrary. The
usage of re-ordaining, founded on doubts
not yet cleared up for want of docu
ments communicated to her, is a wise
precaution, but cannot have the force
of law. "
NAVE (from the Latin, navis, a ship),
that part of the church westward of
the chancel, in which the congregation
assembles for public worship. The
name seems to be derived from the
very early symbolism which likened
the Church to a ship, of which the
bishop seated on his elevated throne
behind the altar is the captain, the
clergy are the mariners, the people are
the passengers. The ship specially
intended was probably the ark, wherein
tho elect found salvation from the
flood which overwhelmed the world of
the wicked. The ship which carried
our Lord and His Apostles through the
storm on the Lake of Galileo might also
be included in tho symbolism.
It was usually a separate building
from the chancel [which see], and its
size in some proportion to the number
of the parishioners whom it was in
tended to accommodate ; though tho
. sizo is sometimes much larger than
could have ever been needed for this
purpose, and was dictated rather by
the munificence of the founder and the
. genius of the architect than tho needs of
tho people. Its usual typo is a centre

and aisles, but there are many varia
tions of this type. Sometimes it is a
kind of double nave, having a row of
pillars down the middle ; sometimes it
has only one aisle, on the north or on
the south ; sometimes additional spaco
was obtained, whether for the congre
gation or for chantry chapels, by add
ing other aisles on one or both sides.
The font was usually placed near
the principal door of entrance. [See
Font.] The pulpit was placed in the nave,
on one side of the chancel arch, or, in
larger churches with aisles, against one
of the pillars of the nave. There was
no rule whether it should be on tho
north or south side ; the place seems
to have been determined entirely by
considerations of convenience. [See
Pulpit.] The nave began to be seated with
permanent benches about the fourteenth
century ; before that people stood during
service, as they still do in some of the
Eastern churches ; then people brought
stools for their own accommodation ;
then a few benches were provided for
general use ; by the fifteenth century it
became usual to provide as many benches
as were usually required, still often
leaving a vacant area at the west end.
[See Pew.]
NEWCASTLE, DIOCESE OF. An
Act of Parliament passed in 1876
authorised the erection of four new
dioceses, of which Newcastlo was one.
It was formed entirely out of the
southern portion of the Diocese of
Durham, and the fine ancient parish
church of Newcastle was assigned as
its Cathedral Church. It is an in
teresting illustration of the zeal of the
churchmanship of the present century
that the capital sums required to find
for eight new bishoprics an endowment
of not less than £4500 » year each,
were raised with but short delays by
voluntary contributions ; and it is
hardly a less interesting illustration of
the respect for the Church's usefulness
entertained by those outside her pale,
that a house and grounds suitable for

NONCONFORMISTS

422

NONCONFORMISTS

the residence of the Bishop of Newcastle
were given to the see by a member of
the Society of Friends. The diocese
consists of the entire county of North
umberland, the town and county of
Berwick-on-Tweed, and part of Cum
berland. Population, 438,707 ; 2 arch
deaconries, ' viz. Northumberland and
Lindisfarne ; 10 rural deaneries ; 171
D 6116 D.C 6S
NONCONFORMISTS. Those who do
not conform to the standards of ritual,
&c., of the Church. The term Dis
senter is usually applied to those who
carry their nonconformity to the extent
of open separation from the Church,
and adherenee to an organised religious
body outside the Church. [SeeJ)isBent.]
The term Nonconformist applies rather
to one who, while not conforming to
the doctrines and usages of the Church,
does not openly separate from her,
either from absence of desire to do so,
or from fear of the consequences of
doing so. Thus the clergy in the reign
of Elizabeth and James, who, differ
ing from the Church on questions of
doctrine and constitution, refused to
officiate in the Divine service accord
ing to the requirements of the Prayer
Book, may accurately be styled Non
conformists. The name has been also commonly
applied to those ministers who having
held the benefices of the Church during
the period of the Commonwealth, re
fused, on the restoration of the Church,
to conform to the doctrines and dis
cipline of the Church. Their case has
been very much misunderstood. The
old clergy who were loyal to the Church
had been ejected ; those of them who
were allowed to remain were those who
were willing to sign the Solemn League
and Covenant, which bound them to
extirpate the episcopal constitution of
the Church ; the vacant benefices had
been filled up by Presbyterians, Inde
pendents, Baptists, and fanatics of many
kinds, nominated by the patrons and
allowed by the authorities for the time
being. When the Monarchy was restored,
one of thefirstproceedingsof the restored

Parliament was to reinstate the clergy;
who had been ejected from their bene
fices ; i. e. the very small number of
them who had survived to see the
Restoration. The rest of the existing
ministers were allowed to remain undis
turbed in the benefices of the Church
till some settlement should be legally
arrived at.
A conference [see Savoy Conference]
was held between the leading divines
of the Church on one side, and leading-
divines of the Puritan and noncon-'
forming party on the other, without
any practical result ; nothing would
satisfy the opponents of the Church
short of concessions which could not
be made without a sacrifice of Church
principles. At length, after more than
a year's delay, Parliament gave expres
sion to the strong feeling of. the nation
at large in the Act of Uniformity, which
required that those who were, permitted
to minister at the altars of the Church,
and preach in her pulpits, and live on
her endowments, should give satisfactory
declarations of acceptance of her doc
trines, constitution, and discipline, and
should be regularly ordained to their
office. The Act was passed in 1661,
and was to come into force on St. Bar
tholomew's day following, i. v. August
24, 1662. That is to say, nine months'
further grace was given, during which
the holders of the Church's benefices
might reconcile themselves to renounce
their covenant obligation to destroy
the episcopal form of Church govern
ment, to accept ordination, and to use
the Prayer Book in their ministrations.
Out of eight or nine thousand men the
great majority accepted the conditions ;
about eight hundred* declined the
conditions, and had to give up their
benefices. Great sympathy is due, and
was actually in this case accorded, to
* Calamy, in his ' Abridgment of Baxter's
Life and Times,' and his continuation of the
same work, gives the number as two thou
sand ; but an examination of his list shows
that it is swelled by the insertion of names
-which have no proper place there, and
reduces the probable number to about eight
hundred.

NONE

423

NONJURORS, THE

sufferers for conscience' sake, even when
mistaken ; but it is unreasonable to
find fault with the determination that
they who are to be ministers of the
Church must hold Church principles
and doctrines.
In recent times many Dissenters have
preferred to designate themselves Non
conformists, with the desire perhaps
of expressing the modified feeling of
those who consider themselves rather
as Churchmen objecting to certain
things in the Church, than as separated
from and opposed to the Church.
NONE. [See Hours.]
NONJURORS, THE. When the
Revolution of 1688 had put William
and Mary on the throne, the clergy
were required to take an oath of allegi
ance to the new sovereigns. Now the
reaction against the Great Rebellion
had made the doctrines of hereditary
.right, and of the unlawfulness of re
sistance, very popular doctrines among
Churchmen. Many who had acquiesced
in the seizure of the Government by
William, had expected that he, James's
nophew and son-in-law, would be con
tent to hold the position of Regent,
until some arrangement could be made
for the devolution of the throne upon
the hereditary principle. Even when
•William insisted on the title of king,
which under the circumstances could
not be refused to him, all would have
quietly accepted William and Mary
as de facto sovereigns, but many had
scruples of conscience about taking
an oath of allegiance to them, " while
James still demanded adherence to the
oath which they had previously sworn
to him. The Primate Sancroft had
these scruples, and secluded himself
from public affairs ; others of the
bishops and a large number of the
clergy shared these views, and a very
large number of the laity sympathised
with them. The Court party offered a
compromise, viz. to excuse the existing
clergy from the oath on condition that
they would assent to the repeal of the
test of Churchmanship required from
all who held civil office. But the

Church and nation as a whole were
not yet prepared to abandon the prin
ciple, that whatever toleration might be
extended to Dissenters, yet that the
powers of Government ought to be re
stricted to members of the National
Church ; a principle which a few years
afterwards (1701) found its highest ex
pression in the Act of Settlement, which
required that the sovereign should
"join in communion with the Church
of England as by law established."
The compromise therefore was declined,
and an Act was passed that all clergy
men who did not take the oath of alle
giance to the new sovereigns before tho
1st February, 1690, should be deprived
of their benefices. When the day came,
Sancroft the Primate and six otheT
bishops were ejected from their sees,
viz. Turner of Ely, Lloyd of Norwich,
Frampton of Gloucester, Lake of
Chichester, White of Peterborough,
Ken of Bath and Wells ; Thomas of
Worcester would have made a seventh,
but that he died three weeks before the
day of suspension. They were for the
most part the same bishops who had
been committed to the Tower by James
for their opposition to his second
Declaration of Indulgence, who now
suffered out of loyalty to him. About
four hundred other clergy also refused
the oath and were deprived, among
whom were a remarkable proportion of
men eminent for learning and piety,
as Hicks, Collier, Dodwell, Kettleweil,
Sherlock. A considerable number of
laymen showed their sympathy with
the deprived bishops and clergy, and
ceased to attend the services of the
Established Church.
This expulsion was a lay procedure
by Act of Parliament, and not a canoni
cal deprivation ; the bishops were by
the terms of the Act restrained from
the exercise of their office in their
dioceses, but in the eyes of vast
numbers of Church people they con
tinued to be the rightful bishops of
their dioceses, and the new men put
into their sees were regarded as schis-
matical intruders.

NONJURORS, THE

424

NONJURORS, THE

It was a critical moment. Had any
attempt been made to force on the
Church such changes in constitution
and doctrine as those projected in the
Bill of Comprehension and for the Re
peal of Tests, a very serious disruption
of the Church might possibly have
resulted. It increases our respect for
the nonjuring bishops and clergy,
that as a whole they contented them
selves with taking the step which their
own consciences demanded of them,
and suffered in silence and patience ;
not attempting to take the opportunity
to make a great schism, saying nothing
bitter of their brethren who were able
conscientiously to take the oath, or of
those who assumed their sees and bene
fices ; and even encouraging their own
sympathisers to tacit conformity. In
1709, with the approval of Ken, then
sole survivor of the original nonjuring
bishops, Nelson, Dodwell, and others
returned into the communion of the
National Church.
This was not, however, the spirit of
all. Some of the ejected ministers con
tinued to minister to separatist congre
gations, meeting in secret and in fear.
Some of the bishops, holding that they
alone formed the true Church of Eng
land, resolved to keep up the succes
sion. In order to do so with all the
forms of legality, advantage was taken
of the Act of Henry VIII. for the ap
pointment of suffragans ; a list of names
was sent to King James, who selected
two, Hicks and Wagstaffo ; these were
nominated by Sancroft and Lloyd, as
suffragans to themselves, and conse
crated (February 1693), the former as
suffragan of Thetford, the latter of
Ipswich. In 1713 Hicks, being tho
sole episcopal survivor, resolved still to
maintain the nonjuring succession, and
obtained two Scotch bishops to join
him in consecrating three new bishops,
viz. Collier, Spinkes, and Hawes.
They again on the death of Hicks con
secrated (in 1716) Gaudy and Brett.
In the following year a division sprang
up among them. Collier and Brett,
with tho Scotch Bishop Campbell, ad

vocated the introduction into their
services of the "usages" of the First
Prayer Book of Edward VI. ; Spinkes
and Gaudy were for a strict adherence
to the Prayer Book as it stood. The
former party acting upon their desire
for a return to more primitive usage,
the result was a schism in the nonjur
ing body into "Usagers" and "Non-
usagers." Each party took steps to continue
its succession. Spinkes and his adher
ents in 1720 consecrated Bedford and
Taylor. Collier and his adherents in
1722 consecrated Griffin. In 1723-4,
Taylor, the sole episcopal survivor of
that section, alone consecrated Welton,
and then Taylor and Welton conse
crated Talbot. The consecration by
less than three bishops is valid, buit
by the Canon of Nieeea irregular, and
the other section refused to recognise
Taylor's consecrations. Both sections
continued to maintain their successions.
Collier's section consecrated, in 1722,
Brett, junior ; 1731, Mawman ; 1741,
Gordon, and ho was the last of this line.
Spinkes's section consecrated, with
the aid of Scotch bishops, 1726, Doughty,
Blackburn, and Hall ; 1728, Rawlin-
son ; 1733, Lawrence and Deacon ;
1780, Deacon alone consecrated Brown,
Price, and Cartwright ; 1795, Cart-
wright alone consecrated Garnet ; and
at a later period whose date is not
known Garnet alone consecrated Boothe;
he was the last of tho nonjuring bishops,
and died in Ireland in 1805.
These bishops ordained a succession
of priests whose names are not pre
served. A nonjuring clergyman was
living in the West of England so late
as 1815. These later bishops and-
clergy, having no sees or benefices,
followed other occupations for a main
tenance, e. g. the elder Brett practised
as a physician.
Some of these nonjuring clergymen
were men of the highest character and
of great learning ; for example, the
saintly Ken ; Hicks, the author of the
' Thesaurus ; ' Collier, the author of tho
' Ecclesiastical History ; ' among the

NORWICH

425

NORWICH

laymen, Robert Nelson, the author of
the ' Fasts and Festivals.' The ejection
of this group of men was the loss to the
Church of England of some of the best
representatives of the Primitive and
Catholic element in it.
NORWICH, DIOCESE OF. The
kingdoms which the piratical hordes
of Angles founded on the east coast of
Britain was bounded on the east by tho
sea, on the north by the Wash, on the
south by the Stour, on the west by a
tract of undrained marshes stretching
from Lynn to Ely, and from the Colne
to the Stour ; thus they were shut off
from the rest of the island in a penin
sula of their own, while across the
only piece of high ground which made
a gap in their natural defences was
the stupendous rampart of the Devil's
Dyke. The people were from the first
subdivided into two groups, the North
folk and the South folk.
Redwald, King of the East Angles,
was a nephew of Ethelbert of Kent ;
through his uncle's influence he was
baptised, and gave leave to some of
Augustine's companions to preach the
gospel in his kingdom ; but he was
only a lukewarm convert, and his
people did not follow his example.
His son Eorpwald was slain soon after
he had succeeded his father in the
kingdom, and Sigebert, his half-brother,
returned from years of exile in Bur
gundy to claim his father's kingdom.
Being desirous to imitate the good in
stitutions which he had seen in France,
he set up a school for youths, to be
instructed in literature, and was as
sisted therein by Bishop Felix, a
Burgundian, who came to him from
Kent, and furnished him with masters
and teachers after the manner of that
country,* viz. Burgundy, and settled at
the port of Dunwich as Bishop of the
East Angles. A little while after a monk
named Fursey, with some companions,
came from Ireland and preached among
the East Angles, and finally erected
a monastery within the ruins of an
old Roman fortification, then called
* Bede, ' Eccl. Hist.,' iii. u. 18.

Cnobbesburg, and now Burgh Castle,
five-and-twenty miles northward along
the coast from Dunwich. Sigebert
himself resigned his kingdom and built
a monastery at a place then called
Bedericksworth, on the west side of the
kingdom, where afterwards the great
monastery of St. Edmund arose. These
were the two first monasteries in East
Anglia. Felix died in 647, after an episcopate
of seven years, and was succeeded by
a native Anglian, Thomas, who died
652, and was succeeded by Bertgils,
who took the name of Boniface ; but
no striking success had been as yet
achieved by the Church. In his time,
Anna being king, Penda of Mercia in
vaded East Anglia (655) ; the people
fetched Sigebert out of his monastery
to lead them ; but the Angles suffered
a great defeat, both Anna and Sigebert
were included among the slain, and
Penda set up iEthelhere, Anna's brother,
as sub-king.
The ladies of this royal family are
all remarkable in Church history.
Etheldreda founded a monastery on her
estates at Ely, over which she ruled as
abbess. Sexburga, the eldest sister,
who had been married to Erconbert of
Kent, when left a widow and regent,
retired to a convent which she had
founded in the Isle of Sheppy, and
finally joined her sister at Ely. A
third sister crossed the channel, and
died Abbess of Brie ; and a fourth,
Withberga, passed her life in devout
retirement at East Dereham. Anna's
widow, Hereswith, fled across the sea
and became a nun at Chelles ; and her
sister was Hilda, the founder of the
abbey of Whitby. Aldwulf succeeded
iEthelhere, and his three daughters also
adopted the religious life. Eadburgh
became Abbess of Repton, in Mercia ;
Ethelburga and Hwaetburga were suc
cessively Abbesses of Hackness in
Northumbria. It was in the reign of Aldwulf that
Theodore united all the Churches of
England under the primacy of Canter
bury ; and in pursuance of Theodore's

NORWICH

426

NORWICH

great scheme for the sub-division of
the land into more manageable dio
ceses, East Anglia was divided into
two. Bisi, the aged bishop, retired ;
Acci, or Etti, succeeded him at Dun
wich as bishop of the South folk ;
while the North folk were formed
into a new diocese under Bedwin (673),
whose see was placed at Elmham,
formerly the seat of a Roman magis
trate, and which still retained some of
tho old Roman grandeur.
Of the successors of these bishops,
scarcely anything is known but their
names, which appear regularly among
the signatures to the acts of the several
national synods. Indeed for a cen
tury and a half East Anglia has no
history. AVhile Mercia, Northumbria,
and Wessex were engaged in ceaseless
warfare, East Anglia, cut off from the
rest of the land by its natural bound
aries, led a self-contained and unevent
ful life.
This quiet was at length rudely dis
turbed by the invasions of the North
men. These fierce pirates landed first
in Dorsetshire in 787 ; but they settled
first in East Anglia in 866. In that
year "a, great heathen army came to
the land of the English nation, and
took up their winter quarters among
tho East Angles, and there they were
housed ; and the East Angles made
peace with them" ('Anglo-Saxon
Chronicle'). In the following spring
they set forth from their winter quar
ters, and ravaged the parts of tho
country now known as Yorkshire,
Northumberland, and Notts ; and in
the winter of 870 came back to winter
quarters at Thetford. Meantime Ed
mund, the king of the Angles, had
made preparations to defend his coun
try, and fought a great battle with
them near Bedericksworth, but the
native army was defeated and the king
taken. The Danish chiefs offered to
spare his life on condition that he
would abjure Christianity ; and on his
refusal they bound him to a tree and
shot him to death with their arrows,
and finally cut off his head. It was

on the site of his martyrdom that in
after times arose the great abbey of St
Edmund ; his shrine in the abbey
church (see woodcut under Shrine) was
a great place of pilgrimage ; and the
resort of pilgrims was so great as to
give rise to the town of St. Edmund's
Bury outside the abbey-gates, which
still, three hundred years after .'. the
destruction of the abbey, is one of tho
chief towns of East Anglia. Then the
Danes took a great revenge for the
revolt of the East Angles, overrunning
the whole East Anglian kingdom,
plundering and destroying. Their
principal rage seems to have been
directed against the churches and re
ligious houses. There were no grest
monasteries in East Anglia itself, buS
on the western border of it there were*'
four— Peterborough, Crowland, Thor-
ney, and Ely ; and these were included
in the general destruction.
AVith the coming of the Danes tho
names of the bishops of East Anglia
disappear from the records for nearly
a centuiy. It would seem that the
kingdom had become Danish and
heathen. It was during the year after this
ravaging of East Anglia that Alfred
the Great became King of Wessex, and
commenced the ceaseless war against
the Danes which ended in a treaty of
peace and division with Gunthrum the
Dane in 878. By this treaty East
Anglia was ceded to the Danes, together
with other large territories on the east
side of England both to the north and
south of the Anglian peninsula, on
condition that the Danes adopted
Christianity as their religion.* The
Danish chief Gunthrum received bap
tism by the name of Athelstan, Alfred
acting as his godfather, thus establish
ing a relationship between the two
kings and allies which was regarded as
sacred, and which strengthened the
political ties between them. For ten
* It was the policy of the Carolingian
princes at this time to enforce Christianity
upon the barbarians whom they conqnered,
as the only sure means of reducing them to
a peaceful and civilised mode of life.

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years Athelstan ruled the Danelaw,
dying in 890; "he abode in East
Anglia," says the 'Saxon Chronicle,'
and "he first settled the country."
For a generation after Athelstan's death
East Anglia continued wholly Danish.
Christianity slowly spread among its
inhabitants, and churches and religious
houses were gradually built ; but we
hear nothing of any bishop among
them. They may, however, have had
bishops from Denmark, whose relations
were with the Danish and not with the
English Church ; for the conversion
of the whole of Denmark to Christi
anity took place in 858, and their
ancient chroniclers claim that they
introduced Christianity into East Anglia
in 880, on the occasion of their recon-
quest of that kingdom, and that it was
a purer Christianity than had been
hitherto propagated in England. *
In 921 wo come to another great
crisis in the history. Edward the
Elder, the son of Alfred, made himself
master of East Anglia, and rejoined it
to the dominions of the English Crown.
' Soon after this we find Theodred,
Bishop of London, holding also the
-bishopric of the East Anglians, with
his see at Elmham, and spending large
sums of money on the shrine of St.
Edmund, the popular saint of the
native East Anglians. In his time the
four great monasteries on the west
'border of East Anglia — Ely, Peter
borough, Crowland, and Thorney —
were re-established under the Benedic
tine rule.
But the kingdom had not yet done
with the Danes. In 1004 King Sweyn
sailed up the Yare, burned Norwich
and Thetford, and plundered the
- country. Six years afterwards they
came again, landing at Ipswich, and
penetrated even into the fens, destroy
ing men and cattle. In 1014 Cnut suc
ceeded his father Sweyn, and in three
years was undisputed king of all Eng
land. Cnut set himself to rebuild the
churches and monasteries, especially
* Jenkins's ' Diocesan Hist, of Canterbury,'
p. 46. S.P.C.K.

those which his father and himself
had ruined. He founded the abbey of
St. Benet of Hulme, in the midst of
the Norfolk "Broads." A few years
afterwards twelve of the monks of this
house took the place of the secular
canons in the monastery of St. Edmund,
newly rebuilt by Bishop jElfwin.
There is some difficulty in the suc
cession of bishops of East Anglia.
jElfwin was appointed in 1016, but,
apparently before his death, we read of
Mfgar dying as Bishop of East Anglia
on Christmas Day, 1021. In 1038
iElfric died Bishop of Elmham, and
Stigand, "Cnut's priest, "already Bishop
of Winchester, entered upon the vacant
see ; but shortly vacated it in favour
of Grimketel, who was shortly ejected,
and Stigand resumed the see ; and when
Canterbury fell vacant he was appointed
to tho primacy, and held all three —
Canterbury, AVinchester, and Elmham
— for a while. He resigned Elmham,
to which his brother iEgelmar, or
Aylmer, was appointed. It may be
noted here that the last two native
bishops were married men.
It appears from the Domesday survey
that the province was as well supplied
with churches then ns now. In Suf
folk there were three hundred and forty-
six, in Norfolk at least three hundred
and seventeen. "We meet with in
stances of clergymen endowing churches
which they had built, and bestowing
manors on those which others had
raised. "f " The inference is that the
clergy belonged to the upper rather
than to the lower strata of society. . .
On the whole, things appear not to
have been so bad but that they might
easily have been worse ; and relatively
to the rest of the community, it is
probable — mutatis mutandis — that the
clergy at the time of the Conquest
occupied pretty much the same position
morally and intellectually that they
do now."
After the Norman Conquest, in 1070,
Bishop Aylmer shared the fall of his
t A. Jessop, ' Norwich Diocesan Hist.,' pp.
to, 41. S.P.C.K.

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brother Stigand, being deposed by the
Council of London on the pretext that
his consecration by Stigand was invalid.
The Conqueror nominated his Italian
chaplain, Herfast, to the see. His
episcopate is especially memorable for
three things : first, that he was a mar
ried man, and that he ordained one
man a deacon and another a priest,
though both were married. Lanfranc
interfered, and declared that they
should both be degraded ; but we do
not know the end of the story. The
other memorable fact is that Baldwin,
Abbot of the great abbey of St. Ed
mund, a man of great reputation in his
time, claimed to be exempt from the
bishop's authority. Lanfranc gave a
decision which satisfied neither. Bald
win appears to have appealed to Rome.
The Pope, Gregory VII., ordered Lan
franc to give a decision against the
bishop, who on receiving it broke out
into violent language against Lanfranc,
dismissed the messenger with insults
and personal violence, and denied that
he was to obey any archbishop in Eng
land, whoever he might be. This is
the first instance of the exemption of a
monastery from episcopal visitation.
In 1078, in obedience to the decisions
of the Council of 1075, he removed his
see from Elmham to the more central
and flourishing town of Thetford,
where was a stately church of the
Holy Trinity, "which was tho most
spacious church in the diocese, whereas
the church at Elmham was only a
structure of wood.
On Horfast's death in 1084, after a
fourteen years' episcopate, William de
Bello Fago, another of the king's chap
lains, was nominated as his successor.
During the episcopate of Herfast no
religious houses had been, founded in
the diocese ; under Bishop William,
AVilliam de Warrenne founded a noble
priory for Clugniac monks at Castle
Acre. The bishop died after six years,
leaving his considerable property for
the augmentation of the endowment of
the see.
Tho history of tho diocese enters

upon a new chapter with the accession^
to the see (1091) of Herbert de. Losinga,,,
Abbot of Romsey, and formerly Prior
of Fecamp. He was a man of high
birth, great connections, and large
resources, with a handsome person and
captivating manners, an accomplished.
scholar and a patron of scholars, anian
of wit and genius ; moreover, he' was
a zealous and able bishop, throwing
himself with versatile earnestness into
eveiy thing which concerned the welfare*
of tho diocese. * Early in his episcopate
(1094 or 1095) the see was transferred
to Norwich, which was then the chief
town of the diocese ; and in 1096 the
bishop laid the foundation-stone of a
vast and magnificent monastery for
seventy Benedictine monks, whose
church he designed for the cathedrals
of the diocese. He contributed large
sums to the building and endowing^
of this monastery, and prosecuted the"
building with such zeal that in five
years' time the choir of the great church
at least was ready for consecration. :
Nor was this his only work ; he replaced
the timber church at Elmham by a
worthier structure, he built an immense
church at Lynn, and another at Yar
mouth, which is still the largest parish
church in the kingdom. The bishop's
zeal seems to have kindled zeal in
others. In the twenty years which
followed the consecration of the church
at Norwich, the Clugniac priory rose
under the shadow of the castle of the
Earl of Warrenne at Castle Acre:
Roger Bigod founded another Clugniao
house at Thetford ; a Benedictine
priory was founded by Roger Bigod's
daughter and her husband, William de
Albini, at Wymondham ; and cells
and subordinate houses to Norwich
were founded at Lynn and Hoxne.
Six other religious houses were begun
or completed during Herbert's episco
pate — viz. Binham, Aldeby, Bilburgh,
Hempton, Heringfleet, and Ixwortb;
* The present Dean of Norwich has lately
published the ' Letters of de Losinga,' which
give an interesting picture of the man. and
of his times.

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to which may probably be added Eye
and Pentnoy. "Bishop Herbert died
1119, and was buried in his own
cathedral. His monument is that
f;lorious pile wherein his bones are
aid : the church, whose vast propor
tions have admitted no additions, and
whoso main lines have been preserved
almost unchanged for eight hundred
years— the most purely Norman cathe
dral in Britain." It should not
be forgotten that the ' Chronicle of
Joscelin of Brakelond' gives a very
interesting picture of tho monastic life
of the Abbey of St. Edmund, during
tho time of Abbot Sampson, at the end
of tho twelfth centuiy.
Since it is tho history of the diocese
rather than of the bishops which is the
subject of this article, it must suffice
to say, as briefly as possible, that tho
see was filled successively by monks
and seculars, by pious bishops who ruled
their dioceses, by lawyer and states
men bishops who received tho dignity
and emolument as the salary of services
to tho State, and provided suffragans
and vicars-general to administer the
affairs of the diocese, and by scions of
noble houses who were thus provided
for. There was even one unusual ex
ample of a military bishop : Sir Henry
le Dispenser — tho colleague of Sir John
Hawkwood, among the soldiers of for
tune who played their part in the
Italian wars, and scarcely less renowned
than that famous captain — was presented
by tho Pope, in whose wars he had
fought, to the Bishopric of Norwich,
and was consecrated to that see in
1-370. He found scope for his military
talents in tho suppression of tho rebel
lion in Norwich, which was part of
tho general agrarian rebellion of which
AVat Tyler's march upon London is a
better known episode ; and was again
engaged in the following year, by his
old master, Pope Urban, to head a
crusade against the anti-pope's sup
porters in France.
In tho year 1349 came the visitation
of tho plague called the " Black Death. "
" English history can tell of no calamity

so wide-spread and so terrible in its
incidence, and no part of tho kingdom
sufferedmoredreadfullythan East Anglia
did from the scourge. The institution
books of the diocese tell their own talc ;
during the five years previous to tho
plague year, the average of institutions
of all kinds was 81 per annum ; during
the plague year the number of institu
tions was 831. In the spring of this year,
the Bishop, Bateman, was absent, con
ducting negotiations for peaco between
England and Franco. He returned to
Norfolk in tho beginning of June, to
find his brother, Sir Bartholomew
Bateman, of Gillingham, dead, and
the plague raging with awful severity.
During the next two months the three
chief nunneries in tho diocese — Bungay,
Carrow, and Riillingfield — lost their
prioresses. All tho canons of Mount
J oye, in Heveringland, died. At Hick-
ling only a single canon survived, and
he a novice, who made his profession
to the prior as he lay dying. At AVal-
singham, at Thetford, at Westacre, at
the great Abbey of St. Benet's, Hulme,
the same frightful mortality prevailed,
and in six months no less than twenty-
one religious houses had lost their
rulers. In the city of Norwich it is
said that the mortality was most fright
ful ; in Yarmouth it was scarcely less.
Lynn seems to have escaped with com
parative impunity. . . During all this
terrible time Bishop Bateman never
left his diocese for a day. In the singlo
month of July he personally instituted
207 persons. Till the 9th of the month
he was at Norwich, the plague making
awful havoc all around him. On tho
10th he arrived at Hoxne, and there in
a single day instituted twenty persons ;
from this time till the pestilence abated
he moved about from place to place,
rarely staying more than a fortnight in-
any one house, followed everywhere by
the troops of clergy who came to be
admitted to the livings of such as had
died. By April, 1350, the mortality
had so much abated that things had
returned to their normal condition ;
but in a single year the whole face of

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the diocese must have been changed.
Bearing in mind that the episcopal
records take no account of deaths in
the monasteries except where the head
of the house was carried off ; that none
of the unbeneficed clergy are noticed
except where they wero presented with
preferment ; that the mendicant orders
who wero labouring among the towns
people, and were hardly under episco
pal jurisdiction, never came before the
bishop at all, — it is impossible to esti
mate the number of clergy in tho
diocese of Norwich whom the ' Black
Death' carried off at less than two
thousand. The effect of so huge a
calamity it is almost impossible for us
now to conceive ; the smaller benefices
could not be filled up, many must have
remained for years without incum
bents."* Bishop Bateman founded a college —
Trinity Hall — at Cambridge, as a theo
logical seminary for his diocese. The
example had been set two years before
the "Black Death," by Edmund Gon
ville, rector of Terrington, who, in
January 1347, had founded the college
under his name, to which Dr. Caius
afterwards added so largely as to take
the honour of co-founder, of Gonville
and Caius College. The year after the
" Black Death, " Corpus Christi College
was founded at Cambridge, and this,
too, eventually became one of the Nor
folk Colleges, when Archbishop Parker
added so munificently to its resources
in after times.
Dr. Jessop gives some graphic details
of the Lollard movement in Norwich
diocese. ' ' In the valley of the Waveney,
just on the borders of the two counties
(Norfolk and Suffolk), a remarkable
religious movement had been going on
for some time. The leaders were a
small band of unbeneficed clergy, who
were what we should now call the
curates-in-charge of tho parishes where
they were living. At least nine of the
parish priests were implicated, of whom
the most influential were a certain
Hugh Pie, of Loddon (apparently a

graduate of one of the universities) ;
who was looked upon as a kind of
apostle ; and one Bartholomew, of
Earsham, who is spoken of as a monk
whose influence in his immediate neigh
bourhood was paramount. The wholo
district was in a ferment of religions
excitement, and priests and people
seemed to be of one mind." One,
AYilliam White, who had six years
before been cited before the Convocation
at St. Paul's, for preaching and teach
ing heretical doctrine, and had been
allowed to go free on abjuring his
peculiar traits, and giving a solemn
engagement to preach and teach no
more, had come into this neighbour
hood, where he threw off his clerical
character and married, and took an
active part as a preacher and teacher in
the religious movement going on about
him. In July 1428 he was cited to
appear before the Council and answer
for his relapse ; disregarding the cita
tion, he was excommunicated, arrested,
condemned as a relapsed heretic, and
burnt. ' ' The horror inspired by his
fate, which was then an almost unheard-
of novelty, struck terror into the minds
of his followers, and during the next
three years, as the persecution went on,
at least one hundred and twenty of the
Norfolk and Suffolk Lollards abjured,
and, though no more were brought to
the stake, almost all were, more or less,
troubled by the relentless bishop (Alne-
wick), and the regulars who were his
great supporters. Some of theso poor
people were compelled to give up their
English New Testaments, some wore
condemned to do penance in various
ways ; some were sentenced to terms of
imprisonment, one of them for life, in
the monastery of Langley. If not con
vinced, they were, at any rate, silenced,
and for a hundred years we hear no more
of heresy in the diocese of Norwich.
For once persecution was effectual ; tho
time for toleration of error, much less
for freedom of opinions, had not yet
arrived. " t
The famous Paston Letters aro those

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of a Norfolk family, and throw a flood
of light upon the state of society in
this part of the world in the fifteenth
century. Dr. Jessop sums up the
century thus: "Whatever may have
been the case in other dioceses, it is
certain that the Bishops of Norwich
•during the fifteenth century were resi
dent in their see, and that they were
prominent personages as scholars and
men of culture and learning .... and
their influence was not inconsiderable
in encouraging literary tastes and stu
dious habits among their clergy. Pitts,
in his list of distinguished Englishmen
of letters, who flourished during the
latter half of the fifteenth century,
numbered no less than twenty-four
Norfolk men, who were recognised as
prominent scholars, controversialists, or
students of science. Their names, for
the most part, have gone down into
silence ; but Lydgate, the monk of St.
Edmund's, will not soon be forgotten ;
and Walsingham, the historian, is still
read ; and John Skelton, Rector of Diss,
has found a laborious editor of his
voluminous works in our own time.
The printing press had begun its mighty
revolution, and one of the earliest speci
mens of Pynson's art was an edition of
the works of John Tonney, an Augus
tinian friar, of Norwich, who was
renowned for his devotion to Greek
literature at a time when the language
of Hellas was known to very few. The
wills of the East Anglian clergy during
this time made frequent mention of
their books ; and the constant occur
rence of the names of the country
parsons as feoffees in the settlements of
the estates of the landed gentry, goes
far to prove that they were respected
and trusted by the people. On the
whole, the impression left upon me by
the examination of all the evidence
that has come to hand, is, that the con
dition of the diocese of Norwich, in
the fifteenth century, reflects credit
upon the bishops of the see, and the
clergy over whom they ruled."*
The Norfolk men took a specially
• ' Norwich Diocese,' p. 165.

forward part in the early days of the
movement which led up to the Reform
ation. "We must," says Dr. Jessop,
' ' accept with exceeding caution the
statements of John Foxe, when he tells
us that Thomas Norrice was burnt on
the 31st March, 1507 ; that Thomas
Ayres, a priest of Norwich, was burnt
at Eccles, in 1510 ; and Thomas Bingey,
burnt at Norwich, 1511. At the most
this burning can have been no more
than ' branding ; ' but this is enough to
indicate that the movement was con
siderable enough to have provoked tho
authorities to action against it. Later
on, of the little group of men at
Cambridge who were known as leaders
of the new learning, several were
Norfolk men, viz. Thomas Arthur,
fellow of St. John's ; Thomas Bilney,
fellow of Trinity Hall ; John Lambert,
fellow of Queen's : and Robert Barnes,
prior of the Augustinian friars, in whose
chapel, exempt from episcopal visit
ation, the new doctrines were openly
preached. Latimer, it will be remem
bered [see his life], was one of the band.
About 1525, steps were taken to break
up this society. Lambert fled to tho
Continent ; Barnes was imprisoned,
but escaped, and also sought refugo
on the Continent. Bilney and Arthur
retired to Norfolk, where Bilney made
himself notorious as a violent itinerant
preacher of the new doctrine. In 1527
they were both brought before Cardinal
Wolsey and a large assembly of bishops,
lawyers, and divines, and convicted of
heresy. Both recanted ; Arthur soon
after died. Bilney, after a year's impri
sonment, was released ; a deep remorse
seized him ; and, after a year-and-a-half,
he resumed his old course of itinerant
preaching, was again arrested, con
demned as a, relapsed heretic, and
burnt at Norwich, 19th August, 1531,
Latimer going down from Cambridge
to offer his consolations to his old friend
and fellow-disciple."
The history of the Reformation in
this diocese is part of the general.-
history of the country, but records of
some incidents, in ' the movement are

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preserved here which have been lost
elsewhere. The report of Cromwell's
Commissioners on the condition of the
Norfolk monasteries is extant. "It is
a paper," says Dr. Jessop, "which
bears upon its every line the marks
not only of falsehood, but of revolting
grossness on the part of those who
could write it, and it is not conceivable
that it could have been accepted as
anything but a hideous invention by
those to whom it was handed in. " Six
months after, another Commission was
issued for carrying the Act of Suppres
sion into effect. These Commissioners
were gentlemen of position and cha
racter, and their report is also extant,
and contrasts wonderfully with the
former. The aggregate income of these
smaller Norfolk houses is set down at
£1238 5s. 5id. The number of re
ligious of both sexes was seventy-five.
The value of the land, bells, vestments,
and stock was £2454 9s. 2d. There
can be no doubt that some of the
monasteries had taken the alarm before
the blow fell, and had made the most
of their short respite. In five of these
small houses, which in 1534 had con
tained forty inmates, there were only
sixteen when the Commissioners ap
peared ; and in one house — the Trini
tarian priory of Ingham — the prior and
six canons had sold their whole estab
lishment — land, goods, cattle, furni
ture — and had dispersed none knew
whither. The Commissioners report
favourably of the moral condition and
character of nineteen of these houses ;
of four of the smallest, they say that
the monks were of "slender" or of
' ' slanderous name. " All the nunneries
except one are very highly spoken of; the
exception was the Cistercian nunnery of
Masham, where a vicious abbess had let
everything go to ruin, and had made
her four sisters as bad as herself; the
house, we are told, was "in sore decay."
Of one house — that of the Augustinian
Canons of Pentney — the Commissioners
cinnot speak too highly ; the Canons
were evidently the objects of love and
reverence to all their neighbours.

Then followed the surrender of tho
greater houses ; 6th April, 1539, the
priory of Norwich was dissolved, the
monks were turned into secular canons,
and the prior into the first dean ; its en
dowments were entirely confiscated, and '
the possessions of the priory of Hick-
ling and the barony and revenues of,
the Abbey of St. Benet's, Hulme, were
bestowed as the new endowments of
the see. The rest of the monasteries' '
surrendered one by one. Their estates;' '
were plundered, their churches and '
buildings ruined, and their inhabitants
dispersed. Dr. Jessop calculates that
when the suppression was first thought •
of there were little short of three
hundred monks and nuns, and not less
than the same number of friars, in the
diocese. ' ' The suppression was not
carried out in East Anglia without
deep discontent, and at least one futile
attempt at a rebellion. The inhabitants
of Walsingham, who lived on tho
pilgrims constantly visiting the famous
shrine, found themselves suddenly re
duced to beggary ; want made them
mutinous, but at the same time ren
dered them powerless, and the riot was
soon put down." There were still left
in the diocese for the Government of
Edward VI. to plunder, twenty-two
colleges of secular canons, and seventy-
four hospitals and lazar houses with
no inconsiderable endowments, and one
hundred and thirty-eight chantries.
' ' There were nine hundred guilds, one
or more in every parish, with funds
which really belonged to the poorest
people, and which were kept up in
great measure by the constant stream
of small benefactions contributed by
the prosperous and wealthy ; they were
all dissolved ; the frightened artizans
and labourers being compelled not only
to surrender their money, but even the
drinking-bowls and trumpery furniture
which were the pride of their benefit
clubs, and which their humble fore
fathers had left for the use of those
who should come after." Lastly, the
churches were plundered of plate and
I vestments, their carved Work and glass i

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OBSERVANTS

'destroyed or mutilated, their painted
walls whitewashed ; and in many cases
the endowments of the living abstracted
or simoniacally dealt with.
The diocese had also its peculiar
troubles in the reign of Elizabeth.
"Independent action on the part of
the prelacy, indeed all such action as
might tend to strengthen their hands,
was paralysed. Meanwhile, tho inso
lence and furious language of the
sectaries knew no bounds. When the
persecution of Alva had driven thou
sands of the weavers from the Low
Countries to take refuge in Norwich,
where they were most generously re
ceived and harboured, and places of
worship were assigned them where they
might use their own ritual, disorder
increased still more. If foreigners
might do as they pleased, why not
Englishmen ? Soon, too, the Brownists
spread, their eccentric leader settling
in Norfolk for awhile, and finding
favour. Moreover, East Anglia was
the stronghold of the family of Love,
and David George's mystic writings
were handed about and translated from
their native Dutch into the vernacular,
their unintelligible jargon constituting
their charm." Many of the native
gentry adhered to the Popish party,
and were persecuted as Recusants.
Altogether, "during those forty-five
years of Queen Elizabeth's reign, East
Anglia passed through such a period of
turbulence, bitterness of feeling, and
decay of Christian charity — such a
period of neglect of the decencies of
religion, and of tho houses of God in
the land, as the diocese had never
known since tho days when private
warfare was the rule, and there was no
king in Israel. . . And yet one re
flection is forced upon the thoughtful
student more and more ... we have
lived through pillage and persecution,
indifference and neglect; we have lived
through days when all seemed going,
and well-nigh gone ; yet from the
desolation and the ruin the Church
has risen again and again to new life
and activity. Shall we tremble for F

the future when we can point to the
history of the past. " *
The diocese consists of the entire
counties of Norfolk and Suffolk,
with part of Cambridge : population,
685,805 ; 3 archdeaconries, of Norwich,
Norfolk, and Suffolk ; 92 deaneries ;
904 benefices ; resident incumbents, 758.
NUN (from the low Latin nunna, or
more commonly, nonna, a familiar af
fectionate title given to an elderly
female, implying near relationship, as
mother or aunt) : a member of a female
religious order, as the Bridgettine
[which see]. Most of the monastic
orders had also female houses of the
order, whose members were called
nuns. Their life was regulated by the
usual monastic rule, only female occu
pations, as embroidery, took the place
which manual labour occupied in the
life of the monks. In some of the
nunneries the education and religious
training of girls formed a very import
ant part of their work.
Just before the Reformation the dean
and chapter of St. Paul's had revised
the Constitutions of the nuns of St.
Helen's, Bishopsgate : and these con
stitutions •( which may be found in the
' Transactions of the London and Mid
dlesex Archa3ological Society,' vol. ii.
[1865] p. 199) give a. good idea of the
life of a nunnery.
For a contemporary picture of a
Benedictine Nun see under title Abbess.

OBLATION ( = offering). " The
term in the Canon Law means what
ever is in any manner offered to the
Church by the pious and faithful,'
whether it be movable or immovable
property." (See R. Phillimore, 'Ecclesi
astical Law,' p. 1596.)
The word occurs in the Prayer for
the Church Militant, where, from the
context, it seems to apply to the ele
ments of bread and wine.
OBSERVANTS, a reformed Order
of Franciscan friars. The Franciscan
* 'Norwich Eiocese,' p. 176.

OFFERINGS

434

OFFERTORY BOXES

Order having relaxed in some parti
culars the strictness of its founder's
rule, there arose towards the end of
the fourteenth centuiy a movement in
favour of a return to the original observ
ances. This at length ended in a divi
sion in the Order — those who adhered
to the relaxed rule were distinguished
as Conventuals, and those who returned
to the original observances were called
Observants. This reformed Order was
established by St. Bernardine of Sienna,
about A.D. 14Q0, and confirmed by the
Council of Constance, A. D. 1414. Henry
VII. founded, or perhaps rather re-
founded, Observant houses at Canter
bury, Greenwich, Richmond, South
ampton, Newark, and Newcastle. Thoy
were much favoured by Katherine of
Arragon, and in the question of the
divorce warmly espoused her side . The
warden of the Observants at Greenwich,
preaching before the King and Court,
spoke violently against the marriage
with Anne BuUen, and compared the
King to Ahab. The whole Order re
fused to subscribe to the royal- suprem
acy, and was suppressed in 1534, some
being imprisoned and some put to death.
_ OFFERINGS, oblations, a»id obven-
tions, are one and the same thing, and
comprehend not only Easter dues, but
also the customary payment for mar
riages, christenings, churchings, and
burials. Anciently there were four
offering days, viz. Christmas, Easter,
Whitsuntide, and the Feast of the Dedi
cation of the parish church. See statute
of Edward VI. (2 and 3 Ed. VI. c. 13),
which, however, indicates that already
it was beginning to be the custom to
make the four offerings in one payment
at Easter ; and this was afterwards
settled by law. The rubric at the end
of the Communion service says, that
"yearly at Easter every parishioner
shall reckon with the parson, vicar, or
curate, . . . and pay to them all ecclesi
astical duties accustomably due there
and at that time to be paid. " No doubt
these offerings were at first voluntary
and variable in amount, but they came
at length to be a definite amount, and

legally recoverable. By the common
law, Easter offerings are payable by
every householder, for each member of
his family sixteen years of age, at the
rate of twopence per head (when two
pence was worth four or five shillings
of present money value). Probably the
payment of Easter dues is nowhere now
enforced as a legal right, but voluntary
Easter offerings are still customary in
very many parishes, and afford the
parishioners an opportunity of supple
menting tho income of the benefice, or
of making their thank-offering to the in
cumbent for special individual services.
OFFERTORY, THE, the solemn
presentation in the Divine service
(!) of bread and wine to be used in'
the celebration of the Eucharist ; (2) of
alms for the poor and other pious uses ;
(3) and of other things offered to God.
OFFERTORY BOXES. Earliest notice
of offertory boxes is in a mandate of
Henry II. (1166), for a hollow trunk
with three keys, to be provided in
every church for offerings for the defence
and assistance of the Christians in tho
Holy Land. Innocent III. (1200) made
a similar order for the same object;
remission of sins was held out as a
reward to the givers.
A hollow trunk, end of twelfth cen
tury, was put up at St. Edmondsbmy
for contributions for building the tower
(Joscelin of Bracklond). There, was
an offertory box, called the pyx of
St. Cuthbert, at his shrine at Durham.
A similar pyx, at Finchale Priory. A
stone box beside a braqket for an image
in Bridlington Church, Yorks, and a
basin attached to the Easter sepulchre,
East Kirkby, Line, also one affixed to
the monument of King Edward II. in
Gloucester Cathedral. Edward VI.,
1547, in his injunctions seems to have
been the first to direct such a trunk to
be placed in churches to receive contri
butions for the poor, called "the poor
man's box, ' ' common alms to be put into
it, and once a month a collection for it
from the whole congregation. * J. R. A.
* Paper by M. H. Bloxam, in ' Northants Ar
chitectural Society Transactions for 1860,'p.lS.

OFFERTORY BOXES

435

ORDERS, MINOR

OFFERTORY COLLECTING-BOXES,
PORTABLE.- No very ancient examples
of portable offertory boxes have survived
to: the present day. There is one at
Chelmorton church, Derbyshire, dated
1685 (engraved in the Ham Anastatic
Drawing Society's 'Annual' for 1876,
Plate XLI.), and another of more
elegant shape at Blickling church,
Norfolk, inscribed, " Pray remember
tho poor " (illustrated in the ' Gentle
man's Magazine' for 1837, p. 262).
These boxes are commonly made of
wood, of rectangular shape, measuring
about 8 in. by 5 in., by 1£ in. deep,
the top being covered in, except at the
end, where the money is dropped in.
They are provided with either a short
handle for convenience in passing from
one person to another, or with a handle
sufficiently long to enable the collection
to be made by one person walking down
the passage between the pews. At
Kirk Maughold, in the Isle of Man,
there is a metal offertory collector with
a long handle, dated 1751. (J. R. A.)
OFFERTORY DISHES. Examples
exist of large silver and silver-gilt
dishes of Byzantine design of the fifth
or sixth centuries, which probably
were originally votive offerings, and
were used in the service of the Church
- as offertory dishes. In the British
Museum is an English example of a
copper offertory dish of tho ninth or
tenth century, which once belonged to
Chertsey Abbey. It is about 9Jr in.
across, 1J in. deep, and has on its
wide rim the inscription GiE-TEOH
VRiELKO, i.e. " Offer Veriner."
ORATORY, AN, differs from a church .
A church is the place consecrated for the
celebration of Holy Communion and all
other offices, and is provided with an
endowment for the maintenance of the
minister, and the church is the freehold
of the parson ; an Oratory is not conse
crated for the celebration of Holy Com
munion, but is used for prayer ; it is
not endowed, and, being often an apart
ment of a house, is the property of the
owner of the house. Great personages
in old times had not infrequently,

besides the chapel for the general use
of the household, a private chapel for
the lord and another for the lady,
and an oratory for each besides. Tho
bishop, however, sometimes granted a
licence for the celebration of Holy
Communion in' such oratories in case
of infirmity. There are many examples
of it in the bishop's registries, espe
cially in the fifteenth century. Canon
71 of 1603 gives tho present. law on
the subject, which is to tho effect,
that except in the chapels of houses
dedicated and allowed by the ecclesi
astical laws of this realm, no minister
may preach, or administer Holy Com
munion, in any private house, except in
cases of infirmity or dangerous sickness.
A recent Act (31 & 32 Vict. c. 118, s.
31 ) regulates the rights of the chapels of
college schools and other public insti
tutions. (See R. Phillimore, 'Ecclesi
astical Law,' p. 1836.)
ORDERS, MINOR. Besides the three
primitive sacred orders of bishop,
priest, and deacon, there were other
officers appointed for the service of tho
Church, who, in very early times, were
organised into Minor Orders, five in
number. ^Elfric, Archbishop of Canterbury
(1023 — 1050), describes so clearly the
offices of those minor orders, that
his words may be literally transcribed.
' ' There are seven orders ordained in
the Church: the first is Ostiary, the
second Lector, the third Exorcist, the
fourth Acolyte, the fifth Snb-dcacon,
the sixth Deacon, the seventh Pres
byter. The Ostiary is keeper of the
church doors, who is to notify the time
with the bells, and to unlock the church
to believers, and to lock out unbelievers.
The Lector is to read in God's^ church,
and is ordained to publish God's Word.
The Exorcist is, in plain English, he.
that with invocations adjures malignant
spirits that delight in vexing men,
through tho Almighty name, to depart
from them. He is called the Acolyte
who holds the candle or taper at the
Divine ministration, when the Gospel
is read, or the housel hallowed at the

ORDINALE

436

ORDINATION

altar ; not as if he were to drive away
the obscure darkness, but to signify
bliss by that light, to the honour of
Christ, who is our Light. Sub-deacon
is plainly under-deacon, he that brings
forth the vessels to the Deacon, and
humbly ministers under the Deacon
with the housel vessels at the holy
altar. Tho Deacon is ho that ministers
to the mass-priest, and places the obla
tion on the altar, and reads the Gospel
at the Divine ministration ; he may
baptise children and housel the people.
They ought to serve their Saviour in
white albs, and preserve the heavenly
life with purity, and let all be done
as becometh that order. The priest
that remains without a deacon hath the
name, not the attendance of a priest.
Presbyter is the mass-priest, or elder,
not that he is old, otherwise than in
wisdom. He halloweth God's housel
as our Saviour commanded ; he ought,
by preaching, to instruct the people in
their belief, and to give an example to
Christians by the purity of his man
ners. There is no more between a
bishop and a priest, but that the bishop
is appointed to ordain, and to baptise
children, and to hallow churches, and
to take care of God's rights, for they
would be abundantly too many if every
priest did this ; he hath the same order,
but the other is more honourable."
Admission to minor orders was not
by laying on of hands, but by solemn
benediction by the bishop, and the
delivery of the instruments of the
office : e.g. to the Sub-deacon was deli
vered the holy water vat, and sprinkler ;
to the Acolyte, the taper ; to the Ex
orcist, the Book of Exorcisms ; to the
Lector, the Book of the Legenda ; to the
Ostiary, tho keys of the church. They
all alike wore the albe, over which the
Sub-deacon wore a tunicle when serv
ing at the Holy Table. All this may
be seen represented in the Pontificals
which are illustrated with illuminations
and engravings. [See Pontifical.]
ORDINALE, the Pica or Pie, one
of the old service books, was a kind of
supplementary calendar, by means of

which the priest might learn the
changes to be made on special days
in the ordinary Office of the Hours.
The days of the fixed festivals being
known, by the calendar usually pre
fixed to the other service books, the
Ordinale served as a perpetual guide
and directory, in so far as the year was
affected by the movable feasts.
ORDINARY, the, is the person
who has jurisdiction in a place or
matter ; usually the Bishop is the
Ordinary ; but there are persons and
places exempt from his authority.
ORDINATION means the rite of con
ferring Holy Orders upon deacons and
priests. Consecration is the word used
for the rite of making a bishop. They
have always been conferred by laying
on of hands with prayer, and words
implying the character and authority
of the Order conferred. In mediaeval
times various ceremonies were added
which may have been striking and
significant, but were at least unneces
sary, and at the Reformation were dis
continued in this portion of the church.
[See Ordinal in the Book of Common
Prayer.] Tho canonical ages for ad
mission into the sacred Orders , wero
and are — deacon, twenty-three ; priest,
twenty-four ; bishop, thirty years ; but
a deacon may be made earlier by dis
pensation. Deacon's Orders aro con
ferred by the laying on of bauds of
a bishop. In making a priest, tho
priests present lay on hands together
with the bishop, not as necessary to
the conferring of Orders, but as a
token of their concurrence ; follow
ing the text, 1 Tim. iv. 14. So in
ancient times, the priests present joined
with the bishop when saying the canon
of the mass, and consecrating the ele
ments at Holy Communion. (A. H.
Pearson's ' Sarum Missal,' p. xiii.) In
consecrating a bishop, the canons of tho
Church since Nicasa, require the con
currence of three bishops in the laying
on of hands, though it is admitted that
consecration by ono bishop (not him
self under any disability), though irre
gular, is valid.

OSTIARY

437

OXFORD

OSTIARY, the lowest of the five Minor
Orders [which see] of the mediaeval
clergy. His duty was not merely to open
and shut the doors securely, but also
to act as a discreet porter in excluding
those who had not right of entrance,
and seeing that the various degrees of
people — men and women, penitents,
catechumens, and faithful — took their
appropriate places. He was formally
received to the Order by solemn bene
diction, and presentation of the keys of
the church, and wore the clerical albe.
OXFORD, DIOCESE OF. The diocese
of Oxford was one of the new dioceses
founded (1542) by Henry VIII. out
of the property of the dissolved
monasteries. The ancient archdeaconry
of Oxford, part of the vast diocese of
Lincoln, formed the territory of the
new diocese ; the abbey of Oseney was
first chosen to form its cathedral.
King, Abbot of Oseney, who was also
Abbot of Bruerne and of Thame, and
a suffragan bishop, was chosen as the
first bishop of Oxford ; and Gloucester
College, in the suburbs of Oxford, was
assigned as his palace.
This arrangement, however, did not
last long. In 1545 the see was trans
ferred to Wolsey's new college, at first
called Cardinal's, then, after the great
minister's fall, King's, and now Christ
Church. Wolsey had, with the leave
of the Pope and the Crown, suppressed
twenty small houses, which probably
had become useless sinecures, and had
appropriated their property to the
establishment of a grand new college
at Oxford. The largest of these sup
pressed houses, the Benedictine priory
of St. Frideswide, with the adjoining
Canterbury Hall, furnished a nucleus
for his new buildings. Henry VIII.,
on the fall of his minister, had seized
these properties into his own hands,
and out of them parted with enough
to carry out, on a much smaller and
cheaper scale, the great work which
Wolsey had designed. The collegiate
body was reconstituted under a dean
and eight canons, with subordinate
officers ; and the ancient priory chapel

of St. Frideswide, which had been
converted into the collegiate chapel,
now, hy the introduction into it of
the bishop's see, became the cathedral
church. The bishop was, as part of tho
rearrangement, deprived of Gloucester
college, and built himself a house in
the parish of St. Aldate within the
city. Bishop King lived in three
reigns, dying 1557, in the end of that
of Queen Mary, and an interesting
contemporary effigy, in the painted
window of the cathedral, still remains
as his monument.
On the death of King, Thomas Gold-
well, Bishop of St. Asaph, was nomin
ated, and received the custody of the
temporalities Nov. 1558, but before
he was actually instituted Queen Mary
died, and Goldwell left England. The
sec remained vacant till 1567, when
Hugh Curwen, Archbishop of Armagh,
was duly elected, but died in the
following year, and the Crown again
retained the revenues of the see during
a twenty-one years' vacancy. Then
John Underhill was appointed to the
see, 1589, and held it till 1592, when
he died, "in much discontent and
poverty," never having come into, the
diocese, or held an ordination. After
another twelve years' vacancy, John
Bridges succeeded, Jan. 1604, and
resided at Marsh Baldon. Bishop
Bancroft (1632—1641) built a palace
for the see at Cuddesdon. Skinner
(1641—1663) was bishop during the
troubles of the rebellion. He retired
to the village of Launton, and still
continued to fulfil such of the functions
of his office as were possible ; especial
ly he continued to confer holy orders
on those who sought them, not without
careful examination as to their fitness,
orthodoxy, and loyalty, to the number
of three or four hundred ; he also
continued to administer the rite of
confirmation, and never failed to preach
one Sunday for fifteen years together.
During the rebellion Oxford was for
many months the king's headquarters,
during which tho palace at Cuddesdon
was burnt by the Royalists, that it

OXFORD

438

PALL

might not afford shelter to the Parlia
mentarians. On the surrender of the
royal garrison, 24th June, 1646, the
royalist city was punished by a Parlia
mentary Commission. Dean and canons,
heads and fellows of colleges, were
expelled, and not allowed to remain
within five miles of the place. Among
them were some well-known men, as
Henry Hammond, Edward Pococke,
Robert Saunderson, John Fell. The
dean and vice-chancellor, Samuel Fell,
was replaced by Edward Reynolds, and
he, in 1650, by the famous Independent
divine, John Owen. The latter was a
man not only of great learning and
ability, but also of generous and
tolerant disposition ; so much so that
he allowed meetings for the Divine
service according to the formularies of
the Church of England even within
his own college. The number of the
clergy expelled from their parochial
cures by the Parliament was sixty-six,
besides those expelled from the uni
versity, and twenty-two of the staff of
St. George's, Windsor. Among them
Dr. O'Diss, vicar of Adderbury, who
had retired for safety to Banbury,
desiring to revisit his parish, was
watched and followed by some of the
parliamentary soldiers, and killed with
a pistol-shot. On the Restoration,
Bishop Skinner came back to his see.
Not by any means foreign to the
history of the diocese, though belong
ing especially to that of the university,
is the history of James II. 's dealings
with both. Soon after the king's
accession, Obadiah Walker, Master of
University College, declared himself a
Papist, and received the royal permis
sion to construct an oratory in his
college, which was served by a Jesuit
priest. On the death of Bishop Fell,
who was also Dean of Christ Church,
the king appointed another Romanist,
Thomas Massey, as dean, who also set
up the Roman mass in an oratory. He
gave the see to Samuel Parker, a man
of such strong leanings towards Rome,
that his "conversion" also was hoped
for. The king tried to coerce the

fellows and demies of Magdalen into
electing one of his creatures as Master,
and on their refusal ejeeted them in a
body. In 1836 the diocese was enlarged by
the addition to it of the county of
Berks, and in 1845 further enlarged by
the addition of the county of Bucks,
and at the same time the Chancellor
ship of the Order of the Garter was
transferred, with Windsor, from the see
of Salisbury to that of Oxford.
The name of Samuel Wilberforce
will long continue to be identified with
the diocese in which he acquired his
great reputation, as an able and ener
getic administrator, and one of the,
most versatile, eloquent, and influential'
bishops of modern times. It is worth
while to note that, just before the closo
of his episcopate, the bishop collected
returns of the expenditure in tho
several parishes of the diocese upon
churches, church endowments, schools,
houses of mercy, and parsonage houses,
from 1845 to 1869, when it was found
that the total sum amounted to
£2,120,552. The bishop's throne in,
the cathedral was erected as a monu
ment to him.
The diocese now consists of the entire
counties of Oxford, Berks, and Bucks,
with portions of adjacent counties ;;
population, 577,196 ; 3 archdeaconries,:
Oxford, Berks, and Buckingham ; 31
rural deaneries ; 648 parishes.

FALL, the distinctive vestment, or
badge, of an archbishop. The pallium-
will be found described in the article.
on Clerical Vestments, as at first an
ordinary article of dress which, about
the time of the Emperor Augustus,
superseded the toga as the upper out
door garment of the gentlemen of tho
empire. The toga, however, continued
for a time to be used as a dress of
ceremony, and especially by magis
trates in the performance of their public
functions. In time, the pallium in
turn was superseded by other fashions,.

PALL

439

PALL

but in like manner was still retained
for some time as a dress of ceremony
and of office. In time, however, the
cumbrous vestment was abridged until
nothing remained of it but its broad
embroidered hem, which was not worn
as a garment, but was put on as a badge
of authority by officials of State in the
discharge of their public functions.
[See illustrations of it in this form in
' Marriott's Vestiarium..' ]
When the Western emperors ceased
With Augustulus, and Rome put itself
.under the nominal rule of the em
perors of tho East, the Bishop of Rome
became the most powerful political
person in the city ; the laws of the
Empire had already given the bishops
a certain magisterial authority over
their flocks, and had thus made every
bishop a leading magistrate in his own
city ; and the explanation of the rise of
the temporal power of the bishops of
Rome is that, in the absence of the em
peror, something of the ancient consti
tutional authority of the senate and
people was, at least in theory, revived,
and was wielded by the bishop as the new
leader of the republic. Among other
things he began to confer the honours
which the senate anciently conferred
upon illustrious citizens and. strangers.
The most remarkable instances of it
were the conferring of the title of
Patrician upon Charles Martel and
Pepin, and of Emperor upon Charles
the Great. But long before that the
Bishop of Rome had begun to confer
the honorary decoration of the pallium
upon illustrious ecclesiastics ; upon
bishops as well as archbishops. While
Rome still acknowledged allegiance
to the Eastern emperors, the bishop
usually quotes the permission of the
emperor ; when Rome had thrown off
its allegiance, the bishop granted the
honour by his own authority. Very
soon the conferring of this and similar
honours was made use of to help to
build up the authority which the
Roman see was usurping over the
Churches of the West. In the eighth
century the honour of the pall was

limited to Metropolitans, and was a
complimentary token of the formal
recognition by the great see of Rome
of the accession of a new archbishop.
Next it was claimed by Pope Nicholas
I. (a.d. 866), that a new archbishop
was not fully made until his appoint
ment had been confirmed by the see
of Rome, and the giving of the pall
was the token of his confirmation.
Lastly, a new archbishop was required
to come to Rome in person (or with
special permission to send an agent),
to do homage to the see of Rome, and
the pall was made a badge of obedience
to the see.
The pall had been accepted by the
Saxon archbishops as an honorary dis
tinction and token of recognition by
the great see of Rome. Perhaps the
earliest pictorial representation of it
is in the well-known illumination in
the MS. (Cotton Claudius, A. III.)
in the British Museum (engraved
in the 'Archseologia,' xxv. 16, and
in Rock's ' Church of our Fathers,'
i. 361), in which St. Dunstan is repre
sented kneeling at the feet of his
patron, Saint Gregory ; hero it has
assumed its mediaeval form of a circle
of white woollen cloth round the'
shoulders, with a long end before and
behind, embroidered with a number of
small crosses. William the Conqueror
did not allow Lanfranc to go to Rome
in person for the pall ; it was sent to
him. William Rufus wished the Pope
to send the pall to him that he might
invest Anselm, and the Pope com
promised by sending it by his own
messengers^ who laid it upon the high
altar of Canterbury cathedral, whence
Anselm took it. Of subsequent arch
bishops, some went to Rome for it,
some as a concession had it sent them.
At the Reformation the archbishops
naturally ceased to wear it, but retained
it as a badge in their armorial bearings.
FALL. In mediaeval times the body
of the dead, on its way to burial, was
not enclosed in a coffin, but wrapped
in a winding-sheet, and sometimes
swathed round with bandages, and

PALM SUNDAY

440 PAN-ANGLICAN SYNODS

placed on a bier, and an ornamental
cloth, called a pall, was thrown over it.
There are many pictures of funerals in
the illuminated MSS., and from them
we learn that until late in tho sixteenth
century the pall was not black, but of
brilliant colours, and often richly em
broidered. Every parish had its pall
as a part of its church furniture. The
guilds had palls for use at the funerals
of their members. The embroidered
palls of some of the London companies,
e.g. the Vintners and the Saddlers, are
still preserved. Palls were often be
queathed to churches,, to be placed
over the monuments of distinguished
persons at the times of their com
memoration. PALM SUNDAY, the .Sunday before
Easter. On this Sunday, on which the
gospel for the day records our Lord's
triumphant entry into Jerusalem, it
was the custom from very early times
to make a religious procession round
the churchyard in memory of the event.
The churchyard-cross was a prominent
feature in the ceremonial ; so much so,
that it is sometimes described as being
erected wjth a special view to its use on
this occasion. One of the Institutions
of the Bishop of Winchester, a.d. 1229,
says, "Let a handsome cross be erected
in every churchyard to which the pro
cession shall be made on Palm Sun
day." And so late as 1501 occurs a
similar allusion. Henry Baun, by his
will, dated in that year, directs a cross
to be set up in Hadley churchyard,
Norfolk, pro palmas in die ramis palm-
arum offerendis — "for the palms on
the day of tho offering of the palm
branches." The old service books con
tain a service for the Blessing of the
Palms. First, a number of "palms"
were brought to the priest at the
altar. The substitute for the " palms "
seems to have been the lithe green
wands of sallow, which at that season
are full of sap, and covered with golden
catkins, chosen, probably, not because
they were supposed to resemble the
palm, but because they were at that
early season of the year the things most

full of life and blossom. These repre
sentative palms having been blessed,
with sprinkling of holy water and per
fumed with incense, were delivered tc
the congregation, who bore them in
procession out of the church and about
the churchyard. The elaborate and im
posing service will be found in the Sarum
Missal. Here is a popular account of it
from the recollections of one who lived
through the Reformation and late into
the reign of Elizabeth (Mr. Martin,
a gentleman at Long Melford, Suffolk).
"Upon Palm Sunday the Blessed Sacra
ment was carried in procession about
the churchyard, under a fair canopy,
borne by four yeomen ; the procession
coming to the churchyard gate went
westward, and they with the Blessed
Sacrament went eastward ; and when
the procession came against the door of
Mr. Clopton's He [aisle], they with tho
Blessed Sacrament, and with a little
bell, singing, approached the east end
of Our Lady's chapel ; at which time a
boy with a thing in his hand pointed
to it, signifying a prophet as I think,
and sang, standing in the tyrret [turret],
that is, in the said Mr. Clopton's Ile-
door, Ecce Hex tuus Vcnit, &c, and
then all did kneel down; and then rising
up, went and met the Sacrament, and
so then went singing together into the
church ; and coming near the porch;
a boy, or one of the clerks, did cast
over among the boys flowers and
singing cakes, &c. "
The ceremony must have made a
great impression on the popular mind,
for the rustics nearly all over England
know tho sallow rods by the name of
"palms," and remember that the Sun
day before Easter is "Palm Sunday."
PAN-ANGLICAN SYNODS of 1867
and 1878. The first germ of the plan
of a synod of the Anglican communion,
which may probably have very import
ant results in the future, seems to be
found in a letter of one of the bishops
of the United States, who in accepting
the invitation of Archbishop Sumner to
attend with other United States bishops
the bicentenary festival of the Society

PAN-ANGLICAN SYNODS 441 PAN-ANGLICAN SYNODS

for the Propagation of the Gospel as an
interesting manifestation of the inter
communion of tho two Churches, ex
pressed the hope that tho time might
come when that inter-communion
might be manifested in a, still more
valuable way in the good old Church
fashion of a synod. The idea seems
from that time to have been cherished
in the United States. The time for
carrying it into effect came at length,
when the Colenso scandal in Natal,
together with the difficulties of the
Colonial Churches, created by various
conflicting decisions at home, on one
hand, as to their relations to the Eng
lish Church, and on the other hand, as
to the authority of their bishops in
their own dioceses, led to a desire for
personal conference. An address from
the Canadian Synod urged a meeting of
Anglican bishops for mutual counsel.
American bishops again intimated that
the bishops of the United States would
gladly respond to an invitation to at
tend such a meeting. The two Houses
of Convocation approved of the idea.
Accordingly Archbishop Longley issued
invitations to all the bishops in com
munion with the English Church, and
seventy-eight * of them met at Lambeth
on the 24th Sept. 1867. The most
interesting persons of the assembly to
Englishmen were the American bishops,
who won golden opinions of all who
made their acquaintance. They on
their part expressed great admiration
of the condition of the English Church.
The discussions of the four days were
held with closed doors ; but the general
conclusions arrived at were published
in thirteen resolutions (printed in the
'Guardian' newspaper for Oct. 9, 1867,
p. 1072). " These resolutions were pre
faced by the following introduction : —
"We, Bishops of Christ's Holy Ca
tholic Church, in visible communion
with the united Church of England
and Ireland, professing the Faith de-
* Eighteen English, nine Irish, seven Scot
tish, twenty-thsee from British Colonies,
twenty-one from the Unitjd States of
America.

livered to us in Holy Scripture, main
tained by the primitive Church and by
the Fathers of the Reformation, now
assembled, by the good Providence of
God, at the Archiepiscopal Palace of
Lambeth, under the presidency of the
Primate of all England, desire first to
give hearty thanks to Almighty God
for having thus brought us together
for common counsel and united wor
ship ; secondly, we desire to express the
deep sorrow with which we view the
divided condition of the flock of Christ
throughout the world, ardently longing
for the fulfilment of the prayer of our
Lord, that all ' may be One, as Thou,
Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that
they also may be one in Us, that the
world may believe that Thou hast sent
Me ; ' and lastly, we do here solemnly
record 'our conviction that unity will
be most effectually promoted by main
taining the Faith in its purity and
integrity, as taught in the Holy Scrip
tures, held by the primitive Church,
summed up in the three creeds, and
affirmed by the undisputed General
Councils. "
The most important of the resolu
tions are as follows : —
"IV. That in the opinion of this
Conference, unity in faith and disci
pline will be best maintained among the
several branches of the Anglican Com
munion by due and canonical subordin
ation of the synods of the several
branches to the higher authority of a
synod or synods above them.
"V. That a Committee be appointed
to inquire into and report upon the
subject of the relations and functions
of such synods.
"VI. Appointed a Committee to con
sider how the Church maybe delivered
from tho continuance of the Natal
scandal. "VII. Expressed acquiescence in the
resolution of the Convocation of June
29, 1866, in favour of the appointment
of another Bishop for Natal.
"VIII. That in order to the binding
of the Churches of our Colonial Empire
and the Missionary Churches beyond

PAN-ANGLICAN SYNODS 442 PAN-ANGLICAN SYNODS

them in the closest union with the
Mother Church, it is necessary that
they receive and maintain without
alteration the standards of faith and
doctrine as now in use in that Church.
That nevertheless each province should
have the right to make such adapt
ations and additions to the Services
of the Church as its peculiar circum
stances may require, provided that no
change or addition be made inconsistent
with the spirit and principles of the
Book of Common Prayer, and that all
such changes be liable to revision by
any synod of the Anglican Communion
in which the said province shall be
represented. "IX. That the Committee appointed
by Resolution V. (with additions) be
instructed to consider the constitution
of a Voluntary Spiritual Tribunal, to
which questions of doctrine may be
carried by appeal from the tribunals
for the exercise of discipline in each
province of the Colonial Church."
It will be seen that these Resolutions
point in the direction of the complete
organisation of the Church of England
with the churches of the numerous
and powerful colonies scattered over
the world, which seem destined to be
great nations in the future, and with
the Church of the United States, into
what will be virtually a vast patri
archate, having the Archbishop of
Canterbury as the centre of its organ
isation. The centre of gravity of
Christendom moved in ancient times,
through the material and political de
pression of the Greek and the develop
ment of the Latin Churches, from
Constantinople to Rome ; it may very
possibly bo destined to shift again,
from similar causes, from the Latin to
the Anglo-Saxon race, from Rome to
Canterbury. The assembled bishops also issued a
pastoral letter as follows : —
" To the faithful in Christ Jesus, the
Priests and Deacons, and the Lay
Members of the Church of Christ in
Communion with the Anglican Branch
of the Church Catholic :

"We, the undersigned Bishops,
gathered together under the good Pro
vidence of God for prayer and confer
ence at Lambeth, pray for you, that yo
may obtain grace, mercy, and peace
from God our Father, and from the-
Lord Jesus Christ our Saviour.
' ' We give thanks to God, brethren
beloved, for the faith in our Lord Jesus
Christ, and the love toward the saints
which hath abounded among you ; and
for the knowledge of Christ which
through you hath been spread abroad
among the most vigorous races of the
earth. And with one mouth we make
our supplications to God, even the
Father, that by the power of the Holy.
Ghost He would strengthen us with
His might, to amend among us the
things which are amiss, to supply the
things which are lacking, and to reach
forth to higher measures of love and
zeal in worshipping Him, and in mat
ing known His Name ; and we pray
that in His good time He would give
back unto His whole Church the blessed
gift of unity in truth.
"And now we exhort you in love
that ye keep whole and undefiled the
faith once delivered to the Saints, as
yo have received it of the Lord Jesus.-
We entreat you to watch and pray,
and to strive heartily with us against
the frauds and subtleties wherewith
the faith hath been aforetime and is>
now assailed.
' ' We beseech you to hold fast as the
sure word of God all the Canonical*
Scriptures of the Old and New Testa
ment, and that by diligent study of
these oracles of God, praying in the
Holy Ghost, ye seek to know more of
the Lord Jesus Christ our Saviour,
very God and very Man, ever to be
adored and worshipped, whom they.
reveal unto us, and of the will of God,
which they declare. Furthermore, wo
entreat you to guard yourselves and
yours against the growing superstitions
and additions with which in theso
latter days the truth of God hath been
overlaid ; as otherwise so especially by
tho pretension to universal sovereignty

PAN-ANGLICAN SYNODS 443

PAPAL AGGRESSION

over God's heritage asserted for the
Seo of Rome : and by the practical
exaltation of the Blessed Virgin Mary
as Mediator in the place of her Divine
Son, and by the addressing of prayers
to her as intercessor between God and
Man. Of such beware, we beseech
you, knowing that the' jealous God
giveth not His honour to another.
" Build yourselves up, therefore, be
loved", in your most holy faith ; grow
in grace and in tho knowledge and love
of Jesus Christ our Lord. Show forth
before all men by your faith, self-
denial, purity, amd godly conversation,
as well as by your labours for the
•people among whom God hath so widely
spread you, and by the setting forth of
His Gospel to the unbelievers and the
heathen, that ye are indeed the servants
of Him who died for us to reconcile
His Father to us, and to be a sacrifice
for the sins of the whole world.
"Brethren beloved, with one voice
we warn you ; thfe time is short ; the
Lord cometh ; watch and be sober.
Abide steadfast in the Communion of
Saints wherein God hath granted you
a place. Seek in faith for oneness
with Christ in the blessed Sacrament
of His Body and Blood. Hold fast
the Creeds, and the pure worship and
order which of God's grace ye have
inherited from the primitive Church.
Beware of causing divisions contrary
to the doctrine ye have received.*
Pray and seek for unity among your
selves, and among all the faithful in
Christ Jesus, and the good Lord make
you perfect, and keep your bodies,
souls, and spirits until the coming of
the Lord Jesus Christ."
Signed by seventy-six bishops : viz.
twenty-three English and Irish, six
Scotch, twenty-four Colonial, nineteen
American, and four retired Colonial
bishops. * It is a curious fact that this clause was
accidentally omitted in the copy of the Pas
toral sent by the Archbishop to tho ' Times '
newspaper, .and was afterwards supplied. It
do.s not appear in the 'Guardian' report
Oct, 2, 1807, but is in the copy in the same
newspaper, June 26, 1878.

A history of the proceedings, after
ten years had elapsed, was allowed to
be drawn up from the original docu
ments, and published in the ' Guardian '
newspaper for June 19, 1878.
The second Pan-Anglican Synod of
1871 met on the 2nd July. Exactly a
hundred bishops took part in tho
conference ; of whom thirty-two were
English, nine Irish, seven Scotch,
nineteen American, thirty Colonial,
three retired Colonial bishops.
The sittings occupied from July 2nd
to 27th. No Pastoral Letter like that
of the first Conference was issued, only
a Letter containing extracts from the
reports of the several committees to
whom subjects had been committed,
with a brief preface. They relate to
subjects of ecclesiastical organisation
and order, such as those dealt with
in the Conference of 1867, and carry
forward, by a very large step, the
general voluntary organisation of tho
Churches of the Anglican Communion'.
The Letter is too long for quotation
here ; it may be found in the ' Guardian '
newspaper of July 31, 1868, p. 1070.
Tho Conference visited Canterbury
Cathedral, where the Archbishop ad
dressed the 'assembled bishops from St.
Augustine's chair. The final service
was held in St. Paul's, when eighty-
five bishops of the Anglican com
munion in their episcopal robes walked
up the cathedral, in procession, amidst
the large congregation of clergy and;
laity assembled to witness so remark
able a manifestation of the growing
power of the Anglican communion. It
is proposed to hold another synod at
Lambeth in 1888.
PAPAL AGGRESSION. As part of
the strenuous efforts which were being
made to recover England to the Papacy
[see Romanists], Pius IX., in a Con
sistory at Rome, 30th Sept. 1850,
made Dr. Nicholas Wiseman, who
had long been Vicar-Apostolic of the
London District, a Cardinal, and a,t
the same time nominated him Arch
bishop of Westminster. This was part
of a plan, afterwards published in a

PAPAL SUPREMACY

444

PARISH CLERK

pastoral letter by Dr. Wiseman, which
parcelled out all England into thirteen
new Romish dioceses, taking their titles
from Westminster, Beverley; Birming
ham, Clifton, Hexham and Newcastle,
Menevia, Newport, Northampton, Not
tingham, Plymouth, Salford, Shrews
bury, and South wark. This "papal
aggression" created great irritation
throughout the country. Lord J.
Russell, then Prime Minister, wrote
his famous "Durham" Letter, censur
ing not only the papal aggression, but
also the "Tractarian" clergy. The
Government carried the Ecclesiastical
Titles Act (14 & 15 Vict. cap. 60),
Aug. 1851, prohibiting the assumption
of ecclesiastical titles taken from pre
tended dioceses, under a penalty of
£100. The intrusive Roman hierarchy
was nevertheless completed ; though
the powers committed to the new
bishops were carefully restricted so as
to keep them in all important matters
subservient to the Court of Rome.
The Ecclesiastical Titles Act was found
to be inoperative. , The country soon
came to the conclusion that the new
hierarchy was an insult rather than a
substantial injury, which was hardly
worth the notice of an Act of Parlia
ment ; and that since it was resolved
not to put the Act in force, it would
be better to repeal it ; which was done
accordingly, 24th July, 1871.
PAPAL SUPREMACY. [See Su
premacy.] PAPIST. [See Romanist.]
PARISH. The parishes had their
beginning in the subdivision of the
land among its Anglo-Saxon con
querors. "The unit of the constitu
tional machinery, or local administra
tion, the simplest form of local admin
istration, is the township,* the villata,
or vicus. It may represent the original
allotment of the smallest subdivision
of the free community, or the settle
ment of the kindred colonizing on
their own account, or the estate of the
* The tun is originally the enclosure or
hedge, whether of the single farm or of the
enclosed village, as the burh is the fortified
house of the powerful man.

great proprietor who has a, tribe of
dependents." . . .
. . . "The historical township is
the body of allodial owners who have
advanced beyond the stage of laiuhj.
community, retaining many vestigel^
of that organisation ; or the body of'
tenants of a lord who regulates them,
or allows them to regulate themselves,
on principles derived from the same. . .
In a further stage the township appears
in its ecclesiastical stage as tho parish
or portion of a parish, the district
assigned to a church or priest ; to
whom its ecclesiastical dues, and gener
ally also its tithes, are paid. The
boundaries of the parish and the town
ship or townships with which it coin
cides, are generally the same ; in small
parishes the idea and even name of
township is frequently, at the present
day, sunk in that of the parish ; and
all the business that is not manorial
is despatched in vestry meetings, which
are, however, primarily meetings of tho
township for Church purposes (Stubbd''
'Const. Hist'i. 93, 96).
Theodore, Archbishop of Canter
bury, is the traditional founder of tho
parochial system. It is unnecessary to
suppose that he founded it, for it was
already founded, and what measures he
took in this direction can only be con
jectured. As the kingdom and shiro ,
were the natural sphere of the bishop,
so was the township of tho single
priest, and the parish was but the
township or cluster of townships to
which that priest ministered. Theodoro
probably, according to the tradition,
encouraged the lords, and the bodies
of allodial owners, of tho townships,
to provide a church and house for a
settled priest. As land was reclaimed,
new manors created, and new centres'
of population arose, parishes were sub
divided. The system of parishes with
their resident priests was generally
complete before the Norman Conquest
(Ibid. i. 260).
PARISH CLERK. From ancient
times every parish was required to
maintain a clerk to assist the parish

PARISH CLERK

445

parish: clerk

priest in various ways, and to perform
other duties ; it was his office to ring
to service, to serve and respond in
the Eucharistic service, to go with the
priest in his visitation of the sick,
to carry holy water and asperse the
people with it. He wore a surplice,
and had a seat in choir. This carrying
of holy water was so important a part
of his office as to give him a name by
which he is often called in ancient
documents — Aquce Bajulus ; the holy
water vessel and sprinkler became the
recognised insignia of his office ; and
ho was inducted into office by receiving

sprinkled with it ; and it was also
carried away to convey the blessing to
persons and things at a distance.
It appears in the very beginning
of our (Saxon) ecclesiastical history,
Gregory directed Mellitus, if any of
the heathen temples he found hero
were fit for churches, to purify them
by sprinkling them with holy water,
and to use them (Bede, 'Eccl. Hist.,'
Bk. I. c. 29). Archbishop Theodore, in
his ' Penitential, ' says that people may
sprinkle their houses with holy water
as often as they please.
There was a small fee given for this

(7%

^NM^V1^

Parish Clerk sprinkling Holy "Water. (Early Uth cent. MS.
Royal, 10 E. IV.

British Museum,

them from the hands of (probably)
the archdeacon. This part of his
office is so utterly obsolete as to need
some explanation.
Water was extensively used in the
ancient Church, as an outward and
visible sign for the conveyance of the
benefits of sacerdotal benediction ; it
was supposed that the sprinkling of holy
water upon persons and things conveyed
the blessing to them. Every Sunday
morning it was the duty of the parish
priest to bless water. Some of it was
placed in the holy water stoup at the
door. As the procession moved round
the church the congregation were

service of holy water, called the benc-
ficium aquce benedictce, and by a consti
tution of Boniface, the office of Aquas
Bajulus, or Holy AYater Bearer, was to
be conferred on some poor scholar, who
should act as parish clerk in order to
assist in his maintenance. It is men
tioned in a Canon of Salisbury, 1256 ;
of Exeter, 1287 ; of AVinchester, 1308 ;
and a decree of Archbishop Courtenay
makes it the duty of the clerici aquas
bajuli to cany holy water to outlying
hamlets, and sprinkle the houses with
it. In ' Scenes and Characters of the
Middle Ages,' p. 217, &c, there are
various notices of the parish clerk,

PARISH REGISTERS

446

PARISH REGISTERS

and pictures of him in the performance
of his duties as aquas bajulus.
The custom of sprinkling holy water
was abolished at the beginning of the
Reformation by an injunction of the
king's visitors, 1548: "Forasmuch as
the parish clerk shall not hereafter go
about the parish with his holy water,
as hath been accustomed, he shall
instead of that labour accompany tho
churchwardens " in registering the sums
of money collected for the poor. (See
'Hale's Precedents,' Nos. iv. and
ccxciij; Maskell, ' Mon. Rit.' I. cccxvj.)
The abolition was unpopular, and it
was one of the demands of the Devon
shire rebels that the custom should be
restored. Tho office of parish clerk continued
down to the present generation. The
incumbent had the nomination to the
office. The office was regarded as a
freehold, and by Act 7 & 8 Vict. cap.
59, the holder could only be displaced
for misconduct by the archdeacon or
ordinary. Many of the clergy found it
inconvenient to have an official whose
absence of special qualifications, and
often his prejudices and eccentricities,
made him objectionable, while his
legal tenure of his office made him
irremovable, and they instituted an
official under another name and tenure
to perform the necessary- duties. The
office might, however, perhaps, be re
vived in such a way as to give each
parish the advantage of a competent
official in a. kind of minor orders to
fulfil many useful functions.
PARISH REGISTERS. The monas
teries kept registers of public and
private transactions, which included
notes of the deaths of brethren of the
House and Order, and of persons
married in the church or buried in
the burial-ground of their own House.
Probably some parochial incumbents,
especially in important towns, kept
similar memoranda for their parishes,
and such memoranda are occasionally
found on the margin and blank pages
of the old service books. The bead-
roll, or list of names of persons for

whom prayers were asked in the Bid
ding prayer every Sunday, contained
a list of those recently deceased ;
but there is no evidence that these
rolls were preserved as registers. The
first general establishment of parish
registers of baptisms, marriages, . and
burials, is due to an injunction made
by Cromwell, as Vicar-General. Parish
registers had already been instituted
in Spain, and Cromwell may have
taken the idea from there. By an
Act of 30th Henry VIII. (Sept. 1538),
the parish was to provide the book,
and a coffer with two locks and keys
for its safe custody, one key to be with
the curate, and the other with the
wardens, and every Sunday the neces
sary entries were to be made by the
curate in the presence of the wardens,
under penalties. Edward YI. in his
first year, 1547, repeated the injunction
in almost the same words, and it was
again repeated in the first year of
Elizabeth, 1559. In 1597 a Constitu
tion of the Province of Canterbury re
quired that entries should be read-
aloud once a-year in church after
morning or evening prayer, and that
a copy should be sent every year to
the diocesan registry. Canon 70 of
the Canons of 1603 ordered that the
registers "since the time that the law
was first made in that behalf, so far as
the ancient books thereof can be pro
cured," should be copied into a parch
ment book ; and ordered that the
coffer in which the register was kept
should have three locks and keys, for
the minister and two churchwardens);,-,
that the minister and churchwardens
should subscribe every page when
filled ; and that once a-year, within
a month after March 25, a copy, certi
fied by the minister and churchwardens,
should be transmitted to the .registry
of the bishop of the diocese.
During the confusion in the later
years of the reign of Charles I. the
registers were greatly neglected. Crom
well, as Protector, directed that a
register of birilis, marriages, and deaths'
should be kept by registrars chosen

PARISH REGISTERS

447

PARKER

by the ratepayers', and sworn before a
Justice of the Peace, and that the
ancient registers should be given over
to them. At the Restoration the
custody and keeping of the parish
registers again devolved upon the
clergy. William III. taxed every
. marriage, birth, and burial, and im
posed a fine of £10 for every neglect
to register them. In the reign of
George III., 1783 a.d., a stamp duty
of .threepenco was imposed on every
entry. This acted as a discouragement
on the registration of baptisms, as the
clergy either paid the tax for their
poorer people, or omitted to register
the baptism. In 1812 an Act of Parlia
ment required registers of baptisms to
be kept in a separate book, and im
posed a penalty of transportation for
the crime of making a false entry, or
defacing the register. Finally, by an
Act of 1836, the State became, by its
own officers, the registrar of all births,
deaths, and marriages out of church,
requiring copies of the church mar
riage register also to be transmitted
by the clergy to the State Registrar
every three months. The carelessness
of the clergy in the safe custody of the
registers deprives them of all reason
able ground of complaint. From an
official return made in 1830, it appeared
that only 812 registers remained com
plete from 1538 ; there were 1122
registers dating between 1538 and 1558 ;
and 2448 between 1558 and 1603.
Many registers had been kept in damp
corners of the church or vestry till
they had gone to decay ; many left
lying about in vicarage or clerk's house
till they were lost ; many had been
destroyed under the idea that they
were useless.
In the old register books (which
were not ruled and tabulated like those
now in use) the clergy often made
notes, and recorded events of local or
of general interest ; so that besides
their genealogical importance, they
have a considerable antiquarian inter
est and historical value. They ought
to be carefully preserved and guarded.

It is desirable that they should be
printed (c. g. in the local magazine, or
Transactions of the County Antiquarian
Society), so as to make them accessible
to students.
(' Registrum Ecclesia? Parochialis, the
History of Parish Registers in England, '
&c. , by J. S. Burn, latest ed. by J. R.
Smith and Son, 1862. 'Parish Regis
ters in England," by R. E. C. Waters,
B.A. Printed for the Author. )
The parish registers of London are
in progress of publication by the
Harleian Society. A list of those
which have been published, and of
transcripts of others in the British
Museum, is given in the ' Genealogist,'
vol. ii., new series, p. 194, et seq.
The papers of the late Colonel Chester
contain a large collection of transcripts
which it is to be hoped will shortly be
made accessible to the public by deposit
in some public library.
PARKER, Matthew, Archbishop of
Canterbury, b. 1504 ; d. 1575 ; was
born of good family at Norwich, 6th
Aug. 1504 ; was carefully educated by
private tutors, and at Corpus Christi
College, Cambridge, 1527, ordained
deacon and priest, and elected fellow
of his college. He was a friend of tho
New Learning, and one of the associates
of Bilney, Dr. Barnes the prior of St.
Austin's, and the other leaders of the
reforming party in the university. In
1533 he was appointed chaplain to Queen
Anne Boleyn, who had such confidence
in him that a short time before her
death she gave him ft particular charge
to take care of her daughter Elizabeth,
and laid a charge upon the young
princess to make him a grateful return
if it should ever be in her power. In
1535 he was made dean of the college
of Stoke Clare, Suffolk, where he
introduced wise reforms. In 1537, on
the death of Queen Anne, the king
made him one of his chaplains, and
gave him a prebend in Ely. In 1542
he received the Rectory of Ashdon,
Essex, which he resigned 1544, on
receiving the Rectory of Birlingham
All Saints, Norfolk, and in the same

PARKER

448

PARLIAMENT

year ho was elected Master of his
college, where again, as at Stoke, he
introduced great reforms in the conduct
of its affairs. As Vice-chancellor of
tho University, he, with two other
heads of houses, had to make a return
to King Henry VIII. of the value of
the property of the universities and
colleges, and by his skilful conduct of
the matter saved it from spoliation.
In 1545 he received the Rectory of
Landbeach, Camb. ; the dissolution of
colleges deprived him of the deanery
of Stoke, with the compensation of a
pension of £40 a-year, and in 1552
ho was made Prebendary, and then
Dean of Lincoln. In 1547, although
the laws against the marriage of the
clergy were not yet actually repealed,
he married Margaret Harleston, a lady
of a good Norfolk family.
On the accession of Queen Mary,
Parker, ¦ as a married priest, lost all
his preferments ; but, instead of fleeing
to the Continent, he remained in strict
retirement in the country, occupying
himself in literary pursuits, and, escaped
molestation. On the accession of Eliza
beth he was sent for to Court, and in
spite of Ms own unwillingness to under
take the difficult and dangerous task of
governing the Church at "such a crisis,
could not disobey the Queen's command
to tako the office of archbishop. The
importance of maintaining the con
tinuity of the succession at this crisis
was thoroughly understood, and every
precaution was taken to make Parker's
consecration regular [see Nag's Head
Controversy], "The Queen showed her
usual sagacity in the appointment.
Parker was a man of great learning,
especially in ecclesiastical history and
antiquities ; his opinions were primitive
and catholic ; his temper moderate, but
firm. Between the widespread feeling
in favour of the "old religion," and
the fanatical zeal of thoso who wished
to push the Church of England into
tho extremes of Calvin and Zwingle,
he steered a middle course ; in main
taining conformity among the clergy,
ho showed firmness in supporting the

law, while exercising consideration for
well-meaning prejudices. To his learn
ing, character, and statesmanship, tho
Church of England owes largely the
wiso settlement of the Reformation,
which has worked, on the whole, so
satisfactorily from that day to this.
His episcopacy was important and
laborious, but not eventful. In his
primacy, in 1559 the Prayer Book was
put forth, based on the Second Book of
Edward VI., with some alterations in
the direction of tho First Book ; in
1562 the Revised Articles, now thirty -
nine in number ; in 1562 a Second
Book of Homilies ; in 1568 a new
translation of the Bible, called the
Bishop's Bible. [See Bible.]
He was a great patron of learning,
using his authority and wealth in
rescuing what ho could of the MSS.
which the plunder of the monasteries
had scattered ; encouraging writers ;
himself suggesting, writing, and edit
ing ; maintaining printers and en
gravers in his own household, in
the constant production of works of
value. PARLIAMENT, CLERGY DIS
QUALIFIED for seats in the House of
Commons. When Edward I. finally
constituted the Parliament, he mado
it to consist of the House of Peers, tho
House of Commons, and the House of
tho Clergy. Tho clergy were not eligiblo
to sit in the House of Commons because
they were represented, taxed them
selves, and represented their own griev
ances, in their own House. Tho Lower i
House of Convocation in the first year
of Edward ATI. memorialised the arch*
bishop that they should bo admitted :
to a share in the legislature, and should
sit in the House of Commons. .
When, in 1664, by an understanding '
between the prime minister and tho
archbishop, the clergy waived their
right to tax themselves, and submitted
to pay with other people the taxes
made by the House of Commons, it
would have been according to tho Con
stitution that they should thenceforth
have been eligible to sit in Parliament*. .

PARSON

449

PASTORAL STAFF

for it is an axiom of the Constitution
that "what touches all shall be ap
proved by all," and that "representa
tion is co-extensive with taxation."
And this view seems to have been
accepted, for in 1785, Edward Rush-
worth, who had taken deacon's orders,
was returned to Parliament for New
port, Isle of Wight, and a petition
against his return was rejected by a
Select Committee of the House. Again,
in 1801, John Home Tooke, in deacon's
orders, but having no parochial charge,
was returned for Old Sarum. His re
turn was questioned on the ground of
his order, but allowed as valid. But
to set the question at rest, an Act was
passed, "that no person having been
ordained to the office of priest or
deacon, or being a minister of the
Church of Scotland, is capable of being
elected " to serve in Parliament, with a
fine of £500 for each day on which he
sits or votes.
PARSON, persona, properly signifies
the rector of a parish church ; because
during the time of his incumbency he
represents the Church, and in the eye
of the law sustains the person thereof
as well in suing, as in being sued, in
any action touching the same. It is
sometimes vulgarly used as the title of
any clergyman.
PARTICULAR BAPTISTS. [See
under Baptists.]
PARVIS, the name sometimes given
to the room which sometimes exists
over a church-porch. [See Porch. ]
PASSIONALE. One of the old ser
vice books, which contained the lessons
of the sufferings and acts of the saints
and martyrs, appointed to be read
instead of the Epistle in the Com
munion Service, on the feast days of
saints and martyrs.
PASTORAL STAFF of a bishop and
abbot. The origin of the use of a staff
as a symbol of the episcopal office is
obscure. It probably arose gradually,
partly from the fact that bishops being,
for the most part, elderly men, used a
walking-staff for support, partly out
of -the ancient custom for men in

authority to carry a rod or staff as a
symbol of their authority. So it grew
to be a general usage for a bishop to
carry a staff, and so finally the staff
assumed a Conventional shape, and
became a recognised symbol of office.
As soon as the staff became a recog
nised badge of the office of a chief
pastor of the Church, it was naturally
compared with the shepherd's crook,
and was called a pastoral staff. But
the old idea that it was also the staff
of support for the aged and feeble*
was not lost sight of, and the bishop's
staff continued to retain the double
symbolism. The earliest allusion to it is by
Gregory, Bishop of Nazianzum (fourth
century), who says (' Oratio,' 42) : "I
know the staff which can support, and
the one which belongs to pastors and
teachers, and which corrects the sheep
which have reason." In the sixth
century it is the recognised badge of
the episcopal office. In the 'Life of
Caesarius, Bishop of Aries ' (a. d. 469 —
542), written by Cyprian his pupil,
mention is made of his pastoral staff
"borne by his chaplain." From the
'de Ecc. Officiis,' ii. 5, of Isidore of
Seville, we learn that in his time a
staff was placed in the hand of a bishop
at his consecration, and the acqompany-
ing words show the symbolism attached
to it ; he was exhorted to ' ' rule and
correct the people, and support the in
firmities of the weak." In the Peni- '
tential of Archbishop. Theodore, eighth
century, in the consecration of an
abbot, the bishop is to give him the
staff and sandals (pedules). So in the
Pontifical of Egbert of York (eighth
century), the staff is given to a bishop
at his consecration with this exhort
ation, "Receive this staff of the
pastoral office, and be thou severe in
correcting vices. " On the pastoral staff
of St. Saturnius at Toulouse, a Latin
inscription embodies and defines the
* It was the custom, and still is in the '
Eastern Churches, where there are no seats
in church, for old and feeble people to lean on
a crutch-headed staff during Divine Service.

GO

PASTORAL STAFF

450

PASTORAL STAFF

symbolism of the various portions of
the bishop's staff. ' ' Curva trahit quos
virga regit pars ultima pungit." —
"Those whom the crook draws, the
staff rules, the spiked ferule corrects. "
As early as 623 the Frankish king in
vested Romanus into the archbishopric
of Rouen by giving the pastoral staff.
Still down to the eleventh century we
do not find the staff made so prominent
a badge of episcopal office as it after
wards became. In the numerous re
presentations of bishops which remain
of the sixth — tenth centuries, we find
them frequently holding a book (of the
Gospels) in one hand, very rarely hold
ing a pastoral staff ; hut (in the Gospels
of St. Chad) St. Luke is represented
holding a ' ' cambutta " in his right hand
and a book in his left (engraved in
'Archseol. Journal,' vol. vii. p. 19).
After the tenth century it becomes
usual to represent a bishop, in a paint
ing of him, on his sea], in his monu
mental effigy, with staff in hand ; and
after he was dead the staff and mitre
were (like the knight's helmet and
sword) suspended over his tomb. * It
was borne before the bishop by one of
his chaplains, wherever he went in
state, in his own diocese ; and ap
parently when he appeared at a council ;
and probably whenever he appeared
as a bishop. In giving solemn blessing
from the altar, he held the staff in his
left hand, while he extended the right
in the usual attitude of benediction.
The staff of an archbishop terminated
in a metal cross instead of a crook, and
usually, at least in later times, a figure
of our Lord was extended upon the
cross, converting it into a crucifix : it is
thus shown in the picture of Archbishop
Warham in Lambeth Palace. When
borne before him in procession, the face
of the cross which bore.the sacred figure
was turned towards the archbishop.
The cross staff of a patriarch had
two bars,t the upper and smaller one
* Dr. Book, 'Church of our Fathers,' ii.
184, refers to an ancient instance of this
custom at St; Denis : two modern examples
of it occur in "Winchester Cathedral.
t On the coins of the Byzantine Emperors,

perhaps representing the "title" on
the Cross of Calvary. As in the MS.
(of English Art) Royal 2 B. vii. date
c. 1400, in the Brit. Mus.
It seems most probable that the
original form of the pastoral staff was
that of an ordinary walking-stick with
either a knob or a crutch-handle. Of
the former kind there i> a representation
in the figure of a Saxon bishop dedi
cating a church, in the Anglo-Saxon
Pontifical in the Library of Rouen,
which is of the early part of the ninth
century (engraved in ' Archasologia,'
xxv. 17 ; and Rock's ' Church of our
Fathers,' ii. 24). A crutch-handled
staff appears on the seal of Odo, Bishop
of Bayeux, 1060 (engraved in ' Archseo
logia,' vol. i. p. 344), and on a grave
stone at Welbeck Priory (engraved in
'Sepulchral Slabs and Crosses,' PI.
xxxv.) in a bas-relief over the door
of Papplewich Church, Notts, in a MS.
of the eleventh centuiy (engraved »in
Dncarel's 'Norman Antiquities'), &c.
The Celtic bishops (and abbots) bore
a short staff with a re-curved head (very
like the Roman lituus, or staff of the
Augurs), unlike those of any other
countiy (Westwood), called a cambutta.
Some interesting and ancient examples,
which belonged to Irish and Scotch
bishops, are preserved in the collections
of the Irish and Scotch Societies of
Antiquaries. J It is probable that Celtic
bishops in England bore staves of the
same type, as represented in the Gospels
of St. Chad, above-mentioned.
The long staff with a crook of metal,
and a metal spiked ferule, first appears
in a MS. in the British Museum, said
by the authorities there to be a copy of
a Spanish MS. of the Gothic period.
In the twelfth century the crook is a
simple volute. In the thirteenth and

the cross which the emperor bears in his
right hand, and that surmounting the globe
in his left,first begin to have two bars under
Leo VI. (a.d. 886-911).
t See Stuart's ' Sculptured Stones of Scot
land,' II. 1, iv. ; 'Proceedings of the Society
of Antiquaries of Scotland,' ii. 14 and 125,
' Journal of Archsel. Institute,' xvi. 41 : H.
O'Neill's 'Fine Arts and Civilisation of An
cient Ireland,' 1S68,

PATEN

451

PATRON

later centuries the crook is crocketted,
and a statuette of an Agnus Dei, or an
Annunciation, or other figure, is sup
ported upon the end of the volute,
whose curve forms a frame around it.
Actual examples still remain of various
dates ; William of Wykeham's is at
his college (New), Oxford. There are
several in the South Kensington Mu
seum. From descriptions, inventories, and
actual examples, we learn that the
staff- was usually of wood or ivory, the
crook of metal, of highly ornamental
design, and often enriched with jewels,
and the ferule also of ornamental metal
work. - From about the fourteenth century
we find a long strip of linen or silk
fastened beneath the crook. The only
conjecture as to its use, and that only
a conjecture, is that it was to hold the
staff by, so as to keep the hand from
direct contact with the metal fittings.
Among the revivals of ancient eccle
siastical customs in the present gener
ation, the pastoral staff has been re
sumed by several of the English and
colonial bishops as a beautiful and
significant symbol of their pastoral
office. They have been usually made
of ebony or ivory and metal work of
beautiful workmanship, after the typa
of those of the thirteenth and four
teenth centuries.
An article on the pastoral staff in the
'Melanges Archeeologiques ' treats the
whole subject exhaustively, and gives
a large number of engravings of actual
examples of all dates and styles.
PATEN, the plate or salver used in
the consecration and administration
of the Holy Communion. Where the
chalice [see Chalice] was of inferior
material, the paten would partake of
the same poverty of material ; for
usually the paten was made to match
the chalice in material and workman
ship, and was often so made as to form
a cover to the chalice. This is the
ease with the earliest English examples
which remain, viz. of the mortuary
chalice at Cheam, Surrey, at Nettle-

combe, and at Corpus Christi College,
Oxford. The two latter patens are
silver plates with a broad rim, the
centre sunk in a sexfoil pattern, with
an engraved head of our Lord in the
middle. The patens to the Communion
cups of Edward VI. and Elizabeth had
a narrow rim, with a groove to fit the
edge of the chalice, a plain sunk centre,
and a raised foot which served as a
handle when it was inverted as a cover
to the chalice ; and the bottom of this
foot is usually covered with a plate on
which is engraved the date and the
name of the church for which the
chalice and paten* were made. The
usual paten of the seventeenth century
was not fitted to the cup, but was a
plain circular salver, larger in size than
those of earlier date, standing on a
circular foot, and perfectly plain. En
gravings of patens of various dates will
be found in 'Old English Plate,' G.
W. J. Cripps. London : 1881.
PATRON, the person who has the
right of presentation to a benefice. In
theory the bishop is the person whose
right and duty it is to allot to his
clergy their several spheres of work,
but at a very early period of the Anglo-
Saxon settlement of religion the bishops
adopted the policy of encouraging the
settlement of resident priests in the
several townships by agreeing with the
lords, or the communities, of the town-
'ships, to allow them to select their
own resident priest, on condition that
they found a house and maintenance
for him. This right of nomination
was given in perpetuity, and thus the
lords of manors became the patrons of
the benefices. It is to be noted that
the bishop had still the right to refuse
an unsuitable man, though that refusal
must be for definite reasons, and those
reasons must be if necessary established
in a court of law.
In some cases the patronage of a
parish still attaches to the manor ; in
the majority of cases the right of
patronage has been detached from the
* They are sometimes described as a pair
of chalice, i. e. a chalice With its paten,

PATTESON

452

PATTESON

manor, and dealt with independently
of it. In the latter case the right of
patronage can be transferred from one
person to another. Involving as it
does the power of conferring a life in
come upon the presentee, the advowson
has been treated as a property, and the
sale of advowsons has been a cause of
scandal. The dealing with benefices is limited,
and some of its worst abuses prevented,
by law. The owner of the advowson
may sell the advowson, or he may sell
the right to present on the next vacancy
only, but neither while the benefice is
actually vacant. On the other hand, a
clergyman cannot legally purchase a
next presentation for himself, though
he may purchase an advowson, and
present himself on the next vacancy.
Several attempts have lately been
made to restrict still further the traffic
in benefices by fresh legislation, and an
awakened public conscience on the sub
ject has produced a more conscientious
exercise of patronage. [See Advowson.]
The patronage of bishoprics (virtu
ally), of deaneries, and of certain canon
ries is in the Crown ; the patronage of
archdeaconries is in the hands of the
bishop ; the patronage of parochial
benefices is in the hands of a great
number of all kinds of people from the
Crown downwards ; the patronage of
a very few benefices is elective by the
parishioners. There are many advan
tages in this great variety of patronage,
and it is doubtful whether any other
system, as e. g. that of the bishop with
or without a board of patronage, would
be a practical improvement. The few
cases of election by the parishioners
suffice to prove conclusively that that
is the very worst mode of patronage
conceivable. To bring public opinion
to bear upon existing patrons, to lead
them to realise that their patronage is
a high trust and solemn responsibility,
is probably the best way to secure the
best appointments.
PATTESON, John Coleridge, bishop
and martyr (born, 1827 ; died, 1871),
eldest son of the eminent Judge, John

Patteson, was born in Bedford Square,
London, educated at Eton, and at
Merton, Oxford, where he obtained a
fellowship ; was ordained deacon 1853,
and priest 1854, in Exeter cathedral,
and worked for seventeen months as
curate of Alfington, a hamlet near
Fenton Court, which was his father's
house. At the age of fourteen, at Eton, he
heard a sermon by Bishop Selwyn, then
on his way to his New Zealand diocese,
which first fired him with a desire for the
work of a missionary. " It was beauti
ful," he wrote at the time, "when he
talked about going out to found a church,
and then to die neglected and for
gotten." The bishop visited the Patto-
sons, and in taking leave said, half in
playfulness, half in earnest, "Lady
Patteson, will you give me Coley?"
She started, but did not say no ; and
when the boy afterwards confided to
her the longing which possessed him,
she replied that if he still retained the
desire when he grew up, he should have
her blessing and consent. Again in 1854,
on Bishop Selwyn's visit to England, ho
stayed at Fenton Court, and in conver
sation with young Patteson learned his
desire for missionary work, but that the
thought of his father withheld him.
The bishop convinced him that he
ought to make known his wish to his
father, and to give him the choice of
retaining or letting him go. The first
impulse was to say No. He said to his
daughter, "I cannot let him go ; " but
the expression of natural feeling was
almost at onco turned into, "God for
bid that I should stop him." And in
conversation with the bishop, he said :
"Mind, I give him wholly, not with
any thought of seeing him again. I
will not have him thinking he must
come home again to see me. "
Accordingly, he returned with Bishop
Selwyn to New Zealand, and was as a
son to him ; but the special sphere soon
assigned to him was the care of the
work among the islands of the Pacific.
His year was divided into two portions :
six months of voyaging in the ' South-

PATTESON

453

PECULIAR

ern Cross ' among the Melanesian
Islands, and six months in New Zealand
teaching, and training the native boys
who had been brought back from their
native islands. A bright and cheerful
disposition, a gentle and courteous
manner towards the native people, and
a warm affection for his scholars, won
their hearts. A great gift in acquiring
their languages aided his intercourse
with them, and under these gifts lay a
deep, simple, manly piety, and earnest
good sense, and entire devotion to his
work. "The pride of race," he said,
"which prompts a white man to regard
coloured people as inferior to himself,
must be wholly eradicated before he
will ever win the hearts, and thus tho
souls, of the heathen."
In 1861, he was consecrated Bishop
of Melanesia, his see being in the
chapel of his school in New Zealand,
or in the cabin of the ' Southern
Cross.' After a while the school was
removed to Norfolk Island, which lay
midway between the Melanesian Islands
and New Zealand, and which possessed
other advantages as the head-quarters
of his mission.
It was a beautiful life and a beautiful
work, that of the Eton boy and College
fellow, among the islanders of the
Southern Seas, breathing all the strong
faith and utter self-devotion of ancient
times, and exhibiting anew the in
teresting phenomenon of the highest
culture of the civilised world brought
to bear" upon the evangelisation of
primitive barbarism, which forms the
charm of Bede's history of Aidan's
conversion of our Saxon and English
forefathers ; or of the history of
St. Bqniface's conversion of the Old
Saxons. And it ends like the latter,
with the martyrdom of the missionary
bishop. The outrages committed by
ships seeking among the islands for
sandal- wood, and kidnapping "labour
ers" for Fiji and Queensland, led
the natives to make reprisals ; not
merely in a fierce spirit of revenge, but
with a rude religious notion of making
reparation. In his missionary voyage

of 1871, off the island of Nukapu, a
native canoe met his boat and invited.
him to enter the canoe to cross the
coral reef and land on the island, other
canoes remaining beside the boat. After
a short interval the natives in the
canoes without warning began to shoot
at the men in the boat, and they got
back with difficulty to the ship, with
three of the men pierced with arrows.
Soon after, when the tide was high
enough, two canoes came back over the
reef ; one cast off the other which it
had been towing ; it floated out towards
the ship. It contained the body of the
bishop, arranged with a certain rever
ence as a solemn sacrifice of expiation,
rolled in a native mat, with the marks
of five wounds, and a palm-leaf fastened
over the breast with five knots twisted
in one of the leaves to indicate the five
men for whom vengeance had thus been
exacted. A memorial pulpit in Exeter cathe
dral, with sculptured panels, appropri
ately links together the memory of
St. Alban, the first British martyr, and
five Devonshire Boniface, the martyred
apostle of Germany, and {he martyred
Bishop Patteson. A wayside cross in the
Devonshire village from which he went
forth to the Southern Seas also records
his memory. And lastly, Bishop John
Selwyn, the son of the great Bishop
Selwyn, and the successor of Bishop
Patteson in his Melanesian work, has
planted a memorial cross on the shores
of the island of Nukapu, where he
suffered martyrdom. His memory will
live for ever in the records of the Church
of England, and his early death will be
more fruitful than a hundred years of
life in winning hearts and souls to
Christ. (' Life of Bishop Patteson.')
' PECULIAR, a church which is ex
empt from the jurisdiction of the bishop
of the diocese in which it is situate —
(1) as being subject to the jurisdiction
of some other bishop, or (2) entirely
exempt from episcopal jurisdiction.
The first case arises from the fact
that a bishop sometimes possessed
manors and churches in other dioceses

PENANCE

454

PENITENTIALE

than his own, and claimed and obtained
episcopal as well as seignorial jurisdic
tion over them. In some cases these
manors were subsequently divided be
tween the bishop and the dean and
chapter, and the divided jurisdiction
gave rise to further peculiars.
The second case arises from the
fact that many abbeys had obtained
jurisdiction over their estates and
churches ; when the abbeys were sup
pressed no care was taken to bring
their churches within proper episcopal
jurisdiction ; many of them being after
wards forced upon the bishops as part
of their endowment in exchange for
their landed estates, came again under
episcopal rule, but some continued
exempt from episcopal jurisdiction.
[See Donative.]
Chapels royal, also, with their es
tates, were exempt from episcopal
jurisdiction. For example, the diocese
of Lichfield had a group of royal free
chapels : Stone, Stafford, Gnosall, Penk
ridge, Wolverhampton, Tettenhall,
Stafford, Shrewsbury, Chester, Bridge-
north, Derby ; some of which Bishop
Clinton, in the twelfth century, brought
under the bishop's jurisdiction ; others
remained peculiars to the Reformation.
Recent legislation has reduced most
of these peculiars to the jurisdiction
of their proper diocesan. The royal
chapels are still exempt, e. g. West
minster Abbey and St. George's Chapel,
Windsor, are still peculiars.
PENANCE, applies alike to the
amends enjoined by a priest in con
fession upon his penitent, and to the
penalty inflicted by an ecclesiastical
court for some breach of the canons.
In the former case the penance would
usually be of a private nature, such as
the saying of a number of prayers, fast
ing, almsgiving, some endurance or suf
fering, a pilgrimage, &c. In the latter
case, the fault having been public, and
having caused scandal, the penance
would often be public : here are ex
amples which include various modes
of such public penance.
For a riot at Ilchester in 1348, when

the Bishop of Bath and Wells was
kept prisoner for several hours in the
church, and his servants were beaten
and wounded in the churchyard, the
ringleader was sentenced to walk on
three several occasions bareheaded and
barefooted round Ilchester church in
front of the procession made on Sundays
and feast days, holding a candle, which
he was to present on the altar during
mass, while a chaplain declared his sin
to the congregation in the vulgar
tongue ; moreover, he was to be flogged
thrice on market days, at Ilchester,
AVells, Bath, Glastonbury, and Somer-
ton ; he was to pay a fine of £20 ; and
to make a pilgrimage to Canterbury
in honour of St. Thomas the martyr.
Bishop Ralph of Bath and Wells
sentenced John of Champflower, the
forester of Mendip, to stand barefoot and
in his shirt at Wells, holding a candle,
which he was to present at mass, bo-
cause he and his men had stopped the
bishop's carts as they came out of the
episcopal wood at Mendip. ('Diocesan
Hist, of Bath and Wells,' p..]26.) Alice
of Blackford was for incontinency sen
tenced to walk barefoot twice round the
church of Banwell. (Ibid. p. 124,
S.P.C.K.) In the latter half of the
eighteenth centuiy More Yeates was
put to penance publicly on a certain
Ash AVednesday : he stood in the aisle
clothed in a white sheet, and repeated
after the minister a confession of his
sin, which was that he had called his
sister-in-law a foul name, adding the
words, "And I am heartily sorry for
it." (Ibid. p. 232.) [See Discipline.]
PENITENTIALE, or Confessionals.
A book which gave full directions to
the priest for dealing with penitents,
laying down rules according to which
he was to impose penance, and to
admit the penitent to reconciliation,
not leaving it solely to the discretion
of the individual confessor; and the
priest was required to possess one of
these books, "for how can one discreet
ly enjoin penance to others unless he
has previously applied himself to the
study?" says the sixth canon of the

PETERBOROUGH

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PETERBOROUGH

Council of Cloveshoo, a.d. 747. In
the earlier ages the discipline for the
restraint of sin was much insisted
upon, and several penitentials were put
forth by authority at various times.
That of Theodore, Archbishop of Can
terbury, and that of Egbert, Arch
bishop of York, have been published.
It is to be noted, however, that the
Penitential of Theodore is in truth a
collection of canons not exclusively
penitential, and not composed by Theo
dore himself, but compiled by one of
his disciples as a record of the great
Primate's decisions. The Penitential
which goes under the name of Egbert
is in large part a translation into Anglo-
Saxon of three books of Halitgar, of
Cambray, who flourished about 825 a.d.
(Haddan and Stubb's ' Councils and
Eccl. Doc.,' pp. 13, 14.)
PETERBOROUGH, DIOCESE OF.
The history of the diocese of Peter
borough begins at the Reformation with
the separation of the counties of North
ampton, Rutland, Huntingdon, and
Leicester, from the vast see of Lin
coln, and their constitution into a new
diocese. But a few words at least must
be given to the past history of the great
abbey in which the bishop's see was
placed, and a few more to the circum
stances of its transition from a Bene
dictine convent to a chapter of secular
canons. In the midst of the fen-land, between
the Nen and the Welland, was a little
rising ground, called Medeshamstede,
the homestead in the meadows. Here,
about the middle of the seventh cen
tury, Saxulf, a nobleman high in favour
with Penda, the fierce old heathen
king of Mercia, obtained leave to build
a Christian church. Peada, the son of
Penda, embraced Christianity, and gave
a large tract of the surrounding marsh
land to Saxulf 's foundation, which soon
attracted a body of religious men. Wulf
here, Peada's brother and successor,
his brother Ethelred, and his sisters,
Kyneburga and Kyneswith, were bene
factors of the new abbey. So rapidly
did it increase, that Saxulf was induced

to found a coll for the better retirement
of some of the brethren at Brixworth,
whore ho seems to have turned an
ancient Roman Basilica into a Christian
church (or perhaps to have restored a
Roman Basilican church), which still
remains ; and another at Ancarig, which
grew into tho great abbey of Thomey.
Peterborough, so called because the
abbey was dedicated to St. Peter, was
the earliest of the great monasteries
(Thomey, Croyland, and Ely, were the
others), which made this marsh land
between Mercia and East Anglia to
this part of England what the Thebaid
had been to Egypt in the earliest days
of Christianity — a land of ascetic saints,
of legendary miracles, of visions and
prophecies, and of all the mythical
surroundings of primitive asceticism.
In 870 the Danes made one of their
forays through this part of the country.
The monks of Peterborough, probably
with the assistance of the neighbouring
people who had fled thither for safety,.
defended their house. Its defences
were so strong, that the Danes were
obliged to attack it with engines, under
cover of their arrows. Lubba, the
brother of Hubba, the Danish chief,
fell desperately wounded in the very
gateway, and when the place was
taken, Hubba in revenge slew all the
monks with his own hand, and burnt
the church and buildings (which wero
probably in great part built of timber).
The monks of Croyland, with pious
care, buried the monks, eighty-four in
number, with their abbot in the midst,
just eastward of the ruins of the church,
and the place lay desolate for near a
hundred years.
The great revival of religion which
took place under King Edgar took the
form of a revival of the old monastic
colonies, and the foundation of new
ones, on the Benedictine model. Tho
re-foundation of Peterborough was one
of the works thus undertaken. Edgar
and iEthelwold, with Dunstan of Canter
bury and Oswald of York, and a great
company of chiefs and priests, were
present at the consecration ; the old

PETERBOROUGH

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PETERBOROUGH

possessions of the house were restored
. to it, and new donations made. Aldulf,
King Edgar's chancellor, gave all his
wealth to it, and became the first abbot
of the new foundation.
Under its last Saxon abbot, Brand,
Peterborough was one of the last strong
holds of the Saxon opposition to the
Norman Conquest, and when the Con
queror in 1069 drove out Brand and
appointed Thorold in his place, Here-
ward le Wake attacked the place, and
burnt it, on the very day that Thorold
arrived to take possession. Thorold's
church, in turn, was burnt by accident,
1116, and was rebuilt by De Sieyes,
who was abbot from 1114 — 1125. The
abbey continued to be one of the
greatest of the monasteries of England ;
it was popularly called " Goldenburgh "
instead of Peterburgh, for its wealth,
and ' ' Proud Peterborough, " it may be
assumed, for the estimation in which
its monks were supposed to hold its
precedence and its greatness.
At the time, that Henry VIII. re
solved upon the destruction of the
monasteries, Chambers was Abbot of
Peterborough. He set himself to save
his house by making interest with the
king and his minister. A letter from
Parr, one of the Visitors of the Abbeys
to Cromwell, tells us how "the abbot
sent Sir Thomas Tresham,* the master
of his hall, and John Lane (another of
the Visitors) to me, who alledged on
his behalf that he was -contente, upon
oondicion that he mought bide in
suretie, that his hous shulde stande,
to give the king's highness on horle
(one whole) yeres rent of all the landes
appurteynyng to the monastery, which
I thinke are amountethe nigh upon two
thousande and five hundred markes.
And over that to gratify your lordship
to bee good lorde to hym, with the some,
as I suppos, of thre hundred poundes."
By-and-bye we have another letter
from Russell, another of the Visitors :
"Right honourable and my very good
* This, says Mr. Poole, must be the father
of Francis Tresham who was concerned in
tho gunpowder treason.

lorde, pleaseth your lordshipp to be
advertysed that I have receyved your
lettres dated the xij. daye of this pre
sent, and understood by the same, your
lordshipp's great goodness towards my
friende, the Abbott of Peterbrough, for
whom I have been often bold to writo
unto your lordshipp." It is plain
enough that the astute abbot had
bribed all the Visitors whom he had
dealings with ; Pan1, and Lane, and
Russell, as well as Cromwell, and not
without effect ; for, having resigned
the abbey and all belonging to it into
the king's hands, ho was rewarded with
the Bishopric of the new Foundation.
This new foundation consisted of a
bishop and six prebendaries, who wero
endowed out of the possessions of the
abbey ; the counties of Northampton
and Rutland, taken out of Lincoln, being
assigned as the diocese.
Chambers outlived Henry VIII. and
Edward VI., and dying in Queen Mary's
reign, was succeeded by David Pole,
probably a relation of the Cardinal
Archbishop. Pole was one of tho
bishops who, refusing to conform to the
revived' Reformation on the accession
of Elizabeth, was deprived, and suc
ceeded by Edmund Scambler, who
alienated to the Crown much of the
lands belonging to the see. It is not
necessary to cite the names of the
remainder of the twenty-six bishops
who 'have filled the see from its con
stitution to the present day. John
Tower, the ninth of the list, was the
bishop who was deprived by the Long
Parliament. William Lloyd, the twelfth
bishop, was one of the ' ' seven bishops "
committed to the Tower for refusing
to publish James II. 's Declaration of
Indulgence. Thomas White, the thir
teenth (as well as William Lloyd, who
had been translated to Norwich), was
one of the non-juring bishops deprived
by AVilliam III. White Kennet the
antiquary was the fifteenth.
In the absence of other matters of
special interest in the history of the
diocese, space may be found here for
some notes on the treatment of its

PETERBOROUGH

457

PETERBOROUGH

cathedral and clergy at the time of the
Great Rebellion. John Cosin, after
wards bishop of Durham, the great
ljturgical scholar, was dean ; Simon
Gunton, author of ' The History of the
Church of Peterborough,' was the
tenant of the first prebendal stall ; it
is unnecessary to say that they were
both ejected. How tho cathedral was
wrecked, Cromwell himself showing his
zeal by climbing a ladder to break a
crucifix in stained glass out of one of
the windows, may be read in Prebendary
Gunton's history ; as also how the
Rebel Parliament enacted that "the
minster within the city of Peter
borough shall be employed by the in
habitants of the said city in all times
to come for the public worship and
service of God, and for a, workhouse
to employ the poorer sort of people in
manufactures. "
Of the loyal and orthodox clergy of the
diocese recorded in Walker's ' Sufferings
of the Clergy ' as ejected, the following
special cases may be noted : —
Joseph Bentham, Rector of Brough-
ton, was of so blameless a life that he
was reproached by the Committee of
Sequestration with doing more harm
to God's cause, as they called it, by
the excellence of his character than
twenty ordinary men, and he was told
that he must fare the worse for it. He
lived to be restored in 1660 ; and at
his death, ten years after, he left £40
to be distributed annually, on the day
of His Majesty's happy restoration, to
the poor of the parish.
The history of Dr. Hudson has sup
plied Scott with the outline of the
character of Dr. Rochecliffe in ' Wood
stock. ' He was one of the king's chap
lains, and took an active part in the
king's interest in the political intrigues
of the period. He was twice a prisoner
in the Tower, from whence he escaped,
the second time in disguise, with a
basket of apples on his head. He joined
a party under arms at Woodcroft House,
at Etton near Stamford ; a party of
rebels forced the gates, and Hudson
with some°others escaped to the roof.

Thither they were pursued ; and Hud
son was forced over the battlements,
but clung to a projecting stone spout!
His hand was hacked off, and he fell
desperately wounded into the moat,
and entreated that he might be allowed
to crawl to the land that he might
die there ; but he was despatched with
a blow from the butt-end of a musket ;
one Walker, a Stamford chandler, cut
out his tongue and carried it about the
country as a trophy.
Thomas Rawson, Rector of Hoadby,
had married the daughter of Mr. Roger
Nevison. His wife, perhaps offering
some unwise resistance, was dragged
out of her house and turned into the
churchyard. She lived for some time
with her family in the porch and in
the belfry. After a time the Rector
of Rotherby gave them refuge, until
he also was driven out, and they were
obliged to dwell in the churchyard at
Rotherby as they had before done at
Hoadby. At length the lady was
allowed to enter the church, blankets
being put up to screen her and her
children from the congregation. By-
and-by Sir Thomas Hartoft allowed
them to dwell in some outhouses at
Rotherby. The mother came at last
to the parish ; one child was appren
ticed to a lace-maker, with whom also
two sisters were boarded ; two others
were boarded out with a widow in the
parish ; Sir H. Hudson of Melton Mow
bray kept the other two ; one poor
lame child was put into a hospital. Mr.
Rawson probably had been obliged to
flee ; he survived the persecution, and
was restored to his living in 1600. These
are samples of the treatment of some
8000 of the clergy, and some 30,000 of
their wives and children, by the Puritan
party during its short tenure of power.
The diocese consists of the entire
counties of Leicester, Northampton,
and Rutland, with portions of adjacent
counties ; population, 612,725 ; three
archdeaconries, Leicester, Northants,
Oakham ; forty deaneries ; benefices,
571. (See the Rev. G. A. Poole's 'Peter-

PEW

458

PEW.

borough ' in the S. P. C. K. series of
Diocesan Histories, from which this
article is largely extracted. )
PEW, peu, pue, puwe, puy ; plural,
pewis, from Latin podium (Skeat). Seat
ing in church for the congregation as dis
tinguished from stalls in the chancel.
The term first occurs in ' Piers Plow
man's Vision ' in a copy written c.
1390, but is not met. with again till
1449, when William Bruges, Garter
King-at-Arms, by his will directs that
the proceeds of sale of his great barn
at Kentish Town, be bestowed on the
completion of the church of St. George,
Stamford, and in puying of the church,
not curiously, but plainly. Russell's
' Boke of Nurture,' written ante 1447,
refers to preparing the pew of a prince,
prelate, or other potentate ; after that
date pews are occasionally mentioned,
chiefly in wills ; in the sixteenth cen
tury, more often ; and thenceforward
the word became current. It was not,
however, , limited to church - seats ;
Milton speaks of sheep in their pews at
Smithfield ; in Shakspeare it seems to
refer to an alehouse bench ; the reading-
desk was called the reading-pew or
minister's pew ; we also meet with the
shriving-pew. Church-seats were in the fifteenth
century more often called stalls (see
further, under Stall), stools, or desks,
or seges.
No general seating existed before the
end of the fourteenth century, if any so
early ; none are represented in illumin
ations to MSS., but we sometimes see
some of -the congregation represented as
sitting on low stools, which they pro
bably brought with them. Benching
appears to have been gradually intro
duced early in the next century, and in
the sixteenth century it became usual,
especially in those counties which are
celebrated for their woodwork, such as
Norfolk, Suffolk, Somerset, and Devon,
where abundant and beautiful ranges
of seating may still be found ; else
where they appear to have been less
common, though solitary examples still
remain. They were invariably such as

are now known as open seats, strong
benches with low backs ; the seats suf
ficiently low, broad, and spacious for
comfort and use ; constructed of oak
or chestnut, with richly carved ends.
The earliest existing example is at
St. John's, Winchester, dating about
1370. Seating for the congregation does not
seem to have been usual in the northern
part of Europe till late in the seven
teenth century : none are seen in the
paintings by Neefs and the Flemish
school. One of the earliest is at Soest
Cathedral, Westphalia, dated 1663;
but in the eighteenth centuiy they over
ran the cathedrals and ascended in gal
leries, tier above tier, and were fre
quently shut in with glass windows :
Trondhjem, in Norway, furnishes a
very remarkable example. Down to
the present day they are not in use in
Southern Europe, the most southerly
case noticed being at Valence, on the
Rhone. In Spanish cathedrals mats
are supplied, and taken by worshippers
where desired.
Churches being built for the use of
the parishioners, all of whom had a
right to their use in common (as appears
clearly by the only early reported case
in which the subject is mentioned),
seating thus placed there for the con
venience of the parish was equally free
to all ; but- there is every reason to
believe that men occupied those on the
one side (the south), and women those
on the opposite side : the idea of families
sitting together, an arrangement sub
stituting family for congregational wor
ship, was unknown until quite the lat
ter part of the sixteenth century, and
common only when seats were appro
priated to the exclusive benefit of in
dividuals and the deprivation of the rest
of the inhabitants of their equal rights.
A few instances have been cited of a
general appropriation of seats, begin
ning with one in 1422, but none are
free from doubt : if genuine, they are
clearly an usurpation, since they purport
to be. made by persons who could not
possibly have had any legal right to

PEW

459

PEW

deal with them. Towards the begin
ning of the sixteenth century a. very
few town churches appear to have had
the seats more or less generally appro
priated, as at St. Margaret's, West
minster ; but it was at the end of the
century, when the system of granting
faculties to individuals was adopted by
the Ecclesiastical Courts, that it ob
tained any shadow of legality ; and
even then the rights professed to be
exercised by those Courts were of, at
least, questionable validity [vide Faculty
and Prescription]. The earliest of such.
faculties known to have been issued
relates to a pew in Chesterton church,
Cambridgeshire, and is dated 1579 : it
assigns it to a man and his family,
tenants and assigns in perpetuity, not
even as attached to a house, and would
at the present day be held to be invalid.
This example seems exceptional, for
none were granted in the diocese of
London (which we might anticipate
would take the lead) until 1594, soon
after which they came into not infre
quent use ; though very generally it
was in the form of permission to an
individual to erect a pew in some vacant
place, and not to appropriate one of the
general seats of the church. The sys
tem, however, spread, and it is now
assumed that churchwardens may, or
even must (under the supervision of
the Ordinary) allot seats to the
parishioners : no authority for this
opinion has ever been shown, while on
the other hand it is clearly in contra
diction to the universally admitted
maxim that the church is for use, in
common, of the parishioners.
Claims to pews have led to a vast
amount of litigation and ill-feeling, and
many principles have been laid down
for their decision, but they appear to
be simply Judge-made law, — suitable
perhaps to a past period, but wanting
any solid basis.
The practice of the allotment of
seats by churchwardens naturally led
those officials to make use of their
assumed pbwer for the purpose of raising
funds for parochial purposes, by charg

ing a rent : and in the same way indi
viduals who had a claim to pews, either
by reason of faculty or simply from long
user, dealt with them as personal pro
perty capable of being let or sold. It
must, however, be noted the practice
has been reprobated by the Ecclesias
tical Courts as often as set up ; but
such a custom is hard to kill, and still
very frequently re-appears under some
pretext more or less transparent.
Family pews, with seats on two or
more sides facing inwards, cannot be
traced earlier than 1601, at Barking,
Suffolk ; and probably they were ex
tremely rare before the Puritan triumph
in the middle of the seventeenth cen
tury. Pews of the latter part of the
seventeenth century were very high,
and generally well constructed of wains
cot with some little decorative panelling,
often having a date and the initials of
the owner. In the next century they
became more degraded, and were formed
of painted deal lined internally with
baize. Even now, perhaps, there exist
examples of pews raised above the cold
damp level of the rest of the church,
and comfortably fitted with table,
chairs, carpet, cushions, water caraffe
and stove.
Doors and locks were probably co
eval ; there is one instance as early as
1515 : no doubt they became gradually
more common, though we find that in
1631, the Bishop of Winchester issued
a monition to the churchwardens of
Elvetham, Hants, to remove them.
Dr. Pocklington in 1637 wrote strongly
against the prophaneness which was
"committed in close, exalted Pewes."
Pepys records that one day he was fain
to stay at his pew-door because the
sexton had not opened it.
It must be clearly understood that
these remarks apply to the body of the
church generally, and not to chapels
or aisles, which, though structurally
forming a part of the church, were
built by the founder of the church, or
more frequently by individuals, for the
use of themselves and descendants for
the purpose of worship and burial ;

PEW

460

PILGRIMAGE

consequently, in such structures, unless
their ownership has been since aban
doned, the parishioners could have no
rights, while, on the other hand, they
are not responsible for repairs or dilap
idations. In the case of churches built under
the general Church Building Acts (or
under private Acts) the pews are subject
to entirely different considerations, for
although the first of such Acts (passed
in 1818) permitted the system of let
ting of a part of the pews, it was only
contemplated as a temporary measure,
and provision was made for its diminu
tion and extinction. Subsequent Acts,
however, adopted the system, and sanc
tioned its permanence. More than
twenty Acts have been passed relating
to church building or pews. Under
them at least one-third or one-half of
the seats must be free, and those that
are let must be offered in the first in
stance to parishioners, and next to non-
parishioners ; and a scale of rents which
is to be fixed by the commissioners and
be payable in advance ; but it is be
lieved that very few such scales have
been legally fixed, in default of which
the charge for rent is illegal. The pro
ceeds are, generally speaking, applicable
to the stipend of the clergyman and
clerk, and the requirements and repairs
of the church, or for church rate. On
a sufficient endowment being provided,
the rents to cease. It would be tedious
to specify the provisions of the various
Acts! An incumbent entitled to pew
rents, or the purchaser of a pew, may
thereby become entitled to the franchise.
The chancel of a church is subject
to different considerations. The rector,
whether ecclesiastical or lay, is entitled
to the chief seat there, and if lay, then
also is the vicar or perpetual curate :
as to any other seats, if any, their
supervision is held to rest with the
bishop, though there can be no doubt
that only persons taking part in the
performance of Divine Service should
be located there. Modern usage often
allots a pew there to the rector's
family ; but there is no reason to claim

it as of right. London churches differ
(probably by encroachment) from the
rest of the kingdom, inasmuch as by
custom the parishioners, through the
churchwardens, claim to allot seats
there to the parishioners ; while they
take on themselves the duty of repairs
of the chancel which elsewhere falls on
the rector.
A cathedral being the parish church
of the whole diocese (because it is the
church of the bishop who has the cure
of souls of the whole diocese), it is said
by the only authority on the subject
that if there be any seats for the laity
(though no such seats ought to be per
mitted), the regulation of them belongs
to the bishop ; but where the cathedral
is also parochial, it is so far subject to
the same conditions as a parish church.
See Paper by Canon Perry on the rights
of Parishioners in Parish Churches.
Proceedings of Church Congress at
Carlisle, 1884.— A. H.
PICA or PIE. [See Ordinale.]
PILGRIMAGE. The custom of pil
grimage to sacred places held a promi
nent position in the religious customs
of .the middle ages. The visit of the
Empress Helena, the mother of Con
stantine the Great, to the Holy Land,
and her search for, and supposed dis
covery of, places and things made
specially sacred by their connection,.
with the life and death of the Saviour,
seem to have excited the interest of
Christendom, and to have set the
fashion of pilgrimage to the holy places
of Palestine. Jerome, in the latter
part of the fourth century, says that
there were Britons among the numbers
who in his day flocked thither from all
Christian countries, and at the same
time makes the obvious remark, in
deprecation of any superstition on the
subject, that "the way to heaven is as
short from Britain as from Jerusalem.'1
Adamnan, Bishop of Lindisfarne, has,
left us a description of the holy places
in his time (700), taken flom the lips of
Arculf, a Gallic bishop, who had visited
them. They continued to be the most
highly esteemed of all objects of pilgrim-

PILGRIMAGE

461

PILGRIMAGE

age. The Crusades were undertaken
to wrest them out of the hands of the
Turks, and throw them open again
without hindrance to the devotion of
Christendom ; and when these warlike
attempts were abandoned, the Church
resorted to her weapon of prayer, and
put up her petitions continually for
the recovery of the holy places. *
But it was only few who could
undertake the long and dangerous
journey from England to the East.
The prestige of ancient Rome continued
to cling to it long after it had ceased
to be the capital of the empire, and
was the basis of the new prestige
which the city gradually acquired as
the religious capital of Western Chris
tendom. As the scene of the martyr
dom of St. Peter and St. Paul, and of
hundreds of lesser saints ; as the place
where the Christian religion could be
seen in its most venerable institution,
and in its most glorious development,
Rome was the great European centre
of pilgrimage. Several of the Saxon
kings abdicated and retired to lead a
religious life at Rome, a. considerable
number (considering the small inter
course there was between England and
the continent) of Saxon men and women
made the pilgrimage to ' ' the threshold
of the Apostles." Offa, King of the
Mercians, built a hospital at Rome for
the reception of these English pilgrims
and their entertainment while there,
and wrote to Charlemagne to solicit
their safe conduct through his do
minions. The natural sentiment of interest in
the places where memorable persons
have lived and acted, the natural
reverence for the tombs of saints and
martyrs, and for personal relics of
them, grew at length into a wide and
mischievous superstition. Again, the
grobable belief that the saints in Para-
ise still take an interest in us on earth,
and pray for us, grew into another
• Some of the Bidding Prayers included
a petition that God would be pleased to re
cover the holy cross out, of the hands of the
heathen (' Lay Folks' Mass-Book, 'pp. 68 and
76 ; Early English Text Society).

superstition, viz. that of praying to
them for their intercession ; then into
the adoption of a favourite saint, and
seeking his special patronage ; then to
going to his tomb or to the shrine
which contained some personal relic of
him, to solicit his notice ; conciliating
his favour beforehand, or showing
gratitude to him afterwards, by dona
tions at his tomb. Out of these
superstitions grew a number of other
superstitious practices.
After a while every country in
Christendom had its place of pilgrimage.
Spain had its shrine of St. James at
Compostella ; France its shrine of St.
Martin at Tours ; Britain its shrine of
St. Alban at Verulam ; Germany its
shrine of the Three Kings at Cologne.
And as time went on, new saints at
tracted the popular devotion, and
rivalled or superseded the old ones ;
e. g. Dunstan was the popular saint of
the South of England until the mar
tyred Thomas of Canterbury eclipsed
his fame ; so in Yorkshire St. John of
Beverley was the patron of York cathe
dral from .the eighth century until
in the latter part of the twelfth St.
William of York superseded him.
Places of pilgrimage multiplied until
every, diocese had its saint, whose
shrine attracted - profitable crowd of
devotees. There were St. Cuthbert at
Durham ; St. William at York, and
Little St. William at Norwich ; St.
Hugh at Lincoln ; St. Edward at
Westminster ; St. Earconwald in the
cathedral of London ; St. Wulstan at
Worcester ; St. Swithin at Winchester ;
SS. Etheldreda and Withburga at Ely ;
St. Thomas at Canterbury. At length
almost every neighbourhood had its
saint of more or less celebrity, its
miracle-working cross, or image, or
relic, or holy well. The Rector of
Hesterton (whose will is quoted below)
names the eighteen holy places which
his pilgrims were to visit on his behalf,
and several of them are otherwise
totally unknown as places of pilgrim
age. They are : The Crucifix on the
north door of St, Paul's, London ; St,

PILGRIMAGE

462

PILGRIMAGE

Thomas of Canterbury ; the Blessed
Mary of Walsyngham ; St. Etheldreda
of Ely ; the Blessed Mary of Lincoln ;
the Blessed Mary of Doncaster ; St.
Thomas of Lancaster (at Pontefract) ;
St. Saviour of Newburgh ; the Blessed
Mary of Scarborough ; St. Botolph of
Hackness ; the Crucifix at Thorpe Bas
set ; the Blessed Mary of Gisborough ;
St. John of Beverley ; St. John of
Bridlington ; St. William of York ; the
Blessed Mary of Jesmount ; the Blessed
Mary of Carlisle ; and St. Ninian in
the church of "Candecasa" (Candida
Casa) in Galway. At each shrine four-
pence was to be offered.
There were besides famous roods, as
the RoodofBermondsey;of Winchester ;
of Chester ; of Broxholme ; that near
the north door of St. Paul's ; and
above all the Rood of Grace at Boxley,
which bowed its head and moved its
eyes, the machinery by which it was
done being exposed at Paul's Cross at
the Reformation. There were famous
statues of the Blessed Virgin Mary, as
our Lady of Worcester (one of the
earliest) ; our Lady of the Tower at
Coventry ; our Lady of Staines, and of
Doncaster, and of Lincoln, and of
Malahide Castle, and of Wilsden, and
of Boxley, and of Walsingham, besides
those mentioned above in the will of
the Rector of Hesterton,
There were scores of holy wells, of
which the Well of our Lady of Wal
singham was the most famous. St.
Winifred's Well in North Wales still
retains its architectural adornment and
its chapel over it, and is still visited
for its healing virtues, and affords a
beautiful example of these interesting
relics of ancient superstition.* [See
Wells.] * Migne, 'Encyclopedic Theologique,' vol.
xliv., gives in 1338 pages of double columns
quarto " a dictionary geographical, historical,
descriptive, and archaeological, of pilgrim
ages ancient and modern, and of the most
celebrated places of devotion, containing
an abridged history of the sanctuaries,
feasts, ceremonies, and processions which
have had, and which still have, religion for
their object ; an indication of the towns,
mountains, rivers, floods, had sacred by the

A mere list of the places of pilgrim
age still known would be too long for
record here. There were thirty-eight
shrines and seventy places of pilgrim
age of one kind or other in Norfolfe
alone. In the diocese of Bath and
Wells there was no shrine of national
fame, but there were certain local
pilgrimages. Some went to Bishop
Button's tomb at AVells, many more to
the pretended tomb of Dunstan at Glas
tonbury. Bath too had some special
attraction in the abbey church con
nected with the Holy Trinity, possibly
some statue or painting. There were
the holy thorn at Glastonbury, which
bloomed at Christmas ; our Lady's
girdle at Bruton, which was placed
round women in labour ; St. John's
well at Wembdon, which worked
cures. A list of the relics at some
individual shrines even would occupy
too much space. Glastonbury was
called a second Rome for the number
and sacredness of its relics.
The shrines of certain saints were
specific cures for certain diseases. " We
set," says one of the interlocutors in
Sir Thomas More's 'Dyalogue on the
Adoracion of Ymages,' "every saint
in his office and assign him a craft
such as pleaseth us. Saint Loy we
make a horse-leech ; and because one
smith is too few at the forge, we set
St. Ippolitus to help him. Saint
Appolonia we make a tooth-drawer;
Saint Sythe women set to seek their
keys. Saint Roke we appoint to see
to the great sickness, and with him
we join St. Sebastian. Some saints
serve for the eye only, some for a sore
breast. St. Germain only for chil
dren," &c. St. Anne is applied to for
recovery of lost goods ; St. Leonard to
assist debtors to escape from prison.
Pilgrimages were undertaken from
various motives. — (1) Most commonly,

religious sentiments of peoples ; an enumer
ation of the distinguished reliques whose
virtue God has been pleased td manifest
by some memorable miracle ; a special and
curious notice of the miraculous statues of
the Virgin, and of the holy places of Rome
and Jerusalem, &c. iic."

PILGRIMAGE

463

PILGRIMAGE

the local pilgrimages were undertaken
as an act of devotion, and were
made yearly ; thus Cranmer in his
' Catechism ' says that in the old times
' ' men were greatly seduced by certaine
famouse and notoriouse ymages, as by
oure Ladye of Walsinghame, oure
Ladye of Ippeswyche, Saynt Thomas
of Canterbury, Saint Anne of Bucke-
stpno, the Rood of Grace, and suche

Pilgrim .

(From wood-cut of early sixteenth
century.)

lyke ; whom many of your parentes
visited yearly, leaving their owne
houses and familyes. To whom they
made tours and pilgrimages, thinking
that God would hear their prayers in
that place rather than in another place.
They kissed their feete devoutly, and
to theim they offrid candles, and ym
ages of waxe, rynges, beades, gold and
sylver abundantly." In the 'Paston
Letters ' (iii. 25) are several examples

of pilgrimages undertaken to pray
for the welfare of absent relations.
It was the custom also in several
dioceses for the country parishes to
make an annual pilgrimage, carrying
banners and willow wands, to the
shrine of the local saint, in the cathe
dral church, and there to make their
offerings. (See 'Chichester Diocesan
History,' p. 71, and 'Lichfield Diocesan
History,' p. 121, both published by
S. P. C. K. ) (2) Often in fulfilment of a
vow made in time of need or danger. (3)
Sometimes people undertook a vicarious
pilgrimage on behalf of another ; e. a.
Roger de Wandesford, of Teresweil,
Notts, in danger of drowning on a
voyage between Ireland and Norway,
made a vow to the shrines of St. John
of Beverley and St. John of Bridling-.
ton ; but not having been able to
accomplish the vow in his lifetime, he
left money by his will (6th Oct. 1300)
to support a pilgrim to make the pilgrim
age on his behalf ('Test. Ebor.', i. 257.
Surtees Society). Sometimes a man
without the stimulus of an unfulfilled
vow, left by will money to provide,
among other meritorious works, for the
support of one or more pilgrims to
visit certain shrines on his behalf, and
make an offering of money at each of
them ; e. g. William Ecop, Rector of
Hesterton, Yorkshire ('Test. Ebor.,'
iii. 199. Surtees Society), provided
by his will (6th Sept. 1472) for the
support of a pilgrim or pilgrims to go
on his behalf to the eighteen holy
places mentioned above, and to make
an offering of fourpence at each of
them, and there are many similar
examples in the ancient wills. Some
times the obligation to make a pilgrim
age was handed down from father to
son ; the father e. g. made a vow as a
Crusader, but never being.able to fulfil
it, charged his son by will to accom
plish the vow on his behalf, and left
him money for his charges ; and some
times the son again devolved the duty
upon his son. (4) Lastly, a pilgrimage
was sometimes enjoined as an act of
penance,

PILGRIMAGE

464

PILGRIMAGE

A man might not go on pilgrimage
beyond sea without tho king's licence, *
and the licence of his bishop also. He
provided himself with the staff and
scrip which were the special insignia of
a pilgrim ; and before starting went to
church to receive a blessing on his
enterprise, and was conducted out of
the' parish and set on his way in pro
cession, with the cross borne before
him. The office for pilgrims ( ' Officium Pere-
grinorum') may be found in the old
service-books ; the following notes of
it are from a Sarum missal, date 1554,
in the British Museum. The pilgrim
is previously to have confessed. At
the opening of the service he lies pros
trate before the altar, while the priest
and choir sing over him certain appro
priate psalms, viz. the 24th, 50th, and
90th. Then follow some versicles, and
three collects, for safety, &c. , in which
the pilgrim is mentioned by name,
"Thy servant, N'." He rises, and.
then follows the benediction of his
scrip and staff; the priest sprinkles
the scrip with holy water, and places
it on the neck of the pilgrim, saying,
"In the name of, &c. take this scrip,
the habit of your pilgrimage, that,
corrected and saved, you may be worthy
to reach the thresholds of the saints to
which you desire to go, and your jour
ney done, may return to us in safety. "
Then the priest delivers the staff, say
ing, "Take this staff, the support of
your journey, and of the labour of
your pilgrimage, that you may be able
to conquer all the bands of the enemy,
and to come safely to the threshold of
the saints to which yon desire to go,
and, your journey obediently performed,
return to us with joy." If any one of
the pilgrims present is going to Jeru
salem, he is to bring a habit signed
with the cross, and the priest blesses
it : — " . . . we pray that Thou wilt
vouchsafe to bless this cross, that the
banner of the sacred cross, whose
* Rymer's ' Foedera ' mentions 2460 licences
granted in 1434 to make the pilgrimage to
Santiago at Compostella.

figure is signed upon him, may be to
Thy servant an invincible strength
against the evil temptations of the old
enemy, a defence by the way, a pro
tection in Thy house, and may be to
us everywhere a guard, through our
Lord," &c. Then he sprinkles tho
habit with holy water, and gives it to
the pilgrim, saying, "Take this habit,
signed with the cross of the Lord our
Saviour, that by it you may come safely
to his sepulchre, who, with the Father,','
&c. Then follows mass ; and during
mass certain prayers over the pilgrims,
prostrate at the altar; then, "Let
them communicate, and so depart in
the name of the Lord." The service
runs in the plural, as if there wero
usually a number of pilgrims to be
despatched together.
It is probable that the pilgrim was
furnished with a certificate (just as
certificates are now given of baptism,
marriage, and holy orders) of his being
a pilgrim, which entitled him to the
hospitality of the hospitals built by
pious people along tho great pilgrimage
roads, and at the great places of pil
grimage. The Church did not forget
its absent pilgrims : in one of the
ancient bidding prayers occurs the
following memorial :
"We shall pray also for true pyl-
grymes and palmers wheresoever they
be, on water or on londe, that God of
his goodnes graunt them parte of our
good prayers, and us parte of theyr
good pylgrimages " (A Bidding Prayer
from a York Manual, 1509, printed by
the Early English Text Society : ' Lay
Folks' Mass-Book,' p. 78).
Arrived at the object of his journey,
the pilgrim visited the shrine, or kissed
the lelic, or drank of the water of tho
holy well, went through the customary
devotions, prayed the saint's interces
sion for the special grace for the sake
of which he had made the pilgrimage,
and made his offering, and purchased
the customary "signs." Every place
of pilgrimage had its special sign.
The pilgrim to the Holy Land brought
back a palm-branch, from which he

PISCINA

465

PLAYS

derived his popular name of a palmer ;
the principal Roman signs were the
^effigies of SS. Peter and Paul, the
cross-keys of St. Peter, and the ver-
nicle — a representation of the veil of
St. Veronica, with the miraculous
imprint of the Saviour's face. The
sign of the Compostella pilgrimage was
the scallop-shell. The chief sign of
the Canterbury pilgrimage was a leaden
flask (ampulla) stamped with the saint's
effigy, or his initial, or an inscrip
tion, containing a little water in which
the holy relic had been dipped. A
similar ampulla of water was the relic
which the pilgrim carried away" from
the shrine of St. Cuthbert of Durham,
and probably from the well of our
Lady of Walsingham, and other holy
wells. On the pilgrim's return home he
went first to church to return thanks,
and hung up his staff and scrip as
votive offerings, and carefully preserved
his pilgrim signs as amulets. On his
death they were sometimes placed in
his tomb. The name of pilgrim or
palmer, which had clung to him
through the remainder of his life,
sometimes descended as « patronymic
to his descendants. (Chaucer's ' Can
terbury Pilgrims ; ' J. G. Nichol's
translation of Erasmus's ' Peregrinatio
Religionis erga ; ' ' Scenes and Charac
ters of the Middle Ages.')
PISCINA (= a pond, bath, water-
vessel), an ornamental niche in the wall
of a church — most frequently in the
south wall— near the altar, with its
floor formed into a shallow basin^ in
' the middle of which is a drain leading
dqwn into the ground. It was used in
the washing of the priest's hands before
the celebration of the Holy Communion,
and of the sacred vessels after their
use. It frequently had a shelf in the
upper part of the niche, which served
as a " credence," or side table, on which
the sacramental vessels and cruets were
placed. PLAYS, Mystery, Miracle, and
Morality. Exhibitions of a dramatic
kind were very popular in Europe

during the twelfth and thirteenth cen
turies. The composition and the per
formance of them were for the most
part in the hands of the clergy. Their
subjects were of three kinds : (1) Mys
teries, which were a dramatic repre
sentation of the great events of Scrip
ture, especially of the events in the
life of our Lord. (2) Miracle-plays,
which represented scenes in the lives
of famous saints. (3) Moralities, which
were generally allegorical pieces in
tended to inculcate virtue, and to deter
from vice. The plays were at first in
Latin ; they are found in French as
early as the thirteenth century ; by
the end of the fifteenth century they
are found also in English. They were
played in churches, in churchyards,
and in the streets or squares of the
towns. They kept their place in the popular
esteem to a late period ; and were
specially kept alive by the trade guilds,
who performed a play or exhibited a
pageant in honour of their patron saint
as part of their annual festival. They
continued down to the seventeenth
century, and even still the "mummers,"
and similar exhibitions in remote parts
of the country, remain as very degener
ate relics of this class of popular enter
tainment. The performance of the
Mystery Play at Oberammergau has
shown to the present generation that it
is possible to treat the most sacred
subjects dramatically not only without
irreverence, or even offensive incongru
ities, but even with solemn and edify
ing effect. This being so, the mediseval
Church needs no apology for having
used the universal human taste for
dramatic performances in order to teach
Christian truths and to inculcate
morality. The religious nature of the
play did not prevent the playwright from
sometimes giving his graver matter the
artistic relief of grotesque contrast, by
putting into the mouths of his minor
characters jests and buffooneries, and
even indelicacies, which remind us of
the gargoyles and misereres of Church
architecture.

PLAYS

466 PLYMOUTH BRETHREN

A volume of ' Early Mysteries,' pub
lished by Mr. T. Wright, contains four
miracles of St. Nicholas ; the Mystery
of the Adoration of the Wise Men ; of
the Slaughter of the Innocents ; of
the Resurrection ; of the appearance
of our Lord Jesus Christ to the Two
Disciples on the road to Emmaus ; of
the Conversion of the Blessed Apostle
Paul ; the Miracle of the Resurrection
of Lazarus ; the Morality of the Foolish
Virgins— all in Latin. Mr. Wright also
published a series of plays in English,
known as the Chester plays, because
they were annually played at Chester
in Whitsun week, by the guilds of
that town. They consist of the Fall
of Lucifer ; the Creation and Fall of
Man ; the Death of Abel ; Noah's
Flood ; the Histories of Lot and Abra
ham ; Balaam and his Ass ; the Salut
ation of the B. V. M. and the Nativity ;
the Shepherds ; the Three Kings ; the
Offering and Return of the Three
Kings ; the Slaughter of the Innocents ;
the Purification ; the Temptation ; the
Woman taken in Adultery ; the Rais
ing of Lazarus ; Christ's Entry into
Jerusalem ; Christ Betrayed ; the Pas
sion ; the Crucifixion ; the Harrowing
of Hell ; the Resurrection ; the Pil
grims of Emmaus ; the Ascension ; the
Emission of the Holy Ghost ; Ezekiel ;
Antichrist; Doomsday. The volume
of ' Townley Mysteries ' contains plays
performed by the monks of Wood-
church, near Wakefield, and the guilds
of that town. The volume of ' Coven
try Mysteries ' contains plays performed
by the Grey Friars of that city, with
the assistance of the guilds. The
plays performed by the crafts or mys
teries of York on the day of Corpus
Christi in the fourteenth, fifteenth,
and sixteenth centuries have been
recently printed by Lucy Toulmin
Smith, at the Oxford Clarendon Press.
The Digby Plays are given among the
publications of the Abbotsford Club.
A paper on Mummers will be found in
the ' AVilts Archaeological Magazine, '
vol. i. p. 79. The forty-third volume
of Migne's 'Nouvelle Encyclopedic

Theologique'' contains a number of
these plays in Latin and French, with
much information upon the general
subject. PLYMOUTH BRETHREN. A sect
whose foundations were laid in Dublin
about 1830, by Mr. A. N. Groves, a stu
dent of Trinity College. Before long a
number of Mr. Groves's friends formed
themselves into societies on his prin
ciples at Plymouth and at Teignmouth.
The society at Plymouth was joined by
the Rev. B. W. Newton, a clergyman
and Fellow of Exeter, whose position
and character gave him a leading place
among them. In 1832 the society at
Dublin was joined by the Rev. J. N.
Darby, a clergyman serving as a curate
in the Irish Church, who shortly after
wards moved to Plymouth, and his
accession proved to be an era in the
history of the movement. Hitherto
the members of these societies (like the
early Methodists) had not' formally
separated themselves from the organ
ised religious bodies to which they
belonged ; but now the existing re
ligious bodies were denounced as hope
lessly corrupt, and the saints were
exhorted to come out of them and join
this new Church, which was to be a
centre of visible unity for all Christians.
But in a very short time the two chiefs
of the movement disagreed. Mr. Darby '
seceded, with his followers, and form
ally excommunicated all who did not
adhere to him, and the Brethren were
divided into two camps. The followers
of Mr. Newton adhered to the exist
ing platform, and were called " Open
Brethren" ; the Darbyites, or "Exclu
sive Brethren," grew into a numerous
and well-organised body, which has
spread into all the great towns of the
United Kingdom, into America, and is
still zealously and successfully dissemin
ating its principles.
The Brethren profess to have no
creed but the Bible, and denounce all
commentaries on the Bible, accepting
the Spirit as the all-sufficient inter
preter of the AYord to each ; and every
one holds that doctrine which com-

P02NITENTIA, DE

467

PONTIFICAL

mends itself to his own mind, consist
ently with giving practical evidence
that he is a "real Christian." They
hold that once justified the soul can
never lose grace, or fall into condemna
tion. They recognise no official minis
try ; all believers are spiritual priests,
capacitated for worship ; and not only
authorised, but under obligation to
evangelise the world, and build up the
Church, without the ordination of men.
They assume that their own body is
the Church, and that all other organis
ations of Christians are in schism. They
administer baptism only to adults ; they
celebrate the Lord's Supper every
Lord's day morning, and regard it as
the great act of worship, in which all
ought to take part. On the Lord's
day they hold services for the uncon
verted. The body consists largely of
educated people of the professional
classes, and it is a growing body. It,s
strength probably lies (1) in the amount
of truth which there is in the system ;
(2) in the earnestness of its believers ;
and (3) in the fact, that on the whole
its tenets are nearly those to which
popular Protestant dissent leads when
its principles are carried to their logical
conclusions. See a Paper in the ' British
Quarterly Review,' Oct., 1873; and a
Paper in the ' Church Quarterly Review, '
April, 1879.
PffiNITENTIA, DE, Jesu Christi,
Friars of the Order of. This order
was first introduced into England at
Oxford, in 1262. They had also houses
at Cambridge, Leicester, Lincoln, Lon
don, Lynne, Norfolk, Norwich, New
castle, and Worcester. The Prior of
Lynne was Vicar-General of the Order
in England. But when the smaller
orders of friars were suppressed by
decree of the Council of Lyons, in 1307,
this Order shared that fate, and its
houses were given to other orders of
friars. They were commonly called
Friars of the Sack, from the material of
their robe, which was of sackcloth.
PONTIFICAL. One of the old Ser
vice Books, which contained the order
of the sacraments, rites, and ceremonies,

with the changes required when they
were to be performed by a bishop, and
certain rites which could only be per
formed by a bishop, or under his com
mission. Since only one pontifical was
required in each diocese these books
are rare, but still a series of interesting
examples remain.
A list of seventeen of the Anglo-
Saxon period is given in the preface
to the Surtees Society's publication of
the Pontifical of Egbert, Archbishop
of York, which is the earliest extant
of English Pontificals ; and again a
list of thirty-three of the English and
Scotch uses from the tenth to the
sixteenth century, in the Surtees
Society's publication of the Pontifical
of Archbishop Bambridge of York
(1508—1514), which is the last of the
series of English Pontificals.
The most important are those of—
Egbert of York. Eighth century.
Dunstan of Canterbury. Tenth cen
tury. Ethelwold of Winchester. Tenth
century. Ethelgar of Canterbury. Tenth cen
tury. Anianus of Bangor. Thirteenth cen
tury. Leofrie, first Bishop of Exeter.
Lacy of Exeter. Latter part of four
teenth" century.
Lacy of Salisbury (described by
Maskell). Bambridge of York.
From a very early period downwards
they sometimes contain illuminations
or wood engravings to illustrate the
various offices, and these give much
interesting information on clerical cos
tume, ornaments of the altar, &c. &c,
as well as on the mode of performing
the various rites and ceremonies of the
Church. The rites thus illustrated are Con
firmation, Ordination of all the Orders,
dedication of a church or churchyard,
the benediction of a monk, a nun, an
abbot of canons, an abbot of monks,
an abbess, a regular knight (Templar,
&c), the blessing of a hermit, the

POPERY

468

POPERY

seclusion of an anchorite, the coronation
of a king and of a queen, the office
for pilgrims, and the blessing of all
those things enumerated in Article
Manual, &c. &c.
The Reformed Church of England
has never completed an authoritative
Pontifical. It was intended to do so
in 1640, but the design failed ; and in
consequence there are several episcopal
offices, e. g. the consecration of a church
and churchyard, the receiving of a lay
reader, of a deaconess, of a sister,
&c. , for which no authorised order has
been put forth ; but every bishop uses
his own form at his own discretion,
though probably a very similar (or
identical) form is, by consent, used
by them all.
After the invention of printing the
only Pontificals which have been thus
executed are those of the Roman use.
There is a series of them from 1485
downwards, many of them illustrated
with fine and interesting engravings.
POPERY. The essence of popery is
the acceptance of the doctrine that the
Bishop of Rome is of Divine right the
head of the Church of Christ, the
universal bishop, and, in its most recent
development, that he is the infallible
teacher of the Church. The logical
consequence of this is the acceptance
of the whole system of doctrine, true
and false, which the creed of Pius
declares to be defide, together with the
later definitions, of which the Syllabus,
the Papal Infallibility, and the Immacu
late Conception of the Blessed Virgin
Mary, are the most important.
Many, if not all, of the errors which
gradually crept in during the Middle
Ages were theories which theologians
accepted in perfect good faith, which
came to be generally accepted in the
Western Churches, and at length, one
by one, received the seal of ecclesiastical
authority by a canon of some synod
or a decree of some Pope. It must
be borne in mind by the student that
many of these errors have a kernel of
truth, and that the error lies in an ex
aggeration of, or wrong deduction from,

or wrong definition of, this truth. It
is this kernel of truth which constitutes
the special danger of the error ; because
it is possible for the controversialist to
point out in Scripture, or in primitive
antiquity, or in great and orthodox
Fathers, proofs of a doctrine which
resembles the error, and which may,
with a little ingenuity, be confounded
with it. Thus the true doctrine of tho
Presence of Christ in the Sacrament
lies at the root of the erroneous doctrine
of Transubstantiation ; the truth of an
intermediate state is the root of the
erroneous doctrine of Purgatory ; some
ancient Fathers used exaggerated rhe
torical language about the Virgin
Mary, which is quoted to prove that
they worshipped her and prayed to
her : and so with others. It will be
seen, therefore, that the way to deal
with popish errors is, frequently, not
to reject altogether the proposition, but
to strip off the mediaeval accretion or
perversion or deduction, and get at the
kernel of truth. When an ingenuous
mind, brought up in the crude belief
that all the popish peculiarities of doc
trine are totally erroneous, is brought
under the teaching of a skilful con
troversialist, able to bring forth the
evidences of the truth which lies hi
the error, and to make use of the
plausible arguments by which the error
has been deduced from the truth, it-
undergoes a natural revulsion of feel
ing, and is easily led to accept the
whole doctrine indiscriminately for
the sake of the partial truth of it ; or,
if too cautious for this, is at least in
a favourable condition to accede to
the plausible arguments by which the
error has been deduced from the truth ;
for it stands to reason that unless
there were plausible arguments, the old
theologians would not have originally
fallen into the error. It requires a
considerable amount, of learning ' to
criticise the array of authorities true
and false, and a trained intellect to
trace the fallacy of the argument. The
student will do wisely, if popish books
have come under his notice, to soek

POPERY

469

POPERY

counsel as to the books he should read
on the other side ; or if he has been
assailed by popish arguments, to accept
nothing until he has asked some com
petent person what is to be said on the
other side.
The following notes on some of the
principal errors may be useful : —
The claim of the Bishop of Borne to be
the Universal Bishop was entirely un
heard of for eight centuries of the
Church's history ; it was unknown to
the general councils of the undivided
Church ; when the title was first claimed
for himself by the Bishop of Constan
tinople the existence of any universal
bishop was vehemently denied by Pope
Gregory the Great. The pretensions of
the see of Rome to a Patriarchate over
their dominions was first allowed by
Charles Martel and King Pepin. The
claim to a universal lordship over the
whole Chnrch was first made By Nicolas
I. (853—867). The Church of the
Empire was divided into five patri
archates ; Rome, Constantinople, Alex
andria, Antioah, Jerusalem. Each
patriarch claimed to be independent of
the rest ; and not one of them has ever
recognised the supremacy of Rome.
The claim to Papal Infallibility.
The Mediaeval Church held that the
promise of Christ, "He shall guide you
into all truth," was a promise of in
errancy to the Church as represented
in a general council. It was claimed
by some that the pope as premier
bishop and natural president of a
general council, pronouncing the re
sults of the deliberations of a general
council, was the mouth of the Church ;
by others that his utterances accepted
by a council were infallible. It was
long disputed whether the pope was
superior to the council or the council
to the pope. The Council of Con
stance decreed that a pope is subject
to a council in matters of faith, and
the Pope Martin V. accepted the decree.
It was not till the present generation
that a pope ventured to declare his
personal infallibility when speaking !
ex cathedrd, as the mouth of the

Church ; and the Council of the Vatican
accepted the declaration. This is the
formal definition of the doctrine: "That
when the Roman pontiff speaks ex
cathedrd, that is, when in the exercise
of his office of pastor and teacher of all
Christians, and in virtue of his supreme
apostolic authority, he defines that a
doctrine of faith or morals is to bo
held by the universal Church, he pos
sesses, through tho Divine assistance
promised to him in the blessed Peter,
that infallibility with which the
Divine Redeemer willed His Church to
be endowed, in defining a doctrine of
faith and morals ; and therefore that
such definitions of the Roman pontiff
are irreformable of themselves, and not
by force of the consent of the Church
thereto." It is a doctrine which in
volves the papists in considerable diffi
culties ; e. g. Pope Honorius (625 —
638) was unanimously condemned by
the sixth general council as a heretic ;
and every pope, for several centuries, on
his consecration, solemnly pronounced
an anathema against him as acondemned
heretic. Either Pope Honorius was
a heretic, and therefore not infallible,
or he was not a heretic, and the popes
who anathematised him were not in
fallible. The cultus of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
The assumption of the Blessed Virgin
Mary to heaven on her death is first
mentioned by Sophronius in the fifth
century as a doubtful tradition. It
was not till the twelfth century that
some monks at Lyons suggested a
festival in honour of her Conception,
and St. Bernard wrote against it as "a
novelty," "an error," and "a super
stition, " arguing that only our Blessed
Lord was conceived without sin. But
the opinion of the Immaculate Concep
tion began to be entertained. Duns
Scotus stated it as a scholastic propo
sition in the thirteenth centuiy, and
argued in favour of it. Thomas Aquinas
opposed it. Scotus was a Franciscan
friar, Aquinas a Dominican ; their
two orders took up the dispute with
acrimony, and the whole Church was

POPERY

470

POPERY

ranged on one side or the other. It
remained an open question till in our
day the Vatican Council decreed it to
be an article of the faith. Throughout
the thirteenth and following centuries
an excessive veneration was paid to
the Virgin. The Little Hours are
services of prayer to her to be said at
the time of the canonical hours ; Bona-
ventura altered the Psalter into Our
Lady's Psalter by substituting her name
for the name of God in it ; e.g. "in
thee, 0 Lady, have I trusted," "Let
Mary arise, and let her enemies be
scattered," &c. She was appealed to
as a Mediatrix between man and God.
Gabriel Biel says: "You are afraid of
approaching tho Father, so he gave
you Jesus for a Mediator ; what could
not such a Son obtain from such a
Father ? But perhaps even in Him
you fear the Divine Majesty, because
though He became man yet he remained
God. Betake yourself to Mary, for
Mary is pure humanity. The Son will
surely hear the mother, and the Father
will hear the Son. "
The cultus spread until, perhaps,
especially among women, the worship
of the Virgin was more popular than
that of God, and the trust in her medi
ation greater than in that of Christ.
Transnbstantiation. The early
Church believed in a presence of Christ
in the Sacrament without defining the
mode of the presence. The scholastic
philosophy, attempting to define mys
teries and commend them to the reason,
began the controversy as to the mode,
in the earlier half of the ninth century,
and gradually elaborated a theory in
harmony with the prevalent philoso
phy. It was not till the fourth Lateran
Council in 1215 that the doctrine was
authoritatively sanctioned that Christ's
body and blood are really contained
under the species of bread and wine,
the bread being transubstantiated into
the body, and the wine into His blood.
[See Transubstantiation.]
Communion in one kind. In the
beginning of the twelfth century the
custom began of dipping the bread into

tho wine, and so administering. Pope
Paschal (1110) forbade the practice,
and decreed that they should be ad
ministered separately. The practice
was forbidden in England by the Council
of London (1175). Anselm was the first
to affirm that ' ' tho whole Christ was
taken under either species" ('Epist.'
iv. 107), and Robert Pulleyn (1140)
gives the -injunction that "the flesh
of Christ alone should be distributed
to laymen." Not till the thirteenth
century did this doctrine come into
common use. Thomas Aquinas argued.'
in favour of it ; Bonaventura urged it
out of reverence, for fear of spilling
the wine. It was not authoritatively
sanctioned till the Council of Constance
(1415) ; but the Council of Basle, in
the treaty of peace with the Bohe
mians known as the Compaeta, allowed
the Communion to be administered in
both kinds to such of their adults as
should desire it.
Purgatory. Speculations about the
condition of the good and of the wicked
in the intermediate state led to su
perstitions of which we find traces
in Bede. Otto Frisingensis, in 1146,
says : ' ' Some affirm that there is in the
unseen state, a place of purgatory, in
which those who are to be saved are
either troubled with darkness only, or
are refined by the fire of expiation."
It was first put forth authoritatively
as a doctrine by the Council of
Florence (1438). The primitive Church
prayed for the saints departed, "for
their increase of rest and felicity ; '' so
it came to be held that, prayer could
benefit those who were in purgatory, to
procure a mitigation or shortening of
their pains ; then, the Eucharist is the
most effectual form of pleading with
God, and so the priests were asked and
paid for their Eucharistic intercessions ;
and so came the abuse of Masses for
the dead to deliver them out of pur
gatory. Saint Worship. The primitivo
Church felt strongly the reality of the
life after death, and believed that the
saints departed must still take an

PORCH

471

PORCH

interest in those they had loved on
earth, and that they miist therefore
still pray to God for them. This led
in course of time to praying to the
saints to pray for the living. Then it
was thought that such prayers were
likeliest to be effectual if offered at
the burial-place of the saint, or in
presence of any relie of him ; and so
grew the errors of saint worship, and
relie worship, and pilgrimages.
It would be endless to give a list of

yard, at the west end, which usually
was surrounded by a covered "colonnade
or cloister, and the east side of this
colonnade formed a covered vestibule
to the principal entrance to the church ;
in this vestibule certain classes of wor
shippers were placed, and certain rites
of the Church were performed.
In the cathedral, monastic, and parish
churches of a later plan, the principal
entrance is usually protected by a small
attached building which is called the

Porch of Stoke Pogis Church.

all the books which have been written
on various parts of the wide contro
versy. The Book of Common Prayer
is the best authority to which it is
possible to refer for positive statements
of true doctrine in these "controversies
of faith." For a popular manual see
Dr. Littledale's ' Reasons for not Join
ing the Church of Rome,' published by
the Christian Knowledge Society for
sixpence. PORCH. The Basilican churches of
the early Christian centuries were ap
proached by a great atrium, or court-

porch. The porch was still used for
certain rites, as the first part of baptism
and of marriage.
Frequently the porch of a village
church is a, half-open shed of timber
more or less ornamentally constructed
and carved ; sometimes it is a stone
structure affording more or less com
plete protection. Occasionally these
stone porches have a room over them,
These chambers over the iporch are
rare in the twelfth century, not very
common in the thirteenth, more numer
ous in the fourteenth, and common

PRAYER BOOK

472

PRAYER BOOK

enough in the fifteenth. The entrance
to them is almost always from the
interior of the church. The cases
are rather numerous in which there
exists a piscina, and sometimes other
indications of an altar, pointing to
the conclusion that the chamber was
used as .a chapel. The room over
the parish church door of St. Paul's,
Stamford, was the chapel of a Guild
of the Holy Virgin and Martyr St.
Katherine. Sometimes there is a fire
place, and in a. few instances a re
tiring closet, proving that the chamber
was regularly inhabited, perhaps, by
a chantry priest, or recluse, or sanc
tuary men. At St. Gregory, Norwich,
two chambers over unusually long
porches are known to have afforded
accommodation to those who sought
refuge at this famous sanctuary. These
chambers seem sometimes to have been
used as depositaries for deeds ; that at
Chelmsford has long been the registry
of the archdeaconry. At Hawkhurst,
Kent, and St. Mary, Redcliffe, the
chamber is known as the treasury.
The porch chamber at Cirencester, a
very large and handsome room, 38ft.
long, is used as the town hall. At
Edgington, Wilts, originally the church
of a monastery of Bon Hommes, there
are two stories above the porch, of
which the lower has a fireplace. The
woodcut represents the ancient timber
porch of Stoke Pogis Church, Oxon.
PRAYER BOOK, THE, contains in
one volume many Services which in
the old Service Books were divided
among different books, and which
have different histories. A glance
at the table of contents will show
that besides five Prefaces and pre
fatory notices, and besides the various
tables which make up the Calendar,
the book contains twenty other articles.
_ These may be grouped into the articles
"required in the saying of the Daily
Office, viz. the Order for Morning
Prayer ; the Order for Evening
Prayer ; the Psalter ; the Creed of
St. Athanasius ; Prayers and Thanks
givings upon several occasions ; and the

Collects. The articles required for the
Euchakistic Service, viz. the Order
for the Administration of Holy Com
munion ; the Collects, Epistles, and
Gospels. The Occasional Offices,
viz. three Orders for Baptism ; the
Offices for Matrimony, Visitation of
the Sick, and Communion of the Sick ;
Burial ; and Churching of Women.
The Pontifical, or Rites administered
by Bishops only, viz. the Order of
Confirmation, and of Ordaining Deacons
and Priests, and of Consecrating Bis
hops. Some Special Seevices, viz.
the Litany ; the Commination ; Forms
of Prayer to be used at Sea ; a Form
for the Accession Day of the reigning
Sovereign. There remain to be noticed
two Theological articles, viz. the Cate
chism, and the Thirty-Nine Articles.
Most of these will be found specially
noticed under their respective titles.
The present article will give a brief
sketch of the history of the successive
changes by which the Service Books of
the unreformed Church, as a whole.
[see Service Books], were gradually
superseded by the present Book of
Common Prayer.
The. first interference with the an
cient Service Books followed close
upon the repudiation (in 1534) of the.
Papal supremacy, in a Royal Proclama
tion, issued in 1535, which ordered the
Ecclesiastical authorities in every dio
cese to cause the name Pope to be
erased wherever it occurred in all the
Service Books of the Church. It was
not till seven years after this that any
positive changes in the services were
made. In 1542, Convocation was told
that it was the royal will that all the
Service Books should be "newly ex
amined, reformed, and castigated from
all manner of mention of the Bishop
of Rome's name, from all apocryphas,
feigned legends, superstitious notions,
collects, versicles, and responses ; that
the names and memories of all the
saints who are not mentioned in Scrip
ture or authentical doctors should be
abolished and put out of the same
books and calendars, and that the

PRAYER BOOK

473

PRAYER BOOK

services should be made out of the
Scriptures," &c.
In the same year, Convocation ap
pointed a committee to consider the
revision of the Prayer Book, and
meantime ordered the lessons to be
read in English. In the following year,
1543-4, the Litany was translated, with
the omission of the invocation of saints,
with some additions to it from the
Liturgy of Luther, and that published
under the authority of Hermann, the
reforming Bishop of Cologne, which
was the work of Melancthon, and
ordered to be used in public worship.
It should be mentioned here, that in
1545, an authorised edition of the Eng
lish Prymerwasput forth [see Prymer],
which contained English translations
of Matins and Evensong, and portions
of other services.
In 1546, the King commissioned
Cranmer ' ' to pen a form for the alter
ation of the Mass into a Communion,"
i.e. to add, as the result proves, some
features which would give prominence
to, and make special provision for, the
long neglected (and discouraged) duty
of habitual frequent communion of the
laity. The way in which this was done
was, briefly, by the addition of a short
English form to the existing Latin ser
vice of the Salisbury Missal, expur
gated as that had been in 1542. [It will
be found in further detail under the
heading of Communion Service, the
First Reformed.] The form so drawn
up was approved by Convocation, rati
fied by both Houses of Parliament, and
issued under a Royal Proclamation,
dated March 8th, 1547-8. Meanwhile
the Commission of Revision had been
at work upon a careful revision of the
services, in an English dress ; and im
mediately after the death of Henry,
Convocation passed a resolution " that
the work of the bishops and others,
who by the command of Convocation
have laboured in examining, reforming,
and publishing the Divine Service,
may be produced and laid- before the
examination of this house." The book
was adopted by Convocation, was

incorporated into an Act of Parliament
(2 and 3 Ed. VI. o. 9), which passed
in the Lords, June 15th, and in the
Commons' House, June 21st, 1548-9,
and which enacted that it should come
into use on the following Whit Sunday,
which fell on the 9th June. The pro
clamation for the use of the New Prayer
Book, also ordered the bishops to call
in alL the old Service Books, and de
face and abolish them, so that they
should never after serve to any such use
as they were provided for. The book
itself was printed and published by the
7th of March, 1548-9. The revisers had
no intention to put out entirely new
services ; on the contrary, they dis
tinctly aimed at a wise revision of the
ancient services in the direction of
Catholic antiquity ; and so convinced
were they that they had not introduced
mere innovations, that Cranmer in after
days offered to prove that "the Order
of the Church of England set out by
authority of Edward Vi., was the same
that had been used in the Church for
1500 years past." * (Bishop Jeremy
Taylor's Works, viii. 292.) This was
the culminating point of the English
Reformation. Somerset, the Lord Protector,- was
greatly under the influence of the
Calvinistic and Zwinglian school of
Reformers, and under such influences
the English Reformation began to
decline from its catholic spirit and
conservative methods. One important
result of this was an agitation for a
further revision of the Prayer Book.
Peter Martyr and Bucer, who had
been welcomed to England and settled
in the divinity chairs at Oxford and
Cambridge, were influential movers in
the agitation, and Calvin himself wrote
letters to the King, to Somerset, and to
Cranmer. It would seem that Convo
cation was averse to further changes in
the services, but found it expedient to
yield to the pressure put upon it by
threats that if it refused, the King would
* The adaptation of the ancient Plain Song
to this new book was done by Marbecke,
under the patronage of Cranmer.

PRAYER BOOK

474

PRAYER BOOK

put out a new book without its con
currence. The most recent historians
of the Prayer Book are of opinion that
the new revision was executed by a
commission which had already in 1550
been appointed to draw up a new ordi
nal. There is no certain proof that the
new revision received the formal sanc
tion of Convocation, but it is highly
probable that Cranmer would take care
that it was not sent to parliament with
out it. A second Act of Uniformity was
passed on April 6th, 1552, which incor
porated the new book with the new ordi
nal, and ordered it to come into use on
the Feast of All Saints (Nov. 1) follow
ing. Three editions of the book were
printed ; but before the day fixed for its
public use arrived, viz. Sept. 27, any
further issue of the book was stopped,
with a view probably to still further
alterations ; and on July 6, 1553, the
young king died, before any further
alterations had been made. It is certain,
therefore, that this second book did not
get into general use, and perhaps was
not taken into public use at all. It
might, therefore, almost have been
omitted from this history as a merely
abortive attempt, but for the fact that
on the accession of Elizabeth this book
was taken up again and adopted, with
some few but important alterations, as
the Prayer Book of the final phase of
the Reformation.
On the accession of Mary the Acts
of Uniformity of the preceding reign
were repealed, and a proclamation called
in for destruction not only the two
Reformed Prayer Books, but also the
mutilated and defaced copies of the old
books, in order to replace them with
new and perfect Service Books, which
the parishes were required to furnish
themselves with, as the service stood
in the last year of the reign of King
Henry VIII. None of the reprints of
Mary's reign have come down to us, for
Elizabeth's Government, in its turn,
issued commissions of inquiry for
searching out and destroying of super
stitious books.
At the accession of Elizabeth the

crisis was both difficult and danger
ous. Many of the Marian exiles, who
came back with all the popular pres
tige of Confessors for the Faith,
were thoroughly imbued with the prin
ciples of the foreign calvinistic reformers
wno had showed them hospitality, and
anxious to secure the triumph of these
principles in the resettlement of the
English Church. On the other hand,
many English Churchmen had been
alienated from the Reformation by the
excess to which things had been carried
in the time of Edward, and, dreading
still greater excesses, were disposed to
cling to the reconciliation which had
been effected in the late reign with the
rest of Christendom, as the most effec
tual safeguard of the English Church.
A committee of divines was appointed
to consider the question of the Prayer
Book ; and a conference of divines was
summoned to discuss the questions in
dispute before the Privy Council in the
hope of arriving at an accommodation.
The Queen and Court appear to have
been in favour of a return to the First
Book of Edward VI., but the Romanis
ing party proved intractable ; and what
remained was to unite the sections of
the Reforming party. In order to this
the committee of divines took the
second Book of Edward as their basis,
with a few alterations in the direction
of the first book. It has been thought
that the sanction of Convocation was
not sought for this book, but Mr. Joyce
has recently adduced documentary evi
dence which makes it seem probable
that it was sanctioned by an Episcopal
Synod. An Act of Uniformity (1 Eliz.
c. 2), passed April 28, 1557, ordered the
new book to be taken into use on St.
John Baptist's Day (June 25) following,
and all the old service books were ordered
to be delivered to the ordinaries to be
burned. Out of 9400 of the parochial
clergy, only one hundred and eighty-
nine refused to adopt it.
The only other change made in this
reign was in the calendar, which, under
the authority given to the Crown, had
the table of lessons modified, and the

PRAYER BOOK

475

PRAYER BOOK

names of the saints inserted in it
revised. The opposition to Church principles,
and to the Prayer Book as their ex
ponent, increased during the reign of
Elizabeth. On the accession of James
the Puritan party conceived new hopes,
and moved strongly for a further re
vision. AVith a view to satisfy the
opposition, the King summoned some
of the leaders on both sides to a con
ference before the King in Council at
Hampton Court. The Conference lasted
three days, Jan. 14, 16, and 18, 1603-
4, and the objections of the Puritans
seemed to the King so unreasonable
that he broke up the Conference on the
third day, without arriving at any con
clusions. The bishops, however, took
the opportunity to make a few small
amendments which seemed desirable ;
the most important was the addition of
the latter part of the Catechism on the
subject of the sacraments. The Act 3
James I. c. 5, which authorised this
Revised Prayer Book, assumed the ex
istence even still of some of the old
Service Books which it cites by name,
with the addition of several books of
devotion which had come into use
lately, viz. " Rosaries, Lady-Psalters,
and Catechisms," and orders that they
shall all be burned.
AVith the triumph of the Long Parlia
ment over the Crown, the Puritan party
gained the ascendancy in religion, and
proceeded to take advantage of the
opportunity to make the changes it
had so long desired. Among these
was the abolition of the Prayer Book.
On 3 Jan. 1645, an " Ordinance " of
Parliament repealed the existing Act
of Uniformity, and enacted that the
Prayer Book should not henceforth be
used in public worship ; and on 23rd
of Aug. of the same year another ordi
nance forbade the use of it in private,
under heavy penalties. The Directory
of Public Worship, put forth by the
Westminster Assembly of Divines, was
ordered to be followed instead, by all
ministers in conducting public worship.
The Prayer Book was to be disused,

and the Directory to take its place on
St. Bartholomew's Day, Aug. 24, and
those ministers who declined the change
were to be ejected on that day. [See
Westminster Assembly of Divines.]
On the Restoration of the Monarchy,
May 29, 1660, the Prayer Book was at
once restored to use in the Royal
Chapels and in many of the churches ;
but the formal resettlement of religion
was delayed in the hope of effecting a
general agreement of all parties. A
Royal Proclamation promised the con
vocation of an assembly of " learned
divines of both persuasions " to revise
the Liturgy, and in the mean time ex
horted those who could not conscien
tiously use the whole of it, to use such
portions as they did not object to. In
1661 this promised Assembly of Divines,
consisting of the leading men of both
sides, met at the Savoy in the Strand
from April 15 to July 24. The pro
ceedings are still on record. It became
evident that no concessions which the
Church party could in conscience make
would be sufficient to satisfy the ob
jectors ; and the result of the commis
sion was that out of innumerable sug
gestions the bishops adopted such as
seemed to be improvements, and caused
them to be introduced by Convocation
into a newly revised Prayer Book. The
book received some modifications in
passing through parliament, which were
in the direction of increasing the rever
ence and solemnity of the worship,
and of maintaining ancient ceremonies.
The book so amended was embodied in
an Act of Uniformity, which received
the royal assent 19th May, 1662, and
which required that the new book
should be used by all ministers on and
after Bartholomew's Day, 1662, the
seventeenth anniversary of the day on
which it had been superseded by the
Presbyterian Puritan Directory.
An attempt was made in the reign of
William III. to re-model the Prayer
Book, as part of the scheme of the
Court party for modifying the whole
doctrine and -system of the Church.
Happily the attempt failed, A notice

PREBEND

476 PREMONSTRATENSIAN

of the fact is necessary in a sketch of
the history of the Prayer Book, but the
details of the proposed alterations need
not be included in this work ; the
student may find the proposed revision
in extenso iii a ' Blue Book ' issued by
the Government, June 2, 1854, and an
account of it in Proctor's ' History of
the Prayer-book,' p. 144. It is a fact
not to be passed over without notice
that since the Second Book of Edward
VI. every revision of the Prayer Book
has been in the direction of a return to
the standards of "the primitive and
purest times," and that all the many
attempts to revise the Prayer Book in
the opposite direction have hitherto
failed. Since 1662 no alteration has been
made in the services themselves of the
Prayer Book proper ; but several in its
accessories, viz. by the omission of the
services for the Fifth of November, and
for the Restoration of the Church and
Monarchy, which having only the
authority of the Crown, were removed
by the same authority ; the Table of
Lessons was revised by Convocation in
1871. See Maskell's ' MonumentaRitualia,'
Proctor's ' History of the Book of
Common Prayer,' Blunt's 'Annotated
Prayer-book.' Edition, 1884.
PREBEND, A, is an endowment in
land, or pension in money, given to a
cathedral (or conventual) church in
prcebendam, i. e. for a maintenance for
a secular priest (or regular canon).
Stalls, of a cathedral were mostly
endowed by the appropriation of pa
rochial benefices. A patron gave his
church as the endowment of a stall.;
the parochial benefice was the ' ' corpus' '
of the prebend, and the occupant of the
stall was the prebendarius, nominated
by the bishop or by the dean and chap
ter. The prebendary lived in his
parish except when "in residence" at
the cathedral, and maintained a clerk
in his parish to fulfil the duties of the
cure during- his absence. In the end
the same kind of arrangement was
made in this case as in the case of the

monasteries to secure the interests
of the parishioners [see Appropriate
Benefice] ; the prebendary nominated
a perpetual vicar with the usual share
of the benefice.
PREBENDARY is the person sup
ported by a prebend. Act 3 & 4 Vict.
c. 113 enacts that henceforth all the
members of chapter, except the dean,
in every cathedral and collegiate church
in England, and in the cathedral
churches of St. David and Llandaff,
shall be styled Canons (Sir R. P., p.
212). PREMONSTRATENSIAN Order of
Monks. This was the most important
offshoot from the stock of the Canons
Regular of the Order of St. Augustine:
It was founded by St. Norbert, a Ger
man nobleman, afterwards Archbishop
of Magdeburg, who died in 1134 a.d.,
his first house in a barren spot in the
valley of Coney in Picardy, called Pre-
monstre, giving its name to the Order.
The Rule was that of St. Augustine,
with a severe discipline. The special
object of the institution was a pure
contemplative life. Novices were to be
of a proper age ; able before profession
to read, well understand grammar, and
know Latin ; not to be professed before
eighteen years of age. The regulation
of their day was much the same as in
the Augustinian Rule. Their abbots
were never to use any episcopal in
signia. All the abbots were to meet
once a-year at Premonstre to consult
about the affairs of the Order, and the
penalty for non-attendance could only
be remitted by the pope himself.-
Abbots to have power of excommu
nicating and absolving their monks.
Differences arising to bo composed
among themselves, and no appeal to be
allowed to secular courts. Not to keep
or feed dogs, hawks, swine, &c. Exr
emption from the bishop's jurisdiction.
Ordination, on refusal of the diocesan,
to be obtained from any other bishop.
No schools for the education of youth
among them. The habit was a coarse
white' cassock with a rochet over it, a
white woollen cloak, and a white four.

¦

PRESCRIPTION

477

PRIEST

square cap, from which they were
called White Canons.
The nuns of the Order did not sing
in the choir or church, but prayed in
silence. Priests and clerks dwelt apart,
who instructed them in Scripture at
certain seasons, and heard their con
fessions. The Order was very popular on the
Continent, but had only thirty-six
houses in England, which were all
under the jurisdiction of the Abbot of
Premonstre and the general chapter
of the Order, until 1512 a.d., when
the English houses were made by Pope
Julius II. independent of Premonstre,
and Welbeck was made the English
head of the Order.
The Premonstratensian houses in
England were Newhouse, Line. ; Aln
wick, Northumb. ; Shapp, Westmor. ;
Tupholm, Line. ; AVelbeck, Notts ;
Croxton, Leicest. ; Leystone, Suffolk ;
Beauchief, Derb. ; Blancland, North
umb. ; Newbo, Line. ; Lavenden,
Bucks ; Wendling, Norfolk ; Hagne-
by, Line. ; Le Dale, Derb. ; Langdon,
Kent ; W. Dereham, Norfolk ; Bileigh,
Essex ; Sulby, Northants ; Cokersand,
Lane. ; Bayham, Sussex ; * Brodholm,
Notts ; Barlings, Line. ; Coverham,
Yorks ; Easby, Yorks ; Torr, Devon. ;
Hales Owen, Salop ; Langley, Norfolk ;
Tichfield, Hants ; Home Lacy, Here
ford ; Horneby, Lane. ; *Irford, Line. ;
Dureford, Sussex ; St. Radegund (or
Bradsole), Kent; Egleston,' Yorks;
Dodford, Worcest. ; Kayland, North
ants. ('Monasticon,' vol. vi. pt. 2.)
PRESCRIPTION. May be defined as
a claim which a man's ancestors or pre
decessors have had or used for time be
yond memory, and differs from custom
as being a personal right. Time be
yond memory is defined by Act of Par
liament to be prior to A.D. 1189. Pre
scription in ecclesiastical matters is
considered not to be affected by modern
.Acts, which reduce to a veiy limited
time the period necessary to acquire a
prescriptive right. As regards a chapel
forming part of a church, possession
* Those marked * are Nunneries.

time out of mind will probably suffice.
since the presumption of its origin as
private property is great. As regards
seats situated elsewhere in a church, the
presumption derivable from history is
altogether otherwise, since it is in dero
gation of the rights of the parishioners
generally, even had it been the fact
(which it is not) that any seating
existed in "time beyond memory."
Many cases have been treated on the
ground that long possession leads to
the presumption that it originated in a
faculty ; but if, as would appear ex
tremely probable, there never was any
legal authority enabling the grant of a
faculty to an individual to enure in
perpetuity in derogation of the rights
of others, the claim to prescriptive
right on this ground at once fails. It
has been decided that possession for a
century is insufficient, and that in the
case of a church built in 1663 there could
be no such prescriptive right. A. H.
PRESENCE, REAL. [See Real
Presence.] PRIEST, a contraction of the Greek
(irptafiirtpoQ = elder). The second
order of the Christian ministry. We
first read of elders, as an order of
ministers under the apostles, already
existing in the Church of Jerusalem,
when Barnabas and Paul brought up
the contributions which the Gentile,
Churches had sent to aid their brethren
in Palestine in the famine which oc
curred there probably in the year 45
(Acts xi. 30). We hear of the elders
of Palestine again (Acts xv. 2, 23),
as associated with the apostles in the
consideration and settlement of the
question about the Judaising Christians
in the Council of Jerusalem ; and again
as associated with James the Apostle
and Bishop of Jerusalem (Acts xxi.
18). We read (Acts xiv. 23) that Paul
and Barnabas on their second visit to
the Churches of Galatia and Phrygia,
ordained elders in every Church. When
St. Paul sent Titus to Crete, one of
the things he was commissioned to do
was to ordain elders in every city
(Tit. i. 5). St. Peter also recognises

PRIEST

478

PRIEST

the existence of elders in the Churches
to which his general epistle is addressed
(1 Peter v. 1). But while their exist
ence as a recognised order of ministers
is frequently alluded to, it is remark
able that there does not appear in the
Acts of the Apostles any record of the
first appointment of this order of
ministers, while the appointment of the
inferior order of deacons is recorded.
It has been maintained that both
the Apostolate and the Presbyterate
appear in the Acts as existing and ex
ercising their office, without any ac
count of their appointment, because
St. Luke had already, in the former
volume of his history, recorded the
appointment of both by Our Lord Him
self. This assumes that the appointment
of "the seventy," mentioned in Luke
x. , was an appointment not to a tem
porary mission but to a permanent
office, and the following are some of the
reasons for the assumption : — In the
ninth chapter of his gospel, St. Luke
relates the sending forth of the
' ' twelve disciples " " to preach the king
dom of God and to heal the sick," and
"He gave them power and authority
over all devils. " "And He said unto
them, Take nothing for your journey,
neither staves, nor scrip, neither bread,
neither money ; neither have two coats
apiece. And whatsoever house ye enter
into, there abide, and thence depart.
And whosoever will not receive you,
when ye go out of that city, shake off
the very dust from your feet for a testi
mony against them. " In the tenth chap
ter he relates, that "after these things
the Lord appointed other seventy also. "
And the commission He gives them is
the same as that to the twelve — "Say
unto them, the kingdom of God is come
nigh unto you. " The same miraculous
power He gives them to enforce their
teaching — "Heal the sick." He gives
them the same kind of personal direc
tions, to ' ' carry neither purse, nor
scrip, nor shoes;" "into whatsoever
house ye enter there remain; " and where
they will not receive you, "shake off
the dust of your feet against them. "

He gave to their "Peace be unto
you" the same power of blessing",
and to their denunciation of woe the
same efficacy, as to the apostles (com
pare Matt. x. 13—16 ; Luke x. 5—13) ;
and to both he said, "He that heareth
you heareth Me ; and he that despiseth!
you despiseth Me ; and he that de-
spiseth Me despiseth Him that sent
Me " (Luke x. 16). The parallel "is
very remarkable, and shows that the
"seventy" were sent out to do gxactly
the same work, with the same super
natural powers to qualify them, as the
"twelve disciples."
When the historian begins his narra
tive of the seventy by saying, the
Lord appointed "other" seventy also,
it would seem as if the ' ' other " is an
allusion to the ' ' twelve, " whose mission
he has mentioned just before ; and that
he virtually says, as the Lord had
previously chosen a special body of
twelve, and sent them out to preach,
so now He chose another special body
of seventy, and sent them out to do
the same work, armed with the same
supernatural powers.
That the commission was not like
that of the messengers mentioned in
Luke ix. 52, may be argued from the
language addressed to the seventy by
our Lord, which implies that' they
would remain for some time in each
place, preaching Christ and working
miracles. That their office did not ter
minate when they had returned to their
Lord and reported their success (that
not only had they healed the sick which
He had promised, but that the devils
also had been subject to them in His
Name, which he had not promised
them), seems clear from this, that far
from withdrawing their commission,
he adds to the miraculous powers which
had been given them in furtherance of
their preaching : "Behold, I give unto
you power to tread on serpents and
scorpions, and over all the power of tho
enemy : and nothing shall by any means
hurt you. Notwithstanding in this re
joice not, that the spirits are subject
unto you ; but rather rejoice, because

PRIEST

479

PRIEST

your names are written in heaven "
(Luke x. 17—21). The office of the
twelve did not cease when they re
turned from the mission on which
Christ sent them, neither necessarily
did that of the seventy. AVe hear
nothing more of the seventy as a body
in the gospels, perhaps because this
larger body was not kept together, and
did not accompany our Lord every
where, as the apostles did. But when
the elders are mentioned by the same
St. Luke in the Acts, as existing in
the Judean Churches, without any ac
count of their appointment, they can
be reasonably accounted for by identi
fying them with "the seventy," or re
garding them as an extension of that
body. And this accounts for the fact
that while St. Luke, in his history of
the ' Origincs of the Church,' gives an
account of the origin of the order of
deacons, he gives there no account of the
origin of the order of apostles or elders,
because he has already done this in the
"former treatise," to which this is the
second volume of a continuous history.
Their office was ' ' to feed the Church
of God" (Acts xx. 28) ; "to feed the
flock of God " (1 Pet. v. 2), viz. with
the Word and Sacraments ; and to ex
ercise a delegated authority in matters
of discipline. "Know them which
labour among you, and are over you in
tho Lord, and esteem them very highly
in love for their work's sake " (1 Thess.
v. 12, 13 ; 1 Cor. v. 4 ; 2 Cor. ii. 9,
10). They received payment for their
services : "Do ye not know that they
which minister about holy things live
of the things of the temple ? and
they which wait at the altar are par
takers with the altar? Even so hath
the Lord ordained that they which
preach the gospel should live of the
gospel" (1 Cor. ix. 13, 14). "Feed
the flock of God which is among you,
taking the oversight thereof, not by
constraint but willingly ; not for filthy
lucre " (a temptation to which the pay
ment of their ministry made them
liable), " but of a ready mind. Neither
as being lords over God's heritage " (a

temptation to which their spiritual
authority opened the way), "but being
ensamples to the flock " (1 Peter v.
2—3 ; also 1 Tim. v. 17).
That the Presbyterate continued to
be a distinct second order in the
Church is certain from the ecclesi
astical writers, e. g. Ignatius, in his
epistles, over and over again names
the bishops, priests, and deacons as the
three orders of the ministry of the
Church. In the beginning of his
Epistle to the Magnesians, he names
Damas their bishop, Bassus and
Apollonius their presbyters, and Zotiou
their deacon, and speaks of "their
bishop presiding in the place of God,
the presbyters as the council of apostles,
and the deacons as the ministers of
Christ." In the Epistle to the Tral-
lians, he says, "Let nothing by any
means be done without the bishop,
even as ye now practise ; subject your
selves to the college of presbyters as
to the apostles of* Jesus Christ ....
and let the deacons study to please all
men ; without them a Church is not
named," i. e. an organisation of men is
not a Church without these three
orders ; and so in other epistles.
There was at first some uncertainty
about the names of this order of the
ministry ; they are sometimes called
iirioKOTroi, bishops (Phil. i. 4 ; 1 Tim.
iii. 1, 2), and sometimes irptofibTEpoi ;
but after a while the former name was
appropriated exclusively to the succes
sors of the apostles in the supreme
government of the Church, and the
latter name alone was applied to the
second order, who presided over indi
vidual congregations under the supreme
rule of the bishops.
It has been ' maintained that the
office of elder, as well as the name,
was derived from the synagogue, not
from the temple ; and that it follows
that the Christian Church, and its
officers, and its services, are derived
from the synagogue, and have no rela
tion to the temple and its ministers
and services. The fact is, that though
some of the same names happen to

PRIMATE

480

PRIORY

exist in the synagogue and in the
Church, there is no analogy between
the offices which they represent. In a
synagogue there were six or seven
different orders of ministers : — the
ruler, the elders, the collector of alms,
the servants, the messengers, the
preacher, and the reciter of prayers,
or singer. There were several elders
in each synagogue, and their office
was, like that of the seventy elders
appointed by Moses, to act as coun
sellors of the ruler, to take part in
the internal management of affairs, to
punish transgressors of the law ; not to
pray and preach and administer sacra
ments. The Christianministry isderived
neither from the synagogue nor from
the temple : it is derived from Christ.
He himself appointed the apostles, and
they their successors in the rule of
the Church ; either He directly or His
apostles, acting by His command or
inspiration, appointed the Presbyterate ;
and the apostles appointed the Diacon-
ate. The whole ministry is involved
in the Apostolate, and it was Christ
Himself who said, "As my Father
hath sent Me, even so send I you : "
"he that receiveth you receiveth Me,
and he that receiveth Me receiveth Him
that sent Me. "
The priesthood is the second in rank
of the three holy orders ; it is not, by
the Canon, to be conferred on any man
till he is twenty-three years of age,
yet by dispensation for sufficient cause
it may be, and has occasionally been,
conferred at an earlier age. The order
is conferred by laying on of hands
by a bishop [see Ordination], and the
order is indelible, that is, a priest
cannot at his pleasure throw off his
sacred character, though for misconduct
he may be degraded from it.
PRIMATE (from primus), in its first
ecclesiastical use, seems to refer to
seniority. It was used in Africa to
denote the senior bishop of that pro
vince who held the position of prece
dency among the other bishops which
in other provinces was assigned to
the bishop of the Metropolitan see. It

was sometimes applied to Metropoli
tans. It was not in ordinary use till
the ninth century, and then with a
new meaning almost {equivalent to that
of patriarch, viz. to designate one
who has jurisdiction over several
Metropolitans. PRIMK. [See Hours.]
PRIOR. [See Priory.]
PRIORESS, the superior of a con
vent of nuns. [See Priory.] Two monu
mental brasses, of prioresses still re
main, and are interesting as examples '
of costume, viz. of Elizabeth Harvey,
Prioress of Elstow, and of Agnes Jordan,
Prioress of Syon, both of the sixteenth
century. The head of a prioress (pro
bably of Kilburn, of about 1360-70)
was found near the site of that priory
in 1883, and is engraved in ' London and
Middlesex Transactions,' VI. p. 276.
PRIORIES, ALIEN. English land
owners and patrons of benefices some
times gave English estates and churches
as endowments to foreign religions
houses, most commonly to French
houses, which they or their ancestors
had founded, or with which they were
connected. The foreign convent usually
built a cell upon the estate, inhabited
by two or more monks, who looked
after the estate, and remitted its profits
to the parent house. On the breaking
out of war with France these alien
priories were repeatedly seized into the
king's hands to prevent the remittance
of their profits ; and at length they
were all dissolved by Act of Parliament
in the second year of Henry V., and
their estates vested in the Crown. Most
of them were, however, appropriated
to religious uses ; some were" given
to English houses, out of some Eton
and King's College, Cambridge, were
founded. They were more than 120 in
number. PRIORY. A religious house whose
ruler was termed prior or prioress.
There were two kinds of priories—
1. Where the prior was the independent
ruler of the community, as the priors
of the cathedral organisation, and most
of those of the Augustinian family of

PRIORY

481

PROCESSION

orders. 2. Where the priory was »
dependent house' of some abbey.
When an abbey had an estate given
to it at some distance it frequently
built a house upon it, which in the
case of a small estate might be a mere
cell, capable of holding two monks and
their servants, to look after the inter
ests of the house ; in the case of a
large estate the dependent house was

independence and autonomy, managing
their own affairs, but receiving their
prior from the abbot's nomination, and
paying a yearly contribution to the
parent house. Some of these priories
were so wealthy and powerful that their
priors were summoned to Parliament,
and had the privilege of wearing the
mitre and pastoral staff. Others were
not summoned to Parliament, but were

Coronation Procession of Cliarles V. of France. (From MS. of Froissarfs Chronicle.)

sometimes another monastery, with a
more or less considerable number of
monks, and the usual monastic officers,
of whom the prior was the chief, and
represented the abbot ; only the reve
nues of the estate were taken into
the general revenues of the abbey, and
the prior, officials, and monks, and the
whole house, were under the rule of
the abbot. Some of the greater of
these priories, however, in course of
time attained a considerable degree of

allowed to wear all the abbatial in
signia except the mitre : e. g. the prior
of Taunton.
PROCESSION. When a number of
persons engaged in a transaction of a
more or less ceremonious nature require
to pass from one place to another, it is
necessary, in order to prevent inde
corous confusion, that they should go
in a pre-arranged order, i. e. in a pro
cession ; so we naturally get a number
of ecclesiastical processions, from that

II

PROCESSIONALE

482

PROPERTY

of the choir and clergy of a village
church passing from the vestry to
their stalls in the chancel, to that of
the procession of a hundred bishops of
the Anglican Communion passing up
the nave of St. Paul's on the occasion
of the Pan-Anglican synod of 1871.
But besides these necessary processions1
there are processions performed as part
of a religious rite. There are examples
in the Old Testament dispensation,
when the procession walked round a
circle, or in still more intricate evolu
tions, keeping time to the rhythm of
musical instruments, and such proces
sions are described as dances. E. g. the
triumph song of Moses over the destruc
tion of the Egyptians in the Red Sea
was performed in parts, with recitative
and chorus, and accompanied with
music and dancing. In the worship of
the temple some of the Psalms seem to
have been sung in a similar dramatic
manner. In the Church the same
natural tastes have been enlisted in
the service of religion, e. g. in the
processions of the Bogation Days, the
Palm Sunday procession, and the pro
cession of the ordinary Litany [which
see]. There were also annual proces
sions of the parishes of a diocese to the
Cathedral church. From the Lichfield
Registers in 1357, we learn that in that
year the parishioners of Longdon, Wal
sall, Yoxden, &c, trooping up to the
mother church, headed by banners,
came into collision with. other bands of
parishioners ; and they were desired in
future to come carrying only a simple
cross, without banners and without
noise. The order was to be written in
the missal of every parish. [See also
under Chichester, Diocese of.] A pro
cession round the church of the choir
and clergy singing hymns, at the be
ginning and close of the service, is one
of the modern revivals of old customs
which has very generally commended
itself to the popular taste.
PROCESSIONALE. One of the old
Service Books, which contained all
those parts of the service which strictly
pertained to the procession, whether in

the church from one part to another,
or out of doors upon certain great and
solemn occasions. In the rubrics the
order of the procession is set forth ;
and in some copies there are illumi
nated or engraved illustrations for the
better direction of those concerned.
Much information with regard to
processions may be found in the fourth
vol. of Martene, ' De Ritibus Ecclesia^* .•
PROCTOR (contracted from procura
tor), one who takes charge of the busi
ness of another or others.
1. Persons practising in the ecclesi
astical courts, as solicitors do in the
civil courts ;
2. The clerks, chosen to represent
the chapters, and the diocesan clergy
in Convocation ;
3. Certain officers of the universities
who are charged with magisterial au
thority to supervise the morals and dis
cipline of the universities ;
4. Collectors of Tithe are so called.
PROPERTY of the Church of Eng
land. The Church of England does
not possess any common property, as if
it were a body corporate. What we
call Church property is the aggregate
of the large number of separate pro
perties with which different religious
bodies and persons are endowed.
These different bodies and persons have
received their endowments from dif
ferent donors, at different times, quite
independently of one another, and this
accounts for the great differences which
existed in the value of one see as com
pared with another see, one prebend as
compared with another prebend, one
rectory as compared with another
rectory. If the history of the endow
ment of any of our ancient bishoprics
be examined it will be found that its
earliest endowment was probably a few
acres of land given out of his personal
estates by the Anglian or Saxon, kingin
whose time the first missionaries settled
in his kingdom, under his protection)
to afford a site for church and house,
and a maintenance for the missionary
bishop and his assistants. Other
estates would be found to have been

PROPERTY

483

PROPERTY

added from time to time by the dona
tions of kings, nobles, and private men ;
one estate , perhaps would be found to
have been purchased by a bishop out
of the savings of his income, another
estate to .have been the patrimony of
another bishop, bequeathed to the see
at his death.
At first bishop and clergy lived to
gether, and had a common fund appor
tioned at the bishop's discretion ; but
about the end of the eleventh century
certain estates were set aside for the
bishop, and the rest for the cathedral
clergy. Then the estates of the cathe
dral clergy came to be appropriated to
the different members of the chapter —
this to the dean and that to the chan
cellor, &c. Then private donors founded
additional prebends in the cathedral
church ; each prebendary managing his
own estates, and enjoying the income
of them, subject to the perfonnance of
the duties of the office.
If the history of the endowment of
anyrectory be inquired into, it will pro
bably be found that no documents re
main to tell who gave the few acres, more
or less, of land, often lying in different
parcels, as if given by different people,
which from a remote antiquity have
been the rectorial glebe, nor who built
the first church and rectory-house. But
wo know that the general history of
the foundation of the parishes is, that
a Saxon lord of the manor gave the
plot-of land, and built the first church
and priest's house on his estate, and
with the bishop's consent endowed the
rectory with the tithe of the manor in
order to secure for ever a resident priest
for the benefit of himself and his
people, and his descendants and theirs.
[See Tithe.]
It is to be noted that the lands given
' for the founding of monasteries and
other religious houses were seized by
Henry VIII. at the Reformation, and
a small part of them only appropriated
to the foundation of new sees. And
that the glebes and great tithes of a
very large number of parishes which
were in the possession of the monasteries

were seized and confiscated at the same
time. [See Impropriate Parishes.]
As Henry VIII. seized the property
of the religious houses, so Edward VI.
seized that of the chantries. An Act
of Parliament gave Queen Elizabeth
tho power, on the avoidance of any
see, to take into her hands any of the
landed property of the see in exchange
for impropriate livings or tithes in
the possession of the Crown. In this
way, notwithstanding the remon
strances of the bishops [see Grindal,
Whitgift], the sees lost much of their
ancient landed property, and received
in exchange a very insufficient equiva
lent of a much less desirable kind of
property. The greater part of the
plunder of the Church in the three
Tudor reigns was bestowed upon cour
tiers, and helped to found several of
the great families of modern times.
On the accession of James I. an Act
of Parliament (1 James I. c. 3) was
passed to put a stop to this spoliation,
by disabling the Crown from receiving
any conveyances of archbishop's or
bishop's estates, "and so the king
delivered himself from the importunity
of the courtiers " (Collier).
The only other income which the
Church possesses, besides that from
these estates and tithes, is derived from
customary and voluntary offerings [see
Offerings], and from pew-rents.
To sum up : In the eighth to
eleventh centuries people founded
parishes ; in the twelfth century
they founded monasteries, and robbed
the parishes to add to their endow
ments ; in the thirteenth the Orders
of Friars were founded ; in the four
teenth century people founded guilds
and chantries ; in the fifteenth they
maintained domestic chaplains to care
for the souls of themselves and their
families. The sixteenth century swept
away monks, friars, chantries, and
chaplains, and left the parochial clergy
only ; and the Church is suffering
now from the want of other agencies
besides parish priests tied to their
parishes, and other funds besides those

PROPERTY

484

PROPERTY

which scantily pay the parish priests.
After the Reformation the favourite
form of charitable foundation adopted
by the pious was the foundation of
grammar-schools and almshouses. The
present generation has deprived the
Church of its grammar-schools, as well
as of the more ancient colleges which
Henry and Edward spared. The special
form in which Church work is done now
is by voluntary societies, which collect
money from year to year and spend it
as fast as they receive it, incurring no
danger of locking up property in ob
solete institutions, and possessing no
thing on which the spoliator can lay
his hands. This " voluntary system "
answers fairly well in a period of
religious zeal and liberality ; but when
a period of religious deadness shall
recur, it must leave a good deal of work
to wither and die.
In the year 1832 a Royal Commis
sion made a complete inquiry into the
value and distribution of all Church
property, and a subsequent Commission
was empowered to deal with it in the
waj' and. with the results set forth in
the article on the Ecclesiastical Com
mission. The total income of the Church from
all sources, and the way in which it is
expended, is given in the financial
statement on the opposite page.
It will be seen therefore, on the
whole, that the property of the Church
was not given oy the State, but by a
multitude of private benefactors.
It was given to maintain the clergy
of the Church, for the glory of God,
and for the ministration of the offices
of the Chnrch among the people.
The bulk of the property of the
bishops, deans and chapters, and
parochial clergy, was given before the
Norman Conquest.
The bulk of the property of tho
monasteries and chantries was given
between the Norman Conquest and the
Reformation. At the Reformation the property was
not taken away from one church and
given to another ; only the property of

the religious houses was taken away,
and the bishops were relieved of some
of their manors, but there was no
general transfer of benefices from one
set of men to another.
Is not the property of the Church
national property ? Only in the sense
in which the property of the hospitals
may be called national property. The
income of A. was given to maintain a
bishop in the diocese of A. ; the glebe
and tithe of the parish of B. were given
to maintain a presbyter of the Church to '
perforin Divine service in the Church
of B. , and minister the ordinances of tho
Church to the people of that parish.
So long as the bishop of A. and the
rector of B. are fulfilling the duties of
their office, and those duties are not
detrimental to the well-being of the
people of A. and B. , an equitable State
will protect them in the enjoyment of
their property and the performance of
their duties.
But have not the Romanists a sort
of equitable right to the property ? Was
it not originally given to them, and
taken from them at the Reformation ?
The bulk of the property of the
bishops, deans and chapters, and
parochial clergy was given in Anglo-
Saxon times, before the Church of
England had submitted to the authority
of the Pope, and before the corrupt
doctrines and practices of Popery had
been introduced. What the Reforma
tion did was to restore the Church to
the condition in which it was in thoso
Anglo-Saxon times when the property >
was given to it. The property acquired -
during the ages, from the twelfth to '¦
the fifteenth inclusive, when tho
Church was under the authority of tho
Pope, and was being gradually cor
rupted by false doctrines and super
stitions, was taken away again, on tho
ground of its having been devoted to
' ' superstitious uses, " at the Reforma
tion ; and the bulk of it was confiscated
to secular uses. And the portion of
Church property which was left to the
Church was not taken from one set of
people and given to another ; the great

The following Balance Sheet of the Church of England was
AVERAGE ANNUAL RECEIPTS.
Endowments. £ s. d. £
"Hthes and rental of lands 1,949,204 14 0
'ithes, rental of lands, and in-
!st of numey investments ae-
nred for the maintenance of the
{ gy since the Reformation . .
State Aid.
'arliamentary grant for the edu-
Lon of the poor 
Voluntary System.
'arochial collections and sub-
Mptions  3,182,400
Contributions to London So-
;ies  . 400,000
Contributions to miscellaneous
arch institutions other than
ools, and not included in
irch collections  600,000
contributions (not included in
ochial) in aid of church build-
¦ and restoration  500,000 0 0
School payments of parents . 762, 898 0 0

put forth some years ago by the Yorksliire Union of Church Institutes.
ANNUAL AVERAGE EXPENDITURE.

2,251,051 ° ° 4,200,255 14 0

0 0

0 0

0 0

508,599 0 0

5,445,298 0 0

0 0

- I. Maintenance of the Clergy. £ s. d.
Net salaries of 2 Archbishops,
26 Bishops, and 70 Archdeacons 138,556 0 0
II. Cathedral Work.
Net salaries of 30 Deans, 127
Canons, 120 Minor Canons, 600
singers, together with many lay
officers and servants  201,605
III. Parochial Work.
Net salaries of 13,041 Rectors
and Vicars, and 5706 Curates . . 3,146,051
Taxes, &c. on the endowments of
the clergy, other than income tax
and those usually paid by occupiers
[See 1 & 2 Vict. c. 206, §§ 8 & 10]
Education of the Poor.
Education of 2,044,406 scholars
in church schools, with training
of teachers, &c. 

s. d.

0 0

£10,154,152 14 0

Church institutions other than
schools [See Low's 'Hand-Book
of Charities']  1,000,000
Relief of the poor from church
collections  400,000
Foreign missions  500, 000
Current Church expenses . . 352,000
Church building and restoration 650,000
Balance

3,486,212 0 0

714,043 0 0

3,051,573 0 0

. 2,902,000 324 14 0

£10,154,152 14 0

PROPERTY

486

PROTESTANT

majority of the clergy retained their
livings throughout the various phases
of the Reformation, approving of the
broad features of the reform, acquiesc
ing in some things which perhaps
they did not cordially approve, and
holding on through the oscillations
caused by the alternate triumphs of
the religious parties in the Church,
until the Reformation settled down
under Elizabeth, when tho formation
of rival religious communities began.
The only time when there was any
thing like a general transfer of property
from one set of men to another was
when in the Long Parliamentthe Com
monwealth turned out the bishops and
loyal clergy, and put Presbyterians,
Independents, Baptists, &c. &c, in
their places ; and again when at the
Restoration of Chnrch and monarchy
the survivors of the clergy returned to
their sees and livings, and those of
the intruders who declined to accept
Church doctrine and discipline were
required to retire from the Church
livings into which they had been
intruded. But was not the property given to the
Church by the original donors for the
support of religious ministrations among
the people generally ? and now that so
many people decline the ministrations
of the Church and prefer the religious
ministrations of the sects, would it not
be equitable to give them a share in
these ancient endowments which were
confessedly intended for their welfare ?
In reply, take the analogy of the hos
pitals before alluded to. They were
endowed for curative ministrations
among the poorer classes generally ;
now that so many of these classes
decline allopathic and stimulative
methods of treatment, and prefer
homoeopathic and non-alcoholic treat
ment, would it be equitable to deprive
the old hospitals of a proportion of
their endowments to give them to the
homoeopathic and temperance hospitals.
No, let the maintainers of homoeopathic
and abstaining principles build hospitals
of their own.

If, for the sake of putting an end to
sectarian strife, and in the name of re
ligions equality, these old endowments
were to be taken away, and the Church
left like the other religious denomin
ations, would it be any real loss to her'!*
It would be a great loss to the poor.
The well-to-do people could maintain
churches and clergy for themselves, but
the poorer parts of the towns and tho
country villages could not. On tho
other hand, who would gain by tho
plunder of the Church ? The tithe is
a rent-charge on the land. It is tho
landowner who really pays it, though
he pays it through his tenant, allowing
for it in the amount at which the rent
is estimated. If there were no tithe
to be paid the rent would be put at so
much more. The farmer would got
none of it ; and if not the farmer, still
less the labourer. But what if tho
tithe were still demanded and devoted
to payment of poor-rate or the support
of schools ? Then the farmers would
not have so much to pay to the poor-
rate, and the labourers would not Iiave
so much to pay for their children's
schooling ; but if farmer and labourer
wanted any religion to be maintained
among them they would have to pay
for that — the squire pays for it now—
and would probably get it at a dearer,
price and of worse quality than before.
The Church is a grand institution
for the welfare of all classes, especially
it is the greatest charity in the kingdom
for the temporal and spiritual benefit of
the poorer classes. It is maintained
not out of the taxes, but by ancient
endowments; to plunder itwould.be
to starve religion and charity, and to
benefit nobody.
PROTESTANT, one who protests..
The word arose in Germany, being first
given to those Gorman princes and
others who, at tho second Diet of
Spires, 1529, "protested" against tho
revocation of a resolution of the first
Diet at that place, 1526, which had
granted to each prince the power to
manage ecclesiastical affairs until a
General Council ; and the substitution

PROTESTANT

487

PROTESTANT

of a resolution declaring all change in
doctrine, discipline, and worship un
lawful : thence it was extended to all the
Lutheran communions, who were called
"Protestants," while the Calvinists
and Zwinglians were called "the Re
formed. " The Church.of England never
in any document adopts the name ; on
the contrary, Convocation in the time
of William III. distinctly refused to
use the word "Protestant Religion,"
or to include the Church of England
among the " Protestant Churches. " It
is true that the Act of Settlement enacts
that the Crown shall descend "in the
Protestant line." The coronation oath,
drawn up by Parliament on the acces
sion of William III. and Mary, used
the phrase — "Will you, to the utmost
of your power, maintain the laws of
God, the true profession of the gospels,
and the Protestant Reformed Religion
established by law ? " — and it is used in
some Acts of Parliament since the reign
of William III., but, "as explained by
the surrounding expressions and limit
ations, the name merely expresses the
independent position of the Church of
England, and her distinct position from
that of the Church of Rome " (Sir R. P. ,
p. 6). The word was adopted by the
daughter Churches of England in the
United States — "the Protestant Epis
copal Churches of the TJ. S. A." — to
distinguish themselves in the popular
mind from the Episcopal Churches of
the Roman Communion. There has
been a good deal of disputing about
the propriety of the use of the word in
connection with the Church of England,
and it may be said that it ought at
least to be used with discrimination.
There is perhaps no harm in styling
ourselves a " Protestant Church " when
the occasion seems to call for a state
ment of our firm protest against the
claims of the pope and the corruptions
of the Churches of the Roman Com
munion. But to allow ourselves to be
called habitually a Protestant Church,
in face of the claim of the Roman
Communion to call itself the Catholic
Church, involves a concession which it

is very undesirable to make. The
creeds of Christendom speak of One
Holy Catholic Apostolic Church ; we
claim to be the branch of that Church
settled these sixteen centuries past in
this country ; and we absolutely refuse
to recognise the right of the Reman
Communion to claim that it is the
Catholic Church, and that all bodies
not in communion with it are outside
the Catholic Church. Again, it may
seem convenient sometimes in contrast
ing the Roman Communion on one
side, with the religious bodies which
differ from her on the other, -to describe
the latter briefly as Protestants, but it
is dangerous, since it seems to imply
some common basis of positive agree
ment, if not some federal union, among
the bodies thus classed together ; where
as the Church of England differs from
some of them on one side quite as
widely as from Rome on the other.
Indeed, we find some who have hardly
any title to be called Christians at
all, calling themselves Protestants, and
assuming that we all stand on the same
general principle of ' protest against the
tyranny of Churches and Creeds. ' They
are wise words of Edmund Burke's:
' ' A man is certainly the most perfect
Protestant who protests against the
whole Christian religion. The coun
tenance given from a spirit of contro
versy to that negative religion may, by
degrees, encourage light and unthink
ing people to a total indifference to
everything positive in matters of doc
trine, and in the end of practice too.
If continued, it would play the game
of that sort of active proselytising and
persecuting atheism which is the dis
grace and calamity of our time " ( ' Letter
to Sir H. Langrishe ').
The phrase "Protestant Religion,"
or "Protestant Faith," seems inde
fensible ; the object of our faith is not
a negation ; our religion does not con
sist in ' protesting against error. The
use of the word, then, is not to be
repudiated, lest we be misunderstood.;
but it needs to be used with discrimin
ation, lest again we be misunderstood.

PROVINCE

488

PULPIT

PROVINCE, the territorial district
consisting of several dioceses, over
which an archbishop exercises his
Metropolitan jurisdiction. The English
Church is divided into two Provinces.
The Province of Canterbury contains
the twenty-four dioceses of Canterbury,
London, Winchester, Bangor, Bath and
Wells, Chichester, Ely, Exeter, Glou
cester and Bristol, Hereford, Lichfield,
Lincoln, Llandaff, Norwich, Oxford,
Peterborough, Rochester, St. Albans,
St. Asaph, St. Davids, Salisbury,
Southwell, Truro, Worcester. The
Province has an organisation, and
officers corresponding to those of a
diocese, viz. The Primate and Metro
politan is the Archbishop of Canterbury.
Provincial Dean is the Bp. of London ..
Sub-dean ,, Winchester] ,o
Chancellor „ Lincoln I J
Precentor „ Salisbury r^
Chaplain „ Worcester I £
Chaplain „ Rochester ' "<
(cross-bearer)
The Province of York contains the
nine dioceses of York, Durham, Carlisle,
Manchester, Sodor and Man, Liverpool,
1 Newcastle, Chester, Ripon. It has not
a provincial organisation like that of
Canterbury. PRYMER. The book of private de
votions for the laity in the pre-Reform-
ation Church, was that called the
' Horse,' or ' Hours of the Blessed
Virgin Mary ' (which see). From the
fourteenth century to the sixteenth,
these devotions were sometimes, in
whole or in part, translated into Eng
lish, and then the book was called the
Prymer : some have the Hours and
other usual contents of the book both
in English and Latin ; some have most
of the contents of the book in Latin,
but with a mixture of devotions in
English also ; some are entirely in Eng
lish. Of Prymers entirely in English
that of about A..D. 1410 is the earliest
which has been noticed ( ' Monumenta
Ritualia,' vol. iii.). Mr. Maskell men
tions eight MSS. of the Prymer, rang
ing from 1410 to 1460, and Mr. F. H.
Dickenson in his 'List of Printed
Service Books, according to the use of

the English Church,' mentions about
thirty printed editions from 1527 to
1547. In the year 1545, the year before
Henry VIII.'s death, an authorised
edition of the Prymer was put forth
under the title of 'The Prymer set
forthe by the Kinges Majeste-and his
Cleargy,' which contains — 'TheKalen-
dre ; The Kinges highnesse Injunction ;
The Salutacion of the Angel ; The crede
or articles of the faith ; The ten com-
mandements ; Certein graces ; The
matyns ; the Evensong ; the complin ;
The seven psalmes ; The Letany ; the
dirge ; The Commendations ; ' The
Psalmes of the passion ; the passion
of our Lorde ; Certeine godly praiers
for sundry purposes. '
It is perhaps to be regretted that we
have not a Layman's Book of Private
Devotions, put forth by authority;
suited to modern wants.
PSALTERIUM, or Psalter. One of
the old Service Books, which contained
the Psalms divided into different por
tions, as they were to be sung in the
hour services ; the division was differ
ent in different churches ; but in all
they were so arranged as to be sung
through in the hour services of each
week. Sometimes other things to be
sung, as the hymns, were included in
the same book.
PUTT IT, the small elevated platform
or stage from which the sermon is
preached. In the churches of Basilican plan
there was a pulpit called tho ambo on
each side of the chancel, from which
the gospel and other things were read,
and from one of them, probably, the
sermon was preached.
The earliest pulpits which remain in
England are those in the refectories of
monasteries, from which the scriptures
were read at meal- times ; fine examples
of these, of the fourteenth century, re
main at Beaulieu, Eastby, Beverley,
Shrewsbury, Chester, and the Vicar's
Hall, Chichester. There is also a
pulpit of the same type in the angle
of tne outer court of Magdalen College,

PULPIT

489

PURITANS

Oxford, and a stone pulpit of the same
type in Coombe Church, Oxon. Some
of the outdoor pulpits of the Dominican
friars also remain, as in the court of the
convent at Hereford, and in the church
yard of Iron Acton, Gloucestershire,
which are a combination of pulpit
and churchyard cross [For the pulpit
at Paul's cross see London, Diocese
of.] Very few pulpits remain in our
churches of a date- earlier than the
Reformation. In the illuminated MSS.
of an earlier date, pulpits are not in
frequently represented ; e. g. in the
early fourteenth century MS. in the
British Museum " marked Royal, 14,
E. 3 ; but they are always slight, un-
ornamented wooden platforms, sup
ported on four posts, with a hand-rail,
Breast high, which seem to be tempo
rary, or at least movable, to be brought
forward only when needed, and at
other times put back out of the way.
Such movable pulpits are still in use
in some of the choirs of the cathedrals.
There are a few pulpits, however, re
maining of the fourteenth centuiy.
One of stone at Coombe, Oxon, is of
the type of .those in the refectories ;
another of stone at . Trinity Church,
Coventry, attached to a pillar. The
'Glossary of Architecture' mentions
one of late fourteenth century date,
which formerly existed at St. Bar
tholomew's, Smithfield.
By the end of the fifteenth century,
probably many of the large town
churches had been furnished with a
pulpit, though not many remain of so
early a date. What do exist are of the
usual type — a deep octagonal box, with
moulded/ and carved panels, supported
on a moulded central shaft. There is
such a one at Woolvercot, Oxon (En
graved in the 'Glossary of Architec
ture,' p. 209), and at Eotheringhay,
Northants (Ibid, plate 119). The
Reformation increased the frequency
of preaching, and therefore probably
the number of pulpits, but there
were many .churches which did not
possess this article of furniture when
the Canons of 1603 required that

a pulpit should be placed in every
church not already provided with one ;
and the evidence of it is that so many
of our Old pulpits are of Jacobean date.
These are often highly ornamented with
carving, and usually had an octagonal
tester (or sounding-board) suspended
over them, partly perhaps as a canopy
of honour, partly for their supposed
utility in reflecting the preacher's voice.
Some of the pulpits of Wren's
churches, and the other churches of
that style, are very finely conceived
and richly ornamented varieties of the
usual type, e. g. the pulpit of St. Mary-
le-Strand. The pulpits of the eight
eenth centuiy and part of the nineteenth
century in the larger town churches
were often costly examples of cabinet
work, with, however, little artistic
merit. The old pulpits had often an hour
glass affixed, to measure the length of
the sermon. [See Hour-glass.] 'Ancient
Pulpits in England,' by F. T. Dolman,
A.D. 1849.
PURGATORY. [See Popery.]
PURITANS. A school within the
Church, dissatisfied not only with the
abuses and corruptions but with the
primitive and scriptural constitution
and doctrine of the Church, existed
long before the Reformation ; during
the Reformation it became an extreme
section of the general body of the Re
formers ; after the Reformation had
been settled, in the beginning of the
reign of Elizabeth, it became an organ
ized body within the Church which
aimed at further changes.
The system of organisation, doc
trine, and discipline which Calvin had
established at Geneva, was accepted
by the English Puritan party as the
model to which they desired to bring
the establishment of religion in Eng
land. Bucer, the German reformer,
who had been made Regius Professor
of Divinity at Cambridge in the reign
of Edward VI., wrote a book, ' De
Regno Christi Jesu Servatoris Nostri,'
published in 1557, in which the Puritan
platform was formally set forth.

PURITANS

490

PURITANS

The sojourn in the Low Countries of
many prominent divines during the
Marian persecution familiarised them
with the Calvinistic model, and they
came back with the desire to introduce
it here, or so much of it as should be
found possible. When the Church was
resettled by the Act of Uniformity of
Elizabeth, some clergymen of these
opinions left the Church and set up
dissenting congregations ; but others
continued within the Church, and
taught and practised their own opinions
so far as they were permitted to do so.
Several of the bishops sympathised
with these opinions, and allowed great
liberty to the clergy of their dioceses
in this direction.
But the Puritan clergy were not con
tent with the liberty as individuals
to disregard the law of the Church
in their personal ministrations, they
organised a system by means of which
they endeavoured to introduce the
Calvinistic model as a supplement to
the lawful order, and to inoculate
the whole country with its principles,
.under cover of their status of clergy
men of the Church of England, and
of the advantages it afforded them.
They divided the whole kingdom into
districts, and created an .ecclesiastical
¦organisation of classical, district, and
general assemblies ; the classes con
sisting of a few neighbouring ministers,
generally about twelve ; the district
including several of these classes, so
that there were about three districts
in a comity ; and the general assembly
being a synod of the whole body.
The clergy of their persuasion nomin
ated to a benefice were to apply to
the classis in which the benefice
was situated, and obtain its sanction
before accepting the bishop's induc
tion into the benefice. Influence was
brought to bear upon patrons to in
duce them to nominate to vacant bene
fices men of Puritan opinions. The
scheme provided for electing church T
wardens and collectors for the poor
of their persuasion, and giving to
them the Calvinian status of lay elders

and deacons. It arranged a regular
system of synodical assemblies, from
that of the classis to that of the general
assembly, for the conduct of the busi
ness of the confederation. The Puritan
incumbents were to dispense as far
as possible with the legal ritual of
the Prayer Book ; they were to teach
the scriptural character of the Calvinian
form of Church government and dis
cipline as well as doctrine ; and as far
as possible to preach and' practise the
Calvinian model. Where the incum
bents were orthodox, arrangements
were made for the support and propa
gation of the Puritan cause in their
parishes. One method was by taking
advantage of an old privilege of tho
universities to nominate twelve
preachers, who might preach in any
parish in England. They procured
the appointment of eminent Puritan
preachers, who itinerated through the
important towns, gathering large con
gregations, and propagating their
peculiar opinions. Another device was
the foundation of lectures in the im
portant town churches. A society
was formed for raising money to buy
impropriations, with a view to devot
ing them to the support of additional
clergymen ; but it was soon found that
they appropriated the funds in pensions
for the support of lecturers, and that
the lecturers whom they appointed
were always Puritans, and often men
who had been silenced for noncon
formity. Private individuals, and
groups of earnest people, also founded
lectureships in places in which they
were interested ; the nomination of
the lecturer was in the hands of the
founders or their trustees ; and- thus
in nearly every town one or more
lecturers were established, who had
each a right of access to the pulpit of
the church in which his lecture was
founded, and who could thence, in the
afternoon or evening, preach the
opinions of their party. The Puritan
incumbents and lecturers often showed
their dislike of the Book of Common
Prayer by remaining in the vestry until

PYX

491

QUAKERS

the service Was done ; then mounting
tho pulpit they gave out a metrical
Psalm, and uttered a long extempore
prayer, then the sermon, and another
psalm and prayer made up a kind of
supplementary service of the Puritan
fashion. Another of their observances was the
holding of what they called " Prophesy
ings," irregular meetings for prayer and
exposition of the Scriptures, in which
ministers who had been silenced for
nonconformity, and laymen, often took
the opportunity to put forward their
views. They kept up also a continual
and veiy able controversy through the
public press, wisely choosing as the
points of their attack the abuses inci
dental to all human institutions, and
the features of Church doctrine or
practice which were most unpopular.
In these ways the mind of the people
was leavened -with Calvinian teaching,
especially in the great towns, which
then as now exercised a preponderating
influence in the country ; and the way
was prepared for the overthrow of the
Constitution in Church and State which
was at length effected in the year 1648.
The best features of the Puritan
character were a strong faith in God's
^government of the world, and a strain
of earnest piety, austere almost as that
of an ancient "Religious ;" in its ex
tremes narrow, uncharitable, sour, al
most -Manich&an ; leading, as the obli
gation of ascetic piety in a numerous
order or party of men almost always
does lead, to more or less of hypocrisy.
PYX, or PIX, a vessel or receptacle
in which was anciently kept the con
secrated bread reserved for the com
munion of the sick, &c. [See Reserv
ation.] Sometimes the vessel was like
a covered cup, and was kept in a cup
board in the wall of the Sacrarium.
Sometimes it was in the shape of a
dove, and was suspended from the
canopy over the altar. Sometimes a
receptacle was made for the reserved
element in the reredos behind the
altar. At the end of the ninth century
we first read of a pyx being ordered to

be set on the altar ('Labb. Concil. ' viii.
34 ; ix. 1271). When the doctrine of
Transubstantiation was accepted, and
the consecrated bread was reserved for
the purpose of keeping a local Presence
of Christ upon the altar as an object
of worship, and when the consecrated
bread was used in the Service of Bene
diction, then the pyx was often made
in the shape of an ornamented circular
frame with a glazed front, so that the
" Host " could be seen ; and this frame
had often a stem and foot, so that it
could stand upon the altar, and could
be taken in hand by the priest to be
shown to the congregation. In this
shape it is also called a Monstrance.

QUAKERS, or SOCIETY OF,
FRIENDS. A sect which originated'
about the middle of the seventeenth
century, under the leadership of James
Naylor, Richard Farnworth, and George
Fox. Fox was the most important of
them, and left the impress of his cha
racter upon the sect. The leading idea
of his system was that of the personal
direct illumination of the Holy Spirit,
superseding the need of all other agen
cies. He repudiated the Church, un
dervalued the Scriptures, disdained any
ministry or stated worship. He in
culcated the severest simplicity and
sincerity of life, and a boundless bene
volence. His system was something
like the logical conclusion at which
Puritanism arrives if its principles be
carried to their extremes.
The sect suffered bitter persecution
in its earlier days. Even in the time
of the Commonwealth, when nearly
every form of fanaticism was tolerated,
the Quakers shared with the Church of
England the bitter persecution of the
authorities. But at the end of this
period the sect was joined by some
men of better education and knowledge
of the world, who gave a new tone to
the Society, getting rid of much of
its vulgar fanaticism, and reducing its
better principles into more systematic

QUEEN ANNE'S BOUNTY 492 QUEEN ANNE'S BOUNTY

order. The chief of these new founders
were Keith, Barclay, and William Penn.
It is probably to the great reputation
which Penn acquired in the reign of
James II. that the later prosperity of
the Society may be in large measure
attributed. The prosperity of the body, and with
that its addiction to the comforts, lux
uries, and refinements of existence, after
its own peculiar fashion, became marked
features of its life in the eighteenth
century. At the same time its benevo
lence and its forwardness in works of
public beneficence were equally promi
nent features ; and the names of Fry
and Gurney, two of the leading Quaker
families, are venerated for these quali
ties over the civilised world.
During the present generation a
change has come over the spirit of the
'Society. It is theologically more in
accordance with orthodox Christianity,
and has abated much of the peculiarity
of its outward characteristics of dress
and language. Its younger mem
bers in large proportion secede to the
Church of England, apparently without
incurring much displeasure on the part
of their elders ; and the Society seems
likely before long to expire of a decay
of its distinctive principles. Its own
official estimate of its members in 1886
was 15,000.
QUEEN ANNE'S BOUNTY. By the
thirteenth century the Bishops of
Rome, in virtue of their recognised
patriarchal authority, had claimed a
right, analagous to that of a feudal
lord over his tenants, of receiving a
fine, under the name of First-Fruits,
from the new incumbent of any Church
benefice, and an annual payment, under
the name of Tenths, proportioned to
the income of the benefice. [See First
Fruits.] At the Reformation, when the Church
was freed from all the exactions of the
Papal Court, these payments were no
longer paid to Rome ; but they were
not allowed to cease ; they were seized
by Henry VIII .,and by the Act 26 Hen.
VIII. c. 3 were annexed to the Crown.

When Queen Anne came to the
throne she determined to restore this
property to the Church, by making ft;]
a provision for the augmentation of
poor benefices. Accordingly an Act
was passed to form a special Corpora
tion under the name of " The Governors
of the Bounty of Queen Anne, " " for the
purpose of receiving, managing, and
disposing of the said revenues, and such
other gifts and benevolences as shall
be given them for the purposes afore
said." The rules laid down for the
disposing of the revenues are :
"1. That the augmentations shall
be by way of purchase, not by way of
pension. "2. That the sum allowed to each
cure be £200, to be invested in a pur
chase, and not by way of pension.
" 3. That the poorest cures should
first receive augmentation ; first, all
those under £10 to be chosen by lot,
then all under £20, &c.
"4. That in order to encourage bene
factions from others, the Governors may
give the sum of £200 to cures not ex
ceeding £45 a year, where any persons
will give the same or a greater sum, or
the value thereof in lands, tithes, or
rent charges. " The original income of
£15,000 has grown by good manage
ment and private benefactions to an
income of £160, 000.
The Governors of Queen Anne's
Bounty have also been made by Act of
Parliament the agents for aiding the
clergy in dealing with their houses and
glebes. The Act 17 Geo. III. c. 53,
§ 12, authorises the Corporation to lend
money to incumbents to repair and
rebuild their parsonage houses to an
amount not exceeding three years' net
income of the benefice; under certain
conditions of repayment with interest.
Again, the Ecclesiastical Dilapidations
Act, 34 and 35 Vict. c. 43, gave very
considerable powers to the Corporation
in dealing with the difficult question
of the dilapidations of parsonage houses,
&c. Surveyors appointed under the
Act are, on the outgoing of the incum
bent, to survey and estimate the dilapi-

READER

493

READER

dations of the house, &c. ; the incoming
incumbent is to receive the estimated
amount from the outgoing incumbent,
and to pay the same into the hands of
the governors, who will pay the new
incumbent, on the surveyor's certificate
that the specified dilapidations have
been made good. The buildings of
every benefice are to be insured from
fire to the satisfaction of the Governors,
and in case of fire the insurance money
is to be paid over to them.

READER, or LECTOR, was the second
of the minor orders of the Me
diaeval Church. [See Lector.] The
plunder of the Church at the period
of the Reformation left many of the
benefices so poor that they did not
afford a maintenance for a man in Holy
Orders. In order not to leave such
places totally destitute of the minis
trations of religion, the bishops gave
new prominence and additional duties
to the order of readers, and commis
sioned them to perform their office
there. The following injunctions were
drawn up to define their duties, and
were agreed upon by the two Arch
bishops, the Bishops of London, Win
chester, Ely, Salisbury, Carlisle,
Chester, Exeter, Bath and Wells, and
Gloucester (Strype, 'Annals,' i. 306),
and were required to be signed by all
readers and deacons. "Imprimis, I
shall not preach or interpret, but only
read that which is appointed by public
authority. I shall not minister the
sacraments or other public rites of the
Church, but bury the dead, and purify
women after their childbirth. I shall
keep the register-book according to the
injunctions. I shall use sobriety in
apparel, and especially in the church
at Common Prayer. I shall move men
to quiet and concord, and not give
them cause of offence. I shall bring
in to my Ordinary, testimony of my
behaviour from the honest of the
parish where I dwell within one half-
year next following. I shall give place

upon convenient warning so thought
by the Ordinary if any learned minister
shall be placed there at the suit of the
patron of the parish. I shall claim no
more of the fruits sequestered of such
cure where I shall serve but as it shall
be thought meet to the wisdom of the
Ordinary. I shall daily at the least
read one chapter of the Old Testament,
and^ one other of the New, with good
advisement to the increase of my know
ledge. I shall not appoint in my room,
by reason of my absence or sickness,
any other man, but shall leave it to
the suit of the parish to the Ordinary
for assigning some other able man. I
shall not read but in poorer parishes
destitute of incumbents, except in
time of sickness or other good con
siderations to be allowed by the Ordin
ary. I shall not openly intermeddle
with any artificers' occupations, as
covetously to seek a gain, thereby, hav
ing an ecclesiastical living the sum of
twenty nobles or above by the year. "
The need in these days of providing
religious ministrations for the rapidly
increasing population, beyond the pos
sibilities of the number of ordained
men, has led again to a similar revival
of the order, as the most convenient
mode of giving formal authorisation
to, and of bringing under due subordin
ation and rule, the services which many
zealous laymen are found willing and
competent to render in the work of
ministering the Word of God to the
people. The following commissions and
regulations were agreed to at a meeting
of the archbishops and bishops, and
are in use in all the dioceses.
" Rf.gulations. — 1. The incumbent
proposing to nominate a reader is to
write to the bishop, stating the name of
the person, his age and condition of life,
in what place or places he wishes him
to exercise his office, and what duties
within the limits of the above resolu
tions (expressed in the commission)
he wishes him to perform.
"2. The incumbent will also trans
mit to the bishop a certificate under his
hand that the person nominated is a

READER

494

READING-DESK

communicant, of pious, sober, honest
life, sound in the faith as held and
taught by the Church of England, and
of competent knowledge of the Holy
Scriptures. "3. He will also supply the bishop
with the names of two or more com
municants who are ready to testify to
the character and fitness of the pro
posed reader, should confidential in
quiries be made by the bishop, who
may also, in any particular case, if he
sees fit, by himself or his chaplain,
examine the person proposed touching
his faith or his knowledge of the Holy
Scriptures. "4. The bishop when satisfied will
name a time and place for the admis
sion of the reader. The admission is
usually with prayer and blessing in
the chapel of the bishop's palace. "
The bishop will issue his commission
in the following form. " N. by divine
permission Bishop of  to our well-
beloved and approved in Christ, A. B. ,
greeting. We do by these presents
grant unto you our commission to
execute the office of a Reader in the
parish of C. within our diocese and
jurisdiction, on the nomination of the
Rev. D. E. Rector (or Vicar) of the
said parish ; and we do hereby author
ise you to read the Holy Scriptures,
and to explain the same to the aged,
sick, and such other persons in the
said parish as the incumbent thereof
shall direct (to read the appointed
lessons in the parish church, and
also) to read publicly in (the hamlet
of F.) (or in the school-room or other
place approved by us), such portion of
the Morning and Evening Service in
the Book of Common Prayer as we
may appoint, and after such service
(to expound some portion of the Holy
Scripture to those assembled or) to
read such Godly homily and discourse
as by the incumbent may be judged
most suitable and edifying to their
immortal souls.' And we do hereby
notify and declare that this our com
mission shall remain valid and have
full force and authority until either it

shall be revoked by us or our suc
cessors, or a fresh institution to the
benefice shall have been made and
completed, at and after which last-
mentioned time it shall be competent
for an application to be made to us or
our successors for a renewal and con
tinuance of this our present commis
sion and authority. And so we com
mend you to Almighty God, whose
blessing and favour we humbly pray
may rest upon you and your . work.
Given under our hand and seal this
 day of  &c. "
READING-DESK. Until the six-
teenth century the Daily Office of the
Church was said by the priest and clerks
sitting in their stalls in the chanceL
The use, of a, reading-desk came in
gradually as one of the Puritan fash
ions. At first, Bishop Sparrow tells
us, the reading-desk or pew had one
desk for the Bible, facing the people,
and another for the Prayer Book, facing
the east. About the same time preach
ing came to be more highly valued,
and provision was made for its, more
efficient ministration by the erection
of convenient pulpits.
It was one of the fashions of the
evangelical clergy to put both the pray
ers and the preaching better within the
hearing of the people by combining
the pulpit and reading-desk in one erec
tion in the position which seemed most
convenient for the seeing and hearing
of the people. To make the arrange
ment complete, provision was made for
the parish .clerk, whose duties were still
traditionally recognised in the due per
formance of Divine service. The ar
rangement which was found most suit
able, according to the idea of the time,
was a kind of triple pulpit, in three
stages, one above and behind the other.
In the lowest sat the clerk ; in the
middle one the prayers were said ; and
the third and highest stage was tho
pulpit, over which was an ornamental
sounding-board ; all facing westward
towards the majority of the congrega
tion. This erection was sometimes
placed on one side of the eastern end of

REAL PRESENCE

495 REBELLION, THE GREAT

the nave, but in modern town churches
it was most frequently in the middle of
the eastern end of the nave ; in such
churches the chancel was usually a
shallow recess at the east end, just large
enough to contain the Holy Table,
which was concealed from the congrega
tion by the structure which has been
described. It is one of the remarkable outward
evidences of the change which has
come over the mind of the Church
generally, that in all new churches, and
in all restorations and rearrangements
of churches for the last quarter of a
century, the reading-desk has been
placed on one side of the chancel,
ranging with the chancel stalls, and
facing north or south as convenience
required, but usually on the south side
of the chancel, facing north ; the pulpit
has been' removed to one side of the
east end of the nave ; and the clerk's
desk has entirely disappeared, his office
having been practically abolished ; the
congregation being left to take its own
part in the service without a coryph»us,
or the leading of the congregational
portion of the service having been com
mitted to a choir seated in the chancel
stalls. "REAL PRESENCE." In discussing
theological questions, technical phrases
are. used, the exact meaning of which
is often misunderstood by those who
are not learned in such discussions.
The phrase at the head of this article
is one which is very frequently mis
apprehended ; and those who maintain
a Real Presence of our Blessed Lord in
the Holy Communion are erroneously
supposed to hold distinctive Roman
doctrine. The misunderstanding alluded to is
that "real Presence" is equivalent to
"carnal Presence," and implies the
doctrine of Transubstantiation. [See
Transubstantiation. ]
The, word comes in, not in the 'dis
pute between Roman and English doc
trine, which is on the mode of Christ's
presence in the Sacrament ; but in the
dispute between English aaid Zwinglian

doctrine, which is on the fact whether
there is any presence of Christ in the
Sacrament at all.
The Church of England holds, as the
Primitive Church held; that the Scrip
ture teaches that there is a presence of
Christ in the Sacrament,* without de
fining the mode of that presence. The
Church Catechism says that "the Body
and Blood of Christ are verily and in
deed taken and received by the faithful
in the Lord'3 Supper." The words in
the authorised Latin version of the cate
chism which correspond with "verily
and indeed," are vere et realiter, and the
word realiter is equivalent to the phrase
Beal Presence. The first Homily Con
cerning the Sacrament says, "Thus
much we must be sure to hold, that in
the Supper of the Lord there is no vain
ceremony, no bare sign, no untrue
figure of a thing absent." The last
Rubric at the end of the Communion
Service does not deny a spiritual, but
only a ' ' corporal presence of Christ's
natural Flesh and Blood." They who
hold that there is a real presence of
Cnrist in the_ Holy" "Uommum'dnJ'hoTd
tne" doctrine~for which the'_ great ..Re
formers Cranmer, Ridley, and Latimer
died, and which has been maintained by
all the greatest divines of the Reformed
Church down to the .present-day.
REBELLION, THE GREAT. In the
great national struggle which occupied
a large part of the seventeenth cen
tury, religion was so intimately con
nected with politics in every phase of
the history that it is not possible to
summarise the fortunes of the Church
without touching upon those of the
State also. The whole period may be
conveniently divided into four —
(1) The endeavour to establish abso
lute monarchy, and to secure confonnity
in religion.
(2) The triumph of Parliament and
Presbyterianism. * This does not necessarily mean in the
bread and wine ; they are the outward and
visible signs of the invisible spiritual part of
the Sacrament; the "Sacrament" including
both the visible and the invisible parts.

REBELLION, THE GREAT 496 REBELLION, THE GREAT

(3) The triumph of Republicanism
and Independency.
(4) The Restoration of Monarchy and
the Church.
James I. had inherited the absolute
system of government of the Tudor
sovereigns, and maintained the pre
rogative of the Crown against a growing
determination to obtain constitutional
guarantees for popular rights. In re
ligion, the power of the Calvinist party,
which had steadily increased through
the reign of Elizabeth, in the early part
of James's reign monopolised the digni
ties of the Church, and repressed diver
gent opinions with a severe hand. But
in the latter part of his reign its in
fluence was waning : high-Church doc
trines were spreading ; the king had
favoured the new school, and conferred
a bishopric on Laud, who was its most
prominent leader. The Puritans were
greatly incensed, and were prepared to
make great efforts to regain their ascend
ancy. It was the concurrence of these
powerful motives in religion and politics
which made the opposition to the
Government so formidable.
1625. — The accession of Charles I.
It was the misfortune of a king of con
siderable learning and political ability,
of respectable private character and of
excellent intentions, to 'fall upon such
a crisis in affairs. At first he tried to
rule as his father had done, using
Parliament as one of the engines of
government, but maintaining the royal
prerogative. Finding successive Par
liaments refusing to play this role,
and bent upon imposing limits on the
royal authority, the king at length
resolved to rule without Parliament,
and to raise money by arbitrary tax
ation veiled under legal forms. Laud,
raised (1628) to the primacy, and the
Earl of Strafford were his principal
advisers in the affairs of Church and
State. After eleven years of this ex
periment, he found it no longer practi
cable. What brought matters to a
crisis was the outbreak of rebellion in
Scotland. James I. had restored Epis
copacy in Scotland, 1617. Charles in

1637 endeavoured to complete the re
covery of the Scottish Church from
Presbyterianism and Calvinism by in
troducing a liturgy and set of canons.
This Restoration of the ancient con
stitution of the Church was perhaps
acceptable to the more educated classes,
but the popular opposition broke out
into rebellion ; the people bound them
selves by a covenant to resist prelacy ;
the General Assembly met, abolished
bishops and the High Commission
Court ; a provisional government seized
the fortresses and prepared for war,
Charles, needing supplies, was obliged
to summon a Parliament ; but when
it showed itself resolute in discussing
grievances before supply dissolved it.
A Scots army 25,000 strong, intended to
back the petition for a redress of their
grievances, crossed the Tweed, defeated
forces sent against them, and seized New
castle. Charles summoned a Council of
Peers at York, and consented to adopt
constitutional principles. He made a
treaty with the Scots, and summoned a
fifth Parliament, with the intention of
settling a constitutional compromise.
1640, November 3.— The Long Parlia
ment met. In the first session the king
formally abandoned the encroachments
he had made on the rights and liberties
of the people, and granted further con
cessions which made those rights and
liberties more ample, better denned, and
more secure than ever before. "There
was not a public or private grievance
but what was redressed within the first
nine months of the meeting of the Par
liament." (Hume.) On November 6th
the whole House of Commons formed
itself into a Committee of Religion; on
the 19th they relegated the business to
a sub-committee, who set themselves
vigorously to work to purge the Church
of "scandalous" and "malignant"
ministers. Baxter says that these
earlier proceedings (1640 — 1643) against
the clergy drove out half of the.clergy,
leaving half who could do neither good
nor harm. Many of this latter half
were driven out for refusing the Coven
ant, as the various parts of the country

REBELLION, THE GREAT 497 REBELLION, THE GREAT

came under the power of Parliament
(from 1643—1649). The work was
carried out with great injustice and
cruelty ; about 8000 of the clergy were
deprived ; many were imprisoned. A
zealous member of Parliament proposed
that they should be sold as slaves to
the plantations. (Details of their perse
cution are given by Walker, ' Sufferings
of the Clergy.') November 25, Straf
ford was ordered into custody and sent
to the Tower. Dec. 18, Laud also was
arrested and sent to the Tower.
1641, Jan. 23. — Commissioners were
appointed to deface and remove all
images and superstitious ornaments in
churches ; to the fanatics of this period
is due the loss of many windows, sculp
tures, and monuments of antiquity,
spared by the reformers of the sixteenth
century. May 10. — The king made the fatal
mistake in policy of assenting to a Bill
enacting that the Parliament should not
be dissolved except by its own consent.
May 12. — Strafford was executed. The
Courts of Star Chamber * and of High
Commission t were abolished. Before
adjourning, September 8, a committee
of both Houses was appointed to sit
during the recess with large powers.
The Commons Committee occupied it
self with the affairs of the Church,
and, under the name of "scandalous
ministers," deprived many of the loyal
clergy of their benefices.
October 20. — Parliament reassembled.
Many members who had hitherto op
posed the Court in defence of the liber
ties of the people against absolutism,
now, satisfied with the reforms which
* The Court of Star Chamber is mentioned
under Edward III. It was revived and re
cognised by Henry VII. for the punishment of
offences against tho State more speedily and
Bocretly than by usual process of law. It
had been an instrument of arbitrary power
under James I. and Cliarles.
t Queen Elizabeth was empowered by Act
of r Parliament to entrust, the ecclesiastical
jurisdiction of the Crown to a Court of High
Commission. "Whitgift had used its power
with vigour against dissentients from the
Puritan regime. Laud is said to have often
used his influence in the Court to modify its
penalties. [See Ecclesiastical Courts.] K

had been effected, and the constitutional
guarantees which had been obtained,
rallied round the king and the Church.
But it was at once apparent that a
large party were resolved to make
Parliament supreme in the State, and
to establish the Presbyterian form of
government and Calvinistic doctrine in
the Church, and that this party was
prepared to go the length of civil war
to attain its ends. There were also
some, at first hardly noticed, who grad
ually drew together and cohered into a
third party, and grew rapidly in in
fluence, whose aim was to establish the
Republican form of government in the
State and Independency in religion.
The Commons drew up a Bemonstrance,
earned only by a majority of eleven,
and not sent to the Peers, which was, in
fact, an appeal to the people, and was
printed and widely circulated. Lord
Chancellor Hyde wrote a reply, which
was also published, and was the- king's
appeal to the people. Daily riots
between the two parties were the pre
liminary skirmishes of the coming
conflict. December 30. — The bishops, being
prevented by the mobs from attending
the House of Lords, issued a protest
against anything transacted in their
absence. The Commons took advantage
of it as a pretext for arresting them and
sending them to the Tower.
1642, January 20.— The Parliament
demanded the command of the militia,
and possession of the chief fortresses,
and on the same day directed Ports
mouth and Hull to be seized in their
interest. February 14. — The bishops
were deprived of their seats in the House
of Lords. April 15.- — The Parliament
usurped the powers of government, and
proceeded to raise money and troops.
August 22.— The king unfurled his
standard at Nottingham, and the Civil
War began, which extended over the
next nine years, included seven great
battles and innumerable partisan engage
ments, and kept the country in con
fusion and misery. During the winter of
1642-3 the Parliament entered with the

REBELLION, THE GREAT 498 REBELLION, THE GREAT

Scots into a Solemn League and Coven
ant, which pledged them to mutual de
fence, and bound all who subscribed it
to extirpate popery, prelacy, supersti
tion, heresy, and schism, and to support
the Parliament. The Scots were to be
paid £100,000, and were to march an
army of 40,000 men into England to
the aid of ' ' the cause. " The king, on
the other hand, obtained aid from Ire
land. All who refused "to take the
covenant " were ejected from any office
they might hold, were declared "ma-
lignants," and were liable to confisca
tion of goods.
1643, February 2. — An Act was
passed for sequestrating the estates of
the bishops and chapters and ' ' scandal
ous " ministers. June 12. — An Assembly
of Divines, which included, however,
a number of laymen, nominated by the
Parliament, was summoned to West
minster to consult and advise on matters
of religion ; it included a number of
members of both Houses of Parliament,
and a number of Scottish divines were
joined with them. It was a Parlia
mentary substitute for' the Convocation
of the Clergy. [See Westminster As
sembly of Divines.] The Independents
in the Assembly pleaded for the toler
ation of their worship ; being refused
by the majority of the Assembly, they
addressed Parliament on the subject.
August 28. — Parliament issued an
other ordinance against' monuments of
superstition, in which organs were in
cluded ; and in October, an ordinance
empowered certain members of the
Assembly of Divines and certain London
ministers to examine candidates, license
them to preach, and ordain them to the
ministry. This summer the Scots ex
postulated against' the delay in settling
the Church government in England.
Accordingly the Assembly had leave to
draw up a form of ordination, and to
debate the settlement of the Church.
1644, September. — An attempt was
made to supply ministers by an ordin
ance arranging for the examination and
ordination of candidates by the classical
presbyteries within their respective

boundaries ; and in the following year
an ordinance forbade unordained men
to preach.
1645. — A Committee of Parliament
was appointed to consider an accommo
dation between the Assembly of Divines
and the "Dissenting Brethren." [See
Westminster Assembly of Divines,]
January 10. — Laud, after three years'.
imprisonment, was proceeded against., ;
The judges unanimously declared that ':
the archbishop was not guilty of
treason, and the Lords, in conference
with the Commons, declared themselves
of the same opinion. New proceedings
were taken by a Bill of Attainder. In
a House of seven members, the Lords
ultimately passed the Bill, and the arch
bishop was executed. On the day that
the Lords passed the Bill of Attainder
they also passed the ordinance for the,
Abolition of the Prayer Book and the
observance of the ' ' Directory. "
August 24, St Bartholomew's Day.
An ordinance came into force abolishing
the Book of Common Prayer, and re
quiring the Directory to be observed
in all the churches. The penalty for
using the Prayer Book, either in public
or in private, was £5 for the first
offence, £10 for the next, and a year's
imprisonment for the third. The
Directory was to be observed under a
penalty' of forty shillings for each omis
sion ; and whosoever spoke against the
Directory was to be fined not less than
£5, or more than £50.
December 21. — The self-denying or
dinance came into force, excluding
members of Parliament from the army.
In the consequent remodelling of the
army Cromwell was made Lieutenant-
General; Officers of the Independent
party were largely appointed ; most of
the Presbyterian chaplains of regiments
retired ; and Republican and Inde
pendent opinions began to pervade the
army. 1646, October. — Episcopacy was abol
ished bjr Parliament, and the lands of
the bishops were ordered to be sold.
1647, May 5.-— Charles put himself
into the hands of the Scottish army,

REBELLION, THE GREAT 499 REBELLION, THE GREAT

which sold him to Parliament for
£200,000, and retired to Scotland."
Attempts to treat between Parliament
and the king came to nothing, through
the king's refusal to sacrifice the con
stitution and doctrine of the Church
to the demands of the Presbyterian
' Calvinist party. " No candid reader, "
says Hallam (ii. p. 255), "can doubt
that a. serious sense of obligation was
predominant in Charles's persevering
fidelity to the English Church." The
attempt to blast the king's character
with a charge of untrustworthiness in
these negotiations was a politic device
of his enemies ; Hume and Hallam both
acquit him of the charge.
1648. — The party which combined
independency in religion and republic
anism in the State had grown powerful
in the army. The Parliament grew
alarmed, and tried to disband the army ;
but the principal officers formed them
selves into a Council, assured themselves
of the adhesion of the regiments, and
then seized the king's person, marched
on London, forcibly excluded from the
House of Commons the members un
friendly to their cause, leaving a House
of fifty or sixty only, contemptuously
nick-named the Rump Parliament, and
seized the Government. The usurped
power of Parliament, and the Presby
terian establishment of the Church,
virtually came to a sudden and violent
end. Collier (' Eccl. Hist.,' II. bk. ix.)
thus sums up the situation : " Thus
the i Presbyterians, having embroiled
the kingdoms, kindled and earned on
a calamitous war, during which more
seats were plundered and burnt, more
churches robbed and profaned, more
blood spilt within the compass of four
years, and, in short, more frightful
scenes opened of ravage, of slaughter,
and confusion than had been acted in
the long contest between tho Houses
of York and Lancaster : the Presby
terians, I say, after having thrown the
country into all this misery and con
vulsion, met with nothing but infamy
and disappointment. For after haying
wrested the sword out of the king's

hands, and brought the rebellion to
their wishes ; when they thought of
nothing less than dividing the prey
and raising vast fortunes Out of Crown
and Church lands, their hopes were
suddenly scattered,— they wore turned
out of their scandalous acquisitions and
publicly exposed to contempt and scorn.
For now the Independents forced them
to retire from Westminster, seized their
posts, and made themselves masters
upon the matter, both in Church and
State." A similar summary of the re
ligious results of the Presbyterian rule
may be gathered from the mouth of one
of their own divines, Edwards, author
of the 'Gangrama,' in a dedication of
the book to Parliament. ' ' Things every
day grow worse and worse ; you can
hardly imagine them so bad as they
are. No kind of blasphemy, heresy,
disorder, and confusion, but 'tis found
among us, or coming in upon us. For
we, instead of Reformation, are grown
from one extreme to another, fallen from
Scylla to Charybdis, from popish inno
vations, superstitions, and prelatical
tyranny to damnable heresies, horrid
blasphemies, libertinism, and fearful
anarchy. Our evils are not removed,
but only changed; one disease and
devil hath left us, and another as bad
has come in its room. Yea, this last
extremity into which we have fallen is
far more high, violent, and dangerous
in many respects. . . . The worst of
the prelates, in the midst of many
popish Armenian tenets and popish
innovations, held many sound doctrines,
and had many commendable practices ;
yea, the very papists hold and keep to
many articles of faith and truths of
God, have some order amongst them,
encourage learning, have certain fixed
principles of truth with practices of
devotion and good works. But many
of the sects and sectaries in our days
deny all principle of religion, are
enemies to all holy duties, order, learn
ing, overthrowing all ; being Vertigi-
nosi Spiritus — whirligig spirits. And
the great opinion of an universal toler
ation leads to the laying all waste, and

REBELLION, THE GREAT 500 REBELLION, THE GREAT

dissolution of all religion and good
manners. . . . What swarms are there
of all sorts of illiterate mechanic
preachers, yea, of women and boy
preachers ? What liberty of preaching,
printing of all errors, or for a tolera
tion of all, and against the directory,
covenant, monthly fast, Presbyterian
Government, and all ordinances of
Parliament in reference to religion.
These sectaries have been growing upon
us ever since the first year of our sit
ting, and have every year increased
upon us more and more."
1649. — The Commons appointed a
High Court of Justice to try the king.
He refused to plead ; was condemned ;
and, in spite of the remonstrances of
the Presbyterian ministers, executed,
January 29.
Parliament in February abolished
monarchy and the House of Lords,
and elected a Council of State ; issued a
Declaration touching matters of religion,
to the effect that the National Church
Establishment shall be Presbyterian,
but that an expedient shall be found
out for admitting all such churches as
tend to godliness, and that such congre
gations shall be tolerated and free from
disturbance. Parliament required all men to take
an Engagement to be true and faithful
to the Commonwealth of England as
now established, on pain of dismissal
from office and outlawry.
Repealed the Acts against Dissenters.
This year G. Fox began the sect of
Quakers. 1650. — Fairfax refusing to command
against the Scots, Cromwell was made
Commander-in-chief. 1653. — Cromwell's influence with the
army being strengthened by his late
victories over the Scots, he (April 20)
turned the Rump Parliament by force
out of the House. The Assembly of
Divines, which had lately dwindled
away, fell with the Parliament.
Cromwell formed a Council of State,
consisting of himself and eight other
officers, with four civilians, and sum
moned a Parliament of his own nominees.

. December. — The new "Barebones"
Parliament, December 16, offered the
Government to Cromwell for life, with
the title of Lord Protector, and was
dissolved. 1654, March.- — A new Parliament
passed an Act appointing a Committee
of Tryers, to approve public preachers,
and examine nominees to benefices and
lectureships ; also passed a new Act for
sequestrating " scandalous " ministers
and schoolmasters,, and appointed com
missioners in each county to search
them out.
Cromwell published a declaration by
virtue of which those of the loyal clergy
who kept private schools, or officiated
in noblemen's families, were ordered to
be imprisoned.
1660, May 26. —Charles II. restored' ;
the Church restored at the same time.
Nine bishops survived, six more were
consecrated on the following Advent
Sunday ; the other sees were quickly
filled. Sees were offered to three leading
Presbyterians, — Remolds, Calamy, and
Baxter, — and deaneries to Manton,
Bales, and Bowles. All refused except
Reinolds, who was consecrated Bishop
of Norwich. Parliament passed an Act
for restoring ejected and sequestrated
ministers to their livings. About 800
survived to take advantage of the Act.
The occupants of other benefices were
allowed to remain till the affairs of the
Church should be settled.
A Conference was held at the Savoy
hetween bishops and leading Noncon
formists for considering proposed altera
tions in the liturgy. [See Savoy Con- <
ferenoe.] 1661. — With a new Parliament (May)
the Convocation of Canterbury was
also summoned, drew up a service for
adult baptism, and revised the Prayer
Book. [See Prayer Book.]
1662, May 19.— The work of Restor
ation was formally completed by the
passing of the Act of • Uniformity.
Ministers were required to conform to
the Prayer Book on or before St.
Bartholomew's day (August 24), or to
retire from the usurped benefices. Many

REBELLION, THE GREAT 501

RECLUSE

conformed and remained. Calamy says
2000 refused and resigned, but only
names 523, and mentions as many more
as make a total of about 600. Collier
accepts h}s figure ; Baxter says 1800 ;
Blunt ('Dictionary of Sects') argues
that it is hardly possible they could have
exceeded 867 ; and Curteis (' Bampton
Lectures,' 1871) also concludes the
number to have been about 800.
While sympathising with honest suf
ferers for conscience' sake, it must be
borne in mind that these ministers had
been allowed more than two years'
grace in which if possible to reconcile
themselves to tho change ; and that
the Church could not allow men to
continue to minister at her altars and
preach in her pulpits who repudiated
her constitution and doctrine.
1685, Feb. 6. — Accession of James II.
1685. — Revocation of the Edict of
Nantes. Many of the Huguenots take
refuge in England.
The King dispenses with the Test
Act, and officers the army with Papists ;
he dispenses also with the Act of Uni
formity, and allows Papists to hold
ecclesiastical benefices.
1688. — The Bishops refuse to order
the clergy to read the King's Declara
tion of liberty of Conscience in the
churches, and the seven bishops are
committed to the Tower, viz. Sancroft
of Canterbury, W. Lloyd of St. Asaph,
T. Ken of Bath and Wells, Sir J.
Trelawney of Bristol, J. Lake of
Chichester, F. Turner of Ely, and T.
White of Peterborough.
1689, Feb. 13.— William and Maiy
are called to the throne, assumed to be
vacant by the flight of James II., by
the Convention Parliament.
Seven bishops and about 400 other
clergymen refuse to take the oath of
allegiance to the new sovereigns, and
are deprived (Sancroft of Canterbury,
T. Ken of Bath and Wells, J. Lake of
Chichester, F. Turner of Ely, R.
Frampton of Gloucester, W. Lloyd of
Norwich, T. White of Peterborough,
W. Thomas of Worcester). [See Non-
Jurors.]

The Toleration Act passed [which
see]. 1690. — The Scottish bishops having
scrupled to take the oath of allegiance
are expelled, episcopacy abolished by
act of the Scottish Parliament, and the
Presbyterian form of government estab
lished there.
RECLUSE. Among the curious
varieties of the ascetic life, one of the
most remarkable was that of the
solitaries or recluses, who deliberately
shut themselves up in a cell, and al
lowed the door to be walled up, with
the intention of never more mixing
among men. There were occasional
examples, from tho days of John the
hermit, and Thaysis the female recluse,
in the Egyptian desert, downwards, of
seclusion within a cell so strait, and
under conditions so hard, that it was
like a living tomb. Occasionally some
great criminal submitted to this living
death as the alternative of being handed
over to the sentence of the civil law.
But usually the seclusion was volun
tary ; and in time, when the mode of
life became systematised and regulated,
it was toned down to something more
possible to ¦ human endurance. The
cell of the recluse was a chamber large
enough for the comfortable abode of a
single inmate, and not destitute of
such furnishing as was requisite for
comfort. It was a small room with
three windows, one towards the choir
of the church to which it was attached,
through which the recluse might see
(and so attend) the daily celebration
of the Holy Communion ; another,
on the opposite side, through which
she might receive her food and con
verse with visitors ; this was screened
by a black - curtain with a cross upon
it, and could be closed by a shutter ;
the third was for light, and was always
to be closed with glass or horn. Rooms
corresponding with this description aro
not infrequently found about our old
churches. In many cases the Becluso-
rium was a little house of several rooms,
with a garden attached ; and the tech
nical "cell," within which the recluse

RECUSANT

502

REFECTORY

was immured, probably included every
thing within the outer walls.
There were a considerable number of
these solitary cells within the church
yards of towns. In some eases the
recluse was a man, like John the
Egyptian hermit ; but in the majority
of cases it was the female solitaries
by whom this severer form of the
solitary life was assumed. The soli
tary was not allowed to undertake
the life without the bishop's consent,
who required that she should be pro
vided with a suitable place, and a
prospect of sufficient maintenance.
She was enclosed by the bishop with
a solemn service ; his seal was placed
upon the door of the cell, which might
not be opened without his consent ;
and usually was not opened until the
sickness of the inmate required that
she should have assistance, or her
death had released her soul from its
cell. In the middle of the twelfth
century, Bishop Poer of Salisbury
(it is conjectured) wrote a Rule (the
' Ancren Riewle ') for these female re
cluses, which enters into many interest
ing details of their mode of life. The
subject is treated at some length in
' Scenes and Characters of the Middle
Ages ' :. Virtue and Co. [See Hermit.]
RECTOR = ruler. The normal title
of the incumbent of a parochial bene
fice, who possesses all the original rights
and endowments of the benefice ; e. g.
the full charge and care of the parish,
the whole tithe, and the chancel of the
church ; as contrasted with a vicar,
who is the representative of the rector,
and possesses (in theory) only a dele
gated care of the parish, is not the
possessor of the chancel, and has only
the small tithe. [See Appropriate
Benefice and Vicar.]
It is also the title of the superior of
some colleges, hospitals, and other re
ligious communities.
RECUSANT = one who refuses. The
Act of Uniformity of Edward VI. , re
newed in the beginning of Elizabeth's
reign, required all persons to repair to
their parish churches on Sundays and

holy days. During ten or eleven of the
earlier years of Elizabeth, those who
were disaffected to the Reformation
still maintained so much of outward
conformity as screened them from the
penalties of the statute. The Roman
doctors admitted that the Book of
Common Prayer contained all the es
sentials of the Liturgy and Offices of
the Church, and there is sufficient
evidence that the Pope had held out
hopes that he would authorise its use
if the Church and nation would acknow
ledge his primacy and authority. (See
'Pope Pius IV. and the Book of
Common Prayer,' by E. C. Harington.
London : Rivingtons, 1856.) But the
Council of Trent denounced this con
formity at almost its last meeting,
1568. In 1570 the Roman court aban
doned the hope of reconciling England,
and the Bull was issued which pro
fessed to excommunicate the Queen,
and to dispense her subjects from their
obedience ; and while this drove many
into acceptance of the Reformation, it
was the signal for others to make an
entire and formal popish schism from
the Church. Those who henceforward
refused to attend the worship of their
parish churches were carefully marked,
and known under the name of "Re
cusants." The existence of plots to restore
popery in England made the recusants
liable to suspicion, and excited a certain
bitterness of feeling against them for
many years. The result was that penal
laws were passed against them, and
that they actually suffered a consider
able amount of persecution during the
reign of Elizabeth, which tho popular
historians have passed over very lightly j
but of which some interesting illus
trations have recently been published, '
See ' One Generation of a Norfolk
House,' by A. Jessop ; and a paper on
' The Elizabethan Martyrs, ' in tho
' Church Quarterly,' April, 1879, where
will be found reference to other
authorities. [Sec Romanists and York,
Diocese of, concluding paragraphs.]
The REFECTORY of a monastery

REFORMATION, THE

503

REFORMATION, THE

[see Monastery] was a great dining-hall,
with the usual screen at the lower end,
a dais at the upper end, and a pulpit
on one side from which a gospel was
read during meals. A high table stood
on the dais for the abbot, prior, and
other great officials ; several tables
formed of movable boards and trestles
stretched down the length of the hall,
and the different classes of inmates of
the house sat at different tables, e. g.
the monks at one, the novices at another,
the conversi at a third. The monks
washed before meals at the lavatory in
the cloister, near the entrance to the
refectory. Though no flesh, except on
high festivals, was eaten, yet the mo
nastic cooks learnt how to make the
best of the materials at their disposal ;
and the meals were served with the
attention to order and decorum which
was one of the monastic virtues. The
prior, or other officer presiding, gave
three blows on a bell, or three knocks
on the table, as a signal for grace be
fore meat, and again for grace after
meat. After dinner in some Orders
the monks might adjourn to the cale
factory or parlour, or might pace the
cloisters, for pleasant recreation and
conversation. REFORMATION, THE. The prin
cipal departments of this great move
ment were :
1. The reform of administrative
abuses. 2. The reform of doctrines and
practices. 3. The alteration of the relations
of the Church of England to the rest
of the Churches of the West.
4. The alteration of the constitu
tional relations of the Church of
England to the Crown.
(1) For centuries the need of a reform
of the manifold abuses which existed
in tho Church had been strongly felt ;
and had led to the holding of the
reforming Councils of Pisa (1409),
Constance (1414), and Basle (1431).
These councils having failed, through
the intrigues' of the Roman Curia, to
effect the desired reforms, the Sovereigns

had severally undertaken such reforms
as were practicable in their own do
minions : the King of France had put
forth the "Pragmatic Sanction;" the
Emperor had entered into an agreement
with the pope in the " Concordat of
Vienna " ; more recently Cardinal Xime-
nes had made many reforms in the
Church of Spain. Wolsey was desirous
of effecting like reforms in England.
With this object he obtained from the
pope, with the king's consent, a bull
authorising him to visit the monasteries,
and empowering him to dispense with
all the laws of the Church for a year,
in order to facilitate the carrying out
of the reforms which should be found
necessary. He did actually suppress
some of the smaller religious houses.
(2) In the reform movement of the
fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, all
that, was aimed at was a correction of
abuses, everywhere, but especially in
the Roman Curia ; and the Councils of
Constance and Basle went out of their
way to show their orthodoxy by their
action against heresy, especially by
their condemnation of John Huss and
Jerome of Prague. But since then a
movement in favour of a doctrinal
reform had sprung up. The causes
which led to it were the revival of
learning, especially of Greek and
Hebrew ; the study of the Scriptures,
and early history of the Church, and
the Fathers ; the consequent examina
tion of the bases of all Church teach
ing, and the exercise of an independent
judgment upon it. The impulse to
this part of the Reformation came
to us from abroad. The learning of
Erasmus, who spent several years in
England, undermined the, old doctrine,
and the teaching of Luther had a great
effect in establishing the new. The
teaching of Wiclif in the fourteenth
century had less influence upon the
doctrinal reformation in England than
might have been expected ; the Lollard
teaching seems to have completely
died out from among the people ; and
the sixteenth century movement, in
favour of doctrinal reform, was entirely

REFORMATION, THE

504

REFORMATION, THE

independent of it. In this department
of the Reformation also Wolsey was in
the van of the movement. He was
a patron of the new learning, and
devoted the property of the religious
houses which he suppressed to the
founding of a noble college at Oxford
and a school at Ipswich, and he treated
with great leniency those who were
brought before him on the change of
heresy. (3) The idea of repudiation of the
papal authority and declaration of the
independence of national Churches
was "in the air." The corruptions of
the Roman Curia, the large revenues
it took out of the kingdoms for no
service rendered, the venality and
dilatoriness of its judicial proceedings,
had raised a strong popular feeling
against it ; the political action of the
pope as a temporal sovereign had ex
cited a hostile feeling on the part of
the French and English kings and
people ; and the possibility of a rup
ture and secession of France and
England from the Papal obedience
had been talked about long before, in
the case of England, it came to pass.
Notably, the Convocation of Canter
bury, in 1532, under Archbishop War
ham, had petitioned the king to nego
tiate with the pope for a remission of
the large sums which the bishops were
required to pay to Rome, and if the
pope were unwilling to agree to that,
they suggested the severance of the
existing dependence upon the pope
altogether. No doubt the king's anger
at the conduct of the pope in the
question of his divorce, was the motive
which finally influenced him in taking
the important step which other circum
stances suggested and made possible
(4) The king took the opportunity of
the general desire for Church reform,
and of the severance of the Church of
England from the general organisation
of the Churches of the West, to effect
a great constitutional change in the
relations of the Crown to the Church.
The Church possessed great wealth,
enjoyed great privileges and immuni

ties, and exercised great power in the
country; in the struggle between tho
Church and the Crown in the time of
Henry II. and Becket the Church had
been victorious ; its privileges still
formed a constitutional limitation of
the power of the Crown, which its
wealth and prestige made powerful and
effective. The king conceived the
design of revolutionising by a coup
d'itat the constitutional relations of
the Church to the Crown. The Wars
of the Roses had destroyed the power
of the old feudal nobility, and left the
Crown free from that great limitation
of its authority. The Parliament was
no longer the powerful and independent
body it had been in the reigns of
Richard II. and Hemy IV., but passed
the king's bills, including - bills of
impeachment against those whom he
desired to destroy, with timid alacrity,
The destruction of the power of the-
Church would free the Crown from the
only other great constitutional limita-'
tion, and the absorption of its wealth
would make Henry the most absolute,
powerful, and wealthy Sovereign in
Christendom. The doctrinal reformation extended
over a considerable time, and divides
itself naturally into four periods,
sharply defined by their coincidence
with the four reigns of Henry VIII.,
Edward VI., Mary, and Elizabeth, and
strongly marked by their different
characteristics. 1. In the time of Henry VIII. the
motive of the reformers was to return
as far as possible to the constitution,
doctrine, and disciplino of the early
Church, as contained in the Scriptures,
the first four General Councils, and the
ancient Fathers. It was an independ
ent movement on the part of the
bishops and theologians of the English
Church, though not uninfluenced by
the contemporary publications of Eras
mus and Luther.
2. Under Edward VI., or rather
under the authority of the Puritanical
Protector, tho English Reformation

REFORMATION, THE

505

REFORMATION, THE

fell under the influence of Calvin and
Zwingle, and was hastening too far in
the direction of the Genevan model. It
was this which reconciled many to —
3. tiie reaction of Mary's reign ; and,
4. on the accession of Elizabeth,
made many of the bishops and dignified
clergy cling to the re-established con
nection with the rest of Christendom
as a, safeguard against the recurrence of
extreme changes. The popular abhor
rence of the tortures and burnings of
the Marian persecution, however, facili
tated the return to the Reformation ;
while the wisdom of the Queen and
Archbishop Parker established a reason
able compromise between the parties,
and delayed the Puritan triumph for
another century.
The great defect of the Reformation
was, that it destroyed too indiscrimin-
atingly * and reconstructed too little.
It swept away all the religious houses
instead of re-organising some of them,
as the most zealous of the Reformers
wished,* for institutions of religion,
learning, and charity. In suppressing
the chantries it destroyed a consider
able number of buildings which had been
founded and endowed as chapels of ease
for populations at a distance from their
parish churches. In confiscating the
property of the guilds it was in very
many cases robbing the Benefit Clubs of
the poor. In the visitation of the parish
churches the commissioners too often
left the worst of the sacred vessels, and

of the church furniture generally for the
Divine Service, and carried away the best
for the king's purse. When it blotted
out the Order of Monks, who were the
learned leisurely ecclesiastics, and the
Order of Friars, who were specially the
ministers to the poor, and the chantry
and guild priests, and domestic chap
lains, who were the additional curates
of the period, it made no new provision
to supply their place. Even the Order
of Secular Clergy, which alone was left
to fill the vast void, was enfeebled ;
the bishops and chapters were relieved
of many of their manors, and the
parishes had not their great tithes
restored to them. All that was done
with this immense property, all .the
attempt to build up new institutions
to supply the place of those which had
been destroyed, was that six monasteries
were turned into cathedrals for as many
new dioceses, sparingly endowed with a
portion of their ancient revenues. After
all the gain was worth the cost. The
Reformation left the Church humiliated,
impoverished, enfeebled, distracted ;
but it left it relieved of the incubus
of the Papal supremacy, purged of a
hundred superstitions, corrected in
doctrine, purified in morals. If this
liberated and purified Church had been
at the same time enlarged and strength
ened, England would have been a very
different England ever since.
The following are notes of the chief
events of the Reformation period : —

1511
1516
1523 15251529

Dean Colet's Sermon before Convocation, on the need of Reform.
A revised breviary issued, expurgated from all mention of the Bishop
of Rome and of Saints not mentioned in Holy Scripture._
Wolsey, with the king's licence, summons a Legatine Council for tho
reformation of the Church.
Tyndale's translation of the New Testament published at Cologne.
[See Bible.]
Wolsey's disgrace and death. Sir Thomas More appointed Chancellor.
In his speech at the opening of Parliament he mentions the need
of ecclesiastical reform.

* Sir R. Atkyns, in his ' Gloucestershire,' speaks of 45,000 churches and 55,000 chapels
which existed before the Reformation ; and Maskell says ('Monumenta Ritualia,' I. p. cciii)
that, including monastic churches of all kinds, as well as chantries and other chapels in largg
churches, the estimate is perhaps sufficiently accurate,

506

REFORMATION, THE

The 'clergy, threatened by the king with the penalty of prsemunire
(outlawry, confiscation, and imprisonment), for having attended
Wolsey's Legatine Council of 1523, agree to acknowledge the king
as " Supreme Head of the Church of England, so far as is allowed
by'the law of Christ."
The clergy in Convocation petition the king for an Act of Parliament
for the discontinuance of the payment of Annates to the popef
suggesting that if the pope resisted, England should withdraw
from the Roman obedience. An Act against Annates (23 Henry
VIII. c. 20) was accordingly passed, was held back in prospect of
a compromise with the pope, but came into operation by royal
proclamation at the end of two years.
A Bill of Complaints presented by the Commons (probably at the
instigation of the king), against the abuses of the ecclesiastical
courts ; the chief complaint being on the making of canons with
out royal or lay assent. The Convocation's answer to the Bill of
Complaints was declared insufficient ; and the three propositions
known as the Stibmission of the Clergy were assented to by Convo^
cation, viz. — (1) Convocation only to assemble by the king's com
mand ; no legislation by the clergy to be valid without the king's
assent ; (2) A reform of the Canon Law to be undertaken by
a royal commission ; (3) The ancient law-s of the Church, not
inconsistent with the laws of God and the king, to stand good,
with the king's assent and authority.
An Act passed (24 Henry VIII. c. 12) for the restraint of appeals to
Rome, vesting ecclesiastical jurisdiction in the archbishops, bishops,
and other ordinaries of the Church of England ; [but the subsequent
Act of Submission gave a final appeal to the king in Chancery.]
On the death of Warham, Cranmer made archbishop.
March 30, the king's divorce.
The king marries Anne Boleyn.
A declaration of the Convocation of Canterbury, March 31 ; of York,
May 5, "that the Bishop of Rome has no greater jurisdiction
conferred on him by God than any other foreign bishop. " It was
sighed by the clergy and by the monks generally.
Act for the Submission of the Clergy (25 Henry VIII. C. 19), embody
ing the submission already made by Convocation in 1632.
The Act 23 Henry VIII. c. 20, was promulgated, which forbade pay
ment of First Fruits -to Rome, and defined the manner in which,
bishops were in future to be made without confirmation by
the pope.
An Act (25 Henry VIII. u. 21), confirmed by another Act in 1536,
allowed what had been done by the popes in previous times to
stand, for the sake of the interests involved, but enacted that no
further Bulls should run in England.
Act 26 Henry VIII. c. 1, gave the king the title of "Supreme Head
of the Church of England," which must be interpreted with the
limitation contained in the submission of tho clergy.
Convocation addressed the king in favour of a new translation of the
Bible, and Cranmer put the work into the hands of the bishops.
Coverdale's translation of the Bible printed.
An Act of Parliament (27 Henry VIII. c. 28), for the suppression of
the smaller religious bouses, put all under the value of JE200 a-

REFORMATION, THE

507

year into the hands of the king. This involved the suppression
of all the friaries.
Cromwell as Vicar-General and Vicegerent (i. e. wielding the royal
supremacy), orders the Bible to be placed in churches for common use.
Convocation agrees to Ten Articles of Religion. ' The Institution (i. e.
Instruction) of a Christian Man,' a popular exposition of the
Reformation to this date, published.
A final statute (28 Henry VIII. c. 10) was passed against the pope's
authority, supplementary to all the former Acts.
Matthew's Bible published.
The reactionary Act of Six Articles passed. 1. Transubstantiation
affirmed. 2. Communion in both kinds declared necessary. 3.
Priests not to marry. 4., Vows of celibacy to be kept. 5. Private
masses approved. 6. Auricular confession necessary.
Cranmer's Bible published.
The pope's Bull of Interdict and Excommunication published.
The second Act of Dissolution of the religious houses (31 Henry VIII.
c. 13) gave a "Parliamentary title" to the estates of the greater
monasteries which the king had seized during the last two years.
To facilitate the acceptance of this Bill, a previous Bill had been pre
sented and passed (Act 31 Henry VIII. c. 9) empowering the king
to -create new bishoprics by his letters patent. He talked of
founding eighteen new sees ; in the end he only founded six.
Convocation ordered the Lessons to be read in English, and appointed
a commission for the revision of the Service-books.
The Litany revised, translated into English, and ordered to be used
in public worship.
An Act (37 Henry VIII. c. 4) placed the endowments of the
universities, of all colleges of priests, and all the chantries and
guilds, at the mercy of the king ; commissioners were appointed
to visit them, but the king's death, January 28, 1547 (in the
56th year of his age.and the 38th of his reign) arrested their action.
Accession of Edward VI.
First Book of Homilies put forth. _
An Act (1 Edward VI. c. 12) repealing all Acts which had made any
thing treason in the late reign which was not before, and the Act
of Six Articles, and the authority given to the king's proclama
tions, and the Acts against Lollards.
An Act (1 Edward VI. c. 1) for Communion m both kinds.
An Act (2 Edward VI. c. .2) that the congi d'ilire being but a shadow,
should cease, and bishops should be named by the kings letters,
and thereupon be consecrated. It also enacts that since all spiritual
and temporal jurisdiction is derived from the king, summonses and
citations in most ecclesiastical causes shall run in the king s name
1 Edward VI. c. 12 makes it treason to affirm that the king is not
Supreme Head on earth of the Church of England. _ _
Cranmer, and probably other bishops, renewed their commissions for
the exercise of ordinary jurisdiction, thus re-acknowledging the
king as the source of such jurisdiction. ,
An Act lives the king all the chantries not seized by the late king
in; spite of Cranmer's pleading for them to improve the state of
All law^and^anons against the marriage of the clergy annulled,

508

REFORMATION, THE

Some ancient customs, considered superstitious, put down.
The English form of Communion, drawn up by Cranmer, appended to
the Latin Mass, came into use.
Cranmer put forth a Larger Catechism (translated from the Latin of
Justus Jonas).
Accession of. Edward VI.
The First Reformed Prayer Book (confirmed 2 and 3 Edward VI. c. 1).
An Act (2 and 3 Edward VI. c. 21) repealed laws against the marriage
of the clergy, and again (5 and 6 Edward VI. c. 12).
The Reformed Ordinal completed.
The Second Prayer Book issued (5 and 6 Edward VI. c. 1).
The Protector Somerset executed ; Dudley, Duke of Northumberland,
takes his place.
Commission for tho reformation' of the ecclesiastical laws issued.
Convocation sitting more or less continuously with Parliament, the
clergy must be taken as a rule to have been accessories in the
above legislation.
Seizure of Church plate to the king's use.
Bishops began to be nominated by the king's letters patent during
their natural life or good behaviour, to exercise ecclesiastical juris
diction, and perform all the other parts of the episcopal Amotion
that by the word of God were committed to bishops, and this
they were to do in the king's name and by his authority. These
patents were in effect presentations by the royal patron to bishoprics,
with power to eject for ill-behaviour.
Forty-two Articles issued.
Queen Mary succeeds.
Gardner, Lord Chancellor and Minister. Cranmer, Ridley, and Latimer
sent to the Tower ; many of the reformers flee.
A packed Parliament repealed the divorce of the Queen's mother ;
repealed all the laws made in King Edward's reign relating to
religion. The services of the Church were ordered to be those
commonly used in the last year of Henry VIII.
The Archbishop of York, Bishops of St. Davids, Chester, and Bristol,
deprived for marriage.
Bishops of Lincoln, Gloucester, and Hereford, consecrated under Edward
VI. 's letters patent, dismissed for ill-behaviour. Ridley of
London, Poynet of Winchester, and Scory of Chichester, removed
as intruders to make way for the bishops still living who had
been deprived by Edward VI.
Scory, Bishop of Chichester, at first renounced his wife, and did
penance, but soon fled over sea. Barlow resigned Bath and
Wells. Sixteen new bishops mado.
A new Parliament. Convocation also summoned ; deputes a Com
mission to Oxford to argue with Cranmer, Ridley, and Latimer.
Condemns them as heretics.
Marriage of the Queen with Philip of Spain in July. .
The bishops visit their dioceses. Some of the clergy deprived for
being married.
A third packed Parliament.
Pole enters England as Legate, November 24.
Both Houses of Parliament, by address to the Queen, ask for reconcilia
tion to the see of Rome. Pole giyes the whole nation a plenary

REFORMATION, THE

509

155515561557

1558

1559

absolution. Parliament, by an Act (1 and 2 Philip and Mary, c 8)
repeals all Acts since 20 Henry VIII. against the pope's authority ;
only the present possessors of Church lands are secured. Pole, a
learned, accomplished, and spiritual man, tries to effect a reform-
ation of the clergy ; declines to allow Jesuits in England.
Persecution begun : Rogers, Hooper, Ridley, Latimer, and others
burnt ; in all in this year 67, of whom 4 bishops and 13 priests.
Cranmer burnt, and others this year, to the number of 79. Pole
made Archbishop of Canterbury.
Thirty-nine burnt this year, making total in the Queen's reign of 277
burnt, besides those who were punished by imprisonment, confis
cation, and fines ; among them 5 bishops, 21 clergymen, 8 lay
gentlemen, 84 tradesmen, 100 husbandmen, servants, and labourers,
55 women, and 4 children.*
Death of the Queen, Nov. 17 ; Pole died on the following day.
November 17, accession of Queen Elizabeth. The legislation of the
reigns of Edward VI. and Mary may be regarded as in a sense
parenthetical, and the ecclesiastical policy of Elizabeth as the
logical continuation of that of Henry VIII.
Those imprisoned for religion were at once liberated, and the exiles for
religion returned, and were regarded with great popular favour.
1 Elizabeth, c. 1, repeals the Repealing Act of Mary, but does not
indiscriminately revive the legislation of Edward or of Henry ; it
carefully selects some of their Acts for revival, and leaves others
unrevived ; the general effect being to relax the rigid grasp of
the Crown upon the Church, and to restore the Church to some
thing of its former liberties.
1 Elizabeth, c. 2, is the Act of Uniformity, which revives the Second
Prayer Book of Edward VI. (of 1552), with some small but im
portant alterations in the direction of the First Book of Edward
VI., and therefore in the direction of more catholic doctrine.
Of 15 surviving diocesan bishops (4 bishops had died just before
Mary's death, and 6 just after), all, except Kitchen of Llandaff,
refused the oath of supremacy, and were imprisoned, but soon
liberated, except Bonner, White, and Watson. In all 14 bishops,
8 abbots, 12 deans, 12 archdeacons, 15 heads of colleges, 50
prebendaries, and 80 rectors (out of 9400 parishes) refused to
accept the new reform, and were deprived.
Visitors were sent throughout the dioceses to cany out the orders of
certain Injunctions, which were those of Edward VI. 's reign, with
some little alteration and some additions (e. g. the supremacy ex
plained to mean that the Crown had sovereignty over all persons,
and that no foreign power was to be acknowledged). A Com
munion table to be set where the altar formerly stood, but on

* The persecutions of Mary's reign were due rather to the stern policy of Queen and
Council than to the persecuting spirit of the bishops ; in fact, "in the fourteen dioceses
then filled, the bishops so used their influence as altogether to prevent bloodshed in nine,
and to reduce it within limits in the remaining five." — (Sir J. Mackintosh). The bishops
were more than once rebuked by the Government for not proceeding with greater severity.
The cruelty even of Bonner has been exaggerated by party writers ; instead of seeking for
cases of heresy he confined himself to the administration of the law against heretics within
hU own diocese ; some who were sent to him from other dioceses he refused to have any
thing to do with. Dr. Maitland agrees with Hume in stating the number of ..legal murders
committed in Mary's reign to be 277. Burnet reckons 284.

510

REGIUM DONTJM

15621567
1568

156915701571
1572

1588

sacramental days to be brought to the most convenient i place in
the chancel. The sacramental bread to be round, but thickeS
than the old "wafers," and with no figure on it.
5 Elizabeth, c. 23, provides for giving the aid of the temporal power i|jj
execution of the Church's sentence of excommunication, which!
involved imprisonment for not more than six months. The re
organisation of Church discipline was a marked characteristiGi^
the policy of this reign. ¦
December 17, Parker was consecrated [see Nag's Heads Fable], then;
the deprived bishops were restored, and the vacant sees filled, up.
Convocation drew up the Thirty -nine Articles of Religion, which wero
published in the following year, and required to be accepted by
the clergy, on pain of deprivation.
Many Walloons, fleeing from the persecution of the Duke of Alva, are
allowed to establish themselves as Dutch congregations in eight
towns in England.
A Revised Version of the Bible, commonly called Parker's Bible,
published. Brown established a separate congregation on Inde
pendent principles.
The " Rising in the North," an armed revolt against the Reformation.'"
The pope excommunicates Elizabeth. Some separate from the Church,
and make a Papist schism.
The Second Book of Homilies put forth.
The first Presbytery set up at Wandsworth by Cartwright and others.
It was the beginning" of a movement which attained its climax at
the Great Rebellion.
The massacre of St. Bartholomew.
The Spanish Armada defeated. Afflavit Deus et dissipantur.

REGIUM DONUM. In 1723 the
Government thought it right to make
some acknowledgment of the loyalty
of the Dissenting bodies, and of their
services to the peaceful government of
the country, and to encourage that
loyalty in the future, by making an
annual grant of money, out of the
taxation of the country, to Dissenting
ministers of the three principal sects
— the Presbyterians, Independents, and
Baptists — in England and Ireland. It
commenced in 1723, and was discon
tinued in 1840. The following three
items taken at random will give an
idea of the amounts thus granted : in
1825, £13, 894 ; in 1835, £25,400 ; in
1840, £33,661.
RELIGIOUS CENSUS. When the
Census of 1851 was made, some statistics
were obtained of the number of " places
of worship," and of those attending
them on a particular Sunday ; and from
these statistics certain conclusions were

drawn as to the number of the " placesof
worship," and the number of the adher
ents of the different "denominations." ;
The accuracy of these statistics was
challenged, and especially the con
clusions drawn from them as to tho
numbers of Church people and Dis
senters were disputed.. As to the
number of "places of worship," it
appeared that on the dissenting side
every room of whatever kind used for
occasional religious meetings was reck
oned as a " place of worship, " and it
also appeared that many which had
ceased to be "places of worship " were
still retained on the list. It also ap
peared that the number of persons
attending places of worship , on the
given Sunday had been obtained by
counting the number of attendances ;
and since many Church people attend
Church only once on a Sunday, while
many Dissenters attend chapel three
times, the result was misleading.

REREDOS

511

REVOLUTION, THE

|^hen the time approached for the
'next Census of 1861, an attempt was
|iade to obtain a proper religious census,
but this was so vehemently opposed by
the Dissenters that the Government of
the day — Lord Palmerston was Prime
Minister — abandoned the design. Lord
SPalftierston, in a speech on the subject,
said that "nothing could be more
tyiacious than the mode adopted in
S847 ... no inference of value could
J6e drawn from such information." All
succeeding attempts to obtain a religious
census have been successfully opposed,
iand statisticians have been driven to
estimate the numbers of people belong
ing to the various denominations by
such officii 1 facts as were to be obtained.
fhus in 1870, the year before School
Boards, the children in church schools
^rere 72 "6 per cent. In 1878, of the
number of marriages, 72 '6 per cent.
were in church. In 1875, of the number
of seamen and marines, 75 '5 were
churchmen. In the same year, of the
number of inmates of workhouses, 79
per cent, were church people. Of
Englishmen in the army (excluding
Scotch and Irish), about 88 per cent, are
churchmen. The general conclusion
arrived at is, that about 75 per cent, of
the papulation seek the ministrations of
religion at the hands of the Church.
(See ' A Census of Religious Denomin
ations,' by J. G. Hubbard, M.P.
London : 1882.) [Sec Dissenters, the
number of.]
REREDOS, an ornamental erection of
stone, wood, hangings, or otherwise,
behind the altar, intended chiefly to
give dignity to the altar.
RESERVATION. The reservation of
some of the consecrated bread and wine,
after a celebration of the Eucharist,
.with which to communicate the absent
or sick, was a primitive custom. Justin
Martyr,. -about 150 a.d., says, "the
deacons give to each of those who are
present a portion of the Eucharistic
bread and wine and water ; and carry
them to those who are absent " (' First
Apology,' § 67). In the Middle Ages
a portion of the consecrated bread

was reserved and kept in a pyx, to
communicate the sick and dying ; it
was carried to the sick person by the
priest in his robes, accompanied by the
parish clerk ringing a little hand-bell ;
and all people who met him knelt
in honour of the sacredness of the
burden which he carried. The recep
tion of the doctrine of Transubstanti
ation led to the reservation of a Host,
and its being placed upon the altar, in
order to maintain a Presence of Christ
continually there. Then followed the
practice of exhibiting the reserved Host
to the congregation in a monstrance
as an object of worship ; and of the
solemn benediction of the congregation,
by making the sign of the cross over
them with the monstrance.
There is a desire on the part of some
persons to revive the primitive practice
of reservation, in order that the clergy
might, on a Sunday, go round to the
sick and infirm, i. e. to such as earnestly
desire it, and include them in the
Communion of the rest of the congre
gation. Some of the clergy had indeed
revived this practice. In February,
1885, the Upper House of the Canter
bury Convocation took the subject into
consideration; and resolved that, "the
practice of reservation is contrary to
the wise and carefully revised Order of
the Church of England." [See Pyx.]
REVEREND, worthy of respect or
veneration. A complimentary title
given to the clergy. Priests and
deacons are styled Reverend ; deans,
Very Reverend ; the bishops, Right
Reverend ; archbishops, Most Reverend.
REVOLUTION, THE. The cause of
the Revolution of 1688, which drove
the Stuarts from the throne, and intro
duced the Hanoverian dynasty, was not
merely the arbitrariness of the measures
of James II. , but that those measures
were intended to replace the Church of
England under the Roman obedience.
This he endeavoured to effect by making
an unconstitutional use of the dispens
ing power and the Royal Supremacy, to
dispense with the laws against Papists,
and to present Papists to the bishoprics

REVOLUTION, THE

512

REVOLUTION, THE

and other dignities in tho patronage of
the Crown. Tho refusal of the Seven
Bishops to order the reading of the
second Declaration of Indulgence, their
committal to the Tower and their ac
quittal, the applause of the army en
camped at Hounslow on receiving news
of the acquittal, and tho rejoicing of
the people, showed that his policy, how
ever unscrupulous and violent, had no
chance of success against such a uni
versal resistance. When William was
placed on the throne the Church was
threatened with more probable danger
in the opposite direction. William was
bred a Presbyterian, and was from con
viction a Latitudinarian. His religious
policy comprehended three objects : 1.
The abolition of the exclusive claim of
the National Church to the adherence of
the whole people, and the concession
of a legal status to Dissent. 2. A
modification of the doctrine and dis
cipline of the Church so as to include
Nonconformists. 3. Tho abolition of
religious tests as a condition of holding
civil offices. Hitherto not only the
Church, but the Presbyterians also
when in power, had held that the
Church of the nation ought to be one,
that schism was a sin, and that the
open setting up of schismatical worship
ought not to be permitted by the
Christian State ; and statesmen had
held that religious divisions, being
more bitter, do more to injure the
harmony, unity, and power of a nation
than any others. But the idea of ob
taining harmony in the body politic
by the toleration of religious differences
had been gradually coming in. Charles
I. had endeavoured, for the sake of his
Queen and her friends, to obtain tolera
tion for the Papists ; Charles II. had
endeavoured to obtain toleration for
the Papists, towards whom he leaned,
by including the Nonconformists with
them in two declarations of Indulgence ;
and James II., for the sake of his co
religionists, had desired to proclaim a
universal toleration. William succeeded
in obtaining a Toleration Act (1689)
which allowed Dissenting teachers,

who had taken tho oath of allegiancej
and subscribed the Thirty-six doctrinal
Articles of the Church of England, toj
conduct public worship for their ad-j
herents without interference and penal.;
ties, and protected their worship from
molestation. No others except these1
"Orthodox Dissenters " were included
in the toleration.
When William at length, on the
petition of Parliament, summoned Con-]
vocation, a bitter contest began between
the two parties, and was carried on.
also publicly in print. A Comprehen-1
sion Bill was introduced into Parlia-1
ment at tho same time ; it proposed*
to dispense ministers from signing tho j
Thirty-nino Articles, to recognise Pres-]
byterian ordination, to make certain
ceremonies optional, as the use of the
surplice, the cross in baptism, spon
sors, and kneeling at Holy Communion ;
and it proposed to petition the Crown
for a revision of the Liturgy and
Canons, and the reform of the Ecclesi
astical Courts. These proposals of the
Court party excited great and almost
universal alarm among Church people,
especially among tho clergy, of whom
(Macaulay estimates) nine-tenths were
opposed to the Puritan and Latitudi
narian views. The public alarm was
intensified by the fact that in Scotland
the mob had been allowed to "rabble"
tho episcopal clergy without interfer
ence on the part of the authorities,
Episcopacy had been abolished by the ¦
Scottish Parliament, and the Presby
terian system had been re-establishod.
with the King's consent. So general
and so vehement was the opposition in
the Church of England to this revolu
tion in her constitution and doctrine
that the Comprehension Bill was
allowed to drop. It was evident that
there would be nothing gained by
conciliating Presbyterians at the cost
of alienating Anglicans.
One important ecclesiastical result of
the Revolution was the ejection of the
non-jurors. Many of tho clergy scrupled
to take tho oath of allegiance demanded
by the new Sovereigns, while James

RICHARD ROLLE

513

RICHARD ROLLE

still claimed the allegiance they had
already sworn to him. In consequence,
the Primate, and five other bishops,
and about four hundred and sixty of
the clergy, were (Feb. 1, 1690) ejected
from their sees and livings. They were
the most distinguished of the primitive
and catholic element, and their ejection
was a great loss to the Church. [See
Non- Jurors.]
RICHARD ROLLE, of Hampole,
hermit ; died 1349. Several of the
biographies given in this work have
been selected as types, illustrative of
classes of persons, and modes of life,
in the Church of England ; the life
of St. Richard will serve as a type
of the character and mode of life of a
mediaeval hermit. Students of eccle
siastical antiquities know that he wrote
many books in Latin and English, com
posed an English version of the Psalms,
that his writings were very popular,
and that he was regarded as a saint ;
but nothing was known of his history,
till the Rev. G. G. Perry found a copy
of the 'Officium et Legenda de Vita
Ricardi Rolle ' in the Library of Lincoln
cathedral, and the Early English Text
Society published it in 1866. The
following sketch is taken from this
work. St. Richard was born in the
village of Thornton in Yorkshire ; at
a suitable age he was sent to school
by the care of his parents, and after
wards was sent by Richard Neville,
Archdeacon of Durham, to Oxford,
where he gave himself especially to
theological study. At the age of nine
teen, considering the uncertainty of
life and the awfulness of judgment,
especially to those who waste life _ in
pleasuro, or spend it in acquiring
wealth, he left Oxford and returned
to his father's house. One day he
asked of his sister two of her gowns
and a hooded cloak of his father's.
Out of these he fashioned for himself
an imitation of a hermit's costume, and
next day he went off into a neighbour
ing wood, bent upon living a hermit's
life. Soon after, on the vigil of the
Assumption of the Blessed Virgin, he

went to a certain church, and -knelt
down to pray in the place which the
wife of a certain worthy knight, John
de Dalton, was accustomed to occupy.
When the lady came to church, her
servants would have turned out the
intruder, but she would not permit it.
When vespers were over, and he rose
from his knees, the sons of Sir John,
who were students at Oxford, recog
nised him as the son of William Rolle,
whom they had known at Oxford.
Next day Richard again went to the
same church, and, without any bidding,
put on a surplice and sang Matins and
the office of the Mass with the rest.
And when the gospel was to be read
at Mass, he sought the blessing of the
priest, and then entered the pulpit and
preached a sermon to the people, of
such wonderful edification that many
were touched to compunction even to
tears, and all said they had never heard
before a sermon of such power and
efficiency. After Mass, Sir John Dalton
invited him to dinner. When he
entered into the manor he took his
place in a ruined building and would
not enter tho hall, according to the
evangelical precept, "When thou art
bidden to a wedding, sit down in the
lowest room ; and when he that hath
bidden thee shall see it, he will say,
Friend, go up higher," which was ful
filled to him, for the knight made him
sit at table with his own sons. But
he kept such silence at table that he
did not speak one word ; and when he
had eaten sufficiently he rose before
they took away the table and would
have departed ; but the knight told
him this was contrary to custom, and
made him sit down again. After dinner
the knight had some private conver
sation with him, and being satisfied
that he was not a madman, but really
seemed to have the vocation of a her
mit's life, he clothed him at his own
cost in a hermit's habit, and retained
him a long time in his own house,
giving him a solitary chamber (locum
mansionis solitaries), which is elsewhere
described as a cell, at a distance from

RICHARD ROLLE

514

RICHARD ROLLE

the house," and providing him with all
necessaries. Our hermit then gave
himself up to ascetic discipline and a
contemplative life. He wrote books,
he counselled those who came to him ;
he did both at the same time ; for one
afternoon the lady of the house coming
to him with many other persons, and
finding him writing very rapidly,
begged him to stop writing and speak
some words of edification to them ; and
he began at once, and continued to
address them for two hours, with ad
mirable exhortations to cultivate virtue
and to put away worldly vanities, and
to increase the love of their hearts for
God ; but at the samo time he went
on writing as fast as before. He used
to be so absorbed in prayer that his
.friends took off his torn cloak, and
when it had been mended, put it on
him again without his knowing it.
Soon we hear of his having temptations
like those which assailed St. Anthony,
St. Jerome, St. Guthlac, St. Dunstan,
and a score of other saints, the devil
tempting him in the form of a beautiful
woman. At length Lady Dalton died, and
(whether as a direct result of this is
not stated) the hermit left his cell
and began to move from place to place,
for which his historian says we are
not to blame him as if he had been one
of those good-for-nothing hermits who
wandered about seeking alms from the
people ; St. Richard did it that he
might edify the people by his preach
ing. Then comes a glimpse of that
strangest feature of the religious life of
the Middle Ages, the life of the female
recluse, who was not permitted by
her vow to wander about, but always
lived shut up in her cell. St. Richard,
out of the abundance of his charity,
was always solicitous to help recluses
and those who needed spiritual con
solation, and those who were vexed by
ovil spirits either in body or mind.
Coming into the neighbourhood of
Anderby in Riehmondshire, it hap
pened that the Lady. Margaret, the
recluse there, had been seized on the

very day of the Ccena Domini (Thurs
day in Holy Week) with a grievous
attack of infirmity, so that for thirteen
days she had beon unable to speak. A
certain good man of the place, hearing
that St. Richard was staying at a place
twelve miles distant, rode over and
fetched him. He found the recluse
dumb, and racked with sharp pains.
When he had sat at the window * of
her house, and they had eaten to
gether, the recluse fell asleep, and her
head rested on the window at which
St. Richard sat, and reclined a little
on St. Richard ; but when she had
slept a little she started up in a violent
convulsion as if she would have torn
the window asunder, and suddenly re
covering speech began to praise God,
in which St. Richard joined her.
He wrote many works of ascetic and
mystical divinity which were highly
esteemed ; the work which is best
known to us is ' The Prick of Con
science ; ' the Early English Text
Society has published some other short
treatises ; and these works are enough
to show that he was learned in the
devotional literature of his time, wrote
in a terse and striking style, and was
not undeserving of his reputation.
At length ho settled down at the
village of Hampole, Yorkshire, where
was a Cistercian nunnery of fifteen
nuns : here he died (1349), and was
buried in the church of the nunnery ;
and since the relics of so holy a man
were soon believed to work miracles,
his tomb became an object of pilgrim
age ; copies of his works were pre
served by the nuns ; and so great was
his reputation with the people that
the writers of English religious treatises
sometimes feigned that they were
* A recluse's cell had three windows, one
looking towards tho altar of tho church or
chapel, beside which her cell was situated ;
another looking out into the country with a
curtain and shutter, through which she could
converse with those who came to her ; and a
third looking into the adjoining chamber, in
Which her attendant probably lived, and in
which she not infrequently received visitors ;
this latter is clearly the window alluded to
in the text.

RIDLEY

515

RING

written by St. Richard, or their trea
tises were innocently mistaken for his
work, and so he sometimes had to bear
the blame of the Lollard tracts which
were sown among the people.
RIDLEY, Nicholas, Bishop of Lon
don, martyr, burned October 15, 1555 ;
was born of good family at Wymonds-
wike, Northumberland ; educated at
the Grammar School, Newcastle, and at
Pembroke Hall, Cambridge, of which
he was elected a Fellow, 1524 ; subse
quently he studied in Paris and Louvain,
returning to Cambridge in 1529. In
1537 his reputation for learning led
Archbishop Cranmer to invite him
into his household as one of his
chaplains, and to his learning Cranmer
admitted that he was largely indebted
for the formation of his own mind in
the principles of the Reformation.
April 1538, Cranmer gave him the
Rectory of Heme, Kent, and 1540 a
Prebend in Canterbury cathedral ; and
about the same time the Fellows of
Pembroke elected him Master ; 1545,
Cranmer gave him a stall in West
minster. On the accession of Edward
VI., Ridley preached before the king,
and displayed his learning and ability
in a refutation of the errors of popery ;
a few months afterwards (September
25, 1547) he was consecrated Bishop
of Rochester ; and on the deprivation
of Bonner, 1549, was translated to
London. Ridley joined heartily in the
project for placing Lady Jane Grey upon
the throne, and on the accession of Mary
was consequently at once committed
to the Tower. After eight months' im
prisonment there, he was transferred to
Oxford, and there, on the 1st October,
1555, condemned to the stake for heresy.
Great endeavours were used to induce
him to recant, but without any success.
His execution, together with that of
Latimer, took place on the 16th. _ On
the previous evening, when his relations
took leave of him, one of them offered
to sit up with him through the night,
but he would not permit it, saying he
meant to go to bed, and, by God's will,
sleep as quietly that night as he ever

had done in his life. When brought to
the place of execution, he ran to meet
Latimer, who came up at the same
time, and with a cheerful countenance
embraced him, exclaiming, "Be of
good heart, brother, for God will either
assuage the fury of the flames, or else
give us strength to endure them."
Then walking to the stake he knelt
down and kissed it, and prayed earnestly,
and so gave himself up to his death.
Ridley was the greatest man among the
Reformers ; the man of greatest learning
and ability, and the greatest weight of
character ; he filled his office with great
dignity ; and was a pattern of piety,
temperance, and regularity of life.
Notwithstanding his reputation for
learning he has left nothing under his
name but some occasional treatises of
no great importance ; his real literary
remains are contained in the Forty-two
Articles and in the First Prayer Book of
Edward VI. , to which his learning and
judgment largely contributed.
RING of plain gold used in marriage,
of which the Service says, that this
ring given and received is "a token
and pledge of the vow and covenant "
made between the parties. It is placed
upon the book of the officiating clergy
man, and in the old Service there was
a short prayer of blessing said over it,
and then it was returned to the man to
place it on the woman's finger. Various
symbolisms have been ascribed to it,
e. g. the precious metal of which it is
made is a pledge of the donation of the
husband's property to the wife : "with
this ring I thee wed, with all my
worldly goods I thee endow:" the
shape of it is a symbol of eternity, to
signify the indissolubility of the mar
riage— "till death us do part." The
ring, with the pastoral staff, were the
formal insignia with which a bishop
was invested on his admittance to the
temporalities of his see. He was sup
posed to be married to his Church, as
Christ is married to His Spouse, the
Church, and he wore the ring in token
of it. It was usually worked into a,
seal-ring, vesica shaped, with some

RIPON

516

RITUALISM

device alluding to his see engraved upon
it, and it served, him as a signet-ring.
RIPON, DIOCESE OF. Ripon was
for a while the see of a bishop in Saxon
times, Archbishop Theodore having
made it the see of one of the portions
into which he divided the vast diocese
of Northumbria, and Eadhed was its
first bishop, a.d. 679. But it soon lost
its honour, and was merged in the
diocese of York.
The first Report of the Ecclesiastical
Commission in 1836 recommended the
formation of two new dioceses in the
Province of York, viz. of Ripon and-
Manchester. The ancient territorial
division of the West Riding formed
the first new diocese ; the grand old
minster church of Ripon afforded a.
suitable cathedral church, and the
clerical staff of the minster supplied a
dean and canons. The diocese was
constituted by Act 6 and 7 William IV.
c. 79. C. T. Longley was the first bishop,
translated to York, and afterwards to
Canterbury ; after him came R. Bicker-
steth ; and after him the present
bishop, W. Boyd Carpenter. The large
increase of Church machinery and the
success of Church work in the diocese
are sufficient justification of the policy
of the extension of the episcopate.
The diocese consists of the greater
part of the West Riding, and part of
the North Riding of Yorkshire, and
part of Lancaster. It has 2 arch
deaconries, Craven and Richmond ; 24
rural deaneries ; 591 benefices.
RITES AND CEREMONIES. Sir
R. Phillimore ('Eccl. Law,' p. 900)
comes to the conclusion, which he
formally enunciated as Dean of Arches,
that there is a legal distinction between
a rite and a ceremony : the former
consisting in services expressed in
words, the latter in gestures, or acts
preceding, accompanying, or following
the utterance of these words, and in
cluding the use of lights, incense, and
vestments. RITUAL, means the outward order
and ceremonial of Divine Service ; thus
taking off the hat on entering church,

standing to sing and kneeling to pray,
the wearing of a surplice by the clergy
and choristers, and a black gown by
the verger, are parts of ritual. Our
ritual is either prescribed by the canons,
rubrics, &c, as kneeling at the confes
sion, bowing at the name of Jesus, &c,
or it is customary, as turning to the
East at the creed, singing " Glory be
to thee, 0 Lord," before the reading
of the Gospel, &c. The revived earnest
ness in our Church Services in the last
thirty years, and especially the revival
of the idea of worship in our Services,
has naturally led to a revived attention
to the external accompaniments of the
Services : in other words, to a revival
of ritual.
The term Ritualism is popularly ap
plied to what is considered to be an
excess of ritual, or to the attaching of
undue importance to these matters of
order and ceremonial. The standard
by which excess of ritual is to be
measured is the written rules and
directions of canons and rubrics, and
the customary ritual — not of an age of
neglect of the solemnities of Divine
Worship, but of the times when the spirit
of our reformed worship was most
thoroughly felt and exhibited. It is
difficult to suggest a standard by which
to estimate the degree of importance
which ought to be attached to matters
of order and ceremonial in the Divine
Worship ; everything connected with it
is entitled to thoughtful arrangement
and reverent performance. Some minds
naturally attach more and some less
importance to such external acts ; and
it is hazardous for one to judge another
in such matters. [See Ritualism,
Ritual Judgments.]
RITUALISM. The revival study of
Catholic antiquity in the present gener
ation [see High Church and Trac
tarian] has led not only to a wide
knowledge and acceptance of the doc
trines of the primitive Church, as form
ulated in the earlier phase of the Reform
ation ; but also to as wide a knowledge
of the primitive formularies and ritual
of Divine worship ; and to a desire to

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517

RITUALISM

revive them according to the standard
elaborated in the later years of Henry
VIII., and adopted by the Church at
the beginning of the reign of Edward
VI. A little research was enough — ¦
an,d a great deal of research was be
stowed upon the subject * — to prove that
the earlier school of reformers, before
the influence of the Calvinian school
was felt upon the course of our English
Reformation, while sweeping away a
multitude of superstitious ceremonies,
and superabundant forms, had retained
much of the dignity and something of
the symbolism of the ancient Church ;
that when some of these had been sacri
ficed to the prejudices of opponents, yet
a good deal of dignity and solemnity
had been retained in the externals of
the celebration of the Divine worship
by the canons of 1603 ; and it seemed
to many that not only on sound religious
- principles was it desirable to surround
public worship with externals of greater
beauty and dignity, but that the re
vived taste of the nation in all the fine
arts desiderated the more extended en
listment of the arts in the service of
religion. Accordingly a school sprang up which
cultivated church architecture, revived
the manufacture of painted glass, intro
duced choral .services into the larger
churches, and made other great and
generally accepted improvements in
everything connected with the church,
its furniture, and its services.
But some were not satisfied to rest
there. It seemed to them that there
were certain practices of undoubted
primitive authority which it was desir
able to re-introduce : such as wafer-
bread, and the mixed chalice, at the
celebration of Holy Communion. And
it seemed to them that the ornaments-
rubric at the beginning of the Prayer
Book legalised the revival of the alb,
tunicle, and chasuble of the officiating
ministers, the symbolical altar-lights,
and some other ornaments of the church
and of the minister, which were without
* See the ' Hierurgia Anglicana.'

question legalised in tho Reformed
Church by the Uniformity Act of
Edward VI,
Some who thought thus, acted upon
their opinion, and introduced several or
all of these things and practices, notably
at St. Paul's, Knightsbridge, and at
St. Barnabas, Pimlico, which churches
were for some years the patterns of this
ritualism of the First Prayer Book
of Edward VI. The opponents of this
startling departure from the customs of
a hundred and fifty years, proceeded to
try the legality of the step in a series
of contests in the Ecclesiastical Courts,
the result of which will be found under
the head Ritual Judgments.
A further development of ritual was
made by a group of younger clergymen,
on the principle that Catholic ritual is
the rightful heritage of the English
Church, as against the principle that an
individual church has power to decree
rights and ceremonies. The late Mr.
Purchas put forth a Directorium Angli-
canum, in which he laid down such por
tions of" Catholic ritual " as commended
themselves to the judgment and taste of
himself and his friends ; and this may
perhaps be taken to be the standard of
the Advanced Ritualism. A new series
of trials before the Ecclesiastical Courts
was instituted to test the legality of
these new developments, with results
recorded under the above-named article.
The Ritual Commission, issued in
1867, to deal with these vexed questions
by suggesting new legislation upon
them, found the subject so complicated
and difficult, and perhaps found the
subject so unripe yet for legislation,
that it left the matter exactly as it
found it.
When the revival of the present cen
tury shall have run its course, and it is
seen to what point it has brought the
general educated mind of the Church,
then perhaps it will be time enough to
begin to make such modifications as
seem desirable (if any) in our existing
formularies and rubrics, to adapt them
to give expression to the general desire
of that educated mind, with so much

RITUAL JUDGMENTS

518

RITUAL JUDGMENTS

of play between extreme limits, as may
be necessary to allow for special cases,
and to avoid the oppression of a too
rigid uniformity.
RITUAL JUDGMENTS, THE. After
an interval of some centuries, the
revival in this generation of things
which though obsolete were held by
those who revived them to be legal,
has given rise to litigation, and to a
series of new judgments declaring what
ornaments of the Church and its
ministers, and what modes of perform
ing the Divine service, are and are not
legal in the Church of England. These
judgments are of so much present
importance that a sketch of -them and
their results seems to be necessary.
The first set of cases were those
of Westerton v. Liddell, called the
Knightsbridge church cases, and re
lated to the ornaments and decorations
of the church. The cases of Martin v.
Mackonochie— the St. Alban's, Holborn,
eases, and those of Flamank v. Simp
son, Sumner v. Wix, and Elphinstone
or- Hibbert v. Purchas, comprise the
latest and fullest exposition of the law
with respect not only to the ornaments
and decoration of the Church, and the
ornaments of the minister, but also to
the mode of performing the Divine
Service as regulated by the Statutes of
Uniformity, the Canons, and the general
law of the Church.
The points which were raised and
decided in the cases of Mr. Mackonochie
and Mr. Simpson were as to the eleva
tion of the Blessed Sacrament, includ
ing kneeling during the prayer of con
secration. On the first of these points
the Dean of Arches said the elevation
of the Blessed Sacrament was not in
corporated formally into the law of the
Western Church before the beginning
of the thirteenth centuiy. The account
given by Cardinal Bona is clear and
precise: "The Latins as soon as the
consecration is concluded, the Greeks
a little before the Communion, as is
manifest from the liturgies of James,
Basil, and Chrysostom, elevate the
Body of the Lord and "the chalice in

order that they may be adored by the
people ; and this, the Greek writers
assert, was accustomed to be done
from ancient times. He then cites a
number of authorities in. support of
this position, and mentions the intro
duction of the custom of ringing a bell
at the time of the elevation, at first, as
it should appear, in order to excite the
devotions of the faithful, and not for
the purpose of the worship of the Host ;
but in process of time the elevation
was made that the people might adore
the Host. Archbishop Peckham (1278
— 1292) appears to have first intro
duced this custom into England. In
the First Prayer Book of Edward VI.
a rubric at the end of the prayer of
consecration says these words are to bo
said, turning still to the altar, without
any elevation or showing the Sacra
ment to the people. The twenty-
eighth article also, by implication,
forbids this "lifting up." Therefore
the Dean of Arches ruled that : " Look
ing to the spirit as well as the letter of
our present Prayer Book, as well as to
the article (twenty-eighth of the thirty-
nine articles), and to the documents
which illustrate the early period of the
Reformation, it appears to me clear
that those who guided the Church of
England through the prqcess of restor
ation to primitive antiquity were of
opinion that the elevation was so con
nected with the repudiated doctrine
of Transubstantiation, as distinguished
from the Real Presence, that it ought
not to be suffered to remain. . . In my
judgment, that kind of elevation was
unlawful, and I must admonish Mr.
Mackonochie not to recur to it. "
As to the second point, kneeling
during the prayer of consecration, the
Dean of Arches ruled — " It is true that
the rubric does not give precise direc
tions that the celebrant himself should
kneel at the times when it appears Mr.
Mackonochie does kneel ; but I am very
far from saying that it is not legally
competent to him, as well as to the
other priests and to the congregation,
to adopt this attitude of devotion. It

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519

RITUAL JUDGMENTS

cannot be contended that at some time
or other he must not kneel during the
celebration, although no directions as
to his kneeling at all are given by the
rubric. Moreover, in my opinion, if Mr.
Mackonochie has committed any error
in this respect, it is one which should
not form the subject of a criminal
prosecution, but belongs to the category
of those cases which should be referred
to the bishop, in order that he may
exercise thereon his discretion, accord
ing to the rubric to which I have already
referred." But on this point the decision of the
Dean of Arches was overruled by the
Privy Council, who said : " Their lord
ships entertain no doubt on the con
struction of this rubric ('When the
priest standing before the table hath so
ordered the bread and wine that he may
with the more readiness and decency
break the bread before the people, and
take the cup into his hands, he shall say
the prayer of consecration ') ; that the
priest is intended to keep in one posi
tion during the prayer, and not to
change from standing to kneeling, and
vice versd, and it appears to them
equally certain, that the priest is In
tended to stand, and not to kneel.
They think that the words ' standing
before the table ' apply to the whole
sentence, and they think this is made
more apparent by the consideration
that acts are to be done by the priest
before the people as the prayer pro
ceeds (such as taking the paten and
chalice into his hands, breaking the
Bread,' and laying his hands on the
various vessels), which could only be
done in the attitude of standing. "...
"In the rubric, as to the reception of
the sacramental bread and wine, the
words 'all meekly kneeling' apply,
as their lordships think, to the cele
brant as well as to other clerks and to
the people 
"Their lordships think, as they read
the rubric, that directions as to the
celebrant kneeling at a particular time
of the celebration, viz. when he him
self receives the Sacrament, are given ;

and that at the time when it appears
that the respondent kneels, viz. during
the prayer of consecration, the direc
tions in the rubric are precise that he
should stand, and not kneel."
The learned judge further observes
that if Mr. Mackonochie has committed
any error in this respect, it is one which
should not form the subject of a criminal
prosecution, but belongs to the category
of cases which should bs referred to the
bishop. This category the learned judge
had previously defined to be—" Things
neither ordered nor prohibited expressly
or by implication, but the doing, or use,
of which must be governed by the loving
discretion of some person in authority. "
And as to cases in this category, the
learned judge considered that according
to the Preface to the Prayer Book, "the
parties that doubt or- diversely take
any thing, should always resort to the
bishop of the diocese. " "Their lordships
do not think it necessary to consider
minutely the cases to which, or the
manner in which, this direction in the
Preface to the Prayer Book is appli
cable, inasmuch as in their opinion, the
charge against the respondent with
which they are now dealing, involves
what is expressly ordered and pro
hibited by the rubric, and is therefore
a matter in which the bishop could
have no jurisdiction to modify or dis
pense with the rubrical provisions."
"On the whole, their lordships are of
opinion that the charge against the re
spondent of kneeling during the prayer
of consecration has been sustained, and
that he should be admonished, not only
not to recur to the elevation of the
paten and cup, but also to abstain for
the future from kneeling or prostrating
himself before the consecrated elements
during the prayer of consecration. "
On the question of incense, the Dean
of Arches held that — " It is not subsi
diary to the celebration of the Holy
Communion, and it is not to be found
in the rubrics of our present _ Prayer
Book, which describe with considerable
minuteness every outward act which is
to be done at that time,

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520

RITUAL JUDGMENTS

' ' To bring in incense at the beginning
or during the celebration, and remove
it at the close of the celebration of the
Eucharist, "appears to me a distinct
ceremony, additional, and not even in
directly incident to the ceremonies
ordered by the Book of Cqmmon Prayer.
"Although, therefore, it be an an
cient, innocent, and pleasing custom,
I am constrained to pronounce that the
use of it by Mr. Maconochie, in the
manner specified in both charges, is il
legal, and must be discontinued. "
In the subsequent case of Sumner v.
Wix, the Dean of Arches said : "With
respect to the use of incense, the prin
cipal defence is that it was employed
during an interval between two services,
and neither belonged to nor was sub
sidiary to either. I cannot take this
view of the state of facts which was
proved in evidence. I think the fair
result of that evidence is, that incense
was used in the interval between two
services which would otherwise have
immediately succeeded each other ; al
most the same congregation w»s pre
sent at both services and in the interval
between them. It is true that after
the incense had been removed a bell
was rung to signify that the second
service was about to begin ; but looking
at all .the circumstances, I think it
would be unreasonable and unjudicial
not to conclude that the burning of the
incense was intended to be subsidiary
and preparatory to the celebration of
the Holy Communion." This use of
incense was therefore pronounced to be
•illegal. As to the charge of mixing water with
the winej the Dean of Arches having
adverted to the fact that the Passover
cup of wine in which the Sacrament
was instituted was mixed with water ;
to the express statement of Justin
Martyr that it was the custom of the
Church to use mixed wine and water,
and to the same universal practice of
the mediaeval Church, said: "In our
own Church the custom prevailed before
the Reformation ; and in the first order
of the Communion which preceded the

First Prayer Book, the rubric directed
that ' the priest should bless and conse
crate the biggest chalice or some fair
and convenient cup or cups full of wine
with some water put into it ; ' and the
rubric directs that ' the minister shall
take so much bread and wine as shall
suffice for the persons appointed to re
ceive the Holy Communion,'. . . 'and
putting the wine into the chalice or
else in some fair and convenient cup
prepared for that use (if the chalice
will not serve), putting thereunto a
little pure and clean water, and setting
both the bread and>wine upon the altar. ' -
It is clear, therefore, that under the
word 'wine' might be comprehended
the wine and water ; and in * subse
quent rubric at the end of the service,
the direction is that the pastors and
curates shall find at their cost and
charges, ' sufficient bread and wine for
the Holy Communion.'
" In all subsequent Prayer Books the
mention of water is omitted ; perhaps
from the omission in the Second Prayer
Book no argument unfavourable to the
use of water could be fairly drawn, as
no manual acts of consecration are pre
scribed in that book. But in the pre
sent Prayer Book the manual acts are
advisedly specified with great distinct
ness and particularity ; exact directions
are given when the priest shall take
into his hands the bread and the wine,
when he shall place them on the table,
and how he shall administer them ; and
I must bear in mind that the compilers
of the present Prayer Book had before
them the First Prayer Book of Edward
VI. , and carefully considered the rubrics
which it contained ; and in my opinion
the legal consequences of this omission,
both of the water and of the act of
mixing it with the wine, must be con
sidered as a prohibition of the ceremony
or manual act of mixing the water with
the wine during the celebration of the
Eucharist. . . . The mingling a little
pure water with the wine is an innocent
and primitive custom, and one which
has been sanctioned by eminent au
thorities of the Church, and I do not

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521

RITUAL JUDGMENTS

say that it is illegal to administer to
the communicants wine in which a little
water has been previously mixed ; my
decision upon this point is that the
mixing may not take place during the
service, because such mixing would be
a ceremony designedly omitted in, and
therefore prohibited by, the rubrics of
the present Prayer Book."
In the subsequent case of Elphin-
stone, or Hibbe'rt v. Purchas, the law
fulness of administering wine mixed
with water, though not mixed at the
time of celebration, or as part of the
ceremony, was raised. The Dean of
Arches pronounced in favour of the
"'lawfulness of the practice. The Privy
Council, however, on appeal, reversed
this part of the judgment, and declared
the practice unlawful.
On the question of having lighted
candles on the Holy Table, it was
alleged that the candles were not upon
the Communion table, but upon a narrow
movable ledge of wood resting on the
said table. The Dean of Arches said :
' ' There is another consideration peculiar
to this subject, and which must in some
degree distinguish the treatment of that
ornament from that which the others
have received, viz. the important con
sideration whether the use of lights
has not been ordered by competent au
thority, and whether that order must
not, upon legal principles of construc
tion, be deemed a part of the present
law of the Church.
"The rubric directs that 'such orna
ments of the Church and of the minis
ters thereof, shall be retained, and be
in use, as were in this Church of Eng
land by the authority of Parliament, in
the second year of King Edward VI.'
The Judicial Committee of the Privy
Council have instructed me as to the
legal meaning of the word ' ornament '
in this rubric. . . . ' In 1547 [the
first year of Ed. VI.] the Royal Injunc
tions, the subject of so much discussion
during the course of the argument, were
issued : ' . . . one of these is as follows :
' That suche Images as thei knowe in
any of their cures to bee, or have been, so

abused with pilgrimage or offerynges, of
any thyng made thereunto, or shal bee
herafter censed unto, thei (and none
other private persons) shall for the
avoyding of that moste detestable of
fense of idolotrie, furthewith take downe
or cause to be taken downe, and destroyo
the same, and shall suffer, from hense-
furthe, no torches, nor candelles, tapers,
or images of waxe, to be sette afore any
image or picture, but onely twoo lights
upon the high aulter, before the sacra
ment, whiche for the synificacion, that
Christ is the very true light of the
worlde, thei shall suffer to remain still ;,
admonishyng their parishioners that
images serve for no other purpose but
to bee a remembrance, whereby man
maie bee admonished of the holy lives
and conversacion of them that' the said
images doo represent ; which images,
if thei doo abuse for any other intent
thei commit idolotrie in the same, to
greate daunger of their soules. '
' ' A variety of questions arise upon the
subject of these Injunctions ; but they
may be all, I think, comprehended
under the following heads : —
" 1. Were these injunctions lawfully
issued under statutable authority ?
"2. If so were they subsequently
abrogated by statutable authority ?
" . . '. Inasmuch, therefore, as I think
that the Injunctions which order these
two lights, were issued under statutable
authority, and have not been directly
repealed by the like authority ; inas
much as they are not emblematical of
any rite or ceremony rejected by our
Church at the time of the Reformation ;
inasmuch as they are primitive and
Catholic in their origin, evangelical in*
their proper symbolism, purged from
all superstition and novelty by the very
terms of the Injunction which ordered
their retention in the Church, I am of
opinion that it is lawful to place two
lighted candles on the holy table during
the time of Holy Communion, ' for the
signification that Christ is the very true
light of the world.'"
On appeal to the Privy Council, how
ever, their lordships said: "i: - '<¦''¦

'It would

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522

RITUAL JUDGMENTS

deserve consideration how far under
any circumstance this Injunction could
now be held operative, having regard to
the words upon the high altar, before
the Sacrament ; and to the distinction
pointed out by this committee in Wes-
terton v. Liddell and Parker v. Leach,
between the sacrificial altar and the
Communion table. But without dwell
ing on this, and without stopping at
this place to inquire into the nature of
the authority under which the Injunc
tions of 1547 were issued, their lord
ships are clearly of opinion that the
Injunction in question, so far as it could
be taken to authorise the use of lights
as a ceremony or ceremonial act, was
abrogated or repealed by the Act 1
Eliz. c. 2, particularly by section 27,
and by "the present Prayer Book and
Act of Uniformity, and that the use of
lighted candles, viewed as a ceremony
or ceremonial act, can derive no warrant
from that Injunction. On the whole they
come to this conclusion, that 'Their
lordships will advise Her Majesty the
charge as to lights also has been sus
tained, and the respondent should be
admonished for the future to abstain
from the use of these articles. ' "
The prohibition of lighted candles on
a shelf above the holy table was sub
sequently repeated in the case of Sum
ner v. Wix, and in the Purchas case.
On the use of wafer bread (unleavened
bread made in the shape of small round
cakes) the Dean of Arches quoted the
earlier authorities. Tho Ante-Reforma
tion custom was continued by the First
Prayer Book of Edward VI. "For avoid
ing of all matter and occasion of dissen
sion, it is meet that the bread prepared
for the Communion be made, through
all this realm, after one sort or fashion,
that is to say, unleavened and round, as
it was afore, but without all manner of
print (it used to have a cross or other
sacred figure stamped upon it), and
something more larger and thicker than
it was, so that it may be aptly divided
in divers pieces ; and every one shall
be divided in two pieces at least, or
more, by the discretion of the minister,

and so distributed. And men must
not think less to be received in part
than in the whole, but in each of them
the whole body of our Lord Jesus
Christ." Tho Second Prayer Book of Edward
VI. ordered that ordinary bread should
be used.
One of the Injunctions of Queen
Elizabeth (a.d. 1559) says, where also
it was in the time of King Edward VI.
used to have the sacramental bread of
common fine bread, it is ordered for
the more reverence to be given to the
holy mysteries, being the Sacrament
of the Body and Blood of our Saviour
Jesus Christ, that the same sacra
mental bread be made and formed
plain, without any figure thereupon, of
the same fineness and fashion, round,
though somewhat bigger in compass
and thickness, as the usual bread and
wafer heretofore named singing-cakes
which served for the use of the private
mass. According to Bishop Cosin, this
liberty of using wafer bread was con
tinued in divers churches of the king
dom — and in Westminster for one —
till the seventeenth of King Charles,
i. e. A.D. 1643. The Dean, therefore,
gave his decision that "no offenco
against ecclesiastical law has been
proved to have been committed by Mr.
Purchas in this matter. "
The Privy Council, however, over
ruled the decision : the First Book of
Edward VI., they said, "has in view
uniformity of practice, and not the
choice of two practices ; ' the bread
is to be made through all this realm
after the same sort and fashion. ' The
Second Book of Edward VI. is not so
positive in form, for the words 'it
shall suffice ' are used ; but it produced
uniformity and not diversity, for the
Injunction of 1539 says, ' it was in the
time of King Edward VI. used to have
the sacramental bread of common fine
bread.' This general use the Injunc
tion proposed to change ; but again the
order is universal, and binds the very
minutest details ; the bread is to bo

RITUAL JUDGMENTS

523

RITUAL JUDGMENTS

plain, without figure, fashioned round,
but somewhat bigger in compass and
thickness than the cakes used in pri
vate masses : there is no trace of an
intention to leave men free to follow
the fashion of the Eastern or of the
Western Church. So there are three
distinct orders : first, for wafer bread,
unleavened as before, but larger, and
without print ; then for common bread
usual at the table ; then for a new
kind of bread thicker than the wafer
and without symbolical figure ; and
the first and last are in their form
universal and absolute ; and the second
also had brought about a general usage,
and not a diversity. There was no
doubt a great division of opinion upon
this question ; and this makes it all
the more remarkable, that none of the
three orders takes the natural course
of leaving the matter free. Each seems
to have aimed at uniformity, but each
in a different practice.
"But it has been argued that the
phrase ' it shall suffice ' implies a per
mission ; that the words may mean
'it shall be sufficient, but another
usage is allowed, and might even be
better.' On the other hand, it has
been argued that in other places in the
liturgy ' it shall suffice ' must be con
strued into a positive direction ; that
if ' it shall suffice ' to pour water on
a sickly child, this ought to restrain a
clergyman from immersing a child
known to be sickly ; that even the
weaker form ' it may suffice ' in the
rubric as to children and infants
brought to be baptised, conveys to the
minister a distinct direction what he is
to do, and leaves no alternative course
apparent ; that ' it shall suffice that
the Litany be once read' for both
deacons and priests is meant to be and
is received as a positive order ; and
that in such cases ' it shall suffice '
means it shall be sufficient for the
completeness of a Sacrament, or for the
observance by the minister of the
rubric. Their lordships are disposed
to construe this phrase in each case
according to the context. Here the

expression is 'to do away all occasion
of dissension and superstition
it shall suffice.' If these words' left
the whole matter open, and only pro
vided that the usual bread should be
sufficient where it happened to be used,
it is difficult to see how either dissen
sion or superstition would be taken
away ; not dissension, for there would
be a licence which had not existed since
the Reformation ; not superstition, for
the old wafer bread with its 'print,'
its 'figures,' which the First Book of
Edward and the Injunction desired
might be excluded, might now be used
if this rubric were the only restraint.
Their lordships are therefore inclined
to think on this ground alone that the
rubric contains a positive direction to
employ at the Holy Communion the
usual bread.
" It is at least worthy of notice that
when Cosin and others at the last
revision desired to insert the words
making the wafer also lawful, these
words were rejected.
' ' But their lordships attach greater
weight to the exposition of this rubric
furnished by the history of the
question. From a large collection of
visitation articles, from the time of
Charles II., it is clear that the best
and finest wheat bread was to be
provided for the Holy Communion,
and no other kind of bread. They
believe that from that time till about
1840 the practice of using the usual
bread was universal. The words of the
twentieth canon, to which the visitation
articles refer, point the same way : the
churchwardens are bound to supply
'wheaten bread,' and this alone is
mentioned. If wafer bread is equally
permitted, or the special cakes of
Edward VI. 's First Book and of the
Injunctions, it is hard to see why
the parish is to supply 'wheaten
bread, ' in cases where wafers are to be
supplied by the minister, or from
some other source. And if wafers
were to be in use, a general Injunction
to all churchwardens to supply wheaten
bread would be quite inapplicable to

ROCHESTER

524

ROCHESTER

all churches where there should be
another usage. Upon the whole, their
lordships think that the law of the
Church has directed the use of pure
wheat bread, and they must so advise
Her Majesty."
ROCHESTER, DIOCESE OF. The
history of this diocese has some fea
tures peculiar to itself. In the early
period of the Saxon Church, down to
the time when Theodore introduced the
policy of a subdivision of dioceses, each
kingdom had its one bishop, with the
single exception of the kingdom of
Kent. Here Augustine, seven years
after his first arrival in the kingdom
(604 a.d.), founded* a second see at
Rochester for the western part of the
kingdom. ' It is very possible that there
existed a sub-kingdom in this part of
Kent, which acknowledged the supre
macy of Ethelbert, and that the new
diocese was conterminous with this civil
division. The see was in a special
manner dependent upon that of Canter
bury ; the archbishop nominated to
it ; the Bishop of Rochester was in a
special sense the suffragan of Canter
bury ; the bishop did homage to the
archbishop for the temporalities, and
its bishop was (and is) the official cross-
bearer of the archbishop. Until modern
times it was the smallest and poorest
of the English sees.
The cathedral church was built at
Rochester, at the place where the Wat-
ling Street crossed the Med way, and was
dedicated in the name of St. Andrew,
the patron saint of the convent on the
Coelian Hill, from which Augustine
and his companions had been sent forth
to become the evangelisers of Kent.
The first bishop of Rochester was
Justus, one of the second company
whom Gregory sent from Rome to
England. After twenty years' rule of
this little diocese he was translated
(624) to Canterbury. He was succeeded
here by Romanus, another of the Augus
tine company, but being drowned in
crossing the channel on his way to Rome,
* At tho same time he founded a see at
London for the East Saxons.

he was succeeded by Paulinus, who
had quitted Northumbria, on the death
of Edwin, in 633 [see York, Diocese of],
and ruled here for the last eleven ye.ars
of his life. Ithamar, who succeeded
him, was the first native bishop of the
English Church. Paulinus and Ithamav
were for six centuries reckoned as saints,
and as the chief patrons of the Church
of Rochester. Of the subsequent bishops
down to the Norman Conquest little is
recorded beyond their names. Siward,
who was bishop at the time of the Con
quest, was not displaced, but after his
death (1076) the see was filled by
Gundulf (1076— 1107), a monk of Bee,
the great architect of his time, a man
of energy and influence, who introduced
new life into his diocese. He replaced
the secular canons by sixty Benedictine
monks ; he rebuilt the cathedral, and
placed the remains of Paulinus in a
silver shrine at the east end ; he built
himself a castle beside it (which was
replaced at a somewhat later date by
the present noble structure) ; he re
covered some alienated manors of the
see. He was succeeded by Ralph
d'Escures (1108—1114) ; and he by
Ernulf, .who had been a monk of Bee,
and had filled the offices of Prior of
Christ Church, Canterbury, and Abbot
of Peterborough, before he was conse
crated to Rochester. He seems to have
completed Gundulfs new cathedral,
and may be suspected of having rebuilt
his castle. On the death of Bishop
Anselm in 1148, the Archbishop Theo
bald divested himself of the right
hitherto exercised by his predecessors
of nominating to the see of Rochester,
and placed the election hereafter in the
hands of the cathedral body. Walter
de Merton was bishop here (1274 —
1278). He had been the Chancellor of
Henry III. and Edward I., and on his
removal from office in 1274 was made
bishop of this see. He is best known
to us as the munificent founder of
Merton College, Oxford, the first of the
series of independent colleges which, in
imitation of this, were successively
founded at the two National Univef-

ROCHESTER

525

ROGATION DAYS

sities. There was no other very distin
guished bishop down to the Reform
ation. John Fisher (1504 — 1535) was
bishop at that crisis. He had been
chaplain to Margaret, Countess of Rich
mond, the mother of Henry VII. , and
it was on his suggestion that she
founded the two colleges of St. John's
and Christ's, at Cambridge, and founded
the Lady Margaret Professorships of
Divinity in both Universities. His
learning, piety, and gentleness of dis
position made him generally respected,
tut opposing the Reformation, he was
attainted of high treason and com
mitted to the Tower. While there
the Pope created him a Cardinal, and
Fisher expressed his intention to accept
the dignity, which still further irritated
the king. On refusing to recognise
the Royal supremacy, which had been
declared while he was in the Tower, he
was found guilty of treason, executed
on Tower Hill, and his head set up on
London Bridge ; one of the most un
popular of the many tyrannical acts
which reflected disgrace and discredit
upon the great national and ecclesias
tical movement of the time. John
Warner (1638—1666) was ejected by
the Long Parliament, and lived to re
turn to his see at the Restoration. He
founded the college for the widows of
the clergyj at Bromley, which still
remains. Thomas Sprat (1684—1713)
earned for himself an evil repute for
his compliance in the unlawful ecclesi
astical measures of James II., followed
by an equal readiness to court the
favour of William and Mary. " He is
said to have been the first to check the
custom of 'humming,' with which
popular preachers were encouraged by
their audiences." Atterbury (1713 —
1718) was the most distinguished of
the modern bishops of this see : a
sketch of his life will be found under
his name.
In the re-arrangement of dioceses,
effected on the recommendation of the
Ecclesiastical Commissioners, the dio
cese of London was relieved by the
transfer from it to Rochester of the

counties of Essex and Herts. But the
inconvenience of an arrangement which
gave Essex and Herts a centre of
diocesan life on the south of the
Thames, and which placed the palace
of the Bishop of Rochester on the north
of that broad river, soon became appar
ent, and by another rectification of
boundaries in 1874 Essex and Herts
were created into a new diocese, with
St. Alban's for its see, while the
diocese of Winchester was relieved by
the annexation to Rochester of tho
Archdeaconry of Southwark.
The diocese now consists of the
western part of Kent, Surrey, and por
tions of Sussex. Population, 1,594,402.
It has three archdeaconries, Rochester,
Southwark, and Kingston-on-Thames ;
19 rural deaneries ; 298 benefices.
ROGATION DAYS (Prayer - days,
from Latin Bogo, to ask). About the
year 468 the city of Vienne in Gaul
was afflicted with a succession of
calamities — fires, earthquakes, frightful
noises. Mamertius, the bishop of the
city, instituted processions of clergy and
people, walking through the streets sing
ing psalms and prayers, and concluding
at one of the churches, for the three days
preceding Ascension Day, in order to
pray for deliverance from these calami
ties, and from others which these seemed
to portend. Other cities adopted the
custom. It gradually became general
in Gaul. The Council of Orleans (510)
ordered its universal adoption. The
custom spread to the British Church,
so intimately connected with that of
Gaul ; and continued to a recent period.
The beating of the bounds of our
parishes at this season is a meagre
remnant of what must have been, and
still might be, a very grand and striking
act of popular recognition of Almighty
God. The settling the bounds of parishes
depends upon ancient and immemorial
custom. " For they have not been
limited by any Act of Parliament! nor
set forth by special Commissioners ; but
have been established as the circum
stances of times and places and persons

ROMANISTS

526

ROMANISTS

did happen to make them " (Sir R. P. , p.
1867). They were usually conterminous
with the township, afterwards with
the manor, which accounts for some
parishes having separate portions in
the midst of another parish, because
the lord of the manor, who made a
distinct parish of his own demesnes,
happened to be the proprietor of these
outlying lands. Hence it was desirable
that the boundaries of the several
parishes should be kept in mind, and
this it has been customary for many
centuries to do by means of an annual
perambulation of the boundaries by
the minister and other parishioners.
A constitution of Archbishop Winchel
sea shows us that banners, provided at
the cost of the parishioners, were car
ried in the rogations (Sir R. P., p.
1868.) The Injunctions of Queen Elizabeth
required that for the retaining of the
perambulation of the circuits of
parishes, the people should once in
the year, at the time accustomed, with
the curate and the substantial men of
the parish, walk about the parishes as
they were accustomed, and at their
return to the church make their com
mon prayers. And the curate, in their
said common perambulations, was at
certain convenient places to admonish
the people to give thanks to God (on
the beholding of his benefits), and for
the increase and abundance of his
fruits upon the face of the earth ;
with the saying of Psalm ciii. (? civ.),
at which time also the said minister
was required to inculcate these or such
like sentences : — "Cursed be he which
translateth the bounds and dolles of
his neighbour," or such other prayers
as should be lawfully appointed.
ROMANISTS, or PAPISTS. Many
of the clergy and laity were ill-pleased
with the settlement of religion at the
beginning of Elizabeth's reign; but
there was no immediate schism. Of
the malcontents, some died, some went
abroad, some became gradually recon
ciled to the new state of things. Of
the Marian bishops, only eight survived

till 1560 ; they made no attempt to
perpetuate a succession, and the last
survivor of them died in 1584.
It was not till the eleventh year of
her reign (1570) that the Pope, aban-,.
doning all hope of retaining England
under his obedience, pronounced Eliza-?
beth excommunicated and deposed,
and empowered the King of Spain to
execute his decree of deposition. This
had the effect of rallying a host of
waverers to the new order, and creating
a general feeling of patriotism through
out the country. On the other hand,
it had the effect of bringing the zealots
of the Papal party to a formal breach
with the Church, and their formation
into a dissenting sect. These dissenters
had no semblance of claim to be re
garded as a continuation of the old
national Church. They had no succes
sion of the old line of bishops and
priests. They did not continue under
the old Canon Law of the English
Church, but were ruled arbitrarily
from Rome. They did not continue
to use the old service books of the
English Church, but had the Roman
books imposed upon them. Several
English refugees established colleges
in various foreign places, to train up
English youths for the priesthood, with
a view to thoir ministering to the
Papal Recusants, i. e. those who re
fused to attend their parish churches.
Notably Allen, an English clergyman,
raised by Rome to the cardmalate,
established a college at St. Omers
(moved for a time to Douai, and back
to St. Omers), which was the principal
seat of this Propaganda. The ministra
tions of these sectaries in England seem
to have been known to. and winked at
by the Government. It was not until
the Jesuits sent some of their order
here, Parsons, Campion, and others, who
began to enter into political intrigues
and plots against the Crown, that the
Government began to take severe
measures against them. In 1577 the
first execution of a Roman priest took
place, on a charge of treason ; and
about 120 suffered death on the same

ROMANISTS

527

ROMANISTS

charge during the remainder of the
Queen's reign. [See Recusants.]
Some kind of ecclesiastical organisa
tion was given to the sect by the ap
pointment from Rome, in 1602, of an
archpriest, empowered to exercise a rule
over their clergy. After twenty-one
years the Roman see gave them an
episcopal head, with the title of Bishop
of Chalcedon, who was consecrated in
Paris and sent to England in 1623 ;
and on his death a second bishop was
appointed. The depression of the party,
and the bitter hostility against them
daring the Commonwealth period,
seem to have prevented further ap
pointments. The accession of James II. to the
throne gave new hopes to the Roman
see, and a large accession of importance
to the Papist party in England. A
vicar-apostolic was appointed ; and
shortly after the kingdom Was divided
into four districts, each under a vicar-
apostolic; and this continued to be
the organisation of the sect until the
middle of the present centuiy.
In the height of its success under
the strong measures of James II.,
Father Petre, the Vicar-Provincial of
the Jesuits in England, was a member
of the Privy Council ; the Premier
himself, the Earl of Sunderland, was a
Romanist, and two or three others be
sides Father Petre were members of the
Cabinet Council, which only numbered
eight in all. Fourteen Benedictine
monks were installed in St. James's
Chapel ; the Savoy sheltered a Jesuit
establishment ; a body of Franciscans
had a house in Lincoln's Inn, and there
was a body of Carmelites in the City ;
the Dean of Christ Church and the
Master of University College, Oxford,
had set up the Mass in their col
leges ; four vicars - apostolic, ap
pointed by the Pope, were paid £1000
a year each out of the Exchequer, to
rule the Roman clergy in England ;
the acceptance by, the Church and
nation of the King!s unconstitutional
"Declaration of Liberty of Conscience "
would have removed all the disabilities

under which the Romanists lay ; and
would have made a free course for the
King's policy of using his power and
patronage to put Romanists into the
dignities of the Church, the offices
of the Government, the judgeships,
and the command of the army and
navy. The nation at length rose in arms
against the King's unconstitutional
attempts to force it back into the
Roman obedience ; and the Revolu
tion swept away both the King and
the dynasty. Parliament took pre
cautions, in the Act of Settlement,
against the recurrence of the danger,
by requiring that the Sovereign should
always be in the communion of the
Church of England. The penal laws
against the Romanists were revived,
and the sect sank back into its former
condition. A few families of the no
bility and gentry, with their adherents,
formed its scanty but very respectable
body. Their patriotism was undoubted ;
and their religion, of a Gallican char
acter, which had no virulence toward
the Church of England, excited a feel
ing of interest rather than of dislike
towards them as chivalrous adherents
of a fallen cause.
In the end of the last, and in the
course of the present, century, large
numbers of Irish Romanists settled in
some of the great towns of England,
especially in London, Liverpool, and
Glasgow ; but the number of English
Romanists had not increased. It was
the revival of the High Church party
in the second quarter of this century,
the rapid spread of its views, and
the secession of several eminent clergy
men, and of a little crowd (of less im
portant persons, from the Church,
which led the advisers of Rome to
hope that the time had come when
England might be won back again
to the Roman obedience. The Roman
claim was set forth in the most striking
way by the creation of a Papal episco
pate with English titles, all over the
country, with a Cardinal Archbishop
of Westminster at its head [see Papal

ROMANO-BRITISH CHURCH 528 ROMANO-BRITISH CHURCH

Aggression] ; and the greatest endeav
ours were made to win converts.
Money was found for the erection of
beautiful churches, and the mainten
ance of attractive services. Convents
of men and women were dotted over
the country ; charitable institutions
presented the religion in its most per
suasive character ; social influences
were brought to bear uponindividuals ;
in short, all that statesmanlike plan,
skilful intrigue, Jesuitical astuteness,
and money, all that Christian earnest
ness, and zeal, and self-devotion, ably
directed, could do, was done, to spread
the Roman schism, in the hope of
gaining a preponderance of influence
and political power, and so ultimately
of winning back England to the obedi
ence of Rome.
The result has been disappointment.
It soon appeared that High Church-
manship was not an easy introduction
to Romanism, but, on the contrary, its
most formidable opponent. The Roman
priests and sisters have won a number
of influential converts from the higher
classes, and a certain number out of
the mass of the poorer classes, who,
having no religion, were sure to be
attracted by all that is really good and
attractive which the Roman sect has to
offer them. But the total number of
adherents gained by all these extra
ordinary efforts is comparatively small,
and is not increasing.
Meantime the character of the sect
has deteriorated. The old respectable
Gallicanism' has been replaced by an
exaggerated Ultramontanism ; and the
new dogmas of the Immaculate Con
ception and the Papal Infallibility
have placed two new barriers in the
way of the acceptance of modern
Romanism by intelligent and educated
men. ROMANO-BRITISH CHURCH. The
victorious expeditions of Julius Caesar
into Britain, B.C. 55 and 54, made the
island known to the Roman world, and
opened up a commercial intercourse
with it ; but it was the Generals of
Claudius, a.d. 43, who finally con

quered the southern portion of the
island, and made it a province of the
Roman Empire. It is of course very
possible that Christians may have
visited Britain at an early period, but
there is not m, particle of evidence to
prove that they did so. There is abso
lutely no authority whatever for the
idea that the Apostle St. Paul ever
personally visited these islands. The
earliest authority for the Glastonbury
tradition is William of Malmesbury,
who is of post-Norman date ; and
though Glastonbury is an ancient
British foundation, and perhaps one
of the earliest Christian settlements
in the island, yet the story of its
foundation is purely mythical. A
third legend, that we owe our Chris
tianity to Lucius, King of the Britons,
who in the second centuiy sent an
embassy to Elentherus, Bishop of
Rome, asking for Christian teachers;
rests on a note inserted in the cata
logue of Roman Pontiffs in the year
530, Which briefly says, under the name
of Eleutherius (177—190), "in his
time, Lucius, King of Britain, was
converted." There may possibly have
been some local chief of that name who
had the title of king of a British
tribe ; but in the second century
the whole of England was under the
Empire. The high probability is that the
Church of Christ was not extended
into Britain until about the middle of
the third century, and that it passed
over from Gaul: It is known that a
few scattered churches were planted in
Gaul from 150 to 170, of which Lyons
was the chief and the most northern ;
and that a new impulse of missionary
zeal about 250 a.d. spread the gospel
throughout the north of Gaul ; and it
is conjectured that it was at this time
that the unspent force of this spirit of
missionary enterprise crossed the chan
nel and planted the Church in Britain.
The first fact in the history of the
Church of England is that at the Coun
cil of the Western Church, which Con
stantine summoned at Aries, in the

ROMANO-BRITISH CHURCH 529 ROMANO-BRITISH CHURCH

south of Gaul, in a.d. 314, there were
present three British bishops attended
by a priest and a deacon, viz. Eborius,
Bishop of York, Restitutus, Bishop
of London, and Adelfius, Bishop of
"Colonia Londinensium, " which has
been variously conjectured to be Col
chester, Lincoln, and Caerleon-on-Usk.
If Adelfius were Bishop of Caeiion,
then the three bishops would be the
bishops of the capital cities of the
three provinces into which Roman
Britain was then divided. From this
fact we draw the conclusion that at
this period Christian Churches had
been founded in the cities of the
British province ; that they had dio
cesan bishops, priests, and deacons ; and
that they were in full communion with
the rest of Christendom. And we con
jecture that a Church thus spread over
the land from York to London, and
from London to Caerleon, must have
been the work of years ; if we say of
fifty or sixty years, that will bring us
to the period of the planting of the
Churches of northern Gaul, and the
•supposed extension of the Church to
Britain about the middle of the third
oentury above suggested.
Bede's story of the martyrdom of St.
Alban outside the city of Verulamium
in the first year of the Diocletian per
secution, A.D. 303, may be accepted as
authentic in its main features, and
helps to fill in the dry historical outline.
¦i Resuming the historical notices, there
were British bishops at the Council of
Sardica, A.D. 347, and at that of Arim-
inum A.D. 360. The emperor had
ordered the expenses of the bishops
attending this latter Council to be paid
out of the imperial purse, but it was
deemed unbecoming to accept this
bounty on the part of the Aquitain-
ians, Gauls, and Britons, who paid their
own expenses : ' ' Three only of those
from Britain, on account of poverty,
made use of the public gift, rejecting
the contributions offered by the other
bishops, because they considered it
more proper to burden the treasury
than individuals."

In the latter part of the fourth cen
tury the writings of Chrysostom, Sozo-
men, and Jerome, indicate that there
was a Church in Britain, having
churches, altars, scriptures, and hold
ing intercourse both with Rome and
Palestine. At the beginning of the fifth cen
tury the Churches of Britain were
troubled with the Pelagian heresy,
which had either spread so widely, or
was so influentially supported, that the
1 orthodox party sought help from, the
Gallican Church (in 429 A: D. ) to com
bat the heresy. That Church held
a Synod which deputed two of it3
greatest men, Germanus, Bishop of
Auxerre, and Lupus, Bishop of Troyes,
to go to Britain to confirm the faith.
At a Synod held at Verulamium their
arguments and authority seem to have
silenced the heretical party for a time ; .
but seventeen years afterwards (446)
Germanus and Severus, afterwards .
Bishop of Treves (Lupus having died
in the mean time), paid a second visit
to Britain on a similar errand.
Geoffrey of Monmouth tells us of
three archbishops presiding over the
three provinces into which the southern
part of the island was divided, and
twenty-eight bishops in the principal
cities, and would lead us to suppose
that Christianity had at length ¦ be
come the religion of the people of the
province of Britain generally, and that
the old heathenism lingered only in
the remote corners of the land. * The
legendary details with which; Geoffrey
of Monmouth has filled his page's give
a fabulous air to all that he writes ; but
Mr. Haddan says, "the general tenor
of Geoffrey of Monmouth's history (ob
vious fable apart) is in accordance with
probability, so far as. regards the for
tunes and acts of the British Church ;
its details are wholly untrustworthy."
Some particulars of the British
Church are as follows : " The mode of
computing Easter was the cycle called
* According to Bede, ' Eccl. ; Hist.' ii.
2, Augustine found seven British bishops, a
large body of monks at Bangor, and many
learned men.

530

ROMANO-BRITISH CHURCH

by the name of Sulpioius Severus, a
disciple of St. Martin of Tours (though
really of earlier date), which had been
adopted by the Western Churches, and
which continued to be used by the
British Church after the continental
Churches had adopted the more correct
cycle of Victorius Aquitanus. The
ecclesiastical tonsure was neither of
the Greek nor the Roman fashion, but
peculiar to the British and Celtic
Churches : it shaved the fore part of
the head, and left the hair long behind.
The absence of an archiepiscopate ;'
the consecration of bishops by a single
bishop ; peculiar rites in the ordination
of priests and deacons different from
those of other Churches ; a peculiarity
in the mode of administering baptism
(it consisted probably of single instead
of trine immersion) ; a custom in the
consecration of churches and monas
teries, of giving the dedication not to
some departed saint but to the living
founder. There are indications that

the liturgy of the British Church,
though of the same family as that of the
Gallican and Spanish Churches, had
its distinctive peculiarities ; and that
the British Church had a Latin Version
of the Bible peculiar to itself founded
upon the old Latin, and different from
the Vulgate. " We do not perhaps need
these evidences that the British Church
was independent of Rome ; there is no
shadow of pretence for assuming any
such dependence. The true historical
value and interest of these facts is that
they show an unexpected vigour of
initiation in the British Church, and
probably indicate a greater isolation
from the Churches of the continent
than we should have anticipated.
' British Church Councils and Eccl.
Documents,' Haddan and Stubbs ;
'Remains of A. W. Haddan,' by
Bishop Forbes, 1876 ; 'Early English
Church History,' by Professor Bright,
1878 ; ' The Ancient British Church,'
by J. Pryce, 1878.

B.C.

55,54

CENTURY.

A.D. 1.

43

II.

III.

211 250

IV.

303
306

314

347
360397
V.
410 429
432446 447
ROMAN BRITISH PERIOD.
Csesar's expeditions to Britain.
Conquest of South Britain by Claudius.
Emperor Severus died at York.
Probable foundation of Church in South Britain by mission
from Gaul.
Martyrdom of St. Alban.
Emperor Constantius died at York, and Constantine was
elected there as Emperor.
Three British bishops, a priest and a deacon at the Council
of Aries.
British bishops at Council of Sardioa.
i. >) „ of Ariminum.
Ninian founds Candida Casa.
The British Province abandoned by Honorius.
Synod at Verulam, Germanus and Lupus present, on
the Pelagian heresy.
St. Patrick in Ireland.
Beginning of the Saxon Conquests.
Germanus and Severus in Britain, about the Pelagian heresy.
ROOD

531

ROOD LOFT

ROOD (Anglo-Saxon Bod — Cross),
the name given to the group formed
by a crucifix with the two attendant
figures of the Blessed Virgin Mary
and St. John standing one on each

of the traceried bracket upon which
they stood.
ROOD LOFT. A screen usually
divided the chancel of a church from
the nave. [See Screen, Chancel.] In

Eood Screen, York Minster.

side of it. In the fifteenth century it
became usual to place a rood, in figures
sculptured "in the round," upon the
top of the screen which divided the
chancel ' from the nave. At Monk
Sherbourne, Hants, are some remains

some churches this screen was canted
over the nave, and afforded space for a
narrow gallery along the top, to which
access was given by a winding stair in
the body of the wall, on one side
(usually the north side) of the chancel

ROAD SCREEN

532

RURAL DEAN

arch. From this gallery, or loft, the
gospel was sometimes read in the Com
munion Service ; here sometimes (as in
the gallery at the end of a domestic
hall) were placed the minstrels _ or
musicians who accompanied the Service;
and in later times the organ which
superseded them. It was called the
rood loft because a rood was usually
placed upon it, from the fourteenth
century downwards. [See Rood.]
ROOD SCREEN, a name given to the
screen between the chancel and the nave
of a church, because a rood was usually
placed upon its top. [See Screen,
Chancel, and Rood.]
ROSARY, a chaplet of beads, consist
ing usually of five decades (tens) of
small beads, divided by four larger
beads, with a cross, and sometimes a
medai and other religious trinkets,
attached to the knot. It was a help
to pious people to keep account of the
aves and paternosters which they said ;
the small beads representing aves and
the large ones paternosters ; the devotee
saying an ave let a bead fall from his
fingers ; and so on till he came to a
large bead, which told "him that he had
said ten aves, and that he was now
to say a paternoster ; and so on till he
had completed his rosary. St. Dominic
is usually called the inventor of the
rosary ; in truth rosaries had long been
in use, and are still in use in the East,
to answer the same purpose as the
abacus still used in our Infant Schools,
viz. to help people to perform arith
metical computations in the ordinary
transactions of buying and selling. It
had been adapted to the purpose of
keeping account of prayers long before
the time of Dominic, but he probably
brought this form of devotion into
general popularity, and introduced the
more complex use of it, and the various
meanings to be attached to it, and
various prayers to be used with it,
which may be found described in the
ordinary devotional books which teach
its use. The beads of a rosary were of
various material, from natural berries
and carved wood up to silver and gold, I

and even pearls and gems ; the trinkets
attached to it might include saintly
7*pl IPC
ROYAL SUPREMACY. [See Supre
macy, Royal.]
RUBRICS. The general name given
to the rules or directions which indicate
the mode of celebrating the Holy
Eucharist, and of saying the offices and
rites of the Church. It is commonly
said that they are so called because
written in red ink so as to distinguish
them from the text and catch the eye.
But the fact is, that these directions are
not always found in the ancient MSS.
to be written in red ink ; sometimes
they are in blue ink. The word is de
rived from rubrica, the string covered
with red ochre used by carpenters to
mark a straight line on wood. The
word came to imply any rule or direc
tion ; and thus came to be applied to
the directions of the liturgy and offices.
RURAL DEAN. The office was
not unknown in the Saxon Church ; as
the diocese was originally coterminous
with the kingdom, and the archdea
conry with the county, so the rural
deaneries seem to have coincided with
the hundreds, and to have taken their
titles from them, as they do for the
most part to this day. The title dean
may have arisen from the fact that
every hundred was at first divided into
ten tithings ; and in fact, in Wales espe
cially, and in some places in England,
the deanery does still contain precisely
ten parishes. They were appointed by
the bishop, to execute his processes
within the deanery, to report to the
bishop on cases of scandalous offences
among clergy or laity, to inspect the
fabrics and furniture of the churches.
As the institution of rural deaneries
almost coincided with hundreds, so the
inquisitorial and executive functions of
the rural deans were analogous to those
of the sheriff and hundred-reeve ; the
fixed synodical assemblies of the clergy,
for minor causes every three weeks, and
for more important business once a quar
ter, correspond with the sheriff's tourn
and the sittings of tho popular courts.

SACERDOTALISM

533

SACERDOTALISM

The judicial business of the rural
deans was preparatory for the sessions
or visitations of the archdeacons. Their
functions were merely ministerial to
the archdeacons, and their arrangements
more a matter of custom than of canon
law. Their action altogether is not
entitled to the name of jurisdiction, or
their assemblies to the designation of
courts. Their business was gradually
drawn away by the archdeacon to his
own visitation ; so that by the time
of the Reformation, the jurisdiction of
the rural dean had declined to nothing.
In our own time the office has been
resuscitated in all the dioceses, as
a medium through which the bishop
can conveniently convey his wishes to
the clergy, and in return can obtain
their views ; and as a means of draw
ing the clergy together for devotion,
study, and discussion of ecclesiastical
questions of current interest. Under
the Dilapidations Act of 1871, certain
new powers are given to rural deans.
The present Bishop of London, when
Bishop of Exeter, introduced into that
diocese, and has since introduced into
the diocese of London, the elective prin
ciple in the nomination of rural deans,
by requesting the clergy of each deanery
to elect for themselves the one they
decided to have for rural dean, renew
ing the election every five years. Who
ever may nominate, it is still the bishop
who appoints, and gives authority to
his officer. S
SACERDOTALISM (from the Latin
sacerdos, or priest) means a system in
which the priestly character and func
tions are a characteristic feature. The
term is usually employed in invidiam
by opponents of the Church view of
the character and office of the ministry ;
and usually involves a covert employ
ment of the logical fallacy of the argu
ment from the abuse of a thing against
the use of it. If sacerdotalism means
the undue exaltation of the ministerial
office, as when the pope arrogates su
preme rule over sovereigns ; or when it

is assumed that the priest is the only
channel through which men have access
to God ; or when confession to a priest is
insisted upon as necessary, and priestly
absolution as the only channel of for
giveness ; then sacerdotalism is wrong,
and may justly excite our indignant
repudiation. But that our Lord Jesus
Christ appointed a ministry in His
Church (John xx. 21 ; Matt, xxviii. 19),
and made its members "ambassadors
of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries
of God " (1 Cor. iv. 1) ; that He gave
the ministry authority to admit men
into His Church, and for due cause to
reject them from it (Tit. iii. 10 ; 1
'Cor. v. 4 ; 2 Cor. ii. 10) ; that He gave
them an office and work in the Church
which is similar to that of a shepherd
amidst a flock (Acts xx. 28 ; 1 Peter
v. 2) ; that He bade them "command
and teach" (1 Tim. iv. 11) ; "exhort,
rebuke with all authority, let no man
despise thee" (Tit. ii. 15); "rebuke
sharply "(Tit. i. 13) ; that He bade the
faithful laity "Remember them which
have the rule over you " (Heb. xiii. 17) ;
" Know them which labour among you,
and are over you in the Lord, and
admonish you, and esteem them very
highly in love for their works' sake "
(1 Thess. v. 12, 13) — these are
truths which lie on the surface of the
Scriptures, and are inwoven into the
primitive constitution of the Church ;
'and these texts have always been held
in the Church of Christ to establish
the general conclusion that Christ, not
the disciples, appointed the ministry
of His Church ; that Christ gave to the
ministry a sacred character, and author
ity to minister before God, and to act
as his representatives in the Church,
which no man can assume to himself,
and no number of men can give to
another, unless they possess lawful
authority to do so. In that sense
sacerdotalism is the belief in the sacred -
character and functions of the ministry
as a characteristic feature of the Church.
See first rubric of the Form of making,
ordaining, and consecrating bishops,
priests, and deacons.

SACRAMENT

534

ST. ALBANS

SACRAMENT. The origin of the
ecclesiastical use of the word is obscure.
The Latin Sacramentum meant the
military oath which the soldiers took
on their standards, and this seems to
offer some analogy to Baptism, in which
the neophyte is enlisted under the
banner of Christ ; Justin Martyr appears
to apply the word to the Eucharist ;
and at a very early period it had become
a common ecclesiastical term. It was
used, however, with a considerable
latitude of meaning. It is commonly
found used as the equivalent of the
Greek fivorripwv, for anything espe
cially sacred. It was used in a more
restricted sense for religious rites gener
ally. The mediaeval church applied it'
to the rites in which there is an out
ward sign and an inward grace. The
Church of England, by its definition in
the Church catechism, limits the word
to the two ordinances of this kind
which were ordained by Christ Himself,
viz. Baptism and the Supper of the Lord.
SACRAMENTAL THEORY, THE, is
the theory that God has been pleased
to give certain graces through the right
use of certain means, of which the Tree
of Life in one dispensation, sacrifice in
another, circumcision and sacrifice in
another, and Baptism and the Euchar
ist in another, are examples. The
Church has always held this belief.
At the time of the Reformation in the
sixteenth century the Swiss reformer,
Zwingle, taught that the Sacraments
are merely outward ceremonies, which
may have a certain edifying effect, by
stirring up good thoughts and feelings
in the mind of the individual who takes
part in them, but that they do not con
vey any spiritual grace from God. Many
of the Dissenting bodies in England
have embraced this rationalistic theory
of the Swiss reformer. It forms one of
the most important points of difference
between the Church and such bodies.
SACRISTAN. [See Sexton.]
SACRISTY, is the special room in
some great churches in which the
sacred vestments, vessels, and other
ornaments of the church are kept.

ST. ALBANS, DIOCESE OF. In the
course of modern rectifications of the
boundaries of dioceses, the counties of
Essex and Hertford had been taken'
from the overwhelming diocese of
London, and added to the small terri
tory hitherto subject to the see of
Rochester. But the inconvenience
was soon felt of a diocese which had
part of its territory on the south and
part on the north of such a formidable
barrier as the Thames, with its cathe
dral in one division and its bishop'.s
residence in the other. In the course
of later rectifications this error has been
amended by the creation of Essex and
Herts into an independent diocese,
having the venerable abbey church of
St. Albans for its cathedral. The story
of St. Alban will be found under his
name. The church, built in, Roman
times over the place of martyrdom, was
succeeded in the year 793 by a monas
tery founded by Offa, king of the
Mercians. A town quickly gathered
round the monastery ; Ulsi, the sixth
abbot, is said to have founded three
churches and established a market in
the town. Ealdred, the twelfth abbot,
began to break up the buildings of the
ancient and deserted Roman town of
Verulam, and his successor, Eadmer,
continued the destruction, the materials
being destined to the rebuilding of the
abbey church. The new church was
not, however, begun till the time of
Paul of Caen, the first Norman abbot;
and the central ¦ part of the existing
church is of his building. The abbey
continued to grow in wealth and great
ness down to the Reformation, and its
church in size and splendour. The
scriptorium of the monastery built by
Paul of Caen was a great school of
learning throughout the subsequent
period of its existence. The chronicles
of Roger of Wendover, continued by
Matthew Paris, Thomas of Walshing-
ham, William of Rishanger,! John of
Trokelome, and others, all monks of
the abbey, form an invaluable record'
of the national history.
The Act of Parliament authorising

ST. ANTONY OF VIENNA 535

ST. DAVID'S

the constitution of the see of St. Alban
was passed in 1874, but there was
some delay in raising from voluntary
sources the very large capital required
to produce the legal income of £4500.
The sum was at length completed by
the sale of the Town House of the see
of Winchester, in St. James's Square,
which Bishop Harold Browne ceded for
that purpose. The Bishop of Rochester
(Claughton) elected to take this north-
Thames part of the diocese, and became
the first Bishop of St. Albans.
The diocese consists of the entire
counties of Essex and Herts, and parts
of adjoining counties. Population,
778,586. It has a bishop suffragan of
Colchester, three archdeaconries, viz.
of St. Albans, Essex, and Colchester,
43 rural deaneries, 497 benefices.
ST. ANTONY OP VIENNA. [See
p. 24.]
ST. ASAPH, DIOCESE.J)F. After
the Roman abandonment of the island
Wales divided itself into four independ
ent principalities, of which Powys was
one ; and about the end of the sixth
century St. Kentigern, bishop of
Strathclyde, founded a bishopric here,
though the see took its name from his
disciple and successor,. Asa, or Asaph,
to whom he resigned it. No records
whatever of the see remain until the
middle of the twelfth century. It
seems to have remained independent
of Canterbury longer than the other
Welsh bishoprics, Gilbert being the
first consecrated, 1143, by the Arch
bishop of Canterbury. He was suc
ceeded by Geoffrey, the author of the
famous ' Early History of Britain. '
Owen Glendower burnt the cathedral
and palace ', the former was rebuilt by
Bishop Richard Redman (1471—1495),
and the latter rebuilt by Bishop David
ap Owen (1504—1513). Bishop Gold-
well (1555 — 1558) was present at the
Council of Trent, and signed its de
crees. The excellent and learned W.
Beveridge was bishop 1704—1708. The
diocese contains .the entire counties
of Denbigh, Flint, and Montgomery,
parts of Carnarvon, Merioneth, and

Salop, and portions of counties adjacent.
Population, 268,901 ; 2 archdeaconries,
Montgomery and St. Asaph ; 16 rural
deaneries ; 204 parishes.
ST. CLARE, Nuns of the Order of,
otherwise called Minoresses.
St. Clare was born in the same town
(Assissi), and lived at the same time
as St. Francis ; and the order of nuns
which she organised, observing the
same rule and wearing the same habit
as the Franciscan Friars, came to be
regarded as the female branch of that
Order, and so were called Minoresses ;
or, after her own name, were sometimes
called Poor Clares. The Order was
instituted 1212, confirmed by the Pope
1223, and introduced into England at
Aldgate, London, about A.D. 1293,
where their house was called the
Minories. They had only three other
houses in England, at Waterbeach
and Denny, in Cambridgeshire ; and at
Bruisyard, Suffolk.
ST. DAVID'S, DIOCESE OF. There
can be no reasonable doubt that there
existed an episcopal see at Caerleon in
early times. It is also pretty certain
that it disappeared about the sixth
century, and that the bishoprics of St.
David's, Llandaff, and Llanbadarn
were founded about the same time.
Nor have we, with a single doubtful
exception, any indication of sees
existing previously in any part of
South Wales, with the sole exception
of Caerleon. We may regard the
change, to a certain extent, as a par
tition of the spiritual jurisdiction be
tween the three chief principalities into
which South Wales seems at this time
to have been divided ; or we may re
gard St. David's and Llanbadarn as
new sees, Llandaff being the legitimate
representative of Caerleon. Upon the
whole, we may conclude that St. David
established a see and monastery in
Menevia early in the seventh century,
that his diocese was co-extensive with
the territory of the Demetoe, expanding
and contracting from time to time with
it, and that he had no archiepiscopal
jurisdiction.

ST. DAVID'S

536

ST. DAVID'S

From the sera of St. David to tho
middle of the ninth centuiy is an almost
total blank.
The Welsh Church had been the last
in the West to hold out against the
Roman system of calculating the time
of Easter ; the Picts conformed in 710,
the Scots in 716, and the Cornish
Britons having been brought over by
Aldhelm, about 705. Elfod, who is
said to have died 809, and who is
styled Archbishop of Gwynedd, that is
probably of Bangor, reconciled the
Welsh to uniformity in this, and prob
ably in the other disputed customs. It
is a further question whether this con
formity implied any kind of submis
sion to the see of Canterbury. It is
probable that the title of Archbishop,
given to Elfod after this, and also to
Novis, whose episcopate commenced in
880, is evidence that they were at least
independent 6f any other metropoli-
tical jurisdiction, though it is not cer
tain that they themselves exercised it.
About 871 the petty prince Hyfeidd,
being assailed by a powerful enemy, put
himself under the protection of King
Alfred. Bishop Novis and his nephew
Asser had been driven out of St.
David's, and thus Asser became known
to King Alfred, and the fame of his
learning led the king to seek his aid in
restoring learning in his dominions.
Asser was subsequently bishop of Sher
borne, and the author of the ' Life of
Alfred.' In the year 873 Bishop Novis died,
and was succeeded in the following
year by Llunwerth, who received his
consecration from the hands of ethel
red, Archbishop of Canterbury. This
act, repeated on at least two subsequent
occasions, seems to mark a complete,
though perhaps a temporary, subjection
on the part of the church of St. David,
and would seem to be connected with the
submission of the South Welsh princes
to the West Saxon monarch. During
his episcopate, Hywel Dda held the Con
vention of Welsh notables at Whitland
Abbey, at which the laws which bear
his name were passed, or at least modi

fied. These laws style the Menevia'n
prelate Archbishop, and speak of
Menevia as the primatial see of Wales.
They also tell of seven episcopal houses
in Dyfed (probably monasteries under
the jurisdiction of the bishop), and of
the privileges of their abbots. There
is, however, mention of several minor
sees in South Wales, which disappeared
at an early period. Llanbadarn was
absorbed into St. David's in the eighth
century, there was also a see at Mar-
gam, in Glamorganshire, and another
at Lianfanfaur in Brecknockshire, which
had only a very brief existence.
Sulien succeeded to the see in 1071,
and was succeeded (1088) by his son
Rhyddmarch, who, in 1096, was suc
ceeded by his son, also named Sulien ;
an illustration of the way in which the
dignities of the Church at this time
tended to become hereditary. Rhydd
march was succeeded by Wilfrid (or
Grufl'ydd), who was deposed, and after
wards reinstated by St. Anselm, a fact
which seems to show that the arch
bishops of Canterbury at this time
exercised metropolitan jurisdiction
over the see of St. David. The
boundaries of the diocese had taken
their present form before the beginning
of the twelfth century.
On the death of Wilfrid the clergy
of St. David's elected Daniel, another
son of Bishop Sulien, but King Henry
took the matter into his own hands, and
nominated a Norman, Bernard (1115—
1127), chancellor to Queen Matilda-
Foreigners had already been placed in
the sees of Bangor and Llandaff.
Thus ends the history of the British
Church, regarded as a communion
possessing any claim to independence
of the metropolitan power of Canter
bury. Probably during the two pre
ceding centuries it had only possessed
an irregular and precarious liberty,
analogous to that which was held by
the native princes in temporal matters.
And it may be doubted whether the
other bishops of Wales at any period
owed, allegiance either to the sup
posed archbishops of St. David's or to

ST. DAVID'S

537

SALISBURY

the prelates of any other Welsh see.
Bernard, however, raised or revived a
claim to the metropolitan authority,
and the dispute was carried on at the
Roman court, where it lingered on till
the opening of the thirteenth century,
and then was allowed to drop without
any formal decision. Bishop Beck,
indeed, on his appointment in 1280,
renewed the claim, but entirely without
success. In looking at the whole series of
bishops from the Conquest to the Re
formation, for the first century after
the Conquest we see a series of am
bitious and unscrupulous men intruded
into the see ; next a series of undis
tinguished men, usually connected with
Wales, till near the end of the thir
teenth century ; and then a series of
bishops holding civil employments, for
which the rank and emoluments of the
see are their remuneration ; some of
whom, however, were active bishops
and benefactors to the diocese. The
first of these was Thomas Beck (1280 —
1296), Treasurer of Edward I. He
founded two collegiate churches at
Abergwili and Llanddewi-Brefi. Henry
Gower (1328—1347), Chancellor of
Oxford, ieft marks of his munificence
and taste in. extensive works on the
cathedral and the bishop's palace.
Adam Houghton (1362—1372) was
Lord Chancellor ; he built the mag
nificent chantry of St. Mary, and the
cloisters, and the Vicar's cdllege.
. Henry Chicheley was bishop here from
1407 to 1414, when he was translated
to Canterbury. After Chicheley, during
the fifteenth centuiy, come 14 bishops,
of whom the only one of considerable
reputation was Lyndewood, the famous
Canonist. Most of the bishops of the
sixteenth century were connected with
Wales. After that period the see formed
a stepping-stone to several eminent men
to higher preferment. W. Laud (1621
—1626) ; George Bull (1705—1709) ;
Connop Thirlwall (1840—1874).
. 'History and Antiquities of St.
David's,' by Bishop (Basil Jones) of St.
David's, and Professor E. A. Freeman.

The diocese now consists of the entire
counties of Brecon, Cardigan, Car
marthen, Pembroke, Radnor, with part
of Glamorgan ; population, 482,245 ;
4 archdeaconries, viz. Cardigan, Brecon,
Carmarthen, St. David's ; 31 rural
deaneries ; 404 parishes.
ST. HUGH OF AVALON. [Seep.335.]
ST. MARY OF MERETUNE. Order
of Monks. One of the small offshoots
of the Augustinian family, which ob
served its Rule according to the insti
tution of St. Mary of Meretune. They
had one house in England : Buckenham,
Norfolk. ST. NICHOLAS OF ARROASIA.
Order of monks. A small offshoot from
the Augustinian Order, which observed
its Rule according to the special regu
lations of St. Nicholas of Arroasia. It
had four houses in England : at Hare-
wood, Beds. ; Nutley or Crendon,
Bucks. ; Hartland, Devon. ; Brunne,
Lincolnsh. ; and Lilleshall, Shropshire.
ST. VICTOR. Order of Monks. One of
the small offshoots of the Augustinian
Order, which observed its Rule with
the special regulations of St. Victor.
It had three houses in England : at
Keynsham and Worspring, Somerset ;
and Wormesley, Herefordshire.
SAINT WORSHIP. [See Popery.]
SALISBURY, DIOCESE OP. The
Church of the West Saxons was founded
by Birinus, who fixed his see at Dor
chester, Oxon. At the beginning of
the eighth centuiy the diocese was
divided into two dioceses, having their
sees at Winchester and Sherborne. At
the beginning of the tenth century
these two dioceses were again divided
into five, with their sees at Winchester,
Wells, Crediton, Ramsbury, and Sher
borne. It is the last two with which
we are here concerned. After another
century and a half Herman, a Fleming,
patronised by Edward the Confessor,
held both sees, residing chiefly at Sher
borne ; but in 1075 he forsook both it
and Ramsbury, and removed his see ' o
Old Sarum, where he began to build a
cathedral for the united diocese of
Sarum or Salisbury.

SALISBURY

538

SALISBURY

Herman died within two years after
wards, leaving his work to be carried
on by his Norman successor, the famous
Osmund. At the time of the Conquest
there were already in the diocese
numerous wealthy abbeys of ancient
foundation. In Wilts, Malmesbury,
Ambresbury, and Wilton ; in Dorset,
Shaftesbury, Cerne, and Sherborne ; in
Berks, Abingdon. Of the ecclesiastical
architecture of the Saxon period the
lately discovered church at Bradford-
on-Avon, the work of Bishop Aldhelm
in the latter part of the seventh century,
is one of the most interesting monu
ments in all England. (See p. 33.)
Herman had only laid the foundations
of a cathedral at Old Sarum. Osmund
took up the work, and completed it.
The site of it was a fortress rather than
a city, built upon a remarkable isolated
hill, surrounded by a massive wall ;
and a royal castle and the new cathe
dral rose side by side together within
its limited space. Osmund gave his
cathedral the complete organisation of
a chapter of secular canons, with the
usual four dignitaries, dean, precentor,
chancellor, and treasurer, and endowed
it out of the estates of the old bishoprics
of Ramsbury and Sherborne, such en
dowment being held in common by the
bishop and the chapter. He modified
the liturgy and ritual which he found
in use in his diocese, taking the Use of
Rouen for his model ; and his improve
ments commending themselves to other
bishops, the "Use of Sarum" [which see]
was gradually introduced into other dio
ceses, especially of the southern parts of
England. Osmund died 1099, and 300
years afterwards was formally enrolled
in the Calendar of English Saints. His
successor Roger (1107), one of the states
men of Henry I., enriched the see, built
castles at Malmesbury, Sherborne, and
Devizes, and got possession of the
royal castle of Old Sarum. Joscelin de
Bohun was an ' active bishop in the
spiritual affairs of his diocese. During
his long episcopate the introduction of
the new Cistercian order of monks at
Bindon and Tarrant Keynes in Dorset,

at Stanley and Kingswoodin Wilts, and
at Farringdon in Berks, must have;
helped to quicken the spiritual life of
the diocese. Hubert Walter (1189)
was bishop for four years, during which
he was absent with Richard in the
Holy Land. The fame of Bishop
Herbert Poor (1194) is eclipsed by that
of his brother and successor, Richard
Poor (1217). This latter bishop com
pleted the organisation of the cathedral
staff by the division of the common
property between the bishop and
chapter, and then of the chapter
property into separate prebends, fifty-
three in number. But the great monu
ment which he has left behind is the
existing cathedral of the diocese.. The
old cathedral on the crowded hill of
Sarum, within the precincts of a royal
fortress, had many disadvantages.
Bishop Richard (1218) chose a site in
the neighbouring plain, besido the river
which ran through it, on land which
was his own private property. There
he built a new church and palace for
the bishop, and the dignitaries and
prebendaries built themselves new
houses, and a college for the vicars and
a school for the scholars, and every
thing which was needed for the com
pleteness of a great cathedral : a sacred
city standing by itself in the midst of
the plain. The church still exists, the
most complete example of a thirteenth
century cathedral, and the loveliest in
its completeness of all the grand series
of our English cathedrals. A town
soon began to spring up in the neigh
bourhood of the new cathedral, on the
north side of the close ; and churches
were built in it as 'they were needed,
first that of St. Martin, then of St.
Thomas the Martyr, then of St. Edmund
of Canterbury.* Other ecclesiastical
foundations also grew fip, notably a
college de Valle Scholarum, just out
side the close, for a warden, two chap
lains, and twenty poor scholars ; and
* Edmund Rich, Archbishop of Canterbury,
had been treasurer of this cathedral. The
first chantry chapel founded in the cathedral
was to his memory.

SALISBURY

539

SALISBURY

the College of St. Edmund of Canterbury,
for a provost and twelve secular canons
in the new town. By the end of the
thirteenth century the ecclesiastical
organisation of the diocese was com
plete, with 2 archdeaconries, a number
of rural deaneries ; in Dorset 164
churches, in Wilts 105, in Berks 109,
total 378, besides a considerable number
of dependent chapels, making up a
probable total of not less than 450.
A letter of Bishop Roger de Morti-
yale, addressed in 1326 to the Pope,
John XXII. , illustrates the extent to
which the Papal court had seized upon
the patronage of English benefices ; he
says that "there were in all in the
Church of Sarum 41 prebends, 4 digni
ties, 4 archdeaconries, and the sub-
deanery, to which he had the original
right of collation ; that there were at
that time a dean, an archdeacon, and 6
prebendaries, who had been appointed
by the late pope ; and further, that the
precentor, treasurer, one archdeacon,
and seventeen prebendaries held their
offices by ' provision ' of the present
pope ; that hardly more than three out
of that whole number ever resided in
Sarum ; and finally, that there were no
less than eight who were waiting for
vacancies, having been appointed as
canons with the right of succeeding to
prebends as they became void." In
the time of this bishop a new body of
cathedral statutes was drawn up, with
the concurrence of the bishop and the
chapter, which still remains.
Bishop Wyville (1330—1375) com
pleted the wall of the close and en
larged the cloisters, and used the stones
of the cathedral of Old Sarum for the
purpose ; many of the stones in the
wall and gates still show traces of
Norman work upon them. The monu
mental brass of this bishop specially
celebrates his recovery of Sherborne
Castle to the see. King Stephen had
seized it in 1142, Edward III. now
granted it to the Earl of Salisbury in
1337 ; but the bishop brought forward
the claims of the see, and brought an
action for its recovery in the Court of

Common Pleas at Westminster. The
Earl claimed the settlement of the dis
pute by wager of battle. The bishop's
champion was chosen, and prayers were
put up in the churches of the diocese
for his success ; but when he appeared
in the lists it was alleged that he was
wearing rolls of prayers and charms,
and the combat was postponed. This
gave time for a compromise ; the bishop
paid 2500 marks to the Earl, who for
that consideration allowed judgment
against him to go by default. This
curious story from a contemporary
account may be found in Kite's ' Wilt
shire Brasses. ' In 1341 there is a record
of the parish churches of the diocese :
in Wilts 234, in Dorset 223, in Berks
119, total 576, exclusive of dependent
chapels, which, compared with the
record of the taxation of Pope Nicholas,
gives an increase of 198 in 50 years.*
During the fourteenth century Salis
bury was held by a succession of states
man bishops. Job* Waltham, who
was Lord Treasurer and then Lord
Chancellor, immediately on his conse
cration appointed a Vicar-general and
two suffragan bishops ; and subsequently
we find Edmund Audley (1502) doing
the same thing. Robert Hallam repre
sented the English Church at the
Councils of Pisa and Constance. Wil
liam Ascough, the Confessor of Henry
VI., was murdered by the mob in Jack
Cade's rebellion.
Among the points of interest which
the diocese contributes to the histoiy
of the Reformation is this, that Cardinal
Campegio added the bishopric of Salis
bury to that of Bologna, and held it
from 1524 for ten years, when the Act
25 Henry VIII. deprived him of it.f
At the Reformation the county of
* Just before the Reformation the 'Valor
Ecclesiasticus ' gives between 800 and 900,
and many of the dependent churches are not
named. t And there is a curious additional fact,
that the pope, ignoring Campegio's depriva
tion, and consequently not recognising
Shaxton and Salcot as his legal successors,
kept up a separate line of succession to the
see in Cardinal Gaspar Contarini, 1539, and
William Peto, 1543.

SANCTUARY

540

SANCTUARY

Berks was transferred from this diocese
to the newly-created diocese of Oxford.
Campegio was succeeded by Shaxton,
who narrowly escaped condemnation as
a heretic ; he resigned his see in 1 539,
and afterwards acted as a suffragan in
the diocese of Ely. His successor, Salcot
(or Capon), with wonderful versatility,
held his see during all the phases of
the Reformation, from the close of
Henry VIII., through the Calvinism of
Edward VI., and the reaction of Mary,
to the re-settlement of the Reformation
under Elizabeth. Jewel was the
bishop of the Elizabethan settlement.
Brian Duppa had to encounter the
troubles of the Commonwealth, and
survived them. When the bishop and
chapter and vicars choral, to the number
of sixty persons in all, had been dis
persed, Dr. Faithful Tate "supplied
the ministerial office formerly supplied
by the dean and prebendaries, and
preached twice on every Lord's day."
Among the later bishops Burnet played
so important a part in the Revolution
that it has been thought right to give
a special sketch of his life. [See
Burnet.] Bishops Denison and Walter
Kerr Hamilton still live in the pious
recollection of the existing generation.
The diocese consists of the entire
counties of Dorset and Wilts, and
portions of adjacent counties. Popu
lation, 372,188 ; it is divided into
3 archdeaconries, viz. Dorset, Wilts,
and Sarum ; 31 rural deaneries ; 487
parishes. SANCTUARY, the privilege of. The
privilege of sanctuary consisted in this,
that there were certain places, persons,
things, which protected from molest
ation any one threatened with violence,
even though guilty of crime, who
should seek refuge with them. The
places, persons, things, were sacred, as
churches, bishops, relics of saints, and
the feeling which gave the immunity
was one of religious awe ; the refugee
was believed to be under the protection
of God, from whose house or whose
minister he sought it, or of the saint
to whose relics he appealed.

The privilege occupied a large space
in the actual life of the people for
many centuries, and is worth a careful
description. It was not, as might be
supposed, a mere Christian imitation
of the Mosaic cities of refuge. -¦ A
similar privilege existed among many
other nations. It seems to have gener
ally belonged to the temples of the
gods, and sometimes extended • to a
space of more or less extent around
the temple. But it was not limited
to temples ; districts of towns, entire
towns, whole islands, sometimes pos
sessed it. It existed among the Greeks
and Romans ; among the Arabs ; among
the American Indians. Probably it
already existed among the Israelites
when Moses defined and regulated its
observance among the people when
they should be settled in their own
land. Moses did not make his cities of
refuge an indiscriminate harbour for all
sorts of criminals — which the sanctu
aries always had a tendency to become
¦ — but carefully defined the cases in
which they conferred privilege, and
the extent of the immunity which they
conferred. The Israelite sanctuaries
only afforded refuge from private venge
ance to homicides until the circum
stances of the homicide could be legally
inquired into ; if the refugee had been
guilty of deliberate murder the very
altar of the temple was not allowed to
shield him (Numbers xxxv. ) ; the cities
of refuge offered a permanent asylum
only to him who had slain another
accidentally, or by chance-medley, or
in defence of his own person or property.
This was the theory of sanctuary in
other civilised nations, as Greece and
Rome ; but Tacitus tells us that in the
time of Augustus and Tiberius the
licence of asylum was so abused both
in Greece and Rome that the temples
were full of debtors, fugitives, and
criminals, whom the magistrates could
not control, and who were protected
by the furious prejudices of the people.
who regarded the right of asylum as a
popular privilege, and who imagined
that any infraction of its inviolability

SANCTUARY

541

SANCTUARY

was sure to bring down upon the com
munity the vengeance of the god whose
sanctuary had been profaned.
When the empire became Christian,
the privilege' which had been formerly
possessed by the temples seems to have
been transferred as a matter of course to
the churches. The laws of Theodosius
I. (a.d. 392), and of Honorius, do not
confer, but recognise and regulate, the
existing privileges of the churches.
Theodosius II. enlarged the limits of
sanctuary beyond the body of the
church to all within the limits of
the outer walls of the churchyard.
The privilege received the sanction
of Boniface I. about a.d. 620. It
was soon extended to the houses of
bishops, abbots, and other religious
persons. In England the privilege is, therefore,
probably as old as the recognition of
Christianity. The laws of the Welsh
king, Howel Dda, recognise the privi-
'¦ lege as belonging to churches and
churchyards, and to relics. There are
many notices of chureh-grith, i. e.
sanctuary in the Anglo-Saxon laws and
canons ; the immunity is usually quali
fied with the limitation ' ' within walls, "
but whether the phrase was intended
to limit the privilege f o the inside of
the church, or to extend it, like the
law of Theodosius II. , to the priest's
housos, and to everywhere within the
outer walls of the churchyard, is not
quite clear. One of the laws of Ina,
king of the West Saxons, a.d. 693,
enacts that if any one accused of a
capital crime flees to a church his life
shall be spared, and he shall pay the
"bot" — the money fine which the
Saxon laws assigned as the alternative
penalty for nearly every crime. The
laws of Alfred gave sanctuary for only
three nights, to enable the criminal to
compound for his offence. The laws of
Cnut assign a different degree of im
munity to different churches, according
to their ecclesiastical status, by assign
ing different "bots" to its infringe
ment. The "bot" of a grithbryce
(violation of the sanctuary) in a head

minster is £5 to the king, and £8 to
the archbishop ; in a middle class
minster, 120 shillings ; in a less church
that has a burial-place, 60 shillings ;
in a church without a burial-place, 30
shillings. The laws of Edward Con
fessor recognise the right of sanctuary
almost to the extent of the law of
Theodosius II., viz. to the church and
its atrium (porch), and to the house
of the priest and its court, provided
the house and court stand within the
glebe of the church. The laws of
William the Conqueror recognise this
extension of the privilege. The Con
stitutions of Clarendon temp. Henry II.
established the period of forty days as
that during which a man might remain
unmolested in sanctuary.
There are many historical records of
cases in which men threatened with
sudden danger have taken sanctuary in
the nearest church. The life of the great
Justiciar, Hubert de. Burgh, alone sup
plies three examples. In 1232, when
the citizens of London sought his life,
he fled for refuge to Merton church.
Again in the same year, learning that
the king had ordered his arrest, he
took refuge in a chapel at Essex, which
was probably that of Brentwood. And
yet again in 1233 he -escaped from
prison at Devizes, and fled for refuge
to the neighbouring church. So late
as the seventeenth century, on one
occasion when Dr. Tenison was
preaching at St. Martin's, a man
rushed into the middle of the church
with his drawn sword in his hand, and
caused great confusion in the congre
gation ; it appeared that he had fled
thither for sanctuary, being pursued
by bailiffs.
Of the right of sanctuary attaching
to sacred persons there are some ex
amples in England : e. g. St. Hugh of
Lincoln, meeting on the road a criminal
who was being led to execution, suc
cessfully asserted his right to liberate
him ; and the writer of the ' Vita S.
Hugonis,' in narrating the incident,
says that this privilege was in the
old English laws, but by the neglect

SANCTUARY

542

SANCTUARY

of prelates, or the tyranny of princes,
was abolished.*
The abbots of Battle Abbey claimed
this privilege as one of the rights
granted to them by charter, and one
of them exercised it in 1364. t
But though every church J and church
yard possessed these common immuni
ties, there were certain places which had
extraordinary privileges of sanctuary
granted by the Sovereign. Athelstan,
who perhaps intended to follow the
Jewish precedent of cities of refuge,
granted special privileges to Ripon,
Durham, St. John of Beverley, "and
Buryan in Cornwall. Edward the
Confessor gave extended privileges to
Westminster. Other sanctuaries in
London -were the Hospital of St. John
Baptist in the Savoy, the precincts of
the Mint, Southwark, the convent of
the Whitefriars (Carmelites), Fleet
Street, and the Liberty of St. Martin's-
le-Grand. Other famous sanctuaries
were at Hexham,' Canterbury, Wor
cester, St. Albans, Bury St. Edmunds,
Beaulieu, Battle Abbey, Colchester,
Wells, Manchester, Northampton ; St.
Gregory's, Norwich ; York, Derby,
Lancaster ; Culham, Oxfordshire.
There were certain legal forms and
customary usages at the great sanctu
aries. Blackstone describes the process
of taking sanctuary generally. If a
person accused of any crime, except
treason and sacrilege, had fled to any
church or churchyard, and within forty
days went in sackcloth and confessed
himself guilty before the coroner, and
declared all the particular circum
stances of the offence, and took tho
oath in that case provided — viz. that
he abjured the realm, and would depart
from thence forthwith at the port
which should be assigned him, and
would never return without leave of
* Q. A. Perry's 'Life of St. Hugh of
Lincoln/ p. 278.
t ' Chichester Diocesan Hist.', p. 77,
S.P.C.K., by Rev. "W. R. W. Stephen.
tit has been suggested that the chamber
which exists over the porch of many churches
may have been sometimes iised as the resid
ence of sanctuary men.

the king — he by this means saved his
life, if he observed the conditions of
the oath, by going with a cross in his
hand, and with all convenient speed,
to the port assigned, and embarking.
For if, during this forty days' privilege
of sanctuary, or on his road to the sea
side, he was arraigned in any court for
this felony, he might plead, the privi
lege of sanctuary, and had a right to be
remanded if taken out against his will.
" By this abjuration," adds Stephen,
"his blood was attainted, and he
forfeited all his goods and chattels. "
The rules and regulations of some
of the sanctuaries still remain, as of
Durham, Beverley, St. Martin's-le-
Grand ; and the cathedral registers ."of
Durham contain records of many, indi
vidual cases. The register of West
minster sanctuary also exists at liOng-
leat. These privileges came to be
greatly abused. The principal sanctu
aries were peopled with criminals, and
were hotbeds of vice and crime ; the
sanctuary men issued from their refuge
to commit crimes in the neighbour
hood, and retreated to them as to a
castle. Henry VII. applied to the
pope for leave to curtail their injurious,
immunities, and in 1487 Innocent VIII.
made some little reformation, allowing
that if sanctuary men should sally out,
as they often did, and commit fresh
crimes and re-enter, the king's officers
might take them out of sanctuary to
answer for their crimes ; that the goods
of debtors might be seized out of
sanctuary ; and that the king might ;
appoint persons to keep watch over
refugees accused of high treason.
Henry VIII. set himself to correct the
abuses of sanctuary by a law of 1529.
Every abjured person was to be marked
by the coroner in the thumb with a
red-hot iron, and if he refused to leave
the realm by the time appointed he
was to lose his privilege of sanctuary.
In 1529 another law sought to intro
duce some order within the sanctuaries.
All sanctuary persons were to wear
badges, and were prohibited from carry
ing weapons ; they- were not to be

SAVOY CONFERENCE

543

SAVOY CONFERENCE

abroad between sunset and sunrise, and
were to obey their lawful governors. In
1540 another law enacted that all places
which had been used for sanctuary
should he utterly extinguished, except
parish churches and their churchyards,
and the sanctuaries of Wells, West
minster, Manchester, Northampton,
Norwich, York, Derby, and Lancaster,
each of which places shall give sanctu
ary to not more than twenty persons at
one time, but to none who have been
guilty of wilful murder, rape, burglary,
robbery on the highway or in a house
or church or chapel, or wilful burning
of a house or barn containing corn.
Ho that takes sanctuary may remain
forty days.
There are many instances of royal
and great persons who have fled to
sanctuary in times of political revolu
tion, and there are many interesting
stories about the privilege, of which let
this specimen suffice. After the battle
of Tewkesbury, four Lancastrian knights
fled from the field and took refuge in
one of the churches near. Edward
himself, his drawn sword in his hand,
was about to follow, when the officiat
ing priest, at that moment celebrating
mass, stood in the way, and resolutely
forbade his entrance till he should
promise to pardon the supplicants."
Edward promised. The fugitives left
their sanctuary ; were seized and
executed. The sanctuaries, with all their rights
and privileges, were nominally abol
ished in 1625, by 21 Jac. I. c. 28, § 7,
which enacted that no sanctuary, or
privilege of sanctuary, shall be ad
mitted or allowed in any case (Sir R.
Phillimore, 'Eccl. Law,' p. 1759); but
for many years they still sheltered the
reckless and lawless characters who
had so long found a home in them,
and it was unsafe for the officers of the
laV to attempt to arrest any of them.
(Rev. J. Raine on the Durham and
Beverley Sanctuaries ; Surtees Society. )
SAVOY CONFERENCE, THE. The
experience which the people of England
had gained during the great rebellion

and the Commonwealth led to this re
sult, that as soon as death had relaxed
the strong grasp of Cromwell, the
general desire for the restoration of the
Monarchy and the Church was openly
manifested ; and Monk, who wielded
the military power, and the survivors
of the Parliament, who in a sort repre
sented the nation, took the necessary
steps to call Charles II. to his father's
throne, amidst a delirium of national
rejoicing. Amidst the general recklessness of
the people about details, so long as
their main object was achieved, there
were some people who very wisely
retained their self-possession, and tried
astutely to take advantage of the
opportunity to secure their own in
terests. A deputation of Presbyterian
ministers, headed by Reynolds, Calamy,
and other leading men, at once crossed
over to the Hague to pay their respects
to the king, and to obtain concessions
as to the future settlement of religion.
They represented to the king how long
the Church and its observances had
been in abeyance, and assumed that
the majority of the people were as
averse to their revival as they them
selves were, and tried to engage the
king to disuse the Prayer Book and
the surplice in the ministrations of his
own chapel, as things which had been
so long discontinued in England that
they would be disliked by the body of
the people. They may have honestly
believed that such was the case, but
if so the king was better informed
than they, or had the courage of his
opinions even if they should be un
popular. He warmly declared that
all through the years of his exile he
had in his own chapel continued the
liturgy and observances of his Church,
and that he intended to continue to do
so, but he promised toleration to all
opinions, and in the settlement of
religion a consideration for tender con
sciences. These promises he fulfilled. The
majority of the nation were for the
simple re-establishment of the old

SAVOY CONFERENCE

544

SAVOY CONFERENCE

ecclesiastical status ; but the king
used his power and influence ; and an
assembly of divines, representing both
parties, the Church and the Noncon
formists, was appointed to consider
the situation. The letters patent
authorised the assembly " to review
the Book of Common Prayer, com
paring the same with the most ancient
liturgies which have been used in the
Church in the primitive and purest
times .... to take into your serious
and grave considerations the several
objections and exceptions which shall
now be raised against the same ; and,
if occasion be, to make such reasonable
and necessary alterations, corrections,
and amendments therein, as shall be
agreed upon to be needful or expedient
for the giving satisfaction unto tender
consciences, and the restoring and con
tinuance of peace and unity in the
Churches under our protection and
government ; but avoiding as much as
may be all unnecessary alterations of
the forms and liturgy wherewith the
people are already acquainted, and
have so long received in the Church of
England. "
The Commission met at the Savoy
in the Strand, from whence it has
taken its convenient name of The
Savoy Conference. It met on May 8,
1661, and its sittings were limited by
the letters patent to four months. At
the end of that time very little way
had been made towards a compromise.
The Nonconformists' objections were
really to Church principles embodied
in the Prayer Book, which the Church
bishops and divines could not in con
science give up; many of their excep
tions to matters of detail were captious
criticisms hardly worthy of serious
debate. Perhaps one of the most
striking incidents of the' Conference
was that Baxter at a few weeks' notice
composed a Prayer Book, which, how
ever, even his coadjutors declined to
adopt. The final result of the Com
mission was a list of changes to which
the bishops were willing to agree.
1. We are willing that all the Epis

tles and Gospels be used according to
the last translation.
2. That when anything is read for
an Epistle which is not in the Epistles,
the superscription shall be, "For the
Epistle." 3. That the Psalms be collated with
the former translation, mentioned in
rubric, and printed according to it.
4. That the words "this day," both
in the Collects and Prefaces, be used
only upon the day itself, and for the
following days it be said, "as about
this time. "
5. That a longer time be required
for signification of the names of the
communicants, and the words of the
rubric be changed into these " at least
some time the day before."
6. That the power of keeping scan
dalous sinners from the Communion
may be expressed in the rubric, accord
ing to the 26th and 27th canons; so
the minister be obliged to give j- an
account of the same immediately after
to the ordinary..
7. That the whole preface be pre
fixed to the commandments.
8. That the second exhortation be
read some Sunday or holyday before
the celebration of the Communion at
the discretion of the minister.
9. That the general confession at
the Communion be pronounced by one
of the ministers, the people saying
after him, all kneeling humbly upon
their knees.
10. That the manner of consecrating
the elements be made more explicit
and express, and to that purpose these
words be put into the rubric : "Then
shall he put his hand upon the bread,
and break it ; " " then shaR he put his
hand upon the cup."
11. That if the Font be so placed as
the congregation cannot hear, it may
be referred to the Ordinary to place it
more conveniently.
12. That these words, " Yes, they do
perform these," &e., may be altered
thus : " Because they perform them
both by their sureties," &c.
13. That the words of the last rubric,

SAXON PERIOD

54'5-

SAXON PERIOD

Before the Catechism may be thus
altered : " That children being baptised
have all things necessary for their salva
tion, and, dying before they commit
any actual sins, be undoubtedly saved,
though they be not confirmed."
14. That to the rubric after Confirma
tion these words may be added, " or be
ready and desirous to be confirmed."
15. That these words, "with my
body. I thee worship, " may be altered
thus, "with my body I thee honour."
16. That these words, " till death
us depart," be_altered "till death us
do part. " ' "--
17. That the words "sure and cer
tain " may be left out.
This being the conclusion of the
conference between the Church and
Nonconformists, the work of Revision
was committed with these recommend
ations to the Convocation, The two
Convocations of Canterbury and York
arranged for joint action. A volume
with proposed alterations by Bishop
:06sin of Durham, a learned Liturgist
who had long devoted himself to the
questions in hand, was taken as the
basis of the revision, and the work was
rapidly accomplished. The result was
the Book of Common Prayer, which has
descended without further alteration
(except as to the State services and the
Calendar) to our own day.
SAXON PERIOD, THE. The Roman
Emperor, Honorius, having withdrawn
the army and administration, and aban
doned the British province, the bar
barians of the eastern and south-eastern
coast of the North Sea flocked over in
successive hordes under independent
leaders, landing on different parts of the
island, and founding separate king
doms. The process of conquest lasted
over 150 years (450 — 681), at the end of
which England was divided into seven
(or eight) independent kingdoms. The
British Church had almost entirely dis-
•appeared out of the conquered country,
but still existed in unconquered Wales
and its border counties, in Damnonia,
including Cornwall, Devon, and part
of Somerset, and in Strathclyde and

Cumbria, extending from the Mersey to
the Clyde. The native Church seems
to have made no attempt all this while
to convert the conquerors ; the circum
stances probably precluded any such
effort while the wars of conquest were
still in progress.
At length the evangelisation of the
Saxons began with the mission of
Augustine and forty monks, whom
Gregory the Great sent from Rome.
Gregory regarding the country as a.
whole, sketched out a symmetrical
constitution for it consisting of a.
northern and southern province,
each with twelve dioceses, with York
and London for the Metropolitan sees.
But the fact that Ethelbert of Kent
had a French princess for his wife,
who had a bishop as her chaplain, with.
a staff of ecclesiastics, and a church for
their worship, attracted Augustine to
Kent, where Ethelbert, already predis-.
posed to it, shortly embraced Christi
anity with his people. Mellitus was,
made bishop and sent into Essex, where
he converted the king. Others were"
permitted, through Ethelbert's influ
ence, to preach among the East Angles,
but without success. Twenty-five years;
afterwards, another royal marriage of a
heathen king with a Christian princess
opened the way for Paulinus to accom-'
pany Ethelberga, daughter of Ethelbert
of Kent, to the court of Edwin of
Northumbria, where he succeeded in
inducing the king to accept Christi
anity for himself and his people. But
here the successes of Augustine's mis-'
sion ended, and of these successes part
was speedily lost. Eight years after
wards Edwin was slain, and Paulinus
fled with his widow back to Kent. In
twelve years more the East Saxons re
lapsed and Mellitus withdrew. In
Kent at the same time, the sons of
Ethelbert having relapsed, and opposing
themselves to the faith, the Augustinian.
bishops unanimously agreed to aban-,
don the enterprise and return to their
own country. A dream arrested their
flight ; they succeeded in establishing"
the faith firmly in Kent ; but the restt

SAXON PERIOD

546

SAXON PERIOD

of 'England owed its Christianity to
others. Oswald of Northumbria, When Edwin
had slain his father and usurped his
kingdom, fled to Iona, and was there,
with his companions, in a sixteen years'
exile^ converted to the faith. When
he had reconquered his kingdom, and
Paulinus had fled southward with slain
Edwin's widow, he sent to Iona for
missionaries for his people. Aidan was
sent, who founded a monastery at
Lindisfarne, and made that the see of
Northumbria, and the centre of mis
sionary work throughout England.
Not only the country north of the
Humber was permanently evangelised
by this Celtic mission ; but Mercia, i. e.
the vast central kingdom, and the
kingdom of the East Saxons, owed their
Christianity to the missionaries of Lin
disfarne. The other kingdoms were
indebted to various Churches. East
Anglia was converted by Felix, a Bur-
gundian. Wessex was converted by
Birinus from North Italy ; Sussex by
Wilfrid the Northumbrian.
The result was that each kingdom
had its one bishop, and its separate
and independent Church. The two
schools from which these Churches de
rived their teaching had some differ
ences. All those which derived from
continental teachers agreed in holding
the customs which were general on the
Continent. But the Celtic school, long
isolated from intercourse with the Con
tinent, had traditions of its own. The
differences were not very important
perhaps : a different version of the
Scriptures, a different liturgy, different
customs in baptism and ordination, a
different time of keeping Easter, and
such like. But each held an exagger
ated opinion of the importance of its
own traditions, and as a point of honour
each was unwilling to give way, and
rivalries and jealousies threatened
general discord.
4t length, on the death of Deusdedit,
Archbishop of Canterbury, the kings
who represented the two schools, Oswy
of Northumbria, and Egbert of Kent,

agreed, with the consent of the Churohes,
to send a man, selected with general con
currence, to Rome for consecration, who,
after learning the customs of tho con
tinental Churches, should return with
the prestige of his Roman consecration,
and regulate the affairs of the Church
in England. Wighard, the man thus
selected, died at Rome ; and with the
concurrence of the English Churches
the Bishop of Rome selected and sent
Theodore, a Greek ,of Tarsus, in hi3
place. Theodore, in 673, at a General Synod
held at Heortfiord (Hertford), suc
ceeded in inducing all the Churches to
adopt the same customs, and to unite
under the headship of Canterbury, Ho
set himself to divide the dioceses, not
without some opposition, but within a
few years after his death his plans were
fully earned out, leaving the country
divided into sixteen dioceses all subject
to Canterbury. He also promoted tho
settlement of clergy in the. several
parishes, and was thus reputed to be
the author of the parochial system,
which was fully carried out long before
the end of the Saxon period. He also,
with the help of Abbot Hadrian, estab
lished schools in which the Greek as
well as Latin languages and literature
were taught," and raised up a succession
of great scholars. "Ina single century
England became known to Christendom
as a fountain of light, as a land of
learned men, of devout and unwearied
missions, of strong, rich, pious kings."
(Bishop of Chester (Stubbs), 'Const.
Hist.' I. seq.)
In 735 the Northumbrian king,
Egbert, was the most powerful of the
kings. Egbert, a member of the royal
family, was Bishop of York. The schools
of York and its library were famous
throughout Christendom. Bede had
recently published his ' Ecclesiastical
History,' and made widely known
Gregory's scheme of a northern pro
vince. _ Canterbury raised no objection",
and so it was arranged that Northumbria
should have tho honour of a province,
with York for its metropolitan see,

SAXON PERIOD

547

SAXON PERIOD

and Hexham, Lindisfarne, andWithern
for its suffragans.
The invasion of the Danes destroyed
the prosperity of England and its
Church. In 832 was the first invasion,
which was severely felt, and every year
fleets of the Northern pirates ravaged
the eastern and southern coasts. In
855 they first wintered in the island ;
and for the next fifteen years, every
year they harried the country, burning
churches and monasteries, plundering
everything, and withdrawing again to
their strongholds. In 871 Alfred suc
ceeded to the throne, and by a succes
sion of victories, especially that at
Ethandune 878, limited the heathen to
the north and middle of the country,
and led them to embrace Christianity.
At length tho north ceased to send
forth fresh swarms, the two races began
to settle down peacefully side by side,
and the Danes to learn religion and
civilisation, partly from the English,
partly from teachers from their native
Denmark. The Danish conquest of the north and
middle of England cut off the Northum
brian Church from the see of Canterbury
almost as completely as before the days
of Oswy. The Archbishop of York
was the head of a distinct nationality ;
his faithfulness was courted, and his
obedience secured by the permission,
from 963 to the Conquest, to hold the
see of Worcester in plurality, or to
bestow it on some near kinsman. The
other northern sees, Hexham and_
Withern, became extinct ; Lindisfarne
survived in exile and pilgrimage with
St. Cuthbert's bones till it settled at
Durham in 995. In Mercia and East
Anglia the Church suffered scarcely less.
The see of Dunwich perished ; in that
of Elmham the succession is uncertain
for near a century after the death of
St. Edmund. The Bishop of Leicester
fled southwards, and placed his chair
at Dorchester (Oxon. ). The succession
in Lindsey vanishes, and even in London
the Episcopate had a narrow escape
from extinction.
Alfred began the Restoration ; as N

much as possible of the old system was
restored by Edgar, with Dunstan forhi3
prime minister ; but in this period
England seeks aid and inspiration from
the Continent.
The chief feature of the latter part
of the tenth century is the reforms of
Dunstan (Bishop of Worcester 958),
Archbishop of Canterbury, 960, and
the great minister of Edgar. His en
deavours to restore discipline to the
monasteries by the introduction of tho
Benedictine rule, and to raise the
character of the secular clergy by re
pressing disorders and encouraging
education, are only a part of his labours
for the revival of order and civilisation
in the kingdom still suffering from the
consequences of the Danish invasions.
When a fresh series of Danish invasions
occurred, England was not strong
enough in arms to resist ; but it was
strong enough in religion and civilis
ation to convert Canute, and bring
about a peaceful division of the king
dom between Edmund Ironside and the
Dane, with succession to the survivor.
In the eleventh century there was a
great development of English literature.
England, unable to withstand the arms
of Canute, yet at once humanised and
elevated him. The court of Edward the
Confessor was an advance in cultiva
tion on that of his father. By the
Confessor's partiality for foreigners
England gained as well as lost. Robert
of Jumieges sat at London, and after
wards at Canterbury ; Heman of Rams
bury and Walter of Hereford were
Lorrainers ; Duduc, a Saxon, and after
him Giso, a Brabanter, held Wells ;
William of London and Alfred of
Dorchester were Normans. Perhaps
a scarcity of eligible Englishmen may
excuse the fact that Archbishop
Ealdred of York held, or at least ad
ministered, at the same time, Worcester,
Hereford, and Sherborne ; and that
Stigand held Winchester with Canter
bury. From first to last the Saxon Church
had special characteristics differing
from the contemporary Continental
N 2

SAXON PERIOD

548

¦ SAXON PERIOD

Churches. It was pre-eminently, a
National Church, with very little inter
course with the Continent. Its origin
had given a great prestige to the mo
nastic institution ; it was remarkable
for the number of its monasteries ; for
the number of royal persons, especially
ladies, who were the founders and first
rulers of monasteries ; and for the
number of its kings and nobles who
resigned their offices and retired to
religious houses. Its isolation kept it
to a large extent free from the corrup
tions of the Continental Churches.
But these advantages had counter-

balanoing'disadvantages ; its separation
from the currents of, thought which,
swept over the Continental world left
it backward ; its life grew sluggish ;;
Edward's endeavour to infuse new life-
by filling important posts in State and
Church with foreigners only excited
national feeling against them. Therei
was a lack of vigour in the State, in,
spite of the energy of the great - family :
of Godwin, and still more so in the-
Church. "The time was come for'
Lanfranc and Austin, as well as for
William and Henry of Anjou " (Stubb's
'Const. Hist.' I. 278).

The number of sees in England (exclusive of Wales) had increased before and
in the time of Bede (a.d. 731) from seven to twenty-one.
1. In Kent ...

10.11.12.

1. Canterbury (a.d. 597).
2. Rochester (a.d. 604).
3. London (a.d. 605).
4. Dumnoo (Dunwich) (a.d. 630).
5. Elmham (a.d. 673).
6. Winchester (a.d. 635).
7. Sherborne (Dorsetshire) (a.d. 705).
8. Repton, removed to Lichfield (a.d. 655).
9. Dorchester (a.d. 636), removed to Leicester (a.d.
737).
Lindsey or Sidnacester (a.d. 678).
Worcester (a.d. 680).
Hereford, formerly suffragan (a. d. 677), to Menevia
or St. David's.
13. Selsey (a.d. 709).
14. York (a.d. 625).
15. Lindisfarne (a.d. 635).
16. Hexham (a.d. 678).
Withern (a.d. 397) was suffragan of York.
Ripon also appears to have been an episcopal see
in the seventh century.
In the course of the ninth and tenth centuries Beverley in Yorkshire, Taunton
and Crediton in Devonshire, and St. Peter's in Cornwall, were episcopal sees for
a short time.
Under the Danish invasions Hexham and Withern, Dunwich and Lindsey
ceased to exist, Lindisfarne, driven into exile, at length settled (a.d. 995) at
Durham, and the Bishop of Leicester transferred his see to Dorchester, Oxon.

2. East Saxons
3. East Angles
4. West Saxons
5. Mercia

6. South Saxons
7. Northumberland

CHRONOLOGY OF THE SAXON PERIOD.

CENTURY. V.

c450

The Saxon conquests begin.
The Kingdom of Kent founded. From this date to 516 the
district south of Thames as far west as the Avon, on the"
border of Wilts and Dorset, was conquered. '

SAXON PERIOD

549

A.n.
516 to 577 the eastern side of Britain was conquered.
519 Cerdic founded the Kingdom of the West Saxons, which
was extended by successive conquests to the present border
of Wales by 655.
547 Ida founded the Northumbrian Kingdom, but the Britons
still disputed the possession of the country till the death
of Ceeadwalla at the battle of Hefenfeit, 635. The
Kingdom of Mercia, founded from Northumbria, did not
extend over the middle of Britain till 626, and its con
quest was still disputed by the Britons till tho battle of
Winwsed, '656.
596 Augustine landed in England ; in the following year was con
secrated archbishop by the bishops of Southern Gaul.
Conversion of Kent by Augustine.
604 Mellitus consecrated Bishop of the East Saxons.
Justus consecrated Bishop of Rochester.
627 Conversion of Edwin of Northumbria by Paulinus.
Conversion of the East Anglians by Bishop Felix.
635 Conversion of the West Saxons by Bishop Birinus.
638 Aidan founds Lindisfarne, and converts the Northumbrians.
653 Peada, the son of Penda, King of the Mercians, converted.
Conversion of the East Saxons by Cedd.
655 Conversion of Mercia by Ceadda and others.
About this time the West Saxon Kingdom was extended to
the border of Wales.
664 Conference at Streneshalh (Whitby) between the Celtic and
the continental missionaries on the Easter controversy, &c.
Archbishop Theodore consecrated.
673 Synod of Hertford, in which the Anglo-Saxon churches unite
into an Ecclesiastical Province, with the Archbishop of
Canterbury as Metropolitan.
674 Bede, the historian of the English Church, born.
680 Synod of Hsethfeld (Hatfield).
681 Conversion of the South Saxons, begun by Wilfred of
Northumbria.
685 Cuthbert consecrated Bishop of Lindisfarne.
687 The Isle of Wight converted, which completes the evange
lisation of the Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms.
690 Willebrord of Northumbria and twelve companions set out
on a missionary enterprise to the Continent, and are sent
by Pepin to evangelise Frisia.
719 Winfrid (St. Boniface), born at Crediton, educated at
Nursling, Hants, goes forth to be the Apostle of Germany.
722 Glastonbury refounded by King Ina.
731 Bede's Ecclesiastical History closes with this year ; he died
735.
735 York made an archbishopric with the dioceses north of the
Humber for its province.

550

SAXON PERIOD

A.D.
830
832
870

871
878

884

912
930
968
1011
1016
104210651066

The Heptarchy united under Egbert.
The Danish pirates first spend the winter in England.
The Danes plunder and burn the Abbeys of Lindisfarne,
Tynemouth, Whitby, Peterborough, Croyland, Ely, &c.
Martyrdom of King Edmund.
Alfred the Great, king. England overrun by tho Danes,
and Alfred in concealment.
Alfred's victory at Ethandune ; the Danes restricted to the
East of England, and embrace Christianity.
The Danes defeated by Alfred, half the country ceded to
them on condition of being baptised.
Normandy and Brittany ceded to the Normans ; baptism of
Duke. Rollo. i
Athelstan extends his dominion over the whole of Cornwall.
Dunstan made Archbishop of Canterbury.
The Danes take Canterbury, and kill Archbishop Elphege.
The kingdom partitioned between Edmund and Canute.
Edward the Confessor becomes king.
Consecration of Westminster Abbey.
The Norman Conquest.

Chronological Chart.

SCAPULARY

551

SCHOOLS

SCAPULARY, a monastic vestment,
described at the end of article on Car
thusian. SCHISM (from the Greek o-X'V^a, a
division). The divided condition of our
English Christianity, and the tolerant
spirit of the time, have led to a lenient
judgment of Schism, and the ignoring
— almost the denial — of its character as
a sin. It is only when the fact is clearly
recognised that the Church is an organ
isation founded by Christ, to be the
practical human agent for carrying
out His plans for the regeneration of
human society, that the character of
the disruption of this organisation and
the setting up of rival organisations is
seen. The history of Schism runs side by
side with the history of the Church.
In the Old Dispensation there are the
Schism of Korah and his company, on
which God pronounced a miraculous
judgment ; that of Jeroboam, which
terminated with the captivity of Israel ;
and that of the Samaritans on the re
storation of the Jewish polity in its own
land, which has continued to the present
day. In the New Dispensation, the
imminent schism between the Judaising
and the Gentile parties in apostolic
times was averted by the Council of
Jerusalem, the type of the treatment of
such crises in the Church. But from
those days to these there have been
schisms. The Donatist schism is an ex
ample full of instruction for our times ;
the Donatists were orthodox and zealous
Christians, who at one time rivalled
the Church in all the cities of North
Africa in numbers, and lasted for more
than three centuries. In the thirteenth
and fourteenth centuries a great wave
of heresy, tending to organise itself
into schism, swept over the whole of the
Western Church. The Church of Eng
land, however, was singularly free from
both heresy and schism throughout its
history down to the Reformation. It
was one of the lamentable results of
that great reaction of the human mind
and conscience against the abuses and
errors of the mediaeval Church, that

liberty ran wild into license, and the
name of reformation served to sanctify
revolution. But it was reserved to the
present generation to hear division
among Christians defended as a benefit
to Christianity, and to see the Christians
of one small island divided into 250
different sections. It is probable,
however, that England has seen the
worst of schism. With the revived
spiritual life of the Church, and with
the removal of most of its abuses, the
reasons for serious dissent to the extent
of schism have disappeared ; the grow
ing intelligence, historical knowledge,
and broader sympathies of the people
are all tending in the direction of a
restoration of religious unity ; the
Church is, as a matter of fact, gathering
in the population ; the Dissenting De
nominations are, as * matter of fact,
decreasing in numbers. There is a
growing recognition of the idea of the
unity of the Church as the intention of
Christ ; and of the practical power of
organic religious unity in its influence
upon society ; and a growing feeling
that the remaining points of difference
between Christian bodies do not justify
disruption. With the historical fact
before us that the ancient schisms, both
in the Old Dispensation and the New,
though some of them endured for cen
turies, died out at last, we may con
fidently expect that the present separa
tists, though some of them are numbered
by millions, and have lasted for cen
turies, will at length be reabsorbed into
the historical Church.
SCHOOLS, a name anciently applied
to Universities. [See Universities.]
SCHOOLS (schola = leisure), places
of education. When the system of
Imperial schools died out of Europe,
together with the Imperial power, their
place was taken by the schools of the
Church, which had always recognised
education as one of its functions.*
* The third Lateran Council (a.d. 1139)
made a constitution, afterwards embodied in
the Canon Law, to this effect : Since tho
Church of God as a pious mother is bound
to provide that the poor, whose parents

SCHOOLS

552

SCREEN, CHANCEL

•Every cathedral and monastery had its
-school. The missionary bishops, who
converted our Saxon ancestors, at once
established schools in connection with
their cathedrals, regarding them as an
important part of their evangelising
machinery. These schools continued
to fulfil their functions down to the
time of the Reformation. There were
also a considerable number of grammar
schools founded and endowed in the
towns, with provision for clerical mas
ters. Education was thus placed within
easy reach of all classes likely to avail
themselves of it. Some of the old
schools, especially those of royal found
ation, escaped the hand of the plunderer
at the Reformation, * but " The greater
•part of the endowed schools now exist
ing were founded during the sixteenth
and seventeenth centuries, when the
.charity of individuals in some measure
supplied the grievous deficiency of
•education occasioned by the spoliation
•of cathedrals and monasteries, and the
confiscation of ecclesiastical property "
;(Sir R. P., p. 2038). The 78th Canon
of 1603 probably continues a practice
¦of more ancient times when it encourages
the incumbent of any parish in which
there is not a grammar school to under
take the teaching of youth, ' ' for the
training up of children in principles of
true religion. "
In the present generation some of the
old grammar schools have been raised
by the genius, of a headmaster, or a
succession of them, to great importance
as public schools, as Rugby and Upping
ham. Some' new schools have been
founded on Church lines, as those at
¦Lancing, with its branches at Hurst-
'pierpoint, Ardingley, St. Michael's,
Bognor, and King's College, Taunton ;
¦and the similar schools at Denstone,
Abbot's Bromley, and Ellesmere.
cannot afford to help them, should not lack
the opportunity of learning, ¦ let a benefice
be provided in every cathedral church for a
.master who shall comxjetently teach its clerks
and its poor scholars gratis.
* Of these the seven "Public Schools" :
Eton, Westminster, Winchester, Charter
house, Harrow, Eugby, and Shrewsbury.

A public company was started in
1883 to promote the foundation of
Church higher and middle class schools
for both sexes, which is perhaps destined
to effect a great and much-needed im
provement in the educational provision
of the country. [For the Elementary
Schools of. the Church see Society,
National, and Education.]
SCREEN, CHANCEL. The churches
of Basilican plan had a raised platform ;
stretching westward from the apse into
the body of the building, for the uso of
those who were engaged in the singing
of the services, and this platform was
protected, and separated from the body
of the church by low screens. In
the thirteenth century these screens
were continued ¦ across - the west of
this raised "chancel," separating it
from the nave. In early churches of
tho English plan the clergy engaged
in the saying of the service were placed
in a separate compartment of the
church east of the nave, which was
usually narrower and lower than the
nave, and opened into it by an
arched opening, called the chancel-
arch ; and a screen, solid below and
with pierced tracery above, was'placed
across the chancel-arch, which is called
the chancel - screen. No chancel-
screens of the Early English style re
main ; there are several examples of
Decorated style ; of the fifteenth
century, and especially of the latter
part of it, which is the age of rich wood
work, there are numerous examples,
many of them of very elaborate and
beautiful design and workmanship.
The lower solid panels of these screens
were often painted with saints, and tho
upper traceried portion also enriched
with colour and gilding.
The straight beam which usually
forms the summit of the chancel-screen
supported a rood; sometimes tho
upper part of the screen carried a
gallery ; for which see Rood-Loft.
The object of the screen was probably
partly symbolical, partly' utilitarian;
when the doors of the screen were se
cured, people could have free access

SCREEN, SANCTUARY 553

SECULAR CLERGY

to the nave, but were prevented from
intrusion into the chancel.
SCREEN, SANCTUARY. Besides
the screen which was universally inter
posed between the chancel and the nave
..of a mediaeval church, there are also
some examples of a second screen be
tween the sanctuary or sacrarium and
.the chancel. That at St. David's
.cathedral still remains. There were
similar screens in the parish churches
of Brilley and Michael Church, both in
the county of Hereford, and there are
indications of similar screens in other
churches, e. g. in St. Martin's, Col
chester. But the two Herefordshire
churches have a still more remarkable
feature, viz. a canopy or ceiling of oak
panelling with moulded ribs and,carved
bosses, extending over the sanctuary for
the whole width of the building, and
extending from the east wall to the
sanctuary-screen, a distance of about
ten feet, and much lower than the
height of the building. (' Church
Builder' for 1867, p. 127.)
SECULAR CLERGY. The monks_
and other religious persons who de
voted themselves to a religious life were
reckoned among the clergy ; living
^according to a Rule they were called
[•Regular clergy — Regulars, from regula,
rule. The clergy who lived not ac
cording to any special rule, but only
according to the general Canons of the
Church, not in . seclusion, but in the
• world, were called Secular clergy — Secu
lars, from- seculum, the world. [See
Clergy]
- This may be a convenient place for a
few notes on the houses, dress, and
jnanners of the secular clergy. Each
rector and vicar had a house of residence
on his living, proportioned in its mag
nitude to the value of the benefice, and
not distinguished in plan or style of
architecture from the houses of other
people. In the days when there were
no inns, the entertainment of travellers
was a. virtue practised not only by the
.monasteries but also by the country
•clergy. The monasteries had special
.apartments for the purpose ; but, in

the rime manners of the times, the
occasional guests of the country rectory
would be sufficiently accommodated by
a " shake down " in the hall. From a
very early period the clergy were per
sonally distinguished from the laity by
the tonsure, but not, like the monks
and friars, by any uniform fashion of
dress. . Bishops and synods were indeed

Sir Richard de Threton.
continually ordering that the. clergy
should not wear clothes too gay in
colour or too fashionable in cut, and
that they should abstain from wearing
ornaments or carrying arms. But these
injunctions were very generally disre
garded, and the secular clergy main
tained their right to dress as other
people did. Here are three illustrations
of ordinary clerical costume from the
Catalogue of Benefactors of St. Alban's
Abbey. The first is Sir Richard de
Threton, priest, whose gown and hood
are of bright blue lined with white,

SECULAR CLERGY

554

SECULAR CLERGY

the sleeves of his under garment of the
same colour, and his shoes red. The
sitting figure of Sir Bartholomew de
Wendon, Rector of Thakreston, has all
the character of a portrait ; his gown

Sir Bartholomew de "Wendon.
and hood and sleeves are scarlet, and
his shoes black. The third figure is
that of Sir Roger, chaplain of the Earl
of Warwick at Flamsted ; over a scarlet
gown he wears a pink cloak lined with
blue, the hood is scarlet of the same
suit as the gown, the shoes red.
The bags which they all bear represent
their donations to the abbey. They
wore the same kind of hat as liiy people.
They often wore an ornamental girdle
with x. purse hanging from it, and not
unfrequently a dagger to protect the
purse. When the laity ceased to wear
the long gowns represented in these
wood cuts and the cloak out of doors,
the clergy, under the influence of a
growing feeling in favour of a distinctive
clerical costume, continued to retain
them, under the name of cassock and
gown, and to wear them of black colour.
In the Reformation period the Puritan
clergy objected to wear cassock and
gown, and adopted the ordinary lay
costume only with a Quakerlike sim

plicity in its cut and colour, and a
"Geneva" gown. The 74th Canon of
1603 elaborately regulates the ordinary
habit, as well as the official robes, of
the clergy ; and in the time of the
Stuarts the clergy ordinarily wore the
cassock and gown and plain bands.
, The out-door costume of the clergy
gradually changed in the reign of the
Georges. The dignified clergy short-

SK^

Sir Roger, Chaplain.
ened the cassock into the present
"apron," and substituted a cloth coat
of more secular fashion for the silk
academic gown ; while the rest of tho
clergy still further reduced the cassock
to a double-breasted silk waistcoat, or
a cloth waistcoat with a straight collar,
and a frock-coat of peculiar fashion ;
still affecting black, or at least some
dark gucy shade of colour. [For official
costume, see Vestments.]
The honorary title "Sir "was com
monly given to priests down to the time
of the Reformation, or even later. A

SEE

555

SELWYN

law of Canute declared a priest to rank
with the second order of thanes, i. e.
with the landed gentry " By the
laws armorial, civil, and of arms, a
priest in his place in civil conversation
is always before any esquire, as being a
knight's fellow, by his holy orders,"
and therefore entitled "Sir." A Deca-
eordon of Quodlibetical Questions. In
daily life they did not affect any special
asceticism like the Regulars ; even the
canonical obligation of celibacy was
often evaded [see Celibacy] ; field
sports were the common occupation of
the gentry, and it was not until the
time of the Puritans that it was thought
unseemly for the clergy to take part in
them. Bishop Juxon was perhaps the
last prelate who kept a pack of hounds ;
Archbishop Abbot was probably not the
last who shot at the deer in his own
park, or that of his friends. It is a
very noteworthy fact, that in the thir
teenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth cen
turies, a very large number of the
beneficed clergy were only in minor
Orders, the priestly functions of the
cure being performed by an assistant.
¦ [See ' Scenes and Characters of the
Middle Ages,' pp. 232—265.]
SEE (Sedes), a seat. The chair of a
bishop, in old English, bishop's stool
or settle, the symbol of his jurisdiction,
placed usually in the chief church of
his diocese. [See Cathedra.]
SELSEY, DIOCESE OF. [See Chich
ester.] SELWYN, George Augustus, the
.Apostle of New Zealand (born 1809 ;
died 1878), may be taken as an illus
trious example of the missionary
bishops who in this generation have
founded in our colonies and possessions
all over the world those new churches
¦which are probably destined to play
so important a part in the future
history of Christendom.
Born in 1809, at Hampstead, the son
of an eminent lawyer, he was educated
at Eton, and St. John's, Cambridge ;
was second in the classical tripos ; and
.was elected a fellow of his college. He
returned as private tutor to Eton, and

there was remarkable for his gifts of
person and athletic accomplishments,
and for his Christian earnestness and
energy of character, and for the good
works of various kinds which he initi
ated and carried on.
In 1840 New Zealand became an
English colony ; in the following year
the Colonial Bishoprics' Council was
founded, and the new colony was one
of the first places to which they desired
to send a bishop to regulate the work
of the few missionaries of the Church
of England already there, and to lay
the foundation of a church contem
poraneously with the establishment of
British rule. A relative of Selwyn's had
been first chosen, but was afterwards
compelled to withdraw from the task ;
when he was asked to go, and, accept
ing the invitation as a Divine call, at
once consented. From the first, great
things were expected of him by those
who knew his grasp of Church prin
ciples, his strong common sense and
firmness of purpose, his vast energy of
body and mind, his deep, manly piety,
and trust in God's guidance. All these
expectations were more than fulfilled.
His labours rivalled or exceeded those
of the founders of our own Churches in
Anglo-Saxon times, whose plans to
some extent he adopted. He travelled
indefatigably over his great diocese,
walking through the bush, swimming
the rivers, cruising round the coasts in
small boats which he himself navigated.
"Whenever he stayed in a settler's
house (writes one of those whose guest
the bishop had often been), his great
desire seemed to be to give no trouble.
He would insist on carrying his own
travelling-bags, would always tidy his
own room and make his own bed, and
I have known him surreptitiously to
wash his own clothes. • This was done
with the knowledge that in New Zea
land servants are scarce, and that the
ladies of the household do many things
for themselves and their families which
ladies are not accustomed to do in Eng
land. He also refused to take wine
when he was a settler's guest, not on

SELWYN

556

SELWYN

grounds of total abstinence, but be
cause he knew that in out-stations
.wine was scarce and expensive. His
own hospitality was profuse but simple ;
indeed he kept open house ; every one
who came to Auckland was welcomed,
and knew that formal invitation was
not needed. " I give good advice, but
.bad dinners," the bishop used to say to
his guests ; the badness of the dinners
being only a synonym for plain roast
and boiled.
At Auckland, the head-quarters of
work, there were from the first a large
school-building and bishop's residence,
'with library and rooms for the lay
workers ; a kitchen and dining-hall
under another roof ; a hospital in charge
of a deacon ; a chapel ; and a native in
dustrial school, into which he gathered
New Zealand lads from all parts of the
diocese ; a day school which Mrs. Selwyn
kept ; and a printing-house. Apart
from the collegiate buildings were the
barn, dairy, stable, rick-yard, and car-
'penter's shop. There were also seven
affiliated chapels within a radius of
five miles, . which were served by the
college staff.
Amidst many difficulties his work
prospered. In 1847, he held a diocesan
synod, the first experiment of the kind
in the English communion since Con
vocation had been silenced ; and thus,
with wise boldness, set the example
of complete Church organisation and
action, which was speedily followed in
the other colonial Churches. Among
the striking features of his principles
of action, he adopted at once what he
believed to be the apostolic practice, of
baptizing sincere converts with only
very little elementary knowledge ; and
as soon as they had grasped the main
truths of Christianity' he did not hesi
tate to send those who seemed other-
-wise fitted to make known to their
-native brethren what they had them
selves learnt and believed.
It happened that the Colonial Office
had, in drawing up the bishop's letters
patent, assigned to him, per incuriam,
: a diocese stretching from fifty degrees

south latitude to thirty-four degrees
north. The bishop accepted the error
as an opportunity of doing missionary
work outside the limits of New Zea
land. In 1848 he embraced the oppor
tunity of a voyage in H. M. S. ' Dido,'
to "visit some of the . islands in the
Pacific, on a voyage of inspection. In
the following year the bishop had pro
cured a little vessel of his own, in
which he visited many islands, and
brought back five native boys to be
educated in his school at Auckland.
In 1851 the dioceses of Sydney and
Newcastle had provided him with a
larger vessel, the 'Border Maid,' in
which he cruised among the islands i of
the Pacific, sometimes swimming ashore
in the presence of natives of doubtful
or even hostile disposition, and win
ning them by the manly dignity of his
presence, and the loving sweetnesfeiof
his manner.
In 1854 he visited England in order
to obtain from the home authorities
the subdivision of his diocese. He
was received with a certain enthusiasm
by the Church at home, and his pre
sence and his addresses sensibly in
creased the interest of the Church in
mission work, and elevated the com
mon idea of the importance and dignity
of the work. While he was here the
Government withdrew £600 a year, the
half of his stipend, which it had hitherto
paid ; he gave up £200 of the remaining
£600 towards a stipend for the new See
of Christ Church, and continued to re
ceive for himself, the remaining £400 a-
year during the rest of his tenure of the
See. On his return to New Zealand;
in 1855, he was accompanied by Mr
Patteson ; whose life is also sketched
in this volume as , the type of our
missionary bishops in partibus infide-
lium. The bishop had been successful in
obtaining the subdivision of his
diocese : in 1856 Christ Church was
founded, and two years later the Sees of
Wellington, Nelson, Waiapu ; and Dune-
din in 1866. In 1861, Mr. Patteson-
was consecrated Bishop of Melanesia. -

SELWYN

557 SEPULCHRAL MONUMENTS

.. Again, in 1867, Bishop Selwyn
visited England, in order to attend the
Lambeth Conference. The idea of the
Conference was to draw the Churches
of the Anglican communion together,
and to discuss questions which had
arisen respecting the relations of the
Colonial and the Mother Churches,
and the mutual relations of all the
Churches of the English descent.
Selwyn's character and practical ex
perience made him a leading and in
fluential person in the Conference.
While the bishop was still in England,
Bishop Lonsdale's death vacated the
See of Lichfield, and he was induced,
reluctantly, and in obedience to others,
to accept the English See. He stipu
lated for leave to pay a last visit to
New Zealand, to set that diocese in
order for his successor ; and the fare
well which the people there took of
him, proved that they had learned to
estimate the grandeur of the character
and work of the Apostle of New
Zealand. The ninetieth occupant of the See of
Lichfield, and succeeding so good and
earnest a bishop as Lonsdale, Selwyn
yet found ample scope for his genius
for ecclesiastical organisation. He re
moved the Episcopal residence to Lich
field ; secured the help of two suffragan
bishops ; established a scheme for the
training of candidates for ordination ;
and put new energy into the hearts of
the workers, and into the work, of the
diocese generally ; besides making Lich
field a. centre of foreign missionary
spirit. In his last illness, "amid the
wanderings caused by bodiiy weakness,
his thoughts were with the distant
islands for which he had done so much,
and to whose evangelisation, when his
own active labours there were ended,
he had given his son. " At one time he
would exclaim with kindling eye, " A
Light to lighten the Gontiles ; " at
another he would murmur, " They will
all come back," as, indeed, the large
portion of the Maories who had apos
tatised during the war between them
andthe.colonists have already returned

and then in the soft Maori language,
which, for a quarter of a century, was
familiar to him as his mother tongue,
he would say, "It is all light." He
diedAprilll, 1878, and lies buried in
the churchyard of Lichfield cathedral.
('Memoir of the Life and Episco-,
pate of George Augustus Selwyn, \ by
Rev. H. W. Tucker. London : "Wells.
Gardner. )
SEPULCHRAL MONUMENTS. It
is very curious to see in what various
ways men have treated the bodies of
their dead. The ancient Egyptians
embalmed them in order to preserve
them till the resurrection, while the
Greeks and Romans burnt them at
once. The Parsees give them to the
vultures. The Hindoos commit them
to the sacred river. The inhabitants of
Tierra del Fuego commit theirs to the
sea. Some tribes of American Indians
erect a little scaffold of boughs, and
leave the dead lying on this couch in
the midst of the prairie under the open-
sky. Charlemagne was placed in a
subterranean vault sitting on his throne
robed and crowned ; the Spanish Cid
in the church on horseback in his
armour. In a monastery in Italy the
dead monks stand in their frocks and
cowls against the walls of the crypt.
Patriarchs, Jews, and Christians have
always buried their dead in the ground.
Here is burial in earth, air, fire, and
water. It is curious, too, to note the different
kind of tombs. The kings of Lower
Egypt built the Pyramids for their
tombs ; the kings of Upper Egypt exca
vated the grand palaces of the dead in
the mountain gorges on the east of
Thebes.. The Greeks raised a heap of
stones over the dead, every passer-by
showing his respect by throwing another
stone upon it. The Romans buried their
funeral urns underground, or placed
them in the columbaria of a temple
like edifice. The Etruscans constructed
a subterranean house, and laid the
dead in festal robes upon a couch sur
rounded by the usual appliances of
domestic life. The Celtic tribes ranged

SEPULCHRAL MONUMENTS 558 SEPULCHRAL MONUMENTS

their sun-dried urns in rude chambers
formed of three or four large rough
stones. Near Kerteh, in the Crimea,
were found circular shafts, like dry
wells, which gave access at different
heights to subterranean galleries which
served for tombs. The Jews hewed
chambers out of the rocks for sepulchres,
or took advantage of the natural caves.
The early Christians in Rome, Naples,
Alexandria, and probably elsewhere,
were buried in catacombs. But the
tumulus — the mound heaped over the
body as it lay upon the ground, or was
buried a little depth beneath the sur
face—was perhaps the most ancient,
the most universal, and the most ap
propriate monument. They are found
dotted, like low natural hills, over the
steppes of Tartary, and in the Mesopo-
tamian plain, and under the rank
tropical vegetation of Central America,
monuments of races of whom no other
monument remains. In England all
the races which have successively in
habited the land have left such monu
ments behind. There are British
barrows on Salisbury Plain, and in a
hundred other places all over the land.
The Bartlow Hills in Essex are Roman,
thrown up over Roman sepulchral
chambers. There are many Saxon
barrows gradually accumulated over
whole families, the men with their
rusty swords and spear-heads lying by
their bones, the women with their gold
enamelled ornaments mingled with
their dust.
It is the most appropriate monu
ment. It tells that there one of our
fellow-men has been "laid in ground,"
and has displaced just that length and
breadth of kindred dust which is reared
above the general level of the ground ;
that heap of dust is his vera effigies, for
" dust he was ; " the green grass which
grows over it is his emblematical
epitaph : "As for man, his days are as
grass." Our English churchyards are
full of these tumuli ; they are by far
the most general form of sepulchral
monument. The earliest Christian stone monu

ments in England are Pillar stones,
roughly hewn with a cross or a
name inscribed upon them ; under
more artistic, treatment these pillars
assumed the shape of tall crosses
covered with ornamental sculpture, of
which the churchyard cross on p. 220 is
an example. Another Saxon monu
ment was a massive stone laid over the
grave, rising out of the ground in a
rude arc of a circle, and covered with
sculptures ; there are examples at
Dewsbuiy, Yorks ; Hexham, Nor
thumb. ; Heysham, Lane. ; Bexhill,
Sussex ; Shelton, Notts.
The commonest kind of stone monu
ment is the Headstone, a comparatively
small stone set up at the head of the
grave. In early times it was often cut
into the outline of a cross, or had a
cross sculptured upon it ; as in the
example in the margin. In more

modern times the headstone took the
shape of a slab of stone three or
four feet high, giving room for a long
epitaph ; in quite recent times the old
cruciform types of headstone have come
into fashion again.
Coffin stones, i. e. the stone lids of
stone coffins, or stones similarly shaped,
although they were only laid over an
earthen grave, have been a very common
form of monument from the eleventh
century down to the present day. They
are dealt with in a separate article,
Stone Coffins. From the thirteenth
century a slab of stone laid over the

SEQUENCE

559

SERVICE BOOKS

grave or tomb, inlaid with an effigy and
inscription and other designs in en
graved brass, was a very common
monument, which also is dealt with
under the title, Brasses, Monumental.
In a very similar kind of monument
known to ecclesiologists as Incised
Slabs (which will be found under that
title), the effigies, &c, were engraved
on the stone itself. The most beautiful
of all the kinds of monuments were
the High tombs, or altar tombs, used
chiefly but not exclusively inside the
churches, with or without sculptured
effigies upon them. These are treated
in a separate article under the title
Altar Tomb.
, . There are a few curious examples of
memorials painted on a framed panel,
and hung up against the. wall of the
church, or painted upon the wall itself,
as in the south choir aisle of St. Alban's
Abbey Church.
Among the curiosities of the subject
it may be mentioned that a monument
is often found under a niche, in the
thickness of tho wall of a church, the
monument being usually visible inside
the church, but sometimes outside ; the
grave is thus under the wall ; and it
is believed that in such cases the tenant
of the tomb was the benefactor by whose
means that portion of the church was
built. Some personal badge or relic of
the -deceased was often hung up over
his tomb. [See Achievement. ]
SEQUENCE. In the Eucharistic
service, after the reading of the Epistle,
the deacon went to the ambo, or pulpit,
or to the rood-loft, to read the Gospel.
This reading of the Gospel was always
accompanied, in the ancient Church,
with a ceremonial intended to surround
it with dignity becoming the reading
of the words, or acts, or life of the Lord.
The Deacon bore the "Text," which
was a copy of the Gospels handsomely
bound, usually kept on the altar, not
to be. read from, but to be used as a
" Pax " for the people to kiss ; he was
preceded by a thurifer (incense-bearer),
two candle-bearers, and on festivals
also by a cross bearer, and the sub-

deacon, who carried the Exangclista-
rium, which contained the "Gospels
for the day," out of which the deacon
actually read. While this little pro
cession was making its way to tho
pulpit or rood-loft, the Gradual and
Alleluia were chanted. But sometimes
the Gradual and Alleluia were not long
enough to fill up the time ; in which
case the last note of the Alleluia was, in
ancient times, prolonged by a run or
cadence called a Neuma. In A.D. 851,
a monk of Jumieges in Normandy,
whose monks had been scattered by
a band of pirates, came to St. Gall
bringing an Antiphonary, in which the
Neuma had had some words set to
it. A monk of St. Gall, Notker by
name, took up the idea, and wrote sets
of words adapted to the various festi
vals of the Church, to be sung to the
Neuma ; these sets of words are the
Sequences. Adam de St. Victor, the
greatest of the mediasval Latin poets,
wrote new Sequences, which take high
rank both for devotional beauty and
for elegant Latinity.
»The Sequences in the Sarum Missal
were eighty-six in number. Several
of our popular modern hymns are trans
lations of some of them, by Dr. Neale
and others.
Instead of the Sequence a "Trao-
tus " was said from September to Easter.
A " Prose " is an irregular Sequence.
A collection of 125 Sequences from
German, English, Gallican, and other
missals has been published by Dr.
Neale, London, 1852 ; and many of the
Sarum Sequences, with an English
poetical translation, by C. B. Pearson.
London, 1871.
SERVICE BOOKS of the mediaeval
Church of England. _ The Church
now gathers her Divine Service and
Ofiices together in one Book of Common
Prayer ; in addition to which is needed
only a Bible for the daily lessons of
Matins and Evensong ; for the Hymn
Book, which is also universally used,
is at present an unauthorised book.
In earlier times when books wero
laboriously copied by the hand of him

SERVICE BOOKS'

560-

SERVICE BOOKS

who needed them, or purchased at a
high price of the professional copyist,
it was economical to divide the different
services, and parts of the service, into
different books, so that each person
had in a separate book just so much of
the service as he required for a par
ticular service, or his own share in the
service ; as in a concert no performer
has the full score, but each his own part
only. A set of the ancient service
books would consist of the following : —
The Legenda contained the lessons
read at Matins, which were some from
Scripture, others from histories of Saints
and martyrs and passages from their
writings forming the special lessons for
their holy days. The Antiplionarium
containing the antiphons sung in the
Hours. The Graduate was the " anti-
phonarium " for the Eucharistic cele
bration, containing' the portion of
that service to be sung by the choir.
The Psalterium contained the Psalms
divided into portions so as to be sung
through in the Hour services in the
course of a week. The Ordinate, known
about the fifteenth century as the Pica
or Pie, contained directions for the
movable parts of the service at different
times. The Missale contained the Com
munion Service. The Manuale was the
book of Occasional Offices, viz. Baptism,
Marriage, Visitation of the Sick, Church
ing, Extreme Unction, and Burial. The
Pontificate, the order of the services
which could be performed only by a
bishop, as Ordination, Confirmation,
Consecration of Churches, &c. The Pro-
cessionale contained the parts of the
services which pertain to processions.
The Hymnarium contained, a collec
tion of hymns.
The twenty-first Canon of those which
go by the name of iElfric (about a.d.
1006), requires that every priest before
he is ordained shall be possessed of the
following arms belonging to his spirit
ual work, viz. Psalterium, Epistol-
arum librum et librum Evangeliorum,
librum Missalem, libros Canticorum, li
brum Manualemseu Enchiridion, Gerim
[Numerale in Yfilkins], Passionalem,

Pcenitentialem, et Lectionarium. J%
constitution of Archbishop Winchelseat
(about 1300) requires the parishioners
to provide the service books for their
church, which are thus enumerated::
Legenda, Antiphooarium, Gradale, Psal
terium, Troperium, Ordinale^ Missale,
Manuale. The statute of 1549, which
abolished the old Church books, de
scribes them as follows : Antiphoners,
Missals, Grayles, Processionals, Man
uals, Legends, Pies, Portuasses, Primer's
in Latin or English, Couchers, Journals,'
and Ordinals. The smallest number of
volumes to which the service books of
the Latin Church can be reduced u
four : the Missal, Breviary, Ritual, and
Pontifical. For particular descriptions
of these books, see under their several
Latin names.
One great fact to be stated and ac
counted for is, that all these services
were in Latin. The primitive Churches
in the West were indeed Greek colonies,
and the service books, like the Holy
Scriptures, were in Greek ; but Scrip
tures and service books alike were very
soon translated into Latin, which was
then the universal language of the
Western Empire, as Greek was of the
Eastern. But tho Scriptures con
tinued to be read and the services sajd
in Latin, throughout the Churches of
the West, long after Latin had ceased to
be the common language. There was
no intention of keeping the Scriptures
from the knowledge of the people, no
reason for making the words of the
Divine Worship unintelligible to them.
Probably the great reason for retaining
them in Latin was partly the natural
conservatism which is averse from the
alteration of customary observances
especially in religious matters, partly
that it seemed incompatible with tho
dignity of the Divine Service to render
it in the debased local vernaculars
through which Latin was degrading
into Italian, Spanish, and French, or
into the uncouth Teutonic dialects,
which did not afford words and phrases
for the adequate expression of tho
sublime devotion, or the accurate theo-

SEXT

561

'.SHRINE

l'ogy Of the sacred liturgy. But while
the services were all performed in Latin,
something was done to enable tho un
learned to take an intelligent part in
the service. In Saxon times the gospel
was often, if not Usually, read in Eng
lish as well as in Latin. The Creed,
'Lord's Prayer, and Ten Commandments
in English, were taught publicly in
church. The Bidding Prayer [which
soe] was also always in English. The
Early English Text Society has lately
published a ' Lay Folks' Mass Book, or
Manner of Hearing Mass, with Rubrics
and'Devotions for the People, ' which the
editor traces up to a French original
by Dan. Jeremy, Canon of Rouen, and
afterwards Archdeacon of Cleveland, c.
1170. A translation of it in the dialect
of the North of England was made in
the last half of the reign of Edward I.
O.her translations in the East Midland
dialect, c. 1375, and in the West Mid
land, e. 1443. * It would seem as if the
Mass was then a more congregational
service than it afterwards became : the
rubrics explain what the priest is doing
and saying, and suggest appropriate
devotions. And these rationales of the
Divine Service and aids for non-Latiners
to enter into it intelligently, continued
to be produced from time to time down
to the Reformation. For example, ' Our
Lady's Mirror' (printed by the Early
English Text Society in 1873) is such
a rationale, written for the use of the
Nuns of Syon [see Brigettines]. The
popular manuals of prayer called Pry-
mers [which.see] also contained English
versions of large portions-of the Church
Services and of the Psalms.
SEXT. [See Hours.]
SEXTON (sacristan), derives his
name from the nature of his office,
which was the caro of the sacred vest
ments and Vessels, tho care of the
church .by keeping it clean, ringing
the bells, opening and closing the
doors for Divine Service. When such
* The wants of modern Roman Catholics
arc similarly met' by such manuals as the
'Gebetbuch,' ' Paroissien,' 'Garden of the
Soul,' ' Vade Mecum,' &c. o

are his duties, the presumption, primd
facie, is, that the churchwardens have
the right- of appointment. Where his
duties ai'e confined to the churchyard
in digging graves, &c, the presumption
is that the incumbent appoints ; where
his duties contain both kinds of em
ployment, the presumption is that the
appointment is vested in the incumbent
and churchwardens jointly. (Sir R.
Phillimore.) SHRINE (from Scrinium-, a cup
board). An erection, usually of stone
or marble, to contain the body of
a saint, who is the object of a cultus.
Nearly every cathedral and great mon
astery church in the middle ages had
its local saint, whose shrine was usually
erected behind the high altar, and whoso
reputation for sanctity and for miracles
increased the prestige of the Church,
and brought wealth to its treasury in
the offerings of devotees. A church
often had more than one shrine, besides
any number of reliquaries containing
portions of the mortal remains or other
personal relics of saints. [See Pilgrim
age.] Erasmus's ' Peregrinatio erga
Religionis ' gives a very detailed account
of the most famous shrine in England,
that of St. Thomas at Canterbury, and
of the Way in which it was visited by
pilgrims, and exhibited by its clerical
guardians. A MS. 'Life of St. Ed
mund,' in the British Museum (Harl.
2. 278), contains numerous pictures of
the famous shrine at St. Edmund's
Bury, one of which is given in the
woodcut. In it we see the substructure
of stone ; the coped feretory above,
which is probably of wood covered with -
plates of precious metal, and profusely
adorned with jewels ; the four tapers
always burning ; the attendant sitting
within the grille, holding a rod with
which to point out the various statuettes
and jewels ; the pilgrims outside the
grille are indicated ; the kneeling monk
probably represents the author of the
Life, Lydgate, who was a monk of the
abbey, and therefore privileged to come
within the grille. The two monks in
the stall on the left appear again in

SIDESMEN

SIMONY

another picture saying an office. Part
of the shrine of Edward the Confessor
(a later work of the thirteenth century)
stills exists in Westminster Abbey.
The stone structure of the shrine of St.
Albans was found in fragments in the
recent restorations, and has been put
together again in its original site ; the
timber loft, in which two attendants
kept watch every night for its pro
tection, stiil exists. A series of pictures
of the shrine of St. William of York
may be found in the Yorks 'Arclueo-

St. Peter money in exchange for the
power to convey spiritual gifts ; St.
Peter's rebuke, "Let thy money perish
with thee, because thou hast thought
that the gift of God may he purchased
with money" (Acts viii. 20), has
stamped all such traffic with a brand
of exceptional wickedness. "Accord
ingly, from the very commencement of
the Christian era simony has been
stigmatised as the greatest of offences,
denounced as such by all the memor
able Councils of the Church, and treated

Shrine of St. Edmund.

logical Journal,' III. 255. [See the
'Retrospective Review,' xvi. 301.]
SIDESMEN, i. e. Synodsmen. An
ciently when the bishops made their
visitations from place to place certain
leading inhabitants of the various
parishes were sent with the church
wardens to give testimony as to the
condition of their parishes. In some
parishes such persons are chosen annu
ally to assist the churchwardens in the
duties of their office.
SIMONY is a sin which receives its
name from Simon Magus, who offered

in the canon law as a crime in com
parison of which all other crimes sink
into insignificance" (Dr. Phillimore).
The crime specially meant by the word
in the Early Ages was that of obtain
ing or conferring holy orders and other
ecclesiastical offices, in consideration
of the payment of money, or other
temporal consideration. In later times
(while the former act continues no less
criminal) the conferring of ecclesiastical
benefices in return for pecuniary or
other temporal consideration has been
the form of this sin which has specially

SIMONY

563

SOCIETIES

obtained, and in some ages has been
very common, and against this form
of it the decrees of Councils, &c, have
been directed. The fortieth canon of
.1603, which "is deeply imbued with
the soundest principles of the ancient
canon law on this subject, and is uni
versally binding on the clergy, and
professes to expound the discipline of
the Church of England on this point "
(Di. Phillimore), required everybody,
from the archbishop to the humblest
incumbent before his induction, to take,
personally, the following oath: "I.
N. N. do swear that I have made
noi simoniacal payment, contract, or
pi'omise, directly or indirectly, by my
self or by any other to my knowledge,
or with my consent, to any person or
persons whatsoever, for or concerning
the procuring and obtaining of this
ecclesiastical dignity, place, preferment,
office or living (respectively naming
the same whereinto he is to be ad
mitted, instituted, collated, installed,
or confirmed), nor will at any time
hereafter perform or satisfy any such
kind of payment, contract, or promise
made by any other without my know
ledge or consent. So help me God,
through Jesus Christ." "And this
oath" (adds Dr. P.), "whether inter
preted by the plain tenour of it, or
according to the language of former
oaths, or the notions of the Catholic
Church concerning simony, is against
all promises whatsoever."
By the statute 28 and 29 Vict. c.
122, § 2, a declaration against simony
was substituted for this oath, and a
new canon was passed by Convocation
substantially the same as the old one,
save as to the declaration in lieu of
the oath.
The law is that the advowson [see
Advowson] of a living may be sold,
but not during a vacancy. A next
presentation may be sold, but not
during a vacancy. A presentation may
be given under a bond of resignation
(i.e. an undertaking to resign), in favour
of one person specially named, or of one
of two persons specially named, made o o

before presentation to the benefice, pro
vided where two persons are named,
that each of them shall be either by
blood or marriage an uncle, son, grand
son, brother, nephew, or grand-nephew
of the patron, such deed to be de
posited within two months with the
registrar of the diocese . ,
The ecclesiastical court may proceed
against a simonist pro salute animee,
and on conviction deprive him.
SOCIETIES. Owing to the fact that
the Church of England has no pro
perty as a corporate whole [see Church
Property], but that all its endowments
belong to separate corporations, and
corporations sole, for specific purposes;
it follows that there are many general
Church works of great importance for
doing which the Church possesses no
funds, c. g. for endowing new bishop
rics, building new churches, maintain
ing additional clergymen, and for
mission work abroad. The way in
which this difficulty has been met, has
been by the establishment of societies
for collecting the voluntary offerings
of Church people, and applying them
to the carrying out of these various,
works. The earliest of these societies was the
Society for Promoting Christian Know
ledge, founded in 1698 ; out of this
sprang the Society for the Propagation
of the Gospel, in 1701, and the National
Society for the Education of the Poor'
in 1811. The need for the erection of
new churches for the rapidly-growing
population, caused the organising
of the Incorporated Society for the
Building and Bepairing of Churches in
1817. In 1876 the need of more clergymen
to work among the increasing popu
lations of the towns, led to the forma
tion of the Pastoral Aid Society, but
the resolution of some of its founders
to use their organisation and funds to
supply clergymen of a particular theo
logical school only, led within six
months to the secession of an influen
tial portion of its supporters, and the
foundation of the Society for Promoting

SOCIETIES

564

SOCIETY

. the Employment of Additional Curates
in Populous Places, on the principle of
making its grants impartially, without
.interference with the liberty of the
-incumbents and the authority of the
.bishops. This last with the first four
•have often been regarded as the five great
Church Societies, which, being general
in their objects and impartial in their
action, especially deserved the support
of Church people. A hundred other
societies have sprung up which have also
more or less claim upon the support of
the Church ; but it is beginning to be
felt strongly that while this multiplicity
of appeals has the advantage of reaching
additional groups of people, and appeal
ing to various sympathies, yet that
¦the multiplication of agencies involves
much waste in the cost of machinery ;
that on the whole the further multi
plication of societies is to be depre
cated ; and that it is better that new
branches of work should be affiliated
to existing societies to whose general
object the new work is most nearly
related. Another feature of the societies which
ought not to be ignored, is the existence
of parallel societies within the Church
for nearly every object. This arises out
of the conviction of some that it is wise
to carry on all these great religious
works on Church principles within
Church lines ; and in the persuasion
of others that it is right to promote
the influence of their own theological
opinions exclusively, and not wrong to
ally themselves, in doing so, with those
who, outside the Church, sympathise
with them in the particular object in
view. . Thus the Society for Promoting
Christian Knowledge has its parallels
in the British and Foreign Bible
Society and the Religious Tract Society.
The Society for the Propagation of the
Gospel has its parallel in the Church
Missionary Society. The -National
Society for the Education of the Poor
in the Colonial and Continental Society.
The Additional Curates' Fund in the
pastoral Aid Society, &c. &c.

While the Church was divided by
different views it was perhaps for tho
general welfare that the stream of
charity should not be restricted by the
want of different agencies through
which it might flow. As these differ
ences die away, and the various Societies
eome to work more nearly on the same
principles, it is perhaps desirable to
consider whether a great saving might
not in some cases be effected by an
amalgamation of existing agencies
which are doing the same work ; and
where existing agencies have different
fields of work, and are needed for the
efficient working of their several fields,
whether it might not be desirable to
harmonise and co-ordinate them, by
placing them under the supervision of
some authoritative representative of
the Church. In other words, whether
it is not desirable that the Convocation
of the Church should take under its
care (by committees) the general over
sight of these various administrative
agencies of the Church.
A list of the principal Church So
cieties with their addresses may be
found in the 'Year Book' of the
Church of England, published by the
Christian Knowledge Society, North
umberland Avenue, London, S. W. ; and
the constitution, rules, and' operations
of the societies may be ascertained from
their own reports on application to
their several secretaries.
SOCIETY, THE NATIONAL, for the
education of the children of the poor in
the principles of the Established Church,
was founded in 1811 to take charge of
the elementary educational work of the
Church. In its early years it had to
make its way against much opposition
on the part of many who on .politico-
economical grounds objected to the
education of . the lower classes. It
had also to consider and lay down
a suitable scheme of elementary educa
tion, to find teachers,, and to prepare
books. At length in 1833 the Government
began to turn its attention to tho
subject of the elementary education of

SOCIETY

565

SOCIETY

the people ; and for some years expended,
through the agency of the National
Society, as representing the Church
schools, £20,000 a year* towards the
erection of new schools. Six years
later, in 1839, the Government estab
lished ¦ an -Educational Committee of
Privy Council, and a system of in
spection of the quality of the education
of tho schools, aided by the Parlia
mentary grant. The Education Act of
1870 established Board Schools to sup
plement the existing Denominational
Schools, and at the same time abandoned
all inquiry into the religious part of
elementary education. The Church
then established, at a cost of not less
than £15,000 a-year, a system of
"(Diocesan inspection of religious edu
cation in its schools, while the secular
work is still tested by the Government
inspectors, and the comparative results
in Church, Dissenting, and Board
Schools are impartially ascertained.
Some statistics of the work of the
National Society Schools may be found
under Education.
SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRIS
TIAN KNOWLEDGE, THE. The real
founder of this Society was Dr. Thomas
Bray. This distinguished clergyman
had been sent by Compton, Bishop of
London, about a.d. 1696, as his Com
missary for Maryland ; soon after his
return he, together with Lord Guild
ford, Sir Humphrey Mackworth, Mr.
Justice Hook, and Colonel Maynard of
Colchester, met together on 8 th March,
1698, and formed themselves into a so
ciety which agreed " to meet as often as
we can conveniently, to consult, under
the conduct of the Divine Providence
and assistance, to promote Christian
Knowledge." These founders of the So
ciety were shortly joined by six or seven
bishops and by other eminent church
men clerical and lay ; among the names
of these early members may be men
tioned Robert Nelson, the author of
the 'Festivals and Fasts.' Among the
* And a proportionate sum through the
British and Foreign School Society as repre
senting the Dissenters, ,

" corresponding members " of the So
ciety were the Rev. J. Strype, the anti
quary ; the Rev. Gilbert White of Sel
borne, the naturalist ; John Evelyn ; the
Kev. S. Wesley, father of the founders
of the Wesleyan Societies, who were
among the early missionaries of the
Society; and Dr. Thomas Wilson, after
wards the saintly Bishop of Sodor and
Man. The objects of the Society were —
1. The education of the poor in the
principles of the Established Church.
2. The provision of religious minis
trations for the colonies.
3. The printing and circulation of
Bibles, Prayer-Books, and other useful
literature. One of its first cares was the obtain
ing of the foundation of schools in the
various parishes of London and other
towns, for the clothing, maintenance,'
and education of the children of the
poor. They were popularly known as
the Parochial Charity Schools ; the
children in them have retained down to
the present day the quaint costume of
the period in which the schools were
founded; and the annual meeting of the
Charity Schools under the dome of St.
Paul's (discontinued in 1868), was one
of the most interesting and touching
sights in London. This branch of the
Society's work grew so large, and its
further extension became so important,
that in 1811 it was thought desirable
to establish a branch Association to be
devoted entirely to its management, and
the National Society for the education
of the poor was established. But still
the Parent Society continued to aid
with annual grants in the work of
education, and occasionally has wisely
made large grants of money to meet
the expenses of great crises in the •
history of Church primary education,
e.g. in 1874 it made a grant of £15,000,-
spread over 467 parishes, in order to
strengthen and supplement their exist
ing machinery, and to obviate as far
as might be their supercession by
secular Board Schools. Again in
1880 the Society undertook the carry-

SOCIETY

566

SOCIETY

ing out of the scheme for St. Katha
rine's Training College, Tottenham, for
school mistresses, at a cost of £34,000
(of which the National Society con
tributed £2000), with a further annual
charge which, beginning at £2000, will
probably in a few years decrease to
about £500 a year.
The first missionary efforts of the
Society were directed to our own de
pendencies. Dr. Bray, on his return
from his visitation tour of the North
American colonies, as Bishop Compton's
Commissary, reported, "that the popula
tion do want the administration of God's
Word and Sacraments, and seemed to be
abandoned to atheism and infidelity."
To meet this state of things the Society
engaged clergymen to go out to minister
to these North American colonies.
In 1710 the Society's attention was
directed to mission work in India. It
first took over a mission established by
the King of Denmark in Tranquebar.
Shortly afterwards it commenced a mis
sion in Madras. In 1771, through its
missionary Shwartz,it began the mission
in Tinnevelly, which has had such re
markable success.
This department of the Society's work,
however, grew so large, and needed so
much further enlargement, that it early
seemed well to the committee to estab
lish a special separate organisation to
devote itself to the work : A charter was
obtained for the Society for the Propa
gation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts
in 1701, and gradually the Parent
Society transferred to the Daughter
Society the direct responsibility for
the sending out and maintenance of
individual missionaries. But it has
always continued to aid the work of
missions by grants of money in aid of
the erection and endowment of colleges
for missionaries at home and abroad ; for
the foundation of colonial and mission
ary bishoprics ; for scholarships, prizes,
books, libraries, and other subsidiary
works ; and spends by far the largest
part of its annual income in this
department of work.
Having committed the direct charge

of education and of missions to allied
agencies, the Parent Society directed
its energies more particularly to the
printing of Bibles and Prayer Books,
and their circulation at cheap , prices,
and to the supply of sound religious
and wholesome general literature. This
has included the translation of the
Bible and Prayer Book and other books
into foreign languages. It must suffice
to say that the Society has published the
Bible in more than 75 different lan
guages and dialects ; that last year it
sold 172,243 copies of the Bible, and
360,845 of the Prayer Book. It cir,
dilates besides a varied and copious
vernacular literature in the Mission
Field. The Early Minute Books of tho
Society, which contain many interesting
illustrations of the Church history of
that time, are preparing for publication
under the editorship of the editorial
secretary. The library of the Society,
besides its unique collection of Bibles
and Prayer Books in many languages,
contained some valuable Syriac MSS.
which Dr. Badger collected during his
residence among the Nestorians as one
of the Society's agents. These MSS,
have been lately presented to the
University of Cambridge.
For further details see the Annual
Reports of the Society to be obtained
at its house in Northumberland Avenue,
London, S.W.
SOCIETY FOR THE PROPAGA
TION OF THE GOSPEL IN FOREIGN
PARTS, THE, arose out of the Society
for Promoting Christian Knowledge
[which _ see]. The managers of the
earlier institution, finding their multi
farious works increasing on their hands,
thought it desirable to form a separate
organisation for the special conduct of
the missionary department of its work.
It was not till after five years of
repeated efforts, met with delays and
rebuffs on the part of the Government,
that a charter was at length, on the
petition of Dr. Bray, supported by
Archbishop Tenison, obtained from
William III. constituting a corporate

SOCIETY

567

SOCIETY

society under the above title. The
society was directed by the charter to
endeavour — (1) To provide a sufficient
maintenance for an orthodox clergy to
live among the colonists ; (2) To make
other provision for the propagation of
tho gospel in those parts ; (3) To
receive, manage, and dispose of, the
charity of His Majesty's subjects for
these purposes.
The constitution of the Society con
sisted of the Archbishop of Canter
bury, president, the Archbishop of York
and other bishops, and a number of
peers and other distinguished persons
as vice-presidents, and a committee,
partly of clergymen, partly of laymen ;
among the names of the first members
are a large number of those who were
the 'original members of the Christian
Knowledge Society.
The first field of the Society's work
was the colonies of North America.
The first two missionaries of the society
landed at Boston June 1702 ; among
others who followed in their steps was
John Wesley, who was for two years
one of the society's missionaries in
Georgia. As the number of clergy
and their congregations increased it
was evidently desirable to send them
a proper proportion of bishops ; con
firmation was in abeyance ; for ordin
ation men had to come to England.
But the bishops considered themselves
as precluded by the laws from con
secrating a bishop without the author
isation of the Crown, and the advisers
of the Crown declined to accede to
a step which probably seemed to them
likely to weaken the dependence of
the colonies on the mother country.
When the War of Independence broke
out, in 1775, the society was sup
porting seventy-seven clergymen in
the States, many of whom fled, while
others suffered great hardships on ac
count of their loyalty to the Crown.
The Peace of 1783 found only a small
proportion of the clergy remaining.
But they at once set themselves to
build up the waste places ; and as
one .important step towards it, the

clergy of Connecticut elected the Rev.
Samuel Seabury to be their bishop,
and sent him over to England to seek
consecration. Again the Government
refused to authorise the consecration,
and on the advice of the English bishops
Seabury sought and obtained consecra
tion at the hands of the bishops of the
Scottish Episcopal Church (Nov. 14,
1784). Three years afterwards Bishop
White of Pennsylvania and Bishop
Prevoost of New York were conse
crated at Lambeth (Feb. 4, 1787) ; and
Bishop Marsden of Virginia was con
secrated in England in 1790. These
bishops consecrated others, and the
Church in the United States grew,
until, in 1884, it had 83 bishops, 32
missionary bishops, and 3668 clergy
men, and it continues to grow with
accelerating rapidity.
It would occupy too much space
to relate how the society, when its con
nection with the Churches of the
United States was severed, turned its
attention more particularly to those
colonies and possessions in North
America which continued attached to
' the British Crown. How it has simi
larly laboured in the other possessions
and dependencies of Great Britain, in
the West Indies, Australia, South
Africa, India, and other places. One
of the most striking crises in the
history of its work was when, in 1841,
it engaged, in conjunction with the
Colonial Bishops' Endowment Fund,
in a wide extension of the episcopate
to the Colonies ; and adopted the policy
of commencing the work of evangelis
ation in some places not by one or two
presbyters, but by a missionary bishop
with a staff of clergy and laymen. It
must suffice to refer to the table of the
Colonial Churches arranged in their
provinces, taken from p. 316 of the
' Year Book of the Church of England '
for 1883, which is given on pages 184,
185, and to refer for details of the society
and its work to its annual reports and
its quarterly publication, the ' Mission
Field, ' to be obtained at the house of the
society, Delahay Street, Westminster.

SODOR AND MAN

568

SODOR AND MAN

SODOR AND MAN, DIOCESE OF-
It is generally admitted that St. Patrick'
on his second return to Ireland, a.d.
444, was driven by a storm to the Isle
of Man, and remained there for three
years, and converted the people to the
Christian faith. He is said to have
lived on the rocky islet called Holm,
opposite the town of Peel, and there to
have built a church, called after his
own name. On -his departure he is
said to have sent his nephew Germanus,
who founded a church in Man called
after his name. Germanus is said to
have been succeeded by Conindrus,
Romulus, and Manghold, and these four
are reputed to be the founders of the
Church in Man.
At this time a Welsh dynasty ruled
over Man. Inl098 KingMagnus of Den
mark conquered the Western Islands,
and also the Isle of Man, and united
the two dioceses of Man and the Isles,
Iona being the see of the latter bishop
ric. After this union of sees there is a
regular succession of bishops, who are
styled of "Sodor and Man," and some
times of "the Isles." In 1154 ahull
of Pope Anastatius IV., 1155, appointed
the Bishop of Drontheim Metropolitan
over the bishopric of the Isles and of
Man. In 1266 the Danish king ceded
Man to the King of Scotland, but it
continued ecclesiastically under the
jurisdiction of Drontheim. In 1333
William Montague conquered the island
from the Scots ; in 1399 it became for
feit to Henry IV. ; and since that time
the island has been subject to the
English Crown and its nominees. After
the English conquest of Man the
Scottish bishops ¦ of the Isles did not
use the title " Sodor," but called them
selves of "the Isles" only; the Manx
bishops continued to use thei title
" Sodor and Man." Bishop William
Russell, 1348—1374, was the first Sodor
bishop confirmed by the Apostolic See,
former bishops having been confirmed
by the Bishop of Drontheim. In 1458
the diocese was placed under the
metropolitan jurisdiction of York.
¦ The source of.the name "Sodor" has

been long a vexed question. It appears
that two places have for centuries gone
by that name, one in Iona, and the
other Holm, or St. Patrick's isle at Peel.
In the Bull of Calixtus, a.d. 1458, it is
called "the Cathedral Church of Sodor
in Man. " In a confirmation of churches
and lands by Thomas, Earl of Dei'by,
to Huan, Bishop of Sodor, in 1505, it
is called "Sodor," or "Holme Sodor
vele Pele." The style and title of the
bishop, by which he is . no w inducted;
is " Bishop of Man, of Sodor, of Sodor
and Man, and of Sodor of Man."
There are no remains of St. Patrick's
Cathedral on the islet of Holm ; the
Cathedral of St. Germain adjoining
Peel Castle is in ruins.
Of the bishops few demand mention;
Richard Parr, 1635, was sequestrated
in 1643, and the see remained vacant
during' the rebellion for about seventeen
years. Then Samuel Rutter (1661—
1663) was presented, who had been
Lord Derby's chaplain, and had been
present with the Countess through the
memorable siege of Lathom House*
He was succeeded by Isaac Barrow
(1663 — 1669), who was also acting-
Governor of the island, and when
translated to St. Asaph, 1669, still re
tained the office of Governor. The
saintly Thomas Wilson was consecrated
bishop in 1697, and, refusing prefer
ment, continued to govern the see till
his_ death m 1755. He revived the
action of his Diocesan Synod, and with
its help gave his church a set of new
canons, and enforced Church discipline
in accordance with them, and made his
diocese a model diocese, at a time when
ecclesiastical life in the Church of
England was at a very low ebb. William
Ward (1827—1838) raised funds in
England and Man for the erection of
eight new churches, and promoted the
erection of King William's College;
Thomas Vowler Short (1841—1847)
was Bishop of Man for a few years, till
translated to St. Asaph ; and Robert
John Eden (1847—1854) till translated
to Bath and Wells.
The Bishop of Sodor and Man, when

SOUTHWELL

569

SOUTHWELL

the island came under English sove
reignty, was not summoned to Parlia
ment, and has never had a seat in the
House of Lords. He is a member of
the Upper House of the Convocation of
York. The diocese consists of the Isle of
Man : it has 1 archdeaconry ; 4 rural
deaneries ; and 34 benefices.
. [See 'An Account of the Diocese of
Sodor and Man,' by W. Harrison, being
Vol. xxix. of the ' Manx Society's Pro
ceedings,' 1879.]
SOUTHWELL, DIOCESE OF. Al
though it was only in 1886 that Not
tinghamshire was divided from the
Diocese of Lincoln, and erected into a.
new bishopric, with Southwell minster
for its see, yet the arrangement is not
altogether new. It is the revival of
an abortive plan of the time of Henry
VIII., when Southwell was for a few
months a bishop's see. It is the revival
of still earlier relations of the county
of Notts to Southwell as to a mother
church, which sprang out of the cir
cumstances of its earliest history.
Bede tells us that Paulinus of North
umbria preached the Gospel hereabouts,
and baptised the people ' ' in the river
Trent, near the city called in the tongue
of the Angles Tiovulfingaceaster. "
Tradition says that he began the struc
ture of a church at the place ; later
historians identify the. place with
Southwell. The place probably takes its more
modern name from one or other of
several remarkable wells in the neigh
bourhood — probably from that called
Holy Well, which is on the south of the
Cloister, or Lady's Well, which is within
the consecrated ground of the Church ;
•the other wells, at a greater distance,
are St. Catherine's Well and Lord's
Well. Before the Norman Conquest the
canons of St. Mary of Southwell were
»¦ wealthy corporation.. In the latter
part of the Conqueror's reign the Church
had ten prebends, subsequently in-.
creased to sixteen, of which the Arch-
bishpp of York was sole patron.. Henry

I. gave to Archbishop Thomas all his
possessions and customs in all his lands
in Nottinghamshire. Pope Alexander'
in 1171 confirmed its ancient liberties
and customs to the church of Southwell,
to wit, the same which the Church of'
York had of old. They had the.
rights of " sac and soc and toll and
theam and infangthoof and intol and
utol. " Among other things, the Church
had unusual rights of sanctuary, in-'
creasing in sacredness and in consequent-
penalties for its violation. He who'
took a refugee from the church-porch
paid a, fine ; from the church, a larger
fine ; from the choir, one still larger,
and must do penance as for sacrilege ;
while the sin of taking a sancjtuary-
man from the stone frith-stool which
stood beside the altar was "boteless"
— no fine or penance could atone
for it.
All their churches were freo from.
episcopal jurisdiction. The same Pope.
confirmed the long observed custom that
both the clergy and laity of the town.
and county of Nottingham should at the
Feast of Pentecost come to their church
with solemn processions ; and that
every year, according to the old and
rational custom of that church, a synod.
should there be celebrated, and that
thither the chrism should be brought
by the deans of tho county from the
Church of York, and to be thence dis-i
tributed through the other churches.-
It is plain that the county of Notting
ham was in many respects a ' ' peculiar "
of York ; that the archbishops were the
quasi-bishops of Nottinghamshire ; and
that Southwell was the cathedral church
of this ' ' peculiar. " The Archbishops o f
York had a palace at Southwell at which.
they often resided.
At the Reformation Archbishop Lee
surrendered his manor of Southwell to
the Crown, and the College of Canons
was dissolved, and the estates of tho
Church seized by the Crown ; but Henry
refounded and endowed it,it is said, on
the petition of the gentry of the county,
backed most likely by Cranmer, who
was a Nottinghamshire man, and the

SPIRITUALITIES

570

SPONSORS

Church was declared in an Act of
Parliament to be the head and mother
church of the town and county of Not
tingham. Southwell was one of the
new sees which Henry proposed to erect
out of the plunder of the Church, and
Richard Cox, afterwards Bishop of Ely,
was actually nominated to the see in
1543, but the project was abandoned in
the following year. Soon after the ac
cession of Edward VI. the chapter was
again dissolved, and the estates were
given to the Earl of Warwick, and from
him passed through several hands to
the Duke of Northumberland. On that
nobleman's attainderthe estates reverted
to the Crown, and Queen Mary restored
the estates to the archbishop and chap
ter. Elizabeth gave them new statutes.
It remained for the Church revival
of this reign of Victoria to put the
climax to this long history by creating
Nottinghamshire, with Derbyshire, into
a new diocese, and making' Southwell
its see, and raising by voluntary sub
scriptions a suitable revenue in place
of the long-lost estates.
The church is a very fine one, recently
restored by the Ecclesiastical Com
missioners, with a Norman nave, tran
septs, central and western towers, a
decorated choir, and a fine octagonal
chapter house. There was some in-,
tention to restore the ruins of the old
archiepiscopal palace on the south side
of the churchyard for a residence for
the new bishops ; but that plan is still
in abeyance.
The new see was one of those
authorised by Act of Parliament in
1878, and was created, and the first
bishop consecrated, in 1886. The diocese
consists of the entire counties of Derby
and Nottingham ; with 2 archdeaconries
of Derby and Nottingham ; 31 rural
deaneries ; 466 benefices. [See Rastall's
' History of Southwell. ']
SPIRITUALITIES. The fact that
-bishops in their oath of homage to the
Crown on appointment acknowledge
that they receive their temporalities
and spiritualities from the Crown, has
given rise to misunderstandings which

it is desirable to dissipate. The Bishop
of Chester (Stubbs) explains that under.
spiritualia are really included three
distinct things, which may be described
as — (1) Spiritualia characteris vel ordU.
nis — the powers bestowed at consecra
tion ; "(2) Spiritualia ministerii vel
jurisdictionis, the powers which a
bishop receives at his confirmation,.
and in virtue of which he is supposed
to act as the servant or represent
ative of his church, which guards these
spiritualities during the vacancy. (3)
Spiritualia beneficii, the ecclesiastical
revenue arising from other sources than
land, which "spiritualia" he acquires,
together with the temporalities on
doing homage. These last are the
only spiritualities which he holds of
the Crown, the first and second never
being in the royal hands to bestow.
And these are often, both in legal and
common language, included under tho
term temporalities. — ' Const. Hist.' iii.
316. The spiritualities of a bishopric, says
Sir R. Phillimore, ' Eccl. Law,' p. 77,
do not mean the spiritual power and
authority inherent in the episcopal office,
but the coercive jurisdiction given
him by the State for the better fulfil
ment of his office, such as the receiving
of presentations, giving of institutions,
admissions, &c. to benefices. The tem
poralities of a bishopric are all such
things as form the endowment of the
see, " as manors, castles, lands, tene
ments, tithes, and such other certain
ties." (See an Essay on ' The Bishop's
Oath of Homage,' by J. W. Lea, 1875.)
SPONSORS, those who answer on
behalf of a child in its baptism. It was
a very early custom of the Church — as
early as the time of Tertullian (d. 245)-
— to require some on behalf of children
to make the responses to the usual
interrogatories in the service ; to whom
also was committed the guardianship
of the Christian education ' of tho
newly baptised. In all ordinary cases
parents were, sureties for their own
children. In the case of adults, who
made the responses for themselves, the

SPONSORS

571

STALL

sponsor presented them as fit candi
dates for baptism, was a witness of
their baptism, and the curator and
guardian of their spiritual life. Fre
quently the deacon, who had instructed
and prepared the man, or the deaconess,
who had prepared the woman for bap
tism, acted as the sponsor. Only one
sponsor was required, a man for a
male, a woman for a female ; two
were permitted ; not more than three
were allowed.
The first prohibition to parents to
be sponsors for their children is found
in a Canon of the Council of Mentz,
A. D. 813. The prohibition is found
in tho rubric of our Sarum Office
for Baptism, and still continues to be
the law of the English Church. In
1865, indeed, the Convocation of the
province of Canterbury, with the royal
licence, framed a new Canon, which
repealed the prohibition to parents to
' be God-parents to their children. The
Convocation of York, however, did not
concur by passing a similar Canon ;
and (therefore probably) the proposed
Canon was not ratified by the Crown,
and has no legal force.
! The requirements that there shall be
a sponsor, and that the parent shall
not be the sponsor, seem to be founded
on these two ideas : some competent
member of the Church is required to
present the candidate for baptism,
infant or adult, as a guarantee of the
fitness of the candidate ; the parent is
prohibited from being sponsor to guard
against the notion of any hereditary
claims to be received into the Church
by right of Christian parentage, where
as, on the contrary, it is the hereditary
sinful and lost condition of the candi
date which is especially in question ;
the Church having received the bap
tised as one of its children, appoints
the sponsor, who is already one of its
members, to exercise on its behalf a
guardianship over the spiritual interests
of this new child. Thus it is the
usual practice that the sponsor, not
the parent, gives the child into the
arms of the officiating minister at the

font, and receives back the newly-
baptised from him.
As early as the time of Justinian
(d. 565), an Imperial law forbade mar
riage between sponsors and those for
whom they had answered at the font ;
the germ of an idea of spiritual rela
tionship thus contracted, was after
wards extended to the whole table of
forbidden degrees, and largely increased
the necessity for dispensations for mar
riages thus prohibited by the spiritual
courts. It created a sense of relation
ship among those who were thus con
nected, and who were gossips (god-sib,
related in God) of one another. It is
to be regretted that the office of a
sponsor is now so little understood,
and the relationship so little thought
of. The remedy is not to abolish the
institution, but to put new life into it.
STALL. In a cathedral, collegiate
church, monastery, brotherhood, &c,
every prebendary, canon, monk, brother,
&c. , had his proper seat in the choir of
the church, which is called his stall.
In cathedrals the stalls were perma
nently assigned to particular prebends,
and the holder of a prebend for tho
time being occupied the stall appro
priated to his prebend.
The stalls usually occupy the north
and south sides of the choir, towards
the west end, and return along the
west end, by the choir screen. They
are usually capacious armed seats with
an elaborate canopy over them. The
seats are made to turn upon a pivot,
and have a small seat, often orna
mented with grotesque carvings, on
the under side, called misereres, afford
ing a sort of compromise between
kneeling and sitting, or between stand
ing and sitting, of which the occu
pants of the stalls might take advan
tage in the long Hour Services.
The first stall on the right on enter
ing the choir by the west door is ap
propriated to the principal official of
the church ; in the Welsh cathedrals,
which had no dean, to the bishop ; in
other cathedrals to the dean or prior ;
the corresponding seat on the left of

STOLE

572

SUB-DEACON

the entrance was usually appropriated
to the next in rank ; and this principle
of appropriation was observed in all
choirs. The bishop's seat in his cathe
dral church was at the east end of the
stalls, usually on the south side. [See
.Throne, Bishop's.] The term now
commonly limited to seats in a chancel
had formerly the more wide application
to church-seats generally : and in secular
matters is still used for particular seats
at a market or theatre, or a compartment
in a stable. Leystall, lestalle, leystow,
laistow, was' a burial - place in the
church : we frequently meet with the
term in the sixteenth century when
burial in churches was much more
common than at any other period.
STOLE, a clerical vestment, in shape
a narrow strip of textile fabric, worn
over the neck and falling down over
the alb in front below the knees, like
a scarf. It was usually of rich mate
rial, and embroidered. [For the history
of its early form and meaning, see
Vestments, Clerical.] It was perhaps
the only one of the clerical vestments
which had a religious origin, and this
may account for the fact that it seems
to have been regarded as a special
symbol of the clerical character ; e. g.
when the royal officers were seizing
St. Hugh's goods, and he was threaten
ing excommunication, he laid hold of
the end of his stole, saying that it
would restore all they might take
away. Again, after making his will,
being about to excommunicate all who
should violate it, he sent for his stole
and put it on ('Vita S. Hugonis,' pp.
265—334). STONE COFFINS. The Roman
Christians we know in the fifth and
sixth centuries used stone and marble
sarcophagi, richly sculptured in bas-
relief, with scriptural subjects, and
sometimes with a sculptured me
dallion portrait of the deceased on
the front. Many such remain, not
only in Italy, but also in the great
Roman cities of Gaul, as Aries and
Treves, and at Cologne. It is remark
able that none such have been dis

covered in England. Bede mentions
the use of ancient stone coffins (which
must have been Roman) in early Saxon
times ('Eccl. Hist.,' bk. iv. c. 19) j
a stone coffin found on the North
side of Westminster Abbey, with a
cross on its rude lid, looks like a
Roman sarcophagus reused for a Chris
tian interment. In later times the
stone coffin came to be tapered from
head to foot, and often hollowed out so
as to fit the head, shoulders, and body.
It was buried at so slight a depth that
its lid ranged with the pavement, or
projected above it, and formed a monu
ment. A common type of the stone
coffin-lids is ridged, as if it were the
roof of a little house — the last, long
home. A variety of this is where a
cross ridge is thrown out, making the
stone like the roof of a cruciform church;
no doubt it was thus made because
the intersecting roll mouldings on the
ridges form the symbol of salvation.
But the greater number are flat, and a
cross or other device is sculptured in
relief, or incised in bold lines, upon the
surface. A vast number of these coffin-
stones remain ; large collections of them -
have been found worked into church
walls as building material, as at Bake-
well, Derbyshire, and at Doncaster.
Among the curiosities of the subject
it may be mentioned, that there are
some grave slabs with devices and in
scriptions in relief of cast iron, at
Burwash and Crowhurst, Kent, and
Himbleton, Wore. ; all of the sixteenth
century, when the iron ore of the south
of England was being worked.
One notable feature of these monu
ments is, that they very seldom have
any inscription ; but they frequently
have a symbol of the rank or calling of
the deceased, c. g. a mitre and pastoral
staff, helmet and sword, shield and
sword, sword, chalice and paten, chalice
and book, sword and bugle, bow and
arrow, knife, shears, shears and keys,
&c. , &c. ' Sepulchral Crosses and Slabs; '
byE.L. Cutts. Parker : Oxford. 1849.
STOUP. [Sea Holy Water. ]
SUB-DEACON, the fifth of the five.

SUFFRAGAN BISHOPS

573

SUFFRAGAN BISHOPS

Minor Orders [which see] of the mediae
val clergy. He waited upon the deacon
at the celebration of the Holy Com
munion, as the deacon waited on the
priest, e. g. taking the sacred vessels to
and from the credence and giving them
to the deacon, who handed them to the
priest, &c. In this ministration he
wore a tunicle, which was of the same
shapj and material as the dalmatic of
•the deacon, and can with difficulty be
discriminated from it, unless it- may
have been that the tunicle was a little
shorter and scantier than the dalmatic.
SUFFRAGAN BISHOPS. In the
primitive ages of the Church, the
¦bishops were seated in the cities ; as
the people of the dependent country
districts became Christian, it was
found convenient to consecrate country
bishops (chorepiscopi) to assist the chief
¦bishop in the government of these dis
tant congregations. When the Norman
'kings introduced the custom of pro
viding for their statesmen by ecclesias
tical benefices, these statesmen-bishops
appointed suffragan bishops to carry
on the spiritual work of their dioceses
during their own absence. From the
end of the thirteenth century to tho
time of Henry VIII. there seems to
have been a pretty regular succession
of suffragan bishops in most dioceses.
At the Reformation, when the need of
more bishops was recognised, the king
not only erected a number of new dio
ceses, but he also caused an Act (26
Hen. VIII. c. 14, § 1) to be passed,
¦providing for the appointment of a
number of suffragan (or assistant)
bishops. The Act having been recently
revived, it becomes of practical interest,
and its chief provisions may be quoted.
" For the more speedy administration
of the Sacraments, and other good,
-wholesome, and devout things and
laudable ceremonies, to the increase of
God's honour, and for the commodity
¦of good and devout people, it is enacted
that the towns of Thetford, Ipswich,
Colchester, Dover, Guildford, South
ampton, Taunton, 'Shaftesbury, Mel
ton, Marlborough, Bedford, Leicester,

Gloucester, Shrewsbury, Bristol, Pen
rith, Bridgewater. Nottingham, Gran
tham, Hull, Huntingdon, Cambridge,
and the towns of Pereth,* Berwick, St.
Germains in Cornwall, and the Isie of
Wight, shall bo taken aud accepted for
the sees of bishops' suffragans." Any
archbishop or bishop wishing to have a
suffragan is to name two persons, and
present them to the king, of whom the
king shall choose one. He is to be
consecrated by the archbishop, assisted
by two other bishops. He has then
power to perform such episcopal offices
as the diocesan shall by commission
commit to him ; and shall exercise no
authority outside the diocese for which
he is consecrated ; and his power and
authority shall last no longer than
shall be limited by his commission, on
pain of a praemunire. For maintenance
he was allowed to hold two benefices
with cure.
Several suffragans were at first ap
pointed under this Act, but it shortly
fell into desuetude. King Charles II. 's
declaration touching ecclesiastical af
fairs, immediately after his restoration,
contemplated the revival of suffragans :
' ' Because the dioceses, especially some
of them, are thought to be of too large
extent, we will appoint such number
of suffragan bishops in eveiy diocese as
shall be sufficient for the due perform
ance of their work ; " but none were in
fact appointed.
The vast increase of the Church in
the present generation not only led
Churchmen to seek a subdivision of
dioceses, but also led bishops (with the
consent of the Government) to .revive
this Act of Henry VIII. as a means. of
obtaining assistance in their work.
The Bishop of Lincoln obtained a
Suffragan with the title of Bishop of
Nottingham ; the Archbishop of Can
terbury a Suffragan Bishop of Dover ;
Bishop of Winchester a Suffragan of
Guildford ; Bishop of St. Albans a
Suffragan of Colchester ; Bishop of
London a Suffragan of Bedford, to take
charge of a district of East London.
* In Pembrokeshire.

SUNDAY

574

SUNDAY

It was decided by the authorities
•that the proper - style and title of a
suffragan was not, as in the case of
diocesan bishops, his Christian name
together with the name of his diocese
in lieu of surname, but his Christian
and surname, followed by his descrip
tion — A. B., Bishop of  .
It should be noted that several re
tired colonial bishops have been em
ployed as suffragans in English dioceses,
as Bishop P. Claughton in London,
Bishop Abraham in Lichfield, &c.
See 'Registrum Sacrum Anglicanum,'
by W. Stubbs (Bishop of Chester).
SUNDAY. The religious observance
of the first day of the week, under the
name of the Lord's Day, is a matter
which is not free from historical and
religious difficulties. Archdeacon Hes-
sey, in his Bampton Lectures on
'Sunday/ enumerates and describes no
less than six different views on the
subject. (1) That Christianity admits
of no distinction of days ; that a true
Christian observes a spiritual every-day
Sabbath, a type of the better Sabbath
of heaven. (2) That the Decalogue is
in every part- of it moral, and that the
seventh day Sabbath enjoined in it is
still of obligation, with all the strict
ness of the Old Testament injunctions
respecting it. (3) That the Sabbath
existed from the. beginning ; was re-
enacted and regulated by Moses, rnd
has never been abolished or super
seded, only the day has been changed
under the new dispensation, and the
Christian Sabbath is to be observed
according to the laws regulating the
Jewish Sabbath. This is the view held
by the Westminster Divines, as put
forth in their 'Confession of faith,'
and 'Larger' and 'Smaller Cate
chisms,' which are still the theological
standards of the Scotch Kirk, and of
some of the more important Dissenting
sects in England. (4) That Sunday is
the Christian representative of an
earlier Sabbath, of the patriarchal
Sabbath, which is presumed to have
existed, and of the Jewish Sabbath,
which certainly existed, and may.

therefore be called the Christian Sab
bath. That under the new Dispen
sation the strictness of the Jewish law
of its observance is relaxed ; but still
the Christian Sabbath is to be observed
as far as possible in the spirit of the
Jewish Sabbath. This view differs
from the preceding in degree rather
than in kind. (5) That the Sabbath
was a sign between God and the Jews,
and expired with the Jewish dispensa
tion ; that the Lord's day is in no
sense a successor of the Sabbath, but
is entirely of ecclesiastical institution,
just as the other holy days of tho
Church Calendar are. (6) That the
weekly festival of the Jews (if not of
earlier origin) was transferred to the
first day of the week by apostolic, that
is, virtually by Divine authority ; that
we obtain a rule for its observance
partly from the law of nature, partly
from the positive law of the Jewish
Sabbath, as explanatory of the law of
nature, partly from the evangelical
law. Probably the views which most widely
obtain on the subject may be reduced
to three : First, that which is marked
(3) in the above enumeration, which is
still held by considerable numbers of
evangelical Church people and Dis
senters. Second, that which is marked
(5), that the religious observance of the
first day of the week is nothing more
than an ordinance of the Church, and
may be observed or disregarded accord
ing to each man's private view. Third*
that the Lord's Day is the represent
ative in this dispensation of a patri
archal Sabbath commemorative of tho
Creation, and of the Jewish Sabbath, to
whose meaning was added the com
memoration of the deliverance of Israel
from Egypt, and that to these mean
ings is added in the Christian dispens
ation the commemoration of our Lord's
resurrection, a redemption of which
the Exodus was a type ; a spiritual re
creation, of which the first material
creation, was a type ; and that itself is a
type of the resurrection of the last great
day, and of the eternal Sabbath of the

SUN-DIALS

575

SUPEREROGATION

new heavens and new earth. That the
transference of the festival from the
seventh day to the first day of the
week was made by the apostles, acting
either on our Lord's direct instruc
tions, or under the inspiration of the
Holy Spirit. That its observance is of
obligation ; and that the mode in which
it ought to be observed is to be gathered
from the practice of the early Church.
It may be noted that the subject is one
of great difficulty to controversialists
who refuse to accept the doctrine and
practice of the early Church as a com
mentary on the words of Scripture. For
there is a text which abrogates the
Jewish Sabbaths together with the new
moons (Col. ii. 16) ; and there is no
tgxt which establishes the observance
of the Lord's day. There are indeed
texts which assume a special significance
in the light thrown back upon them
by the universal practice of the early
Church (John xx. 19, 26 ; and perhaps
Acts ii. 1, and xx. 7; Rev. i. 10 is doubt
ful), and enable us to say that the
institution of the Lord's Day is to be
found in the New Testament. But
several institutions of the Church stand
on the same footing, and have as much
or more evidence in their favour ; e. g.
the three orders of the ministry, Infant
Baptism, Confirmation, &c. Again it
can be shown that the Sabbatarianism
of modern times has its origin, not in
the New Testament, but, where many
other religious errors have theirs, in the
dogmatism of the school-men of the
middle ages. See Archdeacon Hessey's
Bampton Lectures on ' Sunday. '
SUN-DIALS. The ecclesiastical divi
sions of the day and the saying of
prayers at particular hours necessitate
the use of some kind of time-keeper.
In Saxon times sun-dials must have
been largely used, as several specimens
remain to the present day. They are
of stone, and built into the wall above
the south doorway. The face of the
dial is a semicircle, divided into four,
eight, or twelve equal segments by radial
hour-lines. The principal hour-lines
terminate in a cross.

The gnomon is in all cases lost,
although the hole where it has been
remains in the centre of the semi
circular face. It probably projected at
right angles, as the hole is bored in
that direction, and there is no sign of
there having been a bracket, as in the
case of the modern sun-dial. The
finest example of a Saxon sun-dial is at
Kirkdale in Yorkshire, which has a long
Saxon inscription upon it, from which
the date is fixed at about the time of
the Conquest. There is a beautiful
drawing of an early sun-dial in the
eleventh century 'MS. Bibl. Cott.
Tiberius, c. vi. ' in the British Museum.
Since the hour-angles are all made equal,
the time must have been given very in
correctly ; when clocks were invented
this must have been noticed, and per
haps accounts for dials having gone out
of fashion, for between the eleventh
century and the Renaissance (when tho
necessary geometrical knowledge was
obtained for dividing the dial properly)
sun-dials were very rare. A sun-dial of
the Decorated period at North Stoke,
Oxon, is mentioned in Parker's ' Ecclesi
astical Topography. ' Sun-dials of the
seventeenth century are common both
as pillars in churchyards and against
the walls of the building. There is one
cut on a buttress of Melrose Abbey,
dated 1661.
Circles with radial lines may often
be noticed scratched on the sides of
the south doorways of churches ; which
may possibly have been sun-diais.
Authorities : — Mrs. Alfred Gatty's
' Book of Sun-dials ; ' the Rev. D. H.
Haigh in the ' Journal of the Yorkshire
Archaeological Association, ' vol. v. , and
in the 'Archseologia jEliana' for 1856 ;
Albert Way and Du Noyen in the
'Journal British Archaeological Inst.'
vol. xxv. p. 107 ; Syer Cuming in the
' Journal British Archaeological Associa
tion,' vol. xxix. p. 379 ; ' Archaeologia, '
vol. v. p. 188, and vol. vi. p. 40. —
J. R. A.
SUPEREROGATION, Works of. The
mediaeval Church held that the saints
wero capable of doing, and that many of

SUPREMACY, PAPAL

576

SUPREMACY, PAPAL

them had done, good deeds over and
above what was necessary for their own
salvation, and that these merits of the
saints formed a treasury on which the
Church was able to draw, and to credit
with them other men who had not done
good deeds enough. The fourteenth of
the Thirty-nine Articles says on this
subject, " Voluntary works, besides over
and above God's commandments, which
they call works of supererogation, can-
hot be taught without arrogancy and
impiety : for by them men do declare
that they not only do render unto God
as much as they are bound to do, but
that they do more for His sake than
of bounded duty is required : whereas
Christ saith plainly, " When ye have
done all that is commanded to you,
say, We are unprofitable servants."
SUPREMACY, PAPAL. In the his
tory of our sixteenth century Reform
ation the Royal supremacy and the
Papal supremacy came into collision,
but it must be borne in mind that the
same word means very different things
in the two contrasted phrases. The
royal supremacy means : 1. The entire
• independence of the Sovereign of Eng
land from all authority, spiritual or
temporal, of the Bishop of Rome ; 2.
the right of the sovereign to govern all
classes of his subjects ; to be the ulti
mate appeal for justice in all causes ;
and the source of all ecclesiastical
jurisdiction— as distinguished from the
spiritual authority inherent in the
sacred ministry of tho Church of
Christ. If the English sovereigns and
statesmen of that period made claims
beyond this, those claims were repudi
ated by the Church of England ; and if
the rights of the Church were and still
are anywhere infringed by the power of
the State, such infringement is submit
ted to as a grievance for which redress
is to be sought, not acquiesced in as a
normal part of the Church's constitution.
The phrase Papal supremacy, again,
means two very different things : it
means the Papal authority as it was
admitted by tho State and Church of
England, and the Papal sovereignty as

claimed by. the Hildebrandine popes,:
and developed by .their successors — two
very different things indeed. -.;
The Papal supremacy; as the Church'
of England admitted it in the- 11th)
centuiy, and refused any longer- tp ad
mit it in the 16th century,, was a very.
different thing from the supremacy
which the Hildebrandine popes claimed.
The supremacy which the kings and
Church of England recognised was, the
ordinary Patriarchal authority, to visit.
in order to reform abuses, and to receive
appeals from the national Ecclesiastical^
Courts. It was of the same kind,
though a step higher in degree, as the
Primatial authority of the See of Can-,
terbury. William I. saw in it a con
venient tribunal to which the king
might refer ecclesiastical questions aris
ing in the Church of England which
seemed to need some such external
authoritative arbitration ; but he care-.'
fully limited its functions : no appeal
was to be made to it without the king's
sanction, and no visitatorial power was
to be exercised by it without the king's;
leave. All ordinary jurisdiction,, and
administration were to be carried on by
the local authorities ; it was only in
extraordinary cases — and the king eon-*
stituted himself the sole judge of what
were extraordinary cases — that the Patri<
archal authority was to be invoked. This,
limitation of the authority is enough to
prove that it was not recognised as a
Divine right, but only as an ecclesias- .
tieal regulation. For two centuries tho
popes abused the authority thus ceded
to them, trying to force upon the Church
their own extravagant claims. At tho
end of that period, in the 14th century,
the king and the Church, by -the;
statues of Provisors and of Premunire,
peremptorily restrained the. Papal au
thority again within something ap
proaching to its original constitutional
limits. Finally, finding that even thus
its authority was abused, and its opera
tion was oppressive and injurious, the
king and the Church, in the 16th cen
tury, removed England from under the
patriarchal authority of the seo of

SUPREMACY, PAPAL

577

SUPREMACY, PAPAL

Rome, and resumed its original
" autocephalous " independence. It is
to be carefully borne in mind that,
in putting" itself under the patriarchal
authority of Rome, this Church did
not put itself under the rule of the
popes, as is sufficiently proved by
the fact that the Roman Canon Law
was never admitted here. [See Canon
law. ] The Papal sovereignty as defined
by the popes involved — 1, the claim
to be ruler of the whole Church of
Christ, the centre and source of
all ecclesiastical jurisdiction ; 2, the
claim to exercise a certain indefinite
authority over all Christian princes,
extending to a right to depose one, and
give his kingdom to another ; and
making the Bishop of Rome virtually
the Emperor of the Christian nations
of the whole world. The claims put
forth by the Hildebrandine popes, in
the twelfth and thirteenth centuries,
and acted upon in individual cases
under favour of exceptional circum
stances, were never admitted by the
i. kings and nations ; and in the four
teenth and fifteenth centuries were
repudiated and reduced to impotency.
In the present century, the supremacy
has been extended by the promulgation
of the dogma of Papal infallibility,
which claims for the Pope to be the
sole Teacher — the source of doctrine
—of the Church. The argument against
the Papal claims is simple in outline,
however voluminous it may become in
the course of discussion : — These claims
are not to be found in the New Testa
ment, as interpreted by the General
Councils of the undivided Church, and
the writings of the ancient Fathers ;
they were unknown in the first ages of
the Church ; history tells us how they
were put forth and developed ; and
how they have been always repudiated
and resisted.
This is a brief outline of the history :
The metropolitan jurisdiction of Rome
at first extended no further than the
civil "diocese" of Rome, which com
prised the provinces of middle and
lower Italy, with the islands of Corsica, I

Sardinia, and Sicily, and was no greater
than _ that which every metropolitan
exercised in his own province. An
obscure provincial council at Sardica
in 347 gave a right of appeal, in
certain cases of dispute, to the Bishop
of Rome, which affected only those
bishops who were within the jurisdiction
of the Council ; but the popes in sub
sequent times tried to represent it as a
Canon of the great General Council of
Nicaea, and to found a general claim of
appellate jurisdiction upon it. Valen-
tinianTII. in 445 issued an edict that
what the apostolic chair ordained
should be law, and that if any bishop
refused to eome to the judgment seat of
the Roman prelate, he should be com
pelled to present himself there by the
governor of the province ; it was a tyran
nical decree of an Emperor, not a canon
of a Church Council ; having no force
of any kind beyond the limits of the
dominions of Valentinian, which were
then diminished to Italy and Gaul.
Boniface, in the middle of the eighth
century, brought Germany under the
patriarchal authority of the Papal
chair, and Pepin and Charlemagne
upheld it, in a very limited form,
throughout their empire.
Nicholas I. (858—867) exceeded all
his predecessors in the audacity of his
designs, claiming for the whole clergy
of east and west a right of appeal to
Rome. But the condition of the see of
Rome for the next two hundred years
precluded the prosecution of the claims
which he had started. The see was in
the hands of the Roman nobles, who
intrigued and fought for the prize, and
put incompetent and dissolute puppets
in the see, and sank the Papacy into
utter confusion and moral impotence.
Hildebrand in the eleventh century put
forth the full-blown pretension that the
Pope was the Vicar of Christ, the Head
of the Church, and the Spiritual Ruler
of Princes. The British and Saxon
churches were outside the empire of
Valentinian and of Charlemagne, and
did not acknowledge the authority of the
See of Rome. The Church of England

pp

SUPREMACY, PAPAL

578 SUPREMACY, THE ROYAL

was brought under this authority by
the Norman Conquest, just at the time
that the Hildebrandine pretensions were
being put forth. The heads of church
men were dazzled for a while by this
grand vision of an ecclesiastical empire ;
but the abuses of the Papal power in
the twelfth and thirteenth centuries
were followed by a general reaction in
the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.
The Great Schism undermined the pres
tige of the Papacy, when the Church
saw two lines of popes, between whose
rival claims it was so impossible to
decide, that half of western Christendom
supported one and half the other ; and
the two Papacies went on for forty
years, each anathematising the other
as antichrist. The Church asserted
itself against the Roman Curia in the
Council of Pisa (1409), which declared
a General Council superior to the Pope
and proceeded to depose both the rival
popes, and elect a new one. The
Council of Constance (1414) deposed
the third pope, and formally decreed,
without a dissentient voice, that ' ' Every
lawfully convoked Oecumenical Council
representing the Church derives its
authority immediately from Christ ;
and every one, the Pope included, is
subject to it in matters of faith, in the
healing of schisms, and the reformation
of the Church." On this basis the
Council proceeded to elect a new Pope,
who accepted the Papacy under this
definition of the limitation of its
authority. When the new Pope con
trived to thwart the intended reforms,
the national Churches, headed by their
sovereigns, undertook what reforms
they could. Long before the Reform
ation of the sixteenth century, the
practical interference of Rome in the
affairs of the English Church had been
restrained within narrow limits. At
the Reformation the Church and State
repudiated the Roman claims altogether.
The Bishop of Rome's patriarchal visit
atorial and appellate jurisdiction had
seemed at one period to offer advantages,
of which England then voluntarily
availed itself ; after centuries of experi

ence they were found to entail dispro
portionate evils, and England now
relieved itself of the burden, as it had
a right to do : on the ground that "the
Bishop of Rome has by God's word no
more authority in this realm than any
foreign bishop."
The books on the Roman controversy
form a library of themselves, and the
student will do well to obtain inform
ation as to the best books on particular
points of the controversy. On this
particular point of the Papal Supremacy,
Bishop Barrow's ' Treatise on the Pope's
Supremacy,' reprinted by the S.P.C.K.,
is a standard work. The little book,
'Plain Reasons against Joining the
Church of Rome,' also by S.P.C.K., is
an admirable little manual adapted to
present needs.
SUPREMACY, THE ROYAL. There
was one very remarkable feature about
the introduction of the Church into the
kingdoms of the Anglo-Saxon Hep
tarchy ; in nearly every case the
missionary addressed himself to the
king, and he, when persuaded, Con
sulted with the chiefs of his people,
and finally the question was brought
before the people. The question of the
adoption of Christianity was treated as
a public and political question affecting
the whole national life ; and when it
was determined to take the step, the
king and his chiefs and thousands of
the people were baptised, and entered
into the Church, accepting its institu
tions, faith, and discipline as they stood.
The Church not only Christianised a
heathen people, it also civilised a bar
barous people. The clergy helped the
king and his counsellors to make the
laws, and these laws were avowedly
based upon the laws of the Church ;
the bishop and the sheriff sat side by
side in the shire-moot to administer
the laws ; the bishop was the king's
chief adviser. The relation of the
king to the bishop was at first that of
a barbarian under the tutelage of a man
of higher race, and infinitely his supe
rior in knowledge of the arts of civilis
ation, But in course of time the kings

SUPREMACY, THE ROYAL 579 SUPREMACY, THE ROYAL

became civilised, and the bishops were
taken from among their own subjects.
The intimate relations between Church
and State continued, with the feeling
that religion was a question of general
interest ; bishops were appointed by
tho king with the advice of his Witan,
and sometimes deposed by the same
authority ; the king was regarded as a
, "nursing father" to the Church, with
a right to exercise an undefined au
thority and intervention in her affairs,
as we find it finally stated at the end
of this period in the laws of Edward
the Confessor — "The king, who is the
vicar of the Great King, is to this end
appointed, that he should rule his
earthly kingdom and the people of the
Lord, and above all that he should
venerate the Holy Church, and both
govern it and defend it from hurtful
things, and root out evil-doers from it,
and bind them and utterly destroy
them. Which if he should fail to do,
the title of king will not remain to
him, but on the testimony of Pope
John he shall forfeit the name of king ;
who, when Pepin and his son Charles,
not as yet kings,- but princes under the
faineant (slulto) King of the Franks,
wrote to him enquiring if they ought
to remain Kings of the Franks, pos
sessing as they did nothing but the
royal name, replied that they ought to
be called kings who vigilantly defend
and govern the Church of God and his
people, after the example of the royal
Psalmist, saying, 'There shall no de
ceitful person dwell in My house ; he
that telleth lies shall not tarry in My
sight. I shall soon destroy all the
ungodly that are in the land, that I
may root out all wicked doers from the
city of the Lord'" (Ps. ci. 10).
William the Conqueror altered the
existing relations of the Church of
England to the State, and to the ex
ternal Church. He brought the Church
of England under the patriarchal visit
atorial authority of the See of Rome,
but in so doing he carefully asserted,
the royal prerogative ; the Pope was
to send no legate unless expressly in

vited to do so by the king, and no
papal Bull was to run in England with
out the king's permission. William'
also gave the Church separate ecclesias
tical courts, in which only ecclesiastical
persons and ecclesiastical causes were
to be tried, thus conferring great privi
leges on the Church ; but he retained
with a firm grasp the royal supremacy
over the Church ; he nominated the
bishops, and no chapter refused to elect
his nominee ; he would allow no
Church synod to make decrees which
had not first received his approval.
But the Hildebrandine assertion of
the supreme authority of the ' ' Vicar
of Christ" over princes, and the bold
and skilful measures which the popes
proceeded to take to assert a universal
sovereignty, rapidly altered the balance
of the papal and regal powers. . The
popes had the sentiment of the people
— the popular opinion — of Europe on
their side, as the only power which
claimed authority to check the tyranny
of kings and feudal nobles, and to
reform the simony and other abuses
which honeycombed the Church. And
the popes succeeded in establishing a
considerable authority over ecclesias
tical affairs and ecclesiastical persons.
The kings all the while kept up a
protest ; and when the papacy, by its
tyranny and abuses, in turn lost the
sympathies of the people, the kings
seized their opportunities to reclaim
and re-establish their own authority.
Henry II. by the Constitutions of
Clarendon desired to resume the au
thority of the Crown over ecclesias
tical persons, but was thwarted by
Becket, and was obliged to yield to the
popular feeling excited by Becket's
"martyrdom." John's shameful sur
render of the Crown and acceptance of
it as the Pope's liegeman gave the
papacy one of its highest triumphs,
but the effects were very short-lived.
Under Henry III. the legates were
allowed to lord it over the Church and
pillage it without mercy ; but in the
reign of Edward I. king and parliament
declared to the Pope that no king of

SUPREMACY, THE ROYAL 580 SUPREMACY, THE ROYAL

England had power to cede the rights
of the Crown and the liberties of the
Church and nation, and that the papal
claims derived from John's surrender
were null and void.
In the reigns of Edward III. and
Richard IL the Government sharply
limited the encroachments of the Roman
Court by the statutes of provision and
praemunire. At length Henry VIII.,
with the concurrence of the Church in
Convocation, and of the nation in
Earliament, did what his predecessors
ad sometimes threatened, and once
for all repudiated and flung off all
claims of Rome whatsoever upon the
Crown or Church or nation of England,
But Henry was not content to leave
to the Church the liberty thus restored
to it. Having vindicated the royal
supremacy as against the usurpations
of Rome, he proceeded to assert it as
against the ancient constitutional liber
ties of the Church. The civil wars
had broken the power of the nobility,
and the king had made the royal power
more absolute than any of his prede
cessors since Edward I. He was
minded now to reduce the power of the
Church, and in this direction also to
increase the power of the Crown. Hav
ing abolished entirely the orders of
friars and the houses of monks, power
ful through their wealth and connec
tions, he proceeded to break the power
of the secular clergy. By the monstrous
pretext of making all the clergy guilty
of a praemunire, for having attended a
Legatine Council which he himself
had authorised Wolsey to summon, he
reduced the clergy to absolute surrender
of their constitutional rights and privi
leges, which the king was sworn to
protect and preserve, and obtained from
them a recognition of the supremacy of
the Crown, with the only proviso, "so
far as the law of Christ permits," and
then proceeded to work out the supre
macy from first principles.
On first principles bishops have no
coercive jurisdiction, they can only
employ spiritual censures ; all their
coercive jurisdiction is given them by

the civil authority ; so Henry required
all the bishops to take out licences
from the Crown to exercise their epis
copal jurisdiction in their several dio
ceses, and made those licences revocable
at pleasure. By virtue of this uncon
stitutional power Edward suspended
Bonner and Gardiner ; Mary suspended
all the reformed bishops she found on
her accession ; Elizabeth in turn on her
accession suspended the Marian bishops
who refused to conform, and suspended
Grindal ; and Charles suspended Ab
bott. On first principles subjects may
be restrained from holding meetings,
which might perhaps take measures pre
judicial to the State ; so Henry tied the
Convocations of the Church hand and
foot ; they might not meet without the
royai summons ; and when they had
met they might not discuss any busi
ness without the royal licence ; and
when they had discussed, they might
not embody the results in a canon
without further permission ; and the
canon so made had no legal force with
out the royal assent ; and even then it
was invalid if it should turn out to be
against any law of the land or to the
diminution of the prerogative royal.
And so, whenever Convocation was
likely to be troublesome to the Govern
ment for the time being, it was silenced ;
and at length, when it showed a dis
position to acquire something more of
constitutional independence, in the
same way that the House of Commons
in past times had acquired the position
which made it the great bulwark of tho
people's liberties against the arbitrary
authority of the Crown, Convocation
was silenced altogether for one hundred
and fifty years. On Church principles
the clergy of the diocese, represented
by the cathedral chapter, have the right
to elect their bishop subject to the con
firmation of the laity, and the consent
of the comprovincial bishops to conse
crate ; but in practice the Crown dic
tates to the chapter whom to elect ;
and does not leave the Dean of Arches
at liberty to entertain the protest of
the laity ; and issues a commission to

SUPREMACY, THE ROYAL 581 SUPREMACY, THE ROYAL

three bishops to consecrate ; and the
disobedience of the chapter and bishops
would probably subject them to the
penalties of a praemunire — confiscation
and banishment.
It is desirable to note, as against a
common misunderstanding of the ac
knowledgment that the Sovereign is
the head of the Church, that no spiritual
character or authority is thereby attri
buted to the Sovereign. Such a theory
has been suggested. Charles the Great
and his successors in the empire claimed
a vague kind of sacred character ; a
similar claim has sometimes been made
on behalf of kings ; and possibly Henry
VIII. aimed at such a supreme head
ship of the Church of England ; but
the Church, while surrendering all the
constitutional liberties which Henry
grasped at, and which indeed a Church
could not maintain against a hostile
State, refused to 'acknowledge in the
supremacy anything more than the
King of England's independence of
Rome, his right to govern all his sub
jects clerical as well as lay, and the
right of a Christian king to exercise a
kind of visitatorial right in the correc
tion of abuses in the Church.
A few extracts will show the sense in
which the supremacy was understood
by the leaders of the Reformation in
Church and State.
Henry, in the preamble to the Sub
mission of the Clergy, had taken to him
self the style of " Supreme Head of the
Church." Convocation objected to the
phrase as liable, without explanation
or limitation, to be misunderstood, and
after long debate adopted the title with
a qualification in the following terms :
"Of the English Church and clergy
of which we recognise His Majesty as
the singular protector, the only supreme
governor, and, as far as the law of
Christ permits, the Supreme Head."
The individual submissions of the
clergy in 1534 do not contain the
qualifying words, "so far as the law
of Christ allows " of the general Sub
mission, but acknowledge him simply
as "Head of the English Church;"

but the phrase must be understood in
the same sense as in the former docu
ment. Again in the subsequent Act
of Supremacy (26 Hen. VIII. c. 1,
1534-5), though using in the preamble
the form without limitation, "the
King's grace to be authorised Supreme
Head ; " in the enacting clause uses the
form, "the only Supreme Head on earth
of the Church of England."
When the Convocation of York de
murred to adopt the form accepted by
the Convocation of Canterbury, Head,
"so far as the law of Christ allows,"
the king explained his meaning in a
letter to Bishop Tunstall in 1531, in
which he says the words should be
considered as "the expression of the
truth in convenient speech and sen
tences, without overmuch scruple of
super-perverse interpretations. The
title should not be strained so as to
imply a denial of the sole and supreme
lordship of Christ, or so as to claim a
headship of the mystical body of Christ,
or as more than meaning headship of
the clergy of England." He insists,
however, that "the headship is not
limited to temporal matters, but that
all spiritual things by reason whereof
may arise bodily trouble and unquieta-
tion be necessarily included in princes'
power. That the spiritual things tho
ministration of which is by Christ com
mitted to the clergy, are not so far ex
tended as the modern use of the word
assumes, but that as to persons, pro
perty, acts, and deeds, the clergy are
under the king as head. That this
headship does not imply superiority in
things in which emperors and princes
obey bishops and priests as doers of
the message of Christ, and His ambas
sadors for that purpose. The addition
in temporalibus would be superfluous,
as men being here themselves earthly
and temporal, cannot be head and
governor of things eternal. If spirit
ualities refer to spiritual men, that is
priests and clerks, their good acts and
deeds worldly, in all this both we and
all other princes be at this day both
chief and heads  So as in all

SUPREMACY, THE ROYAL 582 SUPREMACY, THE ROYAL

those articles concerning the persons
of priests, their laws, their acts, and
order of living, forasmuch as they be
indeed all temporal and concerning
this present life only, in those we, as
we be called, be indeed in this real
caput, and because there is no man
above us here be indeed supremum
caput. As to spiritual things, as sac
raments, they have no head but Christ,
who instituted them, by whose ordin
ance they are ministered by the clergy,
who for the time they do that, and in
that respect, so far as they are minis
ters of those things which are not
subject to the power of men, in those
of such things which they minister ill,
but without scandal, they are punish
able by God, but if with scandal, they
are cognisable to and punishable by
men, the prince being the chief executor
of this. "
The statute 26 Hen. VIII. c. 12,
fully defines this supremacy of the
Crown in both its aspects. ' ' By sundry
and authentic histories and chronicles
it is manifestly declared and expressed
that this realm of England is an em
pire, and so hath been accepted in the
world, governed by one Supreme Head
and king, having dignity and royal
estate of the imperial crown of the
same ; unto whom a body politic,
compact of all sorts and degrees of
people, divided in terms and by names
of spiritualty and temporalty, been
bounded and owen to bear next unto
God a natural and humble obedience ;
he being also furnished by the good
ness and sufferance of Almighty God,
with plenary, whole, and entire power,
pre-eminence, authority, prerogative
and jurisdiction, to render and yield
justice and final determination to all
manner of persons resiants within this
realm, in all cases, matters, debates
and intentions, without restraint or
provocation to any foreign princes or
potentates of the world ; in causes
spiritual by the spiritualty, and causes
temporal by temporal judges."
The book called the 'institution of
a Christian Man,' put, forth by the

heads of the Church under the royal
authority, to explain and recommend
the doctrines of the Reformation to the
people, speaks thus of the supremacy :
"Unto them (the princes) belong
of right and by God's commandment
not only to prohibit violence, to cor
rect offenders .... to procure the
public weal and peace, &c. in outward
and earthly things, but specially and
principally to defend the faith of Christ
and His religion, to conserve and main
tain the true doctrine of Christ, and
all such as be true preachers thereof,
to abolish all abuses, heresies, and
idolatries brought in by heretics and
evil preachers, and to punish with
corporal pains such as of malice be
occasioners of the same ; and finally to
oversee and cause that the said priests
and bishops do execute their power,
office, and jurisdiction truly, faithfully,
and according in all points as it was
given and committed unto them by
Christ and His apostles. And although
we may not think that it appertains
to the office of kings and princes to
preach and teach, to minister the sac
raments, to absolve, to excommunicate,
and such other things belonging to the
office and administration of bishops
and priests, yet we must think and
believe that God hath constituted and
made Christian kings and princes to
be as the chief heads and overlookers
over the said priests and bishops, to
cause them to administer their office
and power committed unto them purely
and sincerely ; and in case they shall
be negligent in any part thereof to
cause them to supply and repair the
same again. And that God hath also
commanded the said priests and bishops
to be humbly obedient to the laws
made by the said princes, being not
contrary to the laws of God, whatso
ever they be ; and not only propter
iram, but also propter conscientiam. .'
Cranmer explained his understanding
of the supremacy in the course of his
trial before the Papal Commissioner :
' ' Martin. You denied that the Pope's

SUPREMACY,. THE ROYAL 583 SUPREMACY, THE ROYAL

holiness was Supreme Head of the
Church. " Cranmer. I did so.
" M. Who say you, then, is Supreme
Head ?
"C. Christ.
' ' M. But whom hath Christ left here
in earth His vicar and head of His
Church ?
"C. Nobody.
"M. Ah! why told you not King
Henry this when yon made him Su
preme Head ? And now nobody is.
This is treason against his own person,
as you then made him.
" C. I meant not but every king in
his own realm and dominion is Supreme
Head, and so was he Supreme Head of
the Church of Christ in England."
Subsequently :
" M. asked again who was the Su
preme Head of the Church of England ?
" C. Christ is Head of this member,
as He is of the whole body of the
universal Church.
" M. Why, you made King Henry
VIII. Supreme Head of the Church.
"C. Yea, of all the people of Eng
land, as well ecclesiastical as temporal.
"M. And not of the Church ?.
" C. No, for Christ is only Head of
His Church, and of the faith and re
ligion of the same. The king is head
and governor of his people, which are
the visible Church.
"M. You never durst tell the king
so. " C. Yes, that I durst, and did ; in
the publication of his style, wherein
ho was named Supreme Head of the
Church, there was never any other
thing meant." — 'Remains,' iv. 117
(Hook's ' Lives,' vii. 374).
In the restoration of the Papal
Supremacy at the beginning of Queen
Mary's reign the historical prerogatives
of the Crown were expressly retained
by § 24 of the Act 1 and 2 Ph. and
Mary, c. 8 (1554), and the authority
restored to the Pope is only that which
he possessed in 1529 over the Church
of England' without any extension.
The jurisdiction restored to the eccle

siastical authorities is that which they
possessed at the same date.
The principal Church legislation of
Elizabeth was : 1 Eliz. c. 1, "An Act
restoring to the Crown the ancient
jurisdiction over the State, ecclesiastical
and spiritual, and abolishing all foreign
power repugnant to the same." This
Act repealed the Repealing Act of
Philip and Mary, but only revived
certain Acts of Henry which are speci
fically named. Those which were left
unrevived are the Acts on Supremacy
on the authority of the Pope, on making
bishops by patents, on the king's style,
and the oath of Supremacy. The clauses
relating to the Supremacy abolish all
foreign jurisdiction, and any such juris
diction is annexed to the Crown, to
which is restored the visitatorial and
frrective authority recognised in the
ot of Supremacy, though in a modi
fied form, "visitation, correction, and
reformation " being substituted for the
authority to "visit, repress, redress,
reform, correct, restrain, and amend."
The Queen is empowered to' depute
Commissioners to exercise this visita
torial and corrective authority. The
form of oath recognises the Queen as
"the only supreme governor of this
realm, as well in all spiritual and eccle
siastical things or causes as temporal."
1 Eliz. c. 1, § 7, again enacts that
" no foreign prince, person, prelate, state
or potentate, spiritual or temporal,
shall enjoy or exercise any manner of
power, jurisdiction, superiority, pre
eminence or privilege, spiritual or
ecclesiastical, within this realm or any
other Her Majesty's dominions or
countries." The thirty-seventh of the
thirty-nine Articles of Religion sets
out and explains the royal supremacy
as follows : "The Queen's Majesty hath
the chief power in this realm of
England and other her dominions ;
unto whom the chief government of ali
estates of this realm, whether they be
ecclesiastical or civil, in all causes,
doth appertain ; and is not. nor ought
to be subject to any foreign jurisdiction.
But when we attribute to the Queen's

SUPREMACY, THE ROYAL 584 SUPREMACY, THE ROYAL

Majesty the chief government, we give
not thereby to our princes the minister
ing either of God's word or of the
Sacraments ; but that only prerogative
which we see to have been given always
to all godly princes in Holy Scripture by
God himself ; that is, that they should
rule all estates and degrees committed
to their charge by God, whether they
be ecclesiastical or temporal, and re
strain with the civil sword the stubborn
and evil-doers. The Bishop of Rome
hath no jurisdiction in this realm of
England. "
In 1570 Queen Elizabeth sent an
address to her subjects to be hung in
every parish and read aloud from the
pulpit, in which she says that she had
neither claimed nor exercised any other
authority in the Church than that
attached from immemorial time to the
English Crown, although that authority
had been recognised with greater or
less distinctness at different times.
The Crown challenged no superiority
to define, decide, or determine any
article or point of the Christian faith
or religion ; or to change any rite or
ceremony before received and observed
in the Catholic Church. The Royal
Supremacy in matters of religion meant
no more than this, that she, being by
lawful succession Queen of England, all
persons born in the realm were subjects
to her and to no other earthly ruler.
" She was bound in duty to provide that
her people should live in the faith,
obedience, and observance of the Chris
tian religion ; that consequently there
should be a Church orderly governed
and established ; and that the ecclesi
astical ministers should be supported
by the civil power, that her subjects
might live in the fear of God to the
"salvation of their souls. In this
Christian princes differed from pagan
Erinces, who, when they did best, took
ut a worldly care of their subjects'
bodies and earthly lives. And yet,
she said, to answer further to more
malicious untruths, she never had any
meaning or intent that any of her
subjects should be troubled or molested

by examinations or inquisitions in any
matter of their faith, as long as they
should not gainsay the authority of the
Holy Scriptures, or deny the articles of
faith maintained in any of the creeds
received and used in the Church : they
might retain their own opinions in any
rites or ceremonies appertaining to re
ligion, as long as they should in their
outward conversations show themselves
quiet and conformable, and not mani
festly repugnant to the laws for resort
ing to their ordinary Churches."
"So far, and no further, the Crown
of England claimed authority over the
Church ; and if any potentate in
Christendom, challenging universal
and sole superiority, should condemn
the English Princes for refusing to
recognise that superiority, Elizabeth
said she would be ready in any free
and general assembly, where such
Eotentate should not be only judge in
is own cause, to make such an answer
in her defence as should in reason
satisfy the university of good and
faithful Christians ; or if she failed to
satisfy them, as the humble servant
and handmaid of Christ, she would be
willing to conform herself and her
policy to that which truth should
guide her into, for the advancement
of the Christian faith and concord of
Christendom ; she would admit as
truth, however, only that which God
should please to reveal by ordinary
means in peaceable manner, and not
that which should be obtruded upon
her by threatenings of bloodshed, and
motions of war and rebellion, or by
curses, fulminations, and other worldly
tyrannous violences or cruel practices "
(Fronde, 'Hist, of Engl.,' x. 7).
The main aim and effect of tho
Royal Supremacy as a constitutional
measure was to oust all other jurisdic
tion than that of the King's Courts
out of the realm, to make the King's
writ and that alone run over every part
of his dominion, so that no foreign
potentate and no society or individual
in the realm should have the right to
frame his or its own laws, or regulate

SUPREMACY, THE ROYAL 585 SUPREMACY, THE ROYAL

his or its own affairs by any other
.coercive power than that of the king.
The purpose was stated in the famous
preamble of the Statute of Appeals, in
1533 (24 Hen. VIII. c. 12), "to make this
realm of England an empire governed
by one Supreme Head," and the Su
premacy was the crowning stone of that
constitutional kingship which had been
built up over the demolished local and
personal jurisdictions of townships and
barons and bishops. ' But just as the
¦royal jurisdiction invaded and absorbed
the local and baronial jurisdictions, yet
did not extinguish the customaiy laws,
but on tho contrary gave them a royal
.'sanction, merely exacting that the
customary rights with which they dealt
should be tried before the King's Courts
alono, so in claiming Supremacy over
all ecclesiastical jurisdictions the Crown
never extinguished the former ecclesi
astical canon laws or the jurisdictions
of bishops, or their relation to the
clergy, but merely absorbed all the
mass of external jurisdiction, sanction
ing instead of superseding the ecclesi
astical law.
The further power recognised in the
Crown by the Act of Supremacy and
kindred measures was the visitatorial
and corrective authority, which, in fact,
was expressly claimed by Edward the
Confessor, and which may properly be
', .exercised by the Christian Sovereign.
A list op Documents relating to
THE QUESTION OP THE ROYAL Su-
1'EBMAOT.
The legal view of the Royal Supre
macy before the Norman Conquest.
Laws of Edward the Confessor, XV.
Quid sit regis officium. Wilkins' ' Con
cilia,' I. 312.
Legal Definition of the Supremacy in
the 13th century. Bracton, Dc Leg. et
Cons. Anglice, Book I. ch. viii.
Declaration of the Lincoln Parlia
ment to the Pope, A.D. 1301. Collier's
'Eccl. Hist.,' I. 496.

Statute of Praemunire. 16 Richard
II. c. 5.
Repudiation of Papal Supremacy.
Statute of Appeals, 24 Henry VIIL
c. 12.
Act of Submission of the Clergy. 25
Henry VIII. c. 19.
Bishop Tunstal's Protest. Wilkins'
'Concilia,' III. 745. The King's
reply, 'Cabala,' p. 227 (quoted above).
Act of Supremacy. 26 Henry VIII.
c. 5. Was repealed by 1 & 2 Philip
and Mary, c. 8, and never re-enacted.
Abolition of Exemption of the Clergy
from the Royal Courts. 28 Henry VIII.
c. 1, and 32 Henry VIII. c. 3.
Legal Definition of the Supremacy.
Blackstone's 'Commentary,' III. 5.
vi., IV. 33. iv.
The Institution of a Christian Man ;
on the Creed, and on the Sacraments
(quoted above). »
Cranmer's Explanation of the Supre
macy. ' Cranmer's Remains,' IV. 117;
Hook's ' Lives of the Archbishops of
Canterbury,' VII. 374.
Statute 1 Edward VI. c. 2.
Maintenance of the ancient authority
of the Crown by Queen Mary. 1 & 2
Philip and Mary, c. 8, § 24.
Reassertion of the Supremacy by
Queen Elizabeth. 1 Elizabeth c. 1, §§
17, 18, 19 (quoted above).
Queen Elizabeth's Explanation of the
Supremacy (quoted above).
The Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion.
Article 37.
Hooker's 'Ecclesiastical Policy,' Bk.
VIII. Report of Royal Commission on the

SURPLICE

586

SWEDENBORGIANS

Ecclesiastical Courts, with Historical
Appendices, a.d. 1886.
The historical evidences are contained
in Sir Ed. Coke's Reports on the case of
Caudrey. The subject is ably treated
by Mr. Gladstone in ' The State in its
Relation to the Church, ' and Mr. Glad
stone's ' Historical Remarks on the
Royal Supremacy, a Letter to the Bishop
of London,' 1865, Parker, London.
SURPLICE. [See Vestments, Clerical.]
SURROGATE. One who is appointed
to act as deputy of another official, e.g.
the bishop of the diocese, by his chan
cellor, for the convenience of the people,
appoints clergymen here and there, at
convenient places of his diocese, as his
surrogates, for the purpose of granting
licences to be married without the
publication of the usual banns.
SUSPENSION, is when a clergyman
for some offence is forbidden to perform
any of the duties of his office for a certain
time, and is at the same time deprived
of the profits of his benefice, or of such
portion of them as is necessary to pro
vide a clergyman in his place to fulfil
his duties. The extremest sentence of
this nature is Deprivation, viz. his ejec
tion from his benefice absolutely, and his
suspension from the performance of his
office at the discretion of the bishop.
The taking away of his clerical cha
racter altogether, and reducing him
to the status of a layman, is called
Degradation. SWEDENBORGIANS. Emmanuel
Swedenborg (1689—1772) was the son
of a Swedish titular bishop, who acted
as chaplain to the Swedish chapel
and residents in London. He was a
man of considerable learning and
genius ; the first to advocate a decimal
system of coinage, weights, and measures ;
the pioneer of several discoveries of
modern science. From 1716 to 1747
he held the Government appointment
of Assessor to the Board of Mines at
Stockholm. But the principal bent
of his mind was towards metaphysics.
In 1734 he published an 'Introduction
to the Philosophy of the Infinite, and

the Final Cause of Creation. ' It was
not, however, till 1745, in the 56th
year of his age, that he began to believe
himself to have communication with
the spirit world, with the souls of
great men departed, and to have
supernatural revelations from God.
His principal theological work was the
'Arcana Celestia, the heavenly mys
teries contained in the Holy Scriptures
unfolded% together with a relation- of
the Wonderful Things seen in the World
of Spirits and in the Heaven of Angels. '
This he put forth as the result of direct
revelation from Jesus Christ, and fol
lowed it up by numerous smaller works,
illustrating and supplementing the views
enumerated in the greater work. His
last work (1771) was ' The True Chris
tian Religion, or the Universal Theology
of the New Church foretold by the
Lord in Daniel vii. 13, 14, and in the
Revelation xxi. 12.' These works were
all written in England, where Sweden
borg lived a very retired life, making
no endeavour to gain converts to his
opinions, beyond printing his books
at his own expense. His works had,
however, some enthusiastic admirers,
and one of them, Mr. Clowes, Rector of
St. John's, Manchester, translated his
principal works, and founded a society
for the purpose of printing and pub
lishing them.
The founder of the sect as an organ
ised religious body, was Robert Hind-
marsh, a young printer, the son of a
Methodist minister, who became ac
quainted with his writings, and formed
(1783) a society of five friends for the
study of them. This society soon
developed into the ' Theosophical So
ciety,' whose object was to disseminate
the doctrines of their master. This
society, in 1787, began to hold meet
ings for worship at one another's houses,
and appointed James Hindmarsh, the
Methodist preacher, the father of the
founder of the society, to officiate in
the room of a priest, to baptise, and to
administer the holy supper. The fol
lowing year the society opened a chapel
in Great Eastcheap, and established

SYMBOLS

587

TEMPLARS

themselves as a new sect, under the
title of the New Church.
Thirty-two propositions were gathered
out of the works of Swedenborg as em
bodying the tenets of the New Church ;
and these were subsequently condensed
into twelve "Articles of Faith." A
brief connected statement of their doc
trines, written by one of their members,
may be found in. the ' Cyclopaedia of
Religious Denominations,' Lond. 1853.
In 1871 they had fifty-eight societies,
numbering 4000 members over twenty
years of age.
SYMBOLS. A symbol is a pictorial
form used conventionally to express an
idea, as e. g. a lamb is a symbol of
Jesus Christ. The words Symbol and
Emblem are often used indifferently,
but, in their accurate use, a Symbol
Represents the actual being and character
,of the person or thing symbolised, as
above, the lamb is a symbol of "the
Lamb of God " ; an Emblem is a con
ventional sign which indicates the per
son or thing : thus the keys are the
emblem of St. Peter.
It is a very wide subject, for the use
of symbols and emblems was universal
in mediaeval art ; but only a few of the
more important can be given here.
The first Person of the Holy Trinity
is represented by an aged man — ' the
Ancient of Days' ; and by a hand,
the symbol of power. The second
Person by the lamb, the lion, the
Good Shepherd, Orpheus ; by the cross
in its many forms ; by the I H S, the
Greek letters I N S, a contraction of
the word Jesus, and the xp> the Greek
letters Ch R, a contraction of the word
Christos ; by the A (Alpha) and Q
(Omega). The Holy Spirit is repre
sented by a dove, an eagle. The
Holy Trinity is represented by an aged
man, before whom is a crucifix, which
he sustains with his hands, while the
dove issues from his mouth ; by three
men with a nimbus round the head ;
by a triangle, a pentacle, or triple
triangle ; by three interlaced circles.
The four Evangelists are represented by
an ox, a lion' a man, and an eagle.

The Apostles are distinguithed by cer
tain emblems : St. Peter, the keys ;
St. Paul, the sword ; St. Andrew, the
cross, of the form which goes by his
name ; St. James, a pilgrim's hat, staff,
and scrip ; St. John, a cup with a ser
pent rising from it ; St. Thomas, a
spear ; St. James the Less, a fuller's
club ; St. Philip, a cross ; St. Bar
tholomew, a knife ; St. Matthew, a
purse ; St. Jude, a cross ; St. Simon, a
saw ; St. Matthias, an axe. It will be
remarked that most of these emblems
are the traditional instruments of their
martyrdom. The Church is represented
by a woman — the Bride of Christ ;
by the ark, by a ship. Christians are
represented by sheep, fish, birds. The
Christian faith is represented by the
cross. A nimbus, usually seen as a
circle round the head, represents a
saint ; a nimbus with a cross inscribed
in it is an emblem of Jesus Christ. See
' The Calendar of the Anglican Church,
Illustrated ' ; and ' Symbols and Em
blems,' by L. Twining ; and a valuable
paper on ' Early Christian Symbolism,'
in the ' Proceedings of the Society of
Antiquaries of Scotland for 1884.'
SYNOD. [See Convocation.]
SYON HOUSE, a nunnery of Briget
tine Nuns, founded by Henry V. at
Isleworth. [See Brigettine.]

TEMPLARS, knights of the Military
Order of the Temple. In 1118 Hugh
de Payen and eight other knights, who
had been engaged in the first Crusade,
formed themselves at Jerusalem into a
religious fraternity, which proposed to
continue to bear arms, and to use them
in defence of the Holy Land, and in
keeping its roads free and safe for
pilgrims. A home was granted them
upon Mount Moriah, near to where
the Temple had stood, and from this
house they derived their name of
Templars — Knights of the Temple.
Their habit was a white habit and
mantle with a red cross upon the left
breast. Their banner, which they

TEMPLARS

588

TEMPLARS

called Beauseant, was half black and
half white. They wore no gold, silver,
or ornaments.
Their organisation consisted of a
Grand Master, who resided at Jeru
salem, ranked as a sovereign prince,
and governed the whole order. Each
country had its Grand Prior; the differ
ent houses were governed by preceptors.
There were three classes — the knights,
the chaplains, and the serving brethren.
They kept a large number of soldiers
of all nations in their pay, besides a
body of light horse, native Syrians, or
half-caste Christians, clothed and armed
in Asiatic fashion. The importance of
such a body for the defence of the Holy
Land was easily recognised. Baldwin,
the King of Jerusalem, sent a deputa
tion of two of the knights to Europe to
solicit the aid of the Powers of Europe
in support of his kingdom against the
Saracens. The Order received the ap
proval of St. Bernard, then in the
zenith of his fame ; by his influence
the Order was recognised by the Pope
Eugenius III. at the Council of Troyes,
1128, and recommended to the support
of Christendom. The idea was adapted
to the spirit of the age. Knights of
the best families of Europe enrolled
themselves in this army of Christ ; es
tates were lavishly bestowed upon it ;
and the knights returned to Palestine
at the head of three hundred knights
of the noblest houses of Europe who
had become members of the Order.
Endowments flowed in abundantly, and
gradually the Order established de
pendent houses upon its estates in
nearly every country in Europe.
Their Rule was composed for them by
St. Bernard ; its principal points are
indicated in the following notes :
Regular service (i.e. the usual Hours).
Eating in one common refectory ; read
ing during meals. Flesh only thrice
a week, except on certain festivals.
Two meals on Sunday ; the armigeri
and clientes only one. Refection by
two and two, wine singly in equal
portions. Monday, Wednesday, and
Saturday two or three meals of escu

lents ; Friday, Lent food. Grace after
meals. Tenth loaf to the poor. Col
lation after compline, whether of water
only or water mixed with wine at dis
position of the master. Silence after
compline. Not to rise to Matins when
fatigued. Same food to all. Three
horses to every knight. One servant
to every knight, who was not to be
beaten. Horses, arms, &c, to be found
for knights who stayed with them for
a term ; who at going away paid part
of the price, the rest from the common
stock. To do nothing from their own
will. Not to go to the house without
leave of the master. Not to go alone.
Not to seek what they wanted by
name (nominatim): Regulation:1'' of
their bridles, spurs, &c. Not to Speak
boastfully of their faults. Not to keep .
any presents till permitted by the
master. Not to make or use bags for
their horses to eat out of, but to have
baskets. Not to exchange or sell any
thing. Not to hawk. Not to kill beasts
with bow or cross-bow. To attend to
justice. May have lands and property.
Necessaries to be given to the sick. Not
to provoke one another to anger. Boys
to be received into the Order. Old
men to be respected. Knights travel
ling to observe the Rule. Expulsion for
disobedience, obstinacy, and rebellion.
The houses which the Order built
for itself in the Holy Land were castles,
which, with those of the Hospitallers,
were thickly scattered in the principal
towns and at the dangerous points of
the principal roads, The loss of the
Holy Land in 1291 led to the destruc
tion of the Order. Its occupation
seemed to be gone. Its wealth excited
cupidity, and its arrogance provoked
enmity. Philip the Fair of France
resolved on its overthrow ; the Pope
Clement, his creature, sanctioned it.
Horrible accusations were brought
against it in France, of heretical
opinions and immoral practices ; the
Grand Master and many of the French
knights were burnt, and the Order was
suppressed. The bulk of its estates in
England was transferred to the Hos-

TEN COMMANDMENTS, THE 589

THRONE, BISHOP'S

pitallers. Our special interest is in
the English houses. The Order was
introduced into England in tho reign
of Stephen. At first its chief house
was on the south side of Holborn, near
Southampton Buildings ; afterwards it
was removed to the south side of Fleet
Street, where the establishment still
remains, long since converted to other
uses, and entirely rebuilt from time to
time, with the exception of its church
consecrated by Heraclius, Patriarch of
Jerusalem, in 1185, whose round nave
still continues, a monument of the
great Order so long since dissolved.
its other houses, twenty-five in number,
called Preceptories, * were only cells
upon their various estates, for the
oversight of the estates and for the re
cruiting and training of members of
the Order ; not one of them remains to
show their plan. Of the four round
churches popularly supposed to have
been built by the Templars, the Temple
church in London was built by them ;
that at Maplestead in Essex by the Hos
pitallers ; of Northampton by Simon
Story, Earl of Northampton, twice a pil
grim to the Holy Land ; of Cambridge
by some unknown individual. The
following is a list of their preceptories
in .England : — Wilbraham, Camb. ;
Temple Crossing, Essex ; S. Badesley,
Hants ; Temple Dynnesley, Herts ;
Swingfield, Kent ; Temple Rothley,
Leicest. ; Aslackby, Temple Brewer,
Eagle, Maltby, Mere Wilketon, Wit
ham, Lincolnsh. ; Haddiscoe, Norfolk ;
Halston, Shropsh. ; Gislingham, Dun
wich, Suffolk ; Saddlescombe, Sussex ;
Balsall, Warwick, Warwicksh. ; N.
Perriby, Temple Hurst, Temple New-
some, Pafflete, Flaxflete, Ribston,
Yorks. The Order also possessed many
manors and estates where they had no
preceptories. There were no sisters of
tho Order.
TEN COMMANDMENTS, THE.
Pursuant to the clause 1 Eliz. c. 2, §¦
13, authorising Her Majesty to take
other orders, &c, in the third year of
her reign, she issued a Commission
* Perhaps from Preceptio, a first share.

to the Archbishop, Bishop of London,
Dr. Bell, and Dr. Haddon, to reform
the disorders of chancels, and to add
to the ornaments of them by ordering
the commandments to be placed at the
east end. By Canon 82 of 1603, "the
Ten Commandments shall be set, at
the' charge of the parish, upon the east
end of every, church and chapel, where
the people may best see and read the
same, and other chosen sentences shall
at the like charge be written upon the
walls of the said churches and chapels,
in places convenient." They may be
written on the east wall of the nave
(Liddell v. Beall, 14 Moo. P. C. 1), of
which there are examples coeval with
the Canon. The fashion of writing
"chosen sentences" on the walls is
obsolete, and the writing of the Ten
Commandments on the east wall is
falling into desuetude.
TERCE. [See Hours.]
TERRIER (from terre, land), is a
description of "all the glebes, lands,
meadows, gardens, orchards, houses,
stocks, implements, tenements, and
portions of tithes lying out of their
parishes, which belong to any parson
age, vicarage, or rural prebend, to be
taken by the view of honest men in
every parish, by the appointment of
the bishop, of whom the minister to
be one ; to be laid up in the bishop's
registry, there to be for a perpetual
memorial thereof." — Canon 87 of 1603.
It is also convenient to have" a copy of
the same exemplified, to be kept in the
church chest.
The TEXTUS or EVANGELIUM
was the Book of the Gospels placed
on the altar, but often used only as
a "P.ax," while the Gospels in the
Communion Service were actually read
from an Evangelistarium, which con
tained only the selections used in the
service. The Textus was often writ
ten and illuminated with all the skill
of the time, and often magnificently
bound with gold and silver covers,
embossed and ornamented with enamels
and jewels.
THRONE, BISHOP'S. [See Cathedra.]

TITLE

590

TITHE

TITLE. In order to guard against
there being a number of clerks in holy
orders with no duties to perform, and
no settled maintenance, the ancient
canons decreed that no one should be
ordained without some definite duty
and maintenance, which was techni
cally called a "title ; " and the bishop
who ordained a man without a title
was bound to maintain him until he
had provided him with one. All this
was made part of the canon law of
England by the Council of London,
A.D. 1200. There are cases in which
the obligation was enforced (see Sir R.
Phill. 'Eccl. Law,' p. 120). All this
continues to be the law of the Church
of England by Canon 33 of 1603, which
gives the various titles on which a man
may be ordained. 1. A presentation
to some ecclesiastical preferment then
void. 2. A certificate that he is pro
vided of some church where he may
attend the cure of souls. 3. Some
- minister's place vacant in the cathedral
or other collegiate church. 4. A fellow
ship ; or, 5, a conductship or chap
laincy in some college of Oxford or
Cambridge. 6. That he is an M. A. of
six years' standing, living of his own
charge in either university. 7. That
he is by the bishop himself to be shortly
admitted to some benefice or curateship
then void.
TIPPET is used in the 74th of the
Canons of 1603 for the vestment which
we call a hood. The vestment really
includes both a tippet, the part which,
in wear, covers the shoulders, and the
hood, the part which, in wear, covers
the head. When worn as by our grad
uates as a badge of their degree, both
tippet and hood are allowed to hang
down the back by their band.
TITHE ( = a tenth part), technically
means a portion of the produce of tho
land, and of things which come from
the iand, given to the service of God.
The New Testament laid down a broad
principle on the subject of property,
that the owner holds it in trust for
the community, and this was illus
trated in a remarkable way in the

Apostolic Church in Jerusalem (Acts
ii.), and has influenced the Christian
mind ever since. Our Lord laid down'
another principle, which is not recorded
in the Gospels, but is quoted - by St.
Paul (1 Cor. ix. 14), as to the main
tenance of the clergy in particular, viz.
that "as "the priests and Levites of
the Old Dispensation lived on tho
tithes and offerings of the people, " so "
the ministry of the New Dispensation
were to be maintained from the same
source, and (it was assumed) in the
same proportion.
In the earlier ages of the Church,
there is, however, no evidence to prove
that the Christians were accustomed
to pay a definite tithe for the main
tenance of the clergy. It would seem
as if their idea of the disposition of
wealth was modelled on the larger
standard ; and their donations for pious
purposes generally, including the main
tenance of the clergy, were so large,
that there was no need to exhort them
to liberality to the clergy on the lesser
standard of tithe. So Irenaeus (second
century) says ('Her.' iv. 2), calling the
Jews servants, and Christians free men :
"While they had the tenth of their
goods consecrated, these on the other
hand who have received freedom assign
all that they have to the uses of the
Lord, cheerfully and freely giving
them, and not in lesser portions only,
as becomes men professing the hope of
greater things. " Yet again ( ' Her. ' lib.
iv. c. 2), he says : "The Lord says to
the disciples who have the Levites'
portion." In the third century fre
quent mention is made of tithe, but
as a limit which the Christian will ex
ceed. Cyprian says the clergy receive,
as it were, tithe (tanquam decimum).'
But when, with Constantine, the;
world became Christian, the zealous.
liberality of earlier times began to cool,
and it became more necessary to insist
upon the minimum limit of the Chris
tian's contribution to the revenue of
Christ's kingdom. The 'Apostolical
Constitutions, 'not later- than the early
part of the fourth century, says "the

TITHE

591

TITHE

gifts of tithes and first-fruits, which
are given in accordance with the com
mand of God, let the bishop as a
man of God expend." Ambrose (fifth
century) says : ' ' God has reserved the
tenth part to Himself, therefore it is
not lawful for a man to retain what
God has reserved for Himself" (Serm.
34). In the early period of the Saxon
Church the maintenance of the clergy
when they became settled in a town-
ship'( = parish) was provided chiefly by
the offerings of the people ; for the
obligation of tithe in its modern sense
was not yet recognised. It is true
that tho duty of bestowing on God's
service a tenth part of the goods was a
portion of the common law of Chris
tianity, and as such was impressed
by the priest on his parishioners. But
it was not desirable to enforce it by
spiritual penalties ; nor was the actual
expenditure determined except by cus
tom, or by the will of the bishop. It
was thus precarious and uncertain, and
the bestowal of a little estate on the
church of the township was probably
the most usual way of eking out what
the voluntary gifts supplied.
The recognition of the legal obliga
tion of titho dates from the eighth
:oentitry, both on the Continent and in
"England. In a.d. 779 Charles the
Great ordained that every one should
pay tithe, and that the proceeds should
be disposed of by the bishop ; and in
a.d. 787 it was recognised and made
imperative by the Legantine Council
held in England at Chelchythe, which
being attended and confirmed by the
Kings of Kent, Mercia, Wessex, and
Northumbria and their Ealdormen,
had the authority of a Witenagemot.
From that time it was enforced by not
unfrequent legislation. The famous
donation of Ethelwulf (in 855) is often
quoted as the original grant of the
national tithe to the Church ; in
truth it has nothing to do with the
subject ; it is simply a donation of a
tenth part of his private estates to
ecclesiastical purposes ; the annual

payment of a tithe of the produce of the
land had long before been customary.
Almost all the laws issued after the death
of Alfred (a.d. 901) contain some recog
nition of tithe. The actual determina
tion of its appropriation was really left
very much to the owner of the land from
which the tithe arose, and although
in the free townships it must have
been the rule to give it to the parish
priests, the lords of franchises found
it a convenient way of making friends
and procuring intercessions to bestow
it on monasteries. This custom be
came very frequent after the Norman
Conquest, and it was not until the
Council held in a.d. 1200 that the
principle was summarily stated that
"the parochial clergy have the first
claim on the tithe arising from their
several parishes, even of newly culti
vated lands. Even after that time,
by the connivance of bishops and
popes, the appropriation system worked
widely and banefully " (Stubbs' ' Const.
Hist.' I. 227).
Pope Pascal (a.d. 817—824) ex
empted the lands of all monastic houses
from tithe. Pope Hadrian (1159)
restricted the privilege to the Cister
cians, Templars, and Hospitallers, to
which Pope Innocent III. (a.d. 1178—
1180) added the Praemonstratensians.
The Council of Lateran (a.d. 1215) re
strained the privilege to lands in their
possession before that Council. The
Cistercians, continuing to apply for
Bulls for the exemption of newly-ac
quired lands, Henry II. restrained them
by statute on penalty of praemunire.
Evidence is not wanting that tithes
were sometimes paid unwillingly in old
times, e. g. in the Provincial Council of
1360, the third constitution relates to
tithes, and shows that the payment
was grudged, and its collection ob
structed in those days, as sometimes
in later days ; it orders that the clergy
shall be allowed to take away the tenth
sheaf by the same roads by which the
farmer carried the rest of his crop ac
cording to immemorial custom, alleg
ing that some had obstructed the clergy

TITHE

592

TITHE

by malicious inventions, e. g. com
pelling them to carry it by round-about
ways, not allowing them to remove it
till last, and allowing it to be trampled
upon by their cattle (Lathbury, ' Hist.
of Cone' p. 94).
Of common right tithes are to be paid
of such things only as do yield a yearly
increase by the act of God. Tithes are
proedial, such as rise immediately from
the ground, as corn, &c. ; mixt, which
arise from things nourished by the
ground, as from cattle, &c. ; and per
sonal, viz. the profits of labour and
trade. Tithes are also divided into
great and small ; great being of corn,
nay, wood ; small of praedial tithes of
other kinds, together with mixt and
personal. Several provincial synods
attempted to define matters tithable,
and among other things to establish a
claim to a tithe of personalty ; but
without much success. The jurisdic
tion as to tithe was divided ; it belonged
to the civil courts to determine the
title to ownership, and local custom
and prescription were generally re
ceived as decisive of all claims ; the
process of recovering the tithe only
belonged to the Court Christian.
A constitution of Archbishop Win
chelsea (a.d. 1294 — 1308) ordained the
payment of personal tithes out of the
profits of labour and trade. But an
Act 2 & 3 Edward VI. c. 13, § 7,
restrained the canon law in three
things. 1. To such persons only as
have accustomably used to pay the same
within forty years, before the making
of the Act. 2. That the party may
not be examined on his oath with re
spect to his profit. 3. That the day
labourer is freed from payment. The
payment of personal tithe as a legal due
has long since ceased ; though many
no doubt pay it voluntarily, to various
pious and charitable uses, as a matter
of conscience.
It is frequently assumed that there
was a tripartite division of the tithe
between tlie clergy, the fabrics, and the
poor ; but there is no evidence that
such was the case. Charles the Great

made a law to that effect, but England;
was not within his empire, and was
not affected by any. such law. There
were Roman canons of the same tenor,
but Roman canon law had no force in
England unless adopted and incorpor
ated into our native legislation.
Even if it had been the case in Eng
land in times before the Conquest, it
would be as unreasonable to say that the
tithe ought now to be subject to such a
division as to say that landed estates .
ought to be subject to the trinoda
necessitas, or to knight service, because
in the feudal times it was subject to
a payment on the knighthood of the
king's son, on his marriage, and for the
ransom of the king if taken prisoner,
and to find so many knights and men
at arms in proportion to its acreage in
time of war. Or that the country
rectors ought to find board and lodging
for travellers, because the canons re
quired them to show such hospitality
in times when there were no inns along
the roads from town to town. The
voluntary charity of the Church main
tained the poor before the Reformation,
and it was not until the Church had
been deprived of a large part of its
property at that period that the State
found itself obliged to make poor laws.
A large proportion of the tithe — pro- ,
bably more than a third — was taken
from the Church at the Reformation
(together with the property of the
monasteries), and given to laymen.
Under the old system of taking tithe
in kind, it was not uncommon for a
custom to be established by which
some fixed sum of money, or quantity
of corn, or some other tithable goods,
was taken by the tithe-owner instead
of the literal tithe ; this fixed sum or
quantity was called a modus. At
length, in the reign of William IV., an
Act was passed to make a similar com
mutation of tithe generally. Tho
principle of the Act 6 & 7 William
IV. cap. 71 (and supplementary Acts)
was to substitute a corn-rent, per
manent in quantity though fluctuat
ing in value, and payable in money,

TITHE

593 TOLERATION ACT, THE

for all tithes. Commissioners were
appointed, who ascertained the clear
average value (making deductions for
collecting, marketing, &o.) of the tithes
of each parish according to the average
of seven years preceding Christmas,
1835, and fixed that as the sum to be
taken in calculating the rent-charge
to.be paid as a permanent commutation
of the tithe. Having thus ascertained
the average annual money value of the
tithe, the Commissioners proceeded to
calculate the annual rent-charge to be
¦paid each year as follows: "A con
troller of corn-returns was to publish
in January every year what had been
the average price of a bushel of wheat,
of barley, and of oats, for the seven pre
ceding years. It was estimated how
many bushels of wheat, barley, and
oats could have been purchased by
the said estimated value of rent-charge,
supposing 1*. Zd. of it to have been
spent on such kind of corn, at the then
seven years' average price of 7s. O^d.
for a bushel of wheat, 3s. ll^d. for a
bushel of barley, and 2s. 9d. for a bushel
of oats. And in future the rent-charge
was to be calculated every year on
that fixed number of bushels of each
kind of corn, at the average prices of
the preceding seven years. The clergy
probably made some sacrifice in the
fixing of the value of their tithe, but
gained in return a more easy mode of
recovering their rent-charge, and were
saved much local disputation and
scandal. The mode of calculation has
answered expectation, inasmuch as
every £100 of estimated value actu
ally produced a little more than £100
a-year on the average of the fifty years
since the date of the commutation.
With the prevalent low prices of com
for some years past the value of the
rent charge has diminished ; in 1866
by about 10 per cent. It is to be noted
that it is expressly provided that the
commutation does not extend to Easter
offerings, mortuary or surplice fees, or
to tho tithe of fish or of fishing, or any
personal tithes other than the tithes
of mills, or any mineral tithes.

TITHES, EXTRAORDINARY. The
Commissioners were empowered to
make a separate valuation of the
value of the tithe of hop-gardens,
orchards, or gardens, according to the
average rate of composition for the
tithes of similar lands during the seven
years preceding Christmas, 1835, within
a certain district ; and an ordinary and
extraordinary charge for tithes was to
be fixed for such crops. Hop-grounds
or market-gardens going out of culti
vation wero to be subject to the ordin
ary charge ; such as were newly culti
vated after the commutation were to pay
the extraordinary charge ; only pro
vision was made that the extraordin
ary charge should not be made till
after so many years as the particular
crop required to come into profitable
bearing. An Act of Parliament in
1866 dealt with the extraordinary tithe
in the following way : Extraordinary
tithe was abolished on all land which
should after the passing of the Act be
brought under crops formerly liable to
it ; also it was enacted that the capital
value of the extraordinary charge on
each farm or parcel of land now subject
to it should be ascertained by the Land
Commissioners, and that a charge of
4 per cent, on that capital value should
be paid in lieu of the extraordinary
charge. (Selden, 'History of Tithes;' R.
Tillesley on Selden's 'History of
Tithes ; ' Bishop Kennett on ' Lay Pa
tronage;' Professor Stubbs's (Bishop
of Chester) ' Constitutional Hist, of
England ; ' Sir R. Phillimore's ' Eccle
siastical Law,' London, 1873.)
TOLERATION ACT, THE, passed on
the accession of William and Mary
(1689), while not formally repealing
any of the statutes, which required
conformity, yet exempted from the
penalties of the acts all except Papists
and Unitarians, on taking the oaths of
allegiance and supremacy. It relieved
dissenting ministers from the penalties
of the Conventicle Act, on signing the
39 Articles, except the 34th, 35th, 36th,
and part of the 20th ; the dissenting

Q Q

TOMB, ALTAR

594

TRACTARIAN

meeting-houses were to be registered,
and their congregations protected.
" 1 1 was the Great Charter of Dissent "
(Macaulay, ii. 322). Lord Mansfield, in
moving the judgment of the House of
Lords on the case of the Dissenters
against the Corporation of London,
said : " The Dissenters' way of worship
is permitted and allowed by this Act.
It is not only exempted from punish
ment, but rendered innocent and law
ful ; it is established ; it is put under
the protection, and is not merely under
the connivance of the law" (Macaulay,
ii. 332).
TOMB, ALTAR. [See Altar Tomb. ]
TONSURE, a partial shaving of the
head. It was for centuries the custom of
the clergy to be tonsured as a personal
mark of their calling. There are several
fashions of the tonsure. The Eastern
clergy shaved the hair away from the
forehead, the Western from the crown,
the Celtic clergy had some special
fashion of tonsure apparently different
from both. In the Middle Ages in
England the secular clergy had a small
tonsure on the crown ; the monks had
so extensive a tonsure of the crown as
to leave only a rim of hair remaining.
The fashion of the clerical tonsure
was abandoned in England at the
Reformation. TRACERY, the ornamental network
of stone which springs from the up
right mullions and fills the head of a
Gothic window. In late thirteenth
century and early fourteenth centuiy
work, the head of the window was
filled with thin slabs of stone, through
which ornamental openings were pierced
in geometrical patterns. The archi
tects of the Decorated period conceived
the idea of treating this ornamental
pattern-work as if it were produced by
the extension of the mullions, and the
interlacing of the bars of stone into a
network. The patterns of early Decor
ated work were, however, of geometri
cal forms. It was later in tho style
that the designers gave the rein to
their imaginations in the invention of
an infinite variety of graceful flowing

patterns. This fanciful treatment of bars
of stone as if they were plastic seems to
have appeared to the architects of tho
Perpendicular style to be a violation
of true canons of taste, and they
adopted a stiffer style of treatment,
continuing the principal mullions in a
straight line from top to bottom of the
window, and subdividing these spaces
by other mullions, and filling the heads
of the larger and subordinate panels
with cusped niches in a true style of
stone design.
The term is also applied to the filling
in of any openings, or panellings, with
patterns designed on the same principle's
as above described.
TRACTARIAN, a name given to a
party in the. Church, who in the second
quarter of the present century took
united action for the revival of primi
tive theology in the Church of England.
The Rev. Hugh James Rose, editor of
the ' British Magazine, ' was probably
the person with whom the idea of a
united party arose ; the Common Room
of Oriel College, Oxford, became the
chief scene of its consultations ; New
man, Pusey, Keble, Froude, I. Williams,
Palmer, Wilberforce, were the greatest
names among the fellow-labourers.
Their first attempt was to found an
"Association of Friends of the Church "
on these two bases. (1) To maintain
pure and inviolate the doctrines, the
services, and the discipline of the
Church ; that is, to withstand all change
which involves- the denial and suppres
sion of doctrine, a departure from primi
tive practice in religious offices, or inno
vation upon the apostolic prerogatives,
order and commission of bishops, priests,
and deacons. (2) To afford Churchmen
an opportunity of exchanging their
sentiments, and co-operating together
on a large scale.
The proposed society did not find
favour in high quarters, and the idea
was abandoned. The friends took up
instead the work of influencing public
opinion by the publication of a series
of pamphle'ts, which they called ' Tracts
for the Times, ' and which gave the name

TRACTARIAN

595

TRANSOM

of Tractarian to the party. The pub
lication of these commenced in 1833,
and continued at intervals during the
next eight years ; the last of them, the
famous 'No. 90,' being published in
1841. The earlier tracts aimed chiefly at
familiarising the minds of English
Churchmen with primitive principles,
as presented in the writings of the
Ante-Nicene Fathers, and adopted into
the theology of the English Church by
the great seventeenth centuiy theolo
gians, as Cosin, Beveridge, Wilson, and
Bull ; in the later tracts different ques
tions were taken one by one — as Apos
tolic Succession, Baptism, the Eucharist
— and the Church view of them set forth
in argument or supported by catenas of
extracts from the great Church writers
of all ages. The principal writers of
the tracts were Newman, Pusey, Froude,
and I. Williams.
At length (1841) ' Tract 90 ' on the
Thirty-nine Articles, by J. H. Newman,
appeared, and raised a storm of opposi
tion. The object of the tract was to
show that the Thirty-nine Articles,
drawn up as articles of comprehension
and peace, were capable of being inter
preted in a sense in which they could
be subscribed "by those who aim at
being Catholic in heart and doctrine."
It had been so much the custom to take
for granted that the Articles favoured
the " Calvinistic '' school in the Church,
that to the popular mind this assertion
that they had been so drawn as not
expressly to exclude an "Arminian"
acceptation, seemed like a deliberate
attempt at a non-natural interpreta
tion of them, and deliberate evasion
of their value as a doctrinal standard.
Four Oxford tutors made themselves the
mouthpiece of the opposition, and in a
letter to the Heads of Houses represent
ed the tract as " having a tendency to
mitigate the differences between Roman
and Anglican doctrine ; " and the Heb
domadal Board formally condemned
the tract. The condemnation was ut
tered in the face of an appeal for a day's
delay in order that the writer might ex

plain that hehad been misunderstood and
did not hold the views attributed to him.
This decision that the Articles must
be received as inconsistent with Catho
lic doctrine, and the unfairness with
which it was thought that the authori
ties had acted towards the Tractarian
party, led to a number of. secessions
from the Church of England to the
Roman schism. Two years later a
sermon by Dr. Pusey on the Eucharist
was also condemned by the University
authorities, and this again resulted in
a number of secessions. Some of those
who seceded were men of great emi
nence, as Newman, Maskell, Manning,
Wilberforce ; and their secessions ex
cited great expectations of still further
results. Rome, on one hand, anticipated
the possibility of the recovery of Eng
land to the papal obedience, or at least
of a vast schism which would utterly
break the power of the Reformed Church
of England. On the other hand, it was
thought that the shock of these seces
sions to Rome would afford such an
evidence of the dangerous tendencies
of the new theological school as would
effectually drive the bulk of the Church
and nation into opposition to it.
Neither expectation was fulfilled. Rome
has received a certain number of con
verts, a remarkable proportion of them
being persons of high social position ;
but the total number of converts to
Rome since 1841 has been very small.
On the other hand, the nation showed
itself capable, now as at the time of
the Reformation, of distinguishing be
tween sound primitive principles and
the usurpations and corruptions of
Rome ; willing to adopt the one, and
as firmly as ever determined to reject
the other.
TRANSEPT. The transverse limb of
a church of cruciform plan. Some
churches have two transepts.
TRANSLATION, the removal of a
bishop from one see to another.
TRANSOM, a horizontal bar of stone
across a window or other similar space.
It is mostly found in fifteenth and six
teenth century Gothic architecture.

QQ 2

TRANSUBSTANTIATION 596 TRANSUBSTANTIATION

TRANSUBSTANTIATION is a theory
invented by the schoolmen of the
Middle Ages to explain the mode of
Christ's presence in the Sacrament.
The theory is, that in the Eucharist,
after the consecration of the elements
of bread and wine, the whole substance
of the bread is converted into the sub
stance of the Body of Christ, and the
substance of the wine into His Blood,
so that the bread and wine no longer
remain, but the Body and Blood of
Christ have been substituted in their
places. To understand the theory, it is neces
sary first to explain that the philoso
phical system which these theologians
had adopted taught a theory about the
substance and the accidents of things as
follows : The form of anything is not of
its essence, it is only an accident of it ;
the roughness or smoothness, the colour,
the taste, the smell, &c. — all these are
not of the essence of the thing, they
are only accidents of its being ; under
lying, or rather standing under (sub-
stans) all these, and as it were support
ing them, is the very thing itself, and
this is not within the cognisance of
our senses.
So as to the mode of Christ's presence
in the Sacrament : their theory was,
that in the bread all the accidents of
bread continued after consecration un
changed ; its form, colour, taste, smell,
&c. ; in short, all that is cognisable by
the senses ; but that the substance of
bread had been changed into the sub
stance of the Body of Christ. And so
with the wine : that the accidents of
wine remained unchanged, but that the
substance of wine had been changed
into the substance of the Blood of
Christ. The reply is, that this philosophical
theory of substance and accidents is a
mere metaphysical conception — a way
of thinking of things ; but that there
is no such thing in the nature of things
as an underlying or substanding some
thing, independent of all its accidents,
and not cognisable by the senses ; in
short, that it is all a figment of the

brain ; in fact, this philosophical theory
has long since ceased to be accepted
as true.
The controversy on this subject began
about 831 a.d., when Paschasius Rad-
bert, a monk (afterwards abbot) of
Corbie, writing on the subject, used
language which was novel, and not
always quite consistent, but which
seemed on the whole to maintain a
change in the substance of the bread
and wine. . Rabanus Maurus and
Johannes Scotus Erigena wrote against
the views of Paschasius, as also did
Bertram, or Ratramn, a monk of
Corbie, whose book, still extant, is
said to have had great influence in
forming the opinion of Ridley and
Cranmer on the subject. His state
ments are clear and distinct. "By all
that hath been hitherto said, it appears
that the Body and Blood of Christ,
which are received by the mouths of
the faithful in the Church, are figures
in respect of their visible nature ; but
in respect of the invisible substance,
that is, the power of the Word of God,
they are truly Christ's Body and Blood.
Wherefore, as they are visible creatures,
they feed the body ; but as they have
the virtue of a more powerful substance,
they do both feed and sanctify the
souls of the faithful." The same doc
trine is taught by iElfric, Archbishop
of York, towards the close of the Saxon
period of our Church history, as may
be seen in some extracts given in his
biography. [See Mltric]
The tendency of the times was, how
ever, in the direction of superstition,
and the opinion of a transmutation of
the bread and wine into the carnal
substance of the Body and Blood of
Christ grew apace. Berengarius, op
posing the growing belief, perhaps with
some unguardedness of language, was
encountered in argument by Lanfranc,
afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury ;
and in two Councils at Rome (1078 and
1079), under Gregory VII., Berengarius
was condemned. In tho first Council
he was required to acknowledge merely
that the real Body and Blood of Christ

TRANSUBSTANTIATION

597

TRENT, COUNCIL OF

were present in the Eucharist, but in
the second he was required to admit
that "the bread and wine are sub
stantially converted into the Body and
Blood of Christ, which Body, after
consecration, is present not only sacra-
mentally, but in verity of substance."
It is doubtful when the term Transub-
"stantiation was first used ; it is said
to have been invented by Stephen,
Bishop of Augustodunum, about 1100
A.D., in his book 'De Sacramentis
Altaris. ' The doctrine was fully defined
and authoritatively set forth as an
article of faith at the Council of
Lateran, under Pope Innocent III., in
1216 A.D. " Christ's Body and Blood
are really contained under the species
of bread and wine, the bread being
transubstantiated into His Body, and
the wine into His Blood. " Finally, the
Council of Trent (1551 a.d.) confirmed
the doctrine that "by consecration
there is a conversion of the whole
substance of the bread and wine into
the substance of Christ's Body and
Blood." And the Creed of Pope Pius
IX., which is a setting forth of the
Tridentine doctrines, says that "the
Body and Blood of Christ, together
with his Soul and Divinity, are truly
and really and- substantially in the
Eucharist, and that there is a conver
sion of the whole substance of the bread
into His Body, and of the whole sub
stance of the wine into His Blood ;
which conversion the Catholic Church
calls Transubstantiation."
This definition, depending upon the
subtle and unreal distinction of sub
stance and accidents, is capable of
being held in a way which differs little
from the primitive and true doctrine,
and has been so held by some of the
greatest of Roman authorities, as St.
Bernard, Peter Lombard, Thomas
Aquinas, Cardinal Cajetan ; and, at the
time of the Reformation, our own
Tunstal, Bishop of Durham, said, " Be
fore the Lateran Council it was free
to every one to hold as they would
concerning the manner, and that it
would have been better to leave curious

persons to their own conjectures ; "
and Gardilier, in his controversy with
Cranmer, said : " The Catholic teaching
is, that the manner of Christ's presence
in the Sacrament is spiritual and super
natural, not corporal, not carnal, not
sensible, not perceptible, but only
spiritual, the how and manner whereof
God knoweth."
But other minds accepted the doc
trine of Transubstantiation in a much
grosser form ; e. g. at the Council at
Rome under Nicholas II. (1059 a.d.)
it was laid down that the bread and
wine, after consecration, become the
very Body and Blood of Christ, and
that they are touched and broken by
the hands of the priests, and ground
by the teeth of the faithful, not sac-
ramentally only, but in truth, and
sensibly. And the grossest form of
the superstition is expressed in the
legendary story that after the conse
cration he saw a child laid on the
paten ; and in the mediaeval story that
a Jew, having secreted a consecrated
Host, and stabbed it sacrilegiously with
a knife, it bled.
The complaint which the whole
Church has to make against the Roman
definition is — (1) That since the Scrip
ture has not revealed the mode of
Christ's presence in the Sacrament, it
would have been far wiser not to at
tempt to define it. (2) That the defini
tion of Transubstantiation is a meta
physical subtlety based upon a philo
sophical theory now exploded and
obsolete. (3) That its definition has
obscured the truth, has encouraged tho
growth of several superstitions round
about the Sacrament, and has brought
the Sacrament itself into disrepute.
[See Real Presence, Consuhstantia-
tion.] TRENT, COUNCIL OF. The move
ment in the sixteenth century in favour
of a reform of the Chnrch, which led to
the assertion of its independence by tho
Church of England, and excited war
in Germany, and discord throughout
Europe, at last compelled the Pope to
accede to the demand for a General

TRENT, COUNCIL OF

598

TRIFORIUM

Council to reform abuses and restore.
peace. Pope Paul III. convoked a
Council to assemble in 1536, but owing
to difficulties and disputes as to' the
place in which it should be held,
it did not actually begin its labours
until Dec. 1545, at the city of Trent,
in the valley of the Adige, among the
mountains of the Tyrol. The objects
proposed to the Council were the
extirpation of heresy, the re-estab
lishment of ecclesiastical discipline,
the reformation of morals, and the
restoration of peace and unity. The
business was divided into sections,
and committed to different congrega
tions (or committees) ; when a congre
gation had arrived at its conclusions
on the subjects committed to it, they
were submitted for acceptance at a
general congregation. In March 1547
the Council was interrupted by a papal
decree transferring the Council to
Bologna on the plea that a dangerous
sickness had broken out at Trent ; this
was opposed by the emperor and about
a third of the members of the Council.
When the papal legates reopened the
sessions at Bologna, the one-third
under the protection of the emperor
continued to sit at Trent ; and the
business was prorogued in order to
effect a reunion of the Council. In
1549 Paul III. died, and his successor
Julius III. issued a Bull re-establishing
the Council at Trent. Its sessions con
tinued to be held from time to time
till Dec. 3 and 4, 1563, and its acts
were confirmed by a Bull dated Jan. 6,
1564. The labours of the Council tra
versed the whole field of the constitu
tion, discipline, and doctrine of the
Church, and its canons were not arrived
at without strenuous contests on behalf
of the princes in defence of their
authority, of the national Churches on
behalf of their liberties, of theologians
against the mediaeval innovations of
the Council, of the Church as a whole
against the papal claims to supremacy.
The total result was to correct many
of the abuses of the Roman Court and
of the Church generally ; on the other

hand, to consolidate the erroneous doc
trines and practices which had gradu
ally found acceptance into hard defini
tions, and to bjid them irrefragably on
the neck of the Roman Communion.
The Creed of Pius IV., containing in
twelve articles a summary of the de
cisions of the Council, is thus briefly
described by Barrow: "Their new
Creed of Pius IV. containeth these
novelties and heterodoxies. 1. Seven
sacraments. 2. Trent doctrines of
justification and original sin. 3. Pro
pitiatory sacrifice of the Mass. 4. Tran
substantiation. 5. Communicating
under one kind. 6. Purgatory. 7. In
vocation of saints. 8. Veneration of
reliques. 9. Worship of images.
10. The Roman Church to be the
mother and mistress of all Churches.
11. Swearing obedience to tho pope.
12. Receiving the decrees of all Synods
and of Trent."
The Council was accepted in Italy,
Spain, and Germany. France declined
to recognise it as a General Council,
but accepted its doctrinal definitions,
and caused certain of its disciplinary
decrees to become law by royal ordin
ances. England was not represented
at the Council, and altogether rejected
it, having in the mean time concluded
its national Reformation. The Trent
decrees were published at the end of
1563 ; the English Thirty-nine Articles
in January of the same year. The
great contemporary histories of the
Council are by Paolo Sarpi (English
translation by Brent) and Cardinal
Pallavicino. The canons and decrees
of the Council will be found in an Eng
lish translation, with a history of the
Council, by J. Waterworth. London :
1848. TRENTAL, a group of thirty masses
for the dead, intended to be said every
day for a month, but might be said in
a single day by thirty different clergy
men, e. g. by a convent of friars.
TRIFORIUM, the gallery which runs
along the upper part of a church, either
at the base of the clerestory windows,
or between the arcade, and the clerea-

TRINITARIANS

599

TROPIARIUM

tory, in the space between the groining
and the timber roof of the aisles.
TRINITARIANS, an order of Friars
of the Order of tho Httly Trinity, for
the redemption of captives, otherwise
called Maturines, is one which especial
ly commends itself to our sympathy.
The Mohammedan States of North
Africa were for several centuries a
scourge to the commerce of Europe,
and a terror to the inhabitants of the
coasts of the Mediterranean. They
cruised continually about the Great Sea
with their galleys, and captured mer
chant ships ; they made descents upon
the coast, plundered villages and
towns and country houses, and carried
off their captives into slavery. The
Knights of St. John of Jerusalem, after
their original service was terminated
by the expulsion of the Christians from
the Holy Land, acted first at Cyprus,
then at Rhodes, and lastly at Malta,
as the police of the Mediterranean, and
waged a ceaseless war against these
pirates. But in spite of the vigilance
and prowess of the Knights, from cap
tured ships and ravaged villages_ many
captives, men, women, and children,
of all ranks and classes, were con
tinually carried off into slavery. It
was -not till so late as the time of
Charles II. that tho last of these
strongholds of piracy was destroyed by
an English fleet, and the Mediterranean
Sea and coasts delivered from the
¦Algerian corsairs.
About 1197 two Frenchmen, John
do Matlia and Felix de Valois, founded
an Order for the Redemption of Cap
tives. They received endowments and
collected alms for the purpose of paying
ransoms ; they established houses for
this purpose in the various countries of
Europe, and planted a house of their
Order in Africa as the agent of their
negotiations with the infidel.
They were introduced into England
about 1224, at Thellesford Priory in
Warwickshire, and subsequently they
-had ten or eleven other houses in
England, whose names are given below.
Their rule was that of St. Augustine.

Their habit was white, with a Greek
cross of red and blue upon the breast —
the three colours being taken as sym-
^i^ljfial of the Holy Trinity, viz. white
'•$'. . ,".ne Father ; blue, which was the
transverse limb of the cross, for the
Son ; and red for the Holy Spirit.
They were called Trinitarians from
their special devotion to the Holy
Trinity, all their houses being so dedi-.
cated, while St.' Rhadegunda was their
patron saint ; they were sometimes
called Maturins after the name of their
founder, and Brethren of the Order of
the Holy Trinity for the Redemption
of Captives from their object. On
the decay of the Order of the Holy
Sepulchre, consequent upon the loss
of the Holy Land, the revenues of
that Order were transferred to the
Trinitarians. Modenden, Kent ; Donnington,
Berks ; Little Totness, Devon ; Wer-
land juxta Totness ; Hounslow ; Ber
wick, Northumb. ; Walknole, New
castle ; Thursfield, Oxon ; Thellesford,
Warwick ; Eston, Wilts ; Worcester ;
Knaresborough, Yorks.
TRINITY SUNDAY. The cycle of
holy days connected with the life of our
Lord was completed in the English and
German Churches by the addition of
Trinity Sunday, on the octave of Pente
cost. This was perhaps a traditional
relic of the independent customs of the
Celtic Church. Gervase of Canterbury
asserts that the festival was instituted
by Becket soon after his consecration on
that Sunday, in 1162 ; but it seems to
have been in some English Office Books
before that date. Becket may have
enjoined its general observance, and
thus brought it into notice ; which
would agree with the fact that , the
Synod of Wales in 1260 enjoined
its observance, and that it was adopted
by the Roman Church at the end of
the fourteenth century. Still it is only
in England and Germany that the
subsequent Sundays are named after
Trinity ; in other Western Churches they
are still named after Pentecost.
TROPIARIUM, one of the old

TRURO

600

TYNDALE, WILLIAM

service books containing the Tropes.
These were one or more verses sung
either before or after the Introit and
hymns in the service of the High MVy»cr
and sometimes in the middle of tln.i„
There is no doubt that they were
introduced by the monks about 1000
a.d., and were soon adopted into the
service of the cathedral and parish
churches, and quickly increased in
number. They were often included in
the same volume with the Sequences,
and both Tropes and Sequences were
often included in the Gradual (Maskell).
TRURO, DIOCESE OF. The history
of the early Church in Cornwall is very
obscure. It is probable that Cornwall
had become to a great extent Christian
ised before the Romans left Britain.
Cornwall and Western Devonshire,
known by the name of Damnonia,
retained their independence under
British princes, and the continuity of
their Church life. We have no his
torical list of Cornish bishops, but the
British bishops who are recorded to
have assisted in the coronation of St.
Chad in a.d. 644 can hardly have come
from any other region, and tradition
has preserved some few names. Athel
stan finally reduced Cornwall to sub
jection in 926, and incorporated the
Cornish with the English Church, and
Cornwall became thenceforward an
English diocese. Where the see was
originally fixed is not known ; both St.
Germans and the church of St. Petrock
at Bodmin have historical claims, and
it is possible that both were sees of
bishops under the West Saxon rule. On
the death of the Bishop of Cornwall in
1027, Liveing added Cornwall to his
see of Crediton. In 1046 the see of
the united dioceses was fixed at Exeter,
Cornwall forming an archdeaconry of
that see. [See Exeter, Diocese of.]
In tho Additional Bishoprics Bill of
1876 (39 and 40 Victoria, c. 54), per
mitting the foundation of six new
bishoprics on condition of their en
dowment with an income of not less
than £4500, Cornwall was one of the
new districts' selected. The requisite

income having been raised, partly by
the resignation by the Bishop of Exeter
of £500 of the income of that see, partly
. by voluntary donations, Cornwall was
"once more, after the lapse of 650 years,
created a separate dioeese by Order in
Council, gazetted Dec. 15, 1876 ; and
the parish church of St. Mary, Truro,
was assigned as its cathedral, subject
to the rights of the incumbent, patron,
and parishioners ; and Truro was raised
to the dignity of a city. Steps were
speedily taken to build a suitable
cathedral, which will from the first
have something of the architectural
variety and historical interest of our
ancient cathedrals, since the fine fif
teenth century aisle of the old parish
church is retained as the parish church
of St. Mary, and incorporated into the
new plan, with a small tower at its
west end to contain the parish bells.
The Archdeaconry of Cornwall, with
its endowment derived from a stall in
Exeter, was transferred to the new
diocese ; and the Act founded a body
of twenty-four honorary canonries,
who, until the creation of a dean and
chapter, are under the regulation of
the bishop. The first bishop, Edward
White Benson, was consecrated in St.
Paul's cathedral, April 25, 1877 ; he
shortly nominated a number of honorary i
canonries, and assigned to four of them
duties corresponding to those of the
dean, chancellor, precentor, and trea
surer of the chapters of the old founda
tion ; and after an episcopate of seven
years, which did much to illustrate
the vast importance of the episcopal
office as a means of organising and
stimulating Church work, he was trans
lated to the archiepiscopal see of
Canterbury in 1883 ; and was suc
ceeded by George Russell Wilkinson.
TUNICLE, a vestment worn by sub-
deacons. It is representee; in ancient
pictures like a shorter and scantier dal
matic, it may also have had less orna
mentation. [See Vestments, Clerical.]
TYNDALE, WILLIAM, Martyr.
The author of that translation of tho
New Testament from which, through

TYNDALE, WILLIAM

601

TYNDALE, WILLIAM

successive revisions [see Bible], our
present version is derived, was born of
good family at Hunt's Court, Glouces
tershire, about 1477 ; educated partly at
Oxford, partly at Cambridge ; ordained
priest,1502,to the Nunnery of Lambley,
Carlisle ; and became friar in the Ob
servant Friary at Greenwich in 1508.
An autograph MS. containing trans
lations of portions of the New Testa
ment, dated 1502, still exists, and shows
that at that early period, twenty-three
years before the publication of his
New Testament, his mind was already
turned in this direction ; and these
early translations are nearly the same
as in the first published work. En
gaged as tutor and chaplain in the
family of Sir I. Welch in Gloucester
shire, he became known for his sym
pathy with the reforming school in the
Church, and especially for his advocacy
of the popularisation of the Scriptures.
Arguing on one occasion with a divine
of the opposite school, he uttered the
phrase which has been so often quoted
(and misquoted): "If God give me
, life, ere many years the ploughboys
shall know more of the Scriptures than
you do." With introductions from
Sir I. Welch, Tyndale went up to
' London, and sought an appointment
as one of the chaplains of the Bishop
of London, Tunstal, who was a patron
of "the new learning," sending a
translation of one of the Orations of
Isocrates as an evidence of his attain
ments. Such ah appointment would
have given him leisure for his great
work, and a probable patron for it
when it was done ; but there is no
ground for believing that he acquainted
the bishop with his plans ; and in the
bishop's reply to the unknown scholar,
that he had no vacancy in his house
hold, we have a sufficient reason for
his failure to give his patronage to a
great man for a great undertaking. He
found shelter in the household of
Humphrey Monmouth, one of the
Aldermen of London, who, attracted
by some sermons he had heard him
preach, took him into his house

hold as a kind of chaplain, promising
him ' ' ten pounds sterling to praie for
my father and mother, there sowles,
and al christen sowles. " In the latter
part of 1523, aided by the benevolent
alderman's ten pounds (equal to £100
of our money), Tyndale sailed for the
Continent, never to return to England.
Here he is said to have conferred with
Luther, and been encouraged in his
design to translate the Scriptures into
English ; and he seems to nave been
supported, while engaged in the work,
by the English merchants settled in
the foreign cities in which he resided.
The first edition of his work, probably
of three thousand copies, without notes,
was published in 1525 ; and a second
edition with a preface and notes was
published in the following year. Other
editions, and pirated editions by the
printers of Flanders, rapidly followed,
and were secretly introduced into Eng
land by the Flemish and English mer
chants. The English authorities in
Church and State forbade the use of
Tyndale's work on the ground that it
was an inaccurate translation, and
that its notes taught false doctrine.
Sir T. More wrote against it ; the
Bishop of London preached against
it at Paul's Cross ; copies of it were
burnt by the hangman ; those found
in possession of it were punished by
fine, imprisonment, and in one case
(Harding's), aggravated by a former
conviction for heresy, by death. The
persecution of the book naturally made
men the more anxious to read it ; and
in spite of all difficulty and danger it
circulated widely, and had a great
influence in promoting the growth of
the anti-Roman feeling. In 1529 he
began the publication of his translation
of the Old Testament separately, book
by book, as they were finished. The
MS. of Deuteronomy having been lost
in a shipwreck on his way to Hamburg
to get it printed there, he wrote it
over again with the assistance of
Coverdale, whom he met at that city.
Besides his translations of the Scrip
tures, Tyndale wrote a number of other

UNITARIAN

602

UNIVERSITY

treatises on the subjects then every
where under dispute (a list of which
is given by Mr. Offor, the Editor of
Tyndale's ' New Testament ').
During the latter years of his life,
Tyndale lived at Antwerp and acted as
chaplain to the company of British
Merchants there. After vain en
deavours to allure him to England
within reach of his enemies, a warrant
for his apprehension, from the Imperial
authorities at Brussels, was obtained
by an agent of the English Govern
ment, and Tyndale was imprisoned for
two years at Vilvorde, and in spite of
the efforts of his friends, condemned
and burnt there as a heretic in Septem
ber 1536.

UNITARIAN. The denial of the
distinction of Persons in the Godhead
is as ola as the heresies of the third
century. And this denial in various
forms has been repeated, and its deniers
gathered into a school, from time to
time. In the mental ferment of the
Reformation period Soeinus was the
representative of this heresy. But
modern Unitarianism as an organised
religious body dates only from the end
of the eighteenth century. There was
a school of semi-Arianism in the Church
of England in the beginning of the
century, of which Whiston and Dr.
Samuel Clarke were the most able
champions ; and a controversy between
them on one side, and Nelson, Leslie,
Waterland on the other, excited a large
share of public attention. Most of the
men of their opinions continued to
hold their places in the Church. Some
retired into private life. But Lindsay,
in 1773, having resigned his living of
Cattering, set up a meeting in Essex
Street, Strand, where he was assisted
by some other seceding clergymen, and
formed a congregation of sympathisers.
From this Essex Street congregation
modern Unitarians have sprung.
Priestly is their greatest name ; Bel-
sjialm's ' Calm Enquiry ' is their ablest

religious publication, and may be taken
as an exponent of their doctrines. They.
are only a small and diminishing body,
generally of well-to-do and educated-:.
people. The census of 1851 gave them.
229 congregations. But it is believed
that many, both ministers and people,
of some of the dissenting denomina
tions, are largely infected with Uni
tarian principles.
UNIVERSITY. The term was origin
ally applied to an educational organisa
tion in the sense which it bears in the
Roman Law, viz. to signify a corpora
tion, not in the modern sense of an
assemblage of all the sciences. It was
not till the twelfth century that the
word Universitas was used to signify a
gathering together of students and
teachers at one spot ; and the earlier
title of Scholcc, the Schools, survived
late into the middle ages. Certain
schools attained specialcelebrity through
accidental causes, as the patronage of a
sovereign, the genius of a great teacher,
or succession of teachers. In the eighth
centuiy the schools of York were famous
throughout Europe, and students came ,
to them from all parts. Tours became
equally famous when our English
Alcuin was its abbot, and many Eng
lish students resorted thither. The
schools of Paris were still more famous
in the thirteenth century.
Universities seem at first to have
been voluntary associations of clergy
for the purpose of promoting the study
of whatever arts and sciences were then
known in Western Europe. They
gradually acquired reputation ; it be
came the custom for students to seek
the greater advantages to be gained
from the illustrious teachers to be found
at these great centres of learning. The
students were examined at different
stages of their career, and the University-
conferred an honorary title on those
who satisfactorily passed the several
examinations, which was a certificate
to all the world of the bearers having
passed through a certain course of study
and attained a definite proficiency in it.
The course of reading in the schools

UNIVERSITY

603

UNIVERSITY

was four years in grammar, rhetoric
and logic,* before the student could be
admitted a Bachelor ; three years in
science, viz. arithmetic, music, geometry
and astronomy,* before inception as a
Master ; seven years' study before, as a
Bachelor of Theology, he could lecture
on the Sentences; and lastly, he must
study the Bible for three years, and
lecture on one of the Canonical Books,
before he could take his degree as a
Master or Doctor of Theology (' Muni-
nienta Academica,' Rolls Series). Then
he was at liberty to lecture on Theology
to any pupils who chose to attach
themselves to him.
The Church, in whose bosom, and
from the concourse of whose members,
these, institutions had sprung up, natur
ally incorporated them into her system,
subjected them to her discipline, and
gave authority and universal recognition
to their honorary distinctions. The law
recognised their corporation and pro
tected their privileges.
The first authentic records of our
two National Universities of Oxford
and Cambridge belong to the twelfth
century. It is to be noted that neither
was a cathedral town (Oxford was not
an Episcopal see till the time of Henry
VIII.). The course of education received a
new development by means of the
universities. The monks began to
send up their most promising scholars
to finish their education with the greater
advantages to be found at the univer
sities, and built or provided houses in
which their students might reside under
proper care. Bishops and lay bene
factors also built hostelries, or halls,
and provided stipends for students.
Out of these arose the mediaeval Col
leges. That of Merton at Oxford was
the earliest, and a peculiarity of its
foundation seems to mark its transition
character. Walter de Merton, Bishop
of Rochester, and Chancellor of Eng-
* These courses were called the trivium
and quadrivium respectively, and were sum
med up in the hexameter line — Lingua, tonus,
ratio ; numerus, tonuB, angulus, antra.

land, organised a body of students to
whom he assigned a house of residence
and revenues for their support, but his
house was not in or near any university,
and his intention was that his students
should resort to whatever place afforded
for the time the greatest educafional
advantages. Within ten years, how
ever, he built another house at Oxford,
which was then the second school of
the Church, — Paris being at that time
the first, — and transferred the whole
establishment thither, still providing
for its possible transfer to some other
place. The advantages which this new
college afforded, with its well-ordered
arrangements for religious and moral
training, and for private assistance in
prosecuting the studies of the uni
versity, induced others to follow the
example. The earlier colleges both at
Oxford and Cambridge, such as Oriel
and Peterhouse, were organised on the
same model. Those of later date, but
before the Reformation, such as New
College, Magdalen, &c, were based
upon the same principles, but included
more largely the liturgical character of
other ecclesiastical foundations, and in
their scholastic arrangements were more
expressly connected with the university
system. Those subsequent to the
Reformation were more strictly acade
mical, and more intimately related to
the universities. But all were in
themselves separate institutions, having
each its own revenues, corporate rights,
and internal discipline, over which the
universities had no control. In process
of time the old hostelries, or halls,
became deserted (with some exceptions
at Oxford), and disappeared, and all
the students were resident in, or affili
ated to, one or other of the colleges.
Thus the dignitaries of the colleges
naturally acquired the chief offices in
the universities ; university legislation
naturally was formed with a view to
the actual state of things, and thus tho
colleges gained as it were a monopoly
of the university. For the better dis
cipline of the students of the univer
sities, the university authorities were

UNIVERSITY

604

USE

clothed with exceptional magisterial
authority over the towns in which they
are situated.
Changes amounting to a revolution
have been made in the universities and
colleges by recent legislation. It is
only necessary to say here, (1) that
the university has been enlarged and
strengthened, by the addition of fresh
faculties to its course of education, and
of professors in those faculties, and the
j/rovision for students not members
of any college ; (2) that the colleges
have been secularised ; the endowments
anciently provided for keeping the
students under the religious and moral
discipline of a religious house, during
the dangerous years when they are
removed from parental control, and
subjected to the dangers incident to
university life, have been confiscated
to general educational purposes ; in
short, the Church has been robbed of
her colleges. With the spirit which
the Church has shown in other branches
of educational work, the Church has at
once set itself to provide new founda
tions for her children. Keble College,
at Oxford, founded on the Church lines
of the old colleges, has already attained
a prestige equal to that of the older
foundations. The Pusey Library, with
its staff of fellows, is a novel endow
ment of sacred literature, which is
calculated also to help in maintaining
the religious tone of the university.
A new hall at each university already
provides a religious home, though of a
humbler type, for a number of students.
The University of Durham was
founded a.d. 1S32, out of lands belong
ing to the Dean and Chapter of Durham ;
it was intended for the special conve
nience of residents of the Northern
counties ; but the increased facilities
for travel and the prestige of the older
universities have allowed it only a
moderate success.
The University of London was
founded 1826, while the religious tests
made a degree at Oxford or Cambridge
unobtainable by dissenters from the
Church. Its medical faculty is' the

most important part of its work, and it
has supplied a place of education to
numbers of the natives of India.
Among colleges, King's College, Lon
don, founded on Church of England
principles, has attained a high reputa
tion for the excellence of its course
and the attainments of its graduates.
Several other colleges for the education
of men for Holy Orders have been
founded in different parts of the country,
which will be found noticed under the
title Colleges, Theological.
USE. The particular mode of
celebrating Divine Service in use in- a
country, diocese, or Church. Every
bishop had power to make changes in
the mode of performing service ; the
power was only occasionally used,
but it served to give to different
places differing Uses, which, once
established, often continued for cen
turies. "The different Uses had
numberless variations, namely : differ
ent prayers, different arrangements of
them, different ceremonies to be ob
served in the administration of the
Sacrament" (Maskell). The Use of the
Saxon Church was first superseded
by Osmund, Bishop of Salisbury
(Sarum) (a.d. 1067—1087), in his own
cathedral, and his missal is found to
be almost identical with that of Rouen
of that period. Other Uses were
adopted in York, Hereford, Exeter,
Lincoln, Durham, Lichfield, Worcester,
St. Paul's London, * Bangor, Aberdeen,
and doubtless others of which the
records have perished. Indeed, every
cathedral, and some of the Monastic
Orders, had their peculiar customs.
Constitutions of bishops regulating the
ceremonies of their dioceses, are the
Registrum S. Osmundi, c. 1087 ; Lich
field, 1195 ; Durham, 1221 ; Oxford,
1222. The Use of Sarum was the most
extensively adopted, and that all over
England, but especially in the South.
The Use of a cathedral was not neces
sarily followed in all the churches of
the diocese.
* Which was abandoned by St. Paul's in
1414 for the Sarum Use,

VESPERS

605 VESTMENTS, CLERICAL

When the art of printing was intro
duced, only the Uses of Sarum, York,
and Hereford, were printed, which
perhaps indicates that they only were
so largely used as to make it worth
while thus to multiply copies of them.
A list of service books according to
these various uses may be found, and
a catalogue of liturgies, &c, by Mr. F.
H. Dickinson, and another and fuller
list by Mr. C. J. Stewart. Mr. Maskell
has published the Missal according to
the Uses of Sarum, York, Hereford,
Bangor, and the Roman liturgy in
parallel columns, with preface and notes
(3rd edition, 1882).

VESPERS. . [See Hours.]
VESTMENTS, CLERICAL. This
article will give a general sketch of
the origin and histoiy of the clerical
vestments from the beginning down to
the present time. Further information
about each will be found under its
proper title.
There is no proof that for the first
three centuries vestments of any ex
ceptional and distinctive kind were
worn by the clergy either in ordinary
life or in the exercise of their ministry.
The vestments which came at length to
be regarded as distinctive clerical vest
ments were such, as had originally been
worn by clergy and laity alike.
At an early period indeed it seems
to have been considered reverent and
proper for the clergy to reserve special
garments, though of the usual fashion,
for their ministrations, and not to wear
at the altar the self-same garment which
they wore in ordinary life. Naturally
the garments so reserved for ministerial
use would be good and handsome of
their kind. There is evidence that
exceptionally handsome garments were
sometimes given to an ecclesiastic, _ or
to a church, for special use in Divine
service. E. g. Constantine gave a
"sacred vestment" of gold tissue to
be used at baptisms to Macarius, Bishop
of Jerusalem : a charge was afterwards

brought against his successor, Cyril,
that he had sold this garment, and that
it had come into the possession of an
actor, who wore it on the stage, so
that we may conclude that the clergy
sometimes wore splendid robes in their
ministrations, but that there was
nothing distinctively clerical in the
shape. This reservation of special garments
for use in Divine service naturally led
in course of time to distinctive clerical
vestments. For when new fashions in
dress came in, the clergy would natur

ally be slow to adopt them, and espe
cially slow to introduce them into their
ministrations. The fact that many
garments of the old forms belonged to
the churches as ministering vestments,
some which had been given by an
Emperor or other great personage, some
which had been worn by a famous
bishop or saint, would ensure their con
tinued use ; others when required would
be likely to be made of the same shape

VESTMENTS, CLERICAL 606 VESTMENTS, CLERICAL

if only for the sake of uniformity. Thus
while secular fashions continued to
change, the old fashions, which had
ceased to be Worn by any but the
clergy, became distinctive of the clergy ;
and while the clergy slowly changed
the fashion of their ordinary gar
ments, always lagging in the rear of
secular fashions, the antique fashions
were stereotyped as ministerial vest
ments. We have to show what these garments
were, worn at first by all classes, which
became at length distinctively clerical
vestments. At the commencement of
the Christian era, as at the present day,
the existence of a general type of civilis
ation had caused the same style of
dress to prevail among all people of a
certain position in the social scale.
The toga had gone out of fashion in the
reign of Augustus, except on occasions
of state and ceremony, and the usual
male costume was the tunic and pal
lium ; in the writers of that period, tunica
palliumque is a collocation of words as
natural as " coat and trowsers " now.
The accompanving wood-cut, from a
painting in the Catacomb of Marcellinus,
Rome, which represents a man in a
tunic, will save any further description
of it, than that it was sometimes of
linen, sometimes of woollen material,
according to climate ; and that on
occasions of religion and ceremony a
long tunic was worn, its body reach
ing to the ancles and its sleeves to
the wrists. The pallium was a large,
plain, square, or nearly square, piece
of woollen fabric like a blanket or
plaid. It was worn in various ways ;
sometimes put round the neck, fastened
at the shoulder with a brooch or pin,
and left to fall naturally round the
person ; sometimes passed over the
ieft shoulder, drawn behind the back
under the right arm, leaving it bare,
and thrown again over the left shoulder,
covering the left arm ; sometimes, when
it would have been a hindrance in
running or other exertion, it was folded
twice or thrice length-wise, and thrown
over the shoulder. A man permanently

engaged in active occupation would lay
aside his pallium altogether.
For the first three centuries of the
Christian era, a Roman, or Greek,' or
Syrian gentleman, offering sacrifice, or
engaged in any" high religious cere
monial, Would Wear the long tunic, and
the toga or pallium ; and the colour of
these garments would be white, which
was the colour proper to such an occa
sion. He would, besides, when sacri
ficing, cover his head with a fold of his
toga, or with a separate piece of cloth,
a kind of veil with a purple border,
called an orarium.* The size of the
orarium was gradually reduced until
only the embroidered edge of it was
loft, like an ornamental band with
fringed ends, laid over the shoulders,
looking like a short stole ; as in the
figure of a Roman, offering sacrifice at
a heathen altar, engraved in Fairholt's
'Costume in England, 'p. 52. It seems
highly probable that the clergy of the
first three centuries wore, the costume
thus described, i. e. that they wore the
tunic and pallium in ordinary life like
other people ; that in their ministra
tions the deacon as a " young man," a
"servant," engaged in active service,
wore the long, white, sleeved tunic ;
that the priest and bishop wore also
the dignified pallium ; and all three
probably the orarium or prayer-veil.
In mosaics of the sixth century, in
the churches of Rome and Ravenna, we
find bishops, priests, and deacons thus
vested. Passing over some earlier notices, the
Council of Laodicea, a.d. 370 (the
Council which determined the Canon
of Scripture), has two canons on the use
of the orarium, allowing it to bishops,
priests, and deacons, and forbidding it
to sub-deacons, singers, and readers.
The Fourth Council of Toledo, a.d. 633,
describes the peculiar vestments and
insignia of the three sacred ordeis :
of the bishop the orarium, ring, and
* One of the subjects on the column of
Trajan represents the Emperor sacrificing in
such a costume, with an orarium on his
head.

VESTMENTS, CLERICAL 607 VESTMENTS, CLERICAL

staff ; of the priest the orarium and
planeta ; of the deacon the orarium and
alba (tunica), the orarium to be worn
over the left shoulder.
In the fourth century a new upper
garment came gradually into fashion,
and in time superseded the pallium in
general use. In the East it was called
a <ptjv6\tov, in the West a planeta. In
its early form it was a circular piece of
woollen cloth with a hole in the middle.
through which the head was passed,
and it fell in ample folds round the

Planeta.
person.* It is represented in the wood
cut, from the catacomb of Marcel-
linus. The adoption of the new
garment was so universal as even to
effect a revolution in clerical fashions ;
the planeta was worn by the clergy
first as an ordinary garment ; then,
after a while, it may be conjectured, it
was used in their ministrations ; and
• It still survives in the Spanish South
merican countries under the name of Poncho,
or Serapa.

lastly, when it went out of fashion in
ordinary wear, it was still retained as a
ministering vestment. At first the
planeta was Worn by all orders of the
clergy (Amalarius, ' De Eccl. Officiis,'
ii. 19 ; even acolytes ; Rock, ' Church of
our Fathers, ' ii. 13), but after a while its
use as a ministering vestment was re
stricted to bishops and priests. It super
seded the pallium both in the East t
and West ; and (in the West. under the
name of casula, chasuble) it has con
tinued in general use down to the pre
sent day. [See wood-cut below, and
on p. 605.]
The dalmatic was another upper
garment, in form like a short and wide
tunic slit up at the sides, with short
wide sleeves, and usually ornamented
with two narrow stripes in front
(like the clavi angusti of the ancient
Roman knights), with little em
broidered flowers springing from them.
At first worn as an ordinary outer
garment instead of the chasuble, it
seems to have been adopted by some
of the emperors as a part of the imperial
costume ; about the eighth century, if
not earlier, it was appropriated to the
deacons of the Roman Church as an
additional vestment over the alb ; and
by the tenth century had come into
general use as the distinctive vestment
of the deacon. But about the same
time it became the custom for the
higher clergy to wear the vestments
of all the orders through which they
had passed, so that bishops and priests
also, in full dress, wore the deacon's
dalmatic under the priestly chasuble.
A little later the sub-deacon wore_ a
tunicle, which was a scantier dalmatic.
The cope was simply a cloak ; the
shape in which we find it throughout
the middle ages is an exact semi
circle ; it had a hood attached behind
which could be drawn over the head.
As a clerical vestment it appears to
t The Nestorians, who broke off from the
rest of the Church in' latter half of the fifth
century, retain the pallium as the minister
ing vestment of the bishop and priest. See
' Christians under the Crescent,' p. 219.

VESTMENTS, CLERICAL 608 VESTMENTS, CLERICAL

have come into use towards the end of
the ninth century ; for one of the
earliest representations of its ceremo
nial use is in the Anglo-Saxon pontifical
at Rouen, which is of about a.d. 900.
Its original intention as a protection
from the weather, is indicated by its
name, pluviale, and by the hood, which
is so much a part of the original idea
of the vestment, that for centuries a
flat piece of ornamental embroidery has

Abbot Delamero. St. Albans.
always been appended at the back of
the cope to represent the hood. It
was worn by ail orders of the clergy
in processions and in choir, but not
(except perhaps a little before and a
little after the Reformation in England)
in the celebration of the Eucharist.
[See wood-cut under Procession.]
The surplice is the most modern of
the clerical vestments, and the only
one which was originally invented as

a clerical vestment. About the eleventh
century the use of a close-fitting gown
lined with fur became very general ;
the clergy found it very convenient to
wear in church; and probably because
the strait, girded alb looked ungraceful
over it, the surplice was invented, i. e.
the alb was modified into a surplice,
to be worn over the furred robe (whence
its name, superpelliceum) in all minor
offices, while the alb still continued
to be used by all the clergy in the
Euoharistic service. [See wood-cut
under Procession.]
From the beginning of the ninth
century we have formal treatises on
the clerical vestments, e. g. the ' De
Institutione Clericorum.' of Rabanus
Maurus, Abbot of Fulda, in the begin
ning of the ninth century. He speaks
of "the orarium which some call tha
stole," thus identifying the later stole
as the same vestment as the primitive
orarium. Amalarius of Metz, his con
temporary, wrote 'De Ecclesiasticis
Officiis.' Walafrid Strabo, a pupil cf
Rabanus, also wrote ' De Vasis et Ves-
tibus Sacris.' These ritual writings
of the ninth century are illustrated
by a contemporary MS. Pontifical of
Landulphus Bishop of Capua, in which
the text is accompanied by numerous
illustrations * representing the bishop
conferring all the various orders ; ail
having their proper costume and in
signia. Very soon after these garments had
become distinctive clerical vestments,
symbolical meanings were invented for
them, after the taste of the period.
Isidore of Pelusium in the fifth century
says that the alb symbolised the humi
lity of Christ, but St. Isidore of Seville,
in the sixth centuiy, saw in its white
colour a symbol of the purity which
becomes the clerical character ; and
this continued to be its recognised
meaning throughout the middle ages.
Of the chasuble, St. Germanus of Con
stantinople, in the eighth century, says
it is the symbol of our Lord's humility ;
• Engraved in D'Agincourt's ' L'Art par leu
Monuments,' plato 37.

VESTMENTS, CLERICAL 609 VESTMENTS, CLERICAL

Amalarius of Metz, in the ninth cen
tury, says it means good works ; Alcuin,
in the tenth century, makes it signify
charity, because it covers all the other
vestments, as charity excels all the other
virtues, and from that time forward
charity is its recognised meaning. Later
writers say that the dalmatic, being
in the form of a cross, signifies the
Passion of our Lord.
It will be convenient to mention
here the almuce, amess, or amys, which
was a short furred cope or cape, with
a hood attached. It was originally
worn by laymen as well as clergymen
as a piece of ordinary costume in the
thirteenth and fourteenth centuries.
It was permitted to canons of cathedral
and collegiate churches and some others
of the clergy to wear it while saying
their office in choir. Sumptuary regu
lations about the colour of the amys
and the kind of fur with which it should
be lined, made it a badge of rank, and
thus the amys under the name of the
hood has been retained to our day by
graduates of universities, &c, as an in
dication of their academical degree.
[See Hood.] The mediaeval amys had
a fringe of metal bells, or of the tails
of the animals with whose fur it was
lined, or its edge was vandyked in
imitation of such fringe, and in the
fifteenth century there were added in
front two stole-like strips which fell
down to the knee. Towards the end
of the sixteenth century this amys was
made almost like a shawl, longer behind
than before, and the two strips in front
began very wide, but quickly narrowed
into a point. In the portrait of Arch
bishop Warham, at Lambeth, just before
the Reformation, he wears a rochet,
and an amys edged with fur, and a cap.
The episcopal persons (Cranmer and
others) represented in the engraved
frontispiece to the Great Bible, wear
a similar costume. [See p. 91.] In
a portrait of Archbishop Parker (en
graved in Lodge's 'Portraits') he is
represented in very similar costume,
with rochet, amys without fur, and the
square cap.

The Cap. We luvwe seen that con
sideration for the health and comfort
of the clergy while officiating daily in
cold churches in inclement weather
had given rise to several vestments, viz.
the furred gown, and the furred amys
with its hood. The same motive led to
the permission to the clergy to wear a
cap in church ; the laity also were, then
as now (Canon of 1603), allowed a like
indulgence. The fashion of the cap
changed from time to time. In the four
teenth centuiy rather tall and round.
[See wood-cut under Processional.] In
the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries,
the usual form of the cap was a
round skull-cap, fitting close to the
head, and cut so as to come over the
ears and back of the head. In the
sixteenth century a square cap with
loose rounded corners was worn over
this close-fitting coif; then for con
venience the two were fastened together,
and formed the proper head-dress for
dignified persons ; this cap by change
of fashion at last assumed the square,
stiff shape of the "trencher" cap,
which is still worn at the Universities,
and which forms part of the modern
costume of a bishop.
The chimere, the name probably de
rived from the Italian Zimarra, which
is described as vesta talere de' sacerdoti
e de' chierici, was a long gown closed
all round, with apertures for the head
and arms to pass through ; formerly
scarlet, but afterwards changed for
the black satin chimere now worn by
bishops. The rochet differs from the surplice
principally in having narrower sleeves ;
the bishops now wear the chimere' with
rather full sleeves tied at the wrists.
Modern controversies have given a
special interest to the subject of the
changes which took place in clerical
costume at the Reformation.
The First Prayer Book of Ed. VI.'
ordered that whenever a bishop exe
cuted any public ministration he should.
wear, besides his rochet or surplice, an
alb and a . cope or vestment (i. e.

VESTMENTS, CLERICAL 610 VESTMENTS, CLERICAL

chasuble) and his pastoral staff; we know
from other sources that he also wore
the mitre and gloves. The same au
thority ordered that the priest celebrat
ing the Holy Communion should wear
the vesture appointed for- that ministra
tion, that is to say a white alb plain
(i. e. without " orphreys "), with a vest
ment (chasuble) or cope, and that the
ministers assisting in the service should
have upon them likewise the vestures
appointed for their ministry, that is to
say albs with tunicles (the dalmatic
was often called a tunicle).
Four years afterwards the Second
Prayer Book of Ed. VI. abolished, for all
orders of the clergy, at all times of their
ministration, all vestments except the
rochet and chimere for bishops, and the
surplice for the rest of the clergy. But
before this book had come into general
use it was suspended, with a view to
further alterations ; and before any
thing further could be done the young
king died. With the accession of Mary
all the old vestments, which had only
been partially laid aside, and were still
in the vestries of many of the churches,
were resumed or replaced, and continued
to be used till the death of Mary and
the accession of Elizabeth.
In the settlement of the Reformation
which followed, it was ordered that
the minister at the time of the com
munion, and at all other times in his
ministration, shall use such ornaments
(Omamenta = vestments, &c.) as were
in use by authority of Parliament in the
2nd of Ed. VI. It seems to have been
the intention to revert to the ancient
vestments as simplified at the beginning
of Edward's reign. But the persecutions
of Mary's reign had produced a bitter
hatred of the system which they had
been intended to enforce. Many of
the exiles who had taken refuge from
persecution on the continent brought
back with them a strong leaning to the
doctrines and customs of the foreign con
gregations which had sheltered them ;
they formed a numerous Puritan party,
infected with Calvinist and Zwinglian
views, who vehemently opposed the

orthodox doctrine and the ancient cere
monies, and sought to bring about fur
ther changes in the direction of the
Calvinistic model. They refused to
use even a surplice in church, as being
a rag of popery, wearing a Geneva cloak
instead ; and dressed like laymen in
ordinary life. In these circumstances
the rulers of the Church thought it
prudent to make practical concessions
to the opposition. The bishops, or
some of them, wore copes and chasubles,
as did some of the "High" Church
clergy ; but the ecclesiastical authori
ties contented themselves with insisting
upon the use of the surplice in church,
and some distinctive clerical apparel
out of church, as a minimum of ritual
and disciplinary observance.
This compromise was embodied in
certain Advertisements, dated March 28,
1566, which required that the cope and
surplice should be used in cathedrals,
the surplice in all other churches, and
that the clergy should wear a distinc
tive dress and cap out of doors. And
these requirements the bishops pro
ceeded (with more or less strictness
according to their own proclivities) to
enforce by penalties. At the beginning
of the reign of James I. the Prayer
Book was revised, and some alterations
and additions made to it ; the "Orna
ments Rubric " was retained ; but no
attempt was made to revive the vest
ments ordered in it. In the canons
put forth about the same time, the
Advertisements of 1566 were adopted
as the standard of ritual to be enforced,
viz. the cope and surplice in cathedrals,
with the Epistoler and Gospeller cor
responding, and the surplice in other
churches, with the academical hood. .
The reaction of the national mind
after the experiences of the Great Re
bellion, inclined the people to settle
down into an acceptance of sound
Church doctrine and discipline ; which
was not much disturbed by the lati
tudinarian principles introduced in
high places by the Revolution. Out
of doors the clergy universally wore
cassock and band and academical gown ;

VESTMENTS, CLERICAL 611 VESTMENTS, CLERICAL

in church the surplice was universally
accepted without scruple or distaste.
The cope was still used regularly in
Durham Cathedral, and at coronations
iii Westminster Abbey, and fell into dis
use everywhere else ; and the bishop's
black satin chimere and lawn sleeves
gradually took the ungraceful form
which they at present retain.
In our own time the High Church
revival of doctrine was succeeded by
a ritualistic revival [see Ritualist],
which sought among other things to
introduce the use of the ancient vest
ments. The revival led to litigation,
an account of which will be found under
the title Ritual Judgments. The Royal
(Ritual) Commission of 1867 left the
matter where it found it, with the
exception that its abstinence from
any recommendation to remove the
Ornaments Rubric helped greatly to
strengthen the case of the Ritualists.
The vestments of the First Book of
Ed. VI. are now worn in a rather con
siderable number of churches (' Macke-
son's Guide to the London Churches'
gives those in the London diocese) ; and
it is probable that Church legislation
may be needed to solve the difficulty
in which the matter lies. Perhaps
a canon permitting, but not ordering,
the clergy to wear some distinctive
I'WStment (which might be restricted
in' colour to white, and might be allowed
to be of the shape either of the full
ancient chasuble or of the ancient cope)
might find wide acquiescence as a
solution. Some of the bishops, being taxed
with the inconsistency of insisting
upon the Advertisements of Elizabeth
and the Canons of. 1603 as being the
present vestiary rule of the Church,
and yet not obeying it themselves,
have introduced a cope in their minis
trations in their cathedrals, e.g. the
late Bishop of London, the Bishops of
Manchester and Carlisle. It is true
their copes are very sombre, but other
bishops * may soon use «opes of a more
* Since the above was written the Bishop
of Lincoln has introduced a sumptuous white
embroidered cope.

sumptuous and ornate fashion ; and
in this way the public eye will get
accustomed to a handsome eucharistio
vestment ; and when the public mind
is not prejudiced by the symbolical
meaning which both sides have (un-
historically) attached to the chasuble,
it is not unlikely that it may willingly
accept the more general use of the cope,
if not of either vestment.
Rubrics on vestments of the First
Prayer Book of Ed. VI.— " In, the
saying or singing of Matins and Even
song, Baptizing and Burying, the min
ister, in parish churches and chapels
annexed to the same, shall use a sur
plice. And in all cathedral churches
and colleges, the archdeacons, deans,
provosts, masters, prebendaries, and
fellows, being graduates, may use in
the quire, besides their surplices, such
hood as pertaineth to their several de
grees which they have taken in any
university within this realm. But in
all other places eveiy minister shall
be at liberty to use any surplice or no.
It is also seemly that graduates, when
they do preach, shall use such hoods as
pertaineth to their several degrees.
" And whensoever the bishop shall
celebrate the Holy Communion in the
church, or execute any other public
ministration, he shall have upon him
besides his rochett, a surplice, or albe,
and a cope or vestment, and also his
pastoral staff in his hand, or else borne
or holden by his chaplain."
The rubrics before the Communion
Service say: — "Upon the day and at
the time appointed for the ministration
of the Holy Communion the priest that
shall execute the holy ministry shall
put upon him the vesture appointed
for that ministration, that is to say, a
white albe plain, with a vestment or
cope. And where there be many priests
or deacons, then so many shall be ready
to help the priest in the ministration
as shall be requisite : And shall have
upon them likewise the vesture ap
pointed for the ministry, that is to say
albes with tunicles. ..."
RK 2

VESTMENTS, CLERICAL 612 VESTMENTS, CLERICAL

' ' And though there be none to com
municate with the priest, yet these days
(viz. Wednesday and Friday) after the
Litany ended, the priest shall put upon
him a plain albe or a surplice with a
cope, and say all things at the altar
(appointed to be said at the celebration
of the Lord's Supper) until after the
offertory, &c."
In the Second Book of Edward VI.,
1554 a.d., the Ornaments Rubric stood
thus : " And here is to be noted, that
the minister at the time of the
communion, and at other times in his
ministration, shall use neither albe,
vestment, nor cope, but being archbishop
or bishop he shall have and wear a
rochet ; and being a priest or deacon he
shall have and wear a surplice only."
In the Prayer Book of Queen Eliza
beth is the following rubric :
"And here is to be noted, that the
minister at the. time of the communion,
and at all other times in his ministra
tion, shall use such ornaments in the
church as were in use by authority of
Parliament in the second year of King
Edward VI., according to the Act of
Parliament set in the beginning of this
book." The clauses of the Act thus referred
to are as follows : — " Provided always,
and be it enacted that such ornaments
of the church, and of the ministers
thereof, shall be retained, and be used,
as was in this Church of England, by
authority of Parliament, in the second
year of the reign of King Edward
VI. until other orders shall be therein
taken by the authority of the Queen's
Majesty, with the advice of her com
missioners appointed and authorised
under the great seal of England for
causes ecclesiastical, or of the metro
politan of this realm.
" And also that if there should happen
any contempt or irreverence to be used
in the ceremonies or rules of the Church,
by the misusing of the orders appointed
in this book, the Queen's Majesty may,
by the like advice of the said commis
sion or metropolitan, ordain and publish
such further ceremonies or rules, as may

be most for the advancement of God's
glory, the edifying of His Church, and
the due reverence of Christ's Holy
Mysteries and Sacraments."
A large number of the clergy dressed
like laymen out of doors, and neglected
to wear even a surplice in their minis
trations. Secretary Cecil wrote a Queen's
letter, dated Jan. 15, 1565, under which
the archbishop* might more easily en
force the law than by his own unaided
authority, calling upon the archbishop.
to repress novelties and enforce the laws
so as to obtain uniformity.
On March 28, 1566, Parker issued
Advertisements, partly for due order
in the public administration of Com
mon Prayer and using of the holy Sacra
ments, and partly for the apparel of all
persons ecclesiastical : by virtue of the
Queen's Majesty's letter commanding
the same. In these Advertisements it
was required that the cope and surplice
should be used in cathedrals, the sur
plice in all other churches, and that the
clergy should wear a distinctive dress
and cap out of doors.
At the beginning of James's reign
some alterations were introduced into
the Prayer Book, but the old Ornaments
Rubric was left untouched. No attempt,
however, was made to revive all the
ornaments included in it ; on the con
trary, in the Canons of 1603-4 the
vestiary requirements of Parker's Ad
vertisements was adopted as the stand- *
ard to be enforced, viz. the cope in
cathedrals, and the surplice in other
churches. The retention of the rubric
at this revision, and at the subsequent
revision on the Restoration, receives
much illustration in its retention again
by the recent Ritual Commission, as an
important historical monument of the
mind of the Church of England, without
any intention to revive the obsolete
ornaments included in it. The oppo
sition to the vestments continued from
the beginning of Elizabeth's reign to
the end of Charles I. In Jan. 3, 1645,
fifteen months before the filial abolition
of the Prayer Book, the Parliament or
dered that the committee for removing

VESTMENTS, SYMBOLISM 613 VESTMENTS, SYMBOLISM

scandalous and superstitions monuments
do take away all copes and surplices
out of all cathedral, collegiate, and
parish churches and chapels, and for
bade their being worn by any one in
Divine service.
On the revision of the Prayer Book at
the Restoration the Ornaments Rubric
was retained with just so much altera
tion as showed that it was not retained
by inadvertence, or as a mere dead form ;
the alteration was to make the words of
the rubric agree exactly (which it had
not originally done) with the Act of
Parliament, so that it runs :
"And here it is to be noted, that such
ornaments of the Church, and of the
ministers thereof, at all times of their
ministration shall be retained and be
in use as were in this Church of Eng
land by the authority of Parliament in
the second year of the reign of King
Edward VI."
VESTMENTS, SYMBOLISM OF.
The mediaeval church-people, in the
exuberance of their imagination, in
vented symbolical meanings for every
thing. We have seen above that as
early as the fifth century the albe was
taken to mean purity, and the chasuble
charity. It may be worth while to
show how this system of symbolical
meanings had become elaborated by
the end of the mediaeval period.
, "The first vestment is called the
Amice, which covereth the head, signi
fying faith, which before all things
ought to be applied to cover the under
standing. The second, the Albe, sig-
nifieth newness of life which Christ
had taught for our imitation. The
Girdle wherewith the priest is girt
signifieth continency, as it is said, ' Let
your loins be girt.' The Maniple,
placed on the left hand, signifieth
patience in adversity. The Stole, bind
ing the breast in the form of a cross,
signifieth that we should not be
ashamed of the Cross of Christ, but be
ready for his love to bear reproach ;
being laid upon the shoulder it signi
fieth the obedience wherewith Christ
was obedient unto death, The Chasuble,

or Planeta, signifieth charity, which
exceedeth all virtues. The shoes upon
the feet signify the Incarnation "
('Pupilla Oculi,' lib. i. c. ix.).
Another line of symbolism is set
forth in ' Dives and Pauper ' : " As oft
as the preest syngeth his masse he
representeth the persone of Ciyst that
dyed for us all upon the tree ; and by
his clothynge and by his masse syng-
ynge he bereth wytnesse of Crystus
passyon. The Amyt on his hede at
the begynnyng betokeneth the cloth
that Crystus face was hyded with in
tyme of his passion, when the Jews
hyded his face and bobbed him, and
badde him arede who that smote him.
The longe Aube betokeneth the whyte
cloth that Herode oladde Chryste with
in scorne as he hadde been a fole. The
Fanon, the Stole, and the Gyrdyll
betoken the bounds whiche Chryste
was bounden with as a theef in time of
his passyon. The Fanon betokeneth
boundes of his hondes, the Stole the
rope that he was led with to his deth,
the Gyrdyle the boundes that he was
bound with to the pyler and to the
crosse. The Chesyble betokeneth the
cloth of purpure in whiche the knyghtes
clothed him in scorne and knelyd to
hym and sayde in scorne, ' Hayle, thou
Kynge of the Jewes.' Also the Amyt
betokeneth the basynet (helmet) of
helthe that is hope of the lyfe that is
to come, and forsakynge of ertheley
thynges. The long Aube betokeneth
chastity of bodye and soule. The Gyr
dyle, Fanon, and Stole betoken the com-
maundementes and the counseyles of
Cryste in the gospele by the whiche
men of relygyon and of holy chirche
ben bound passyne other to serve God.
The Chesyble betokeneth the holy cloth
of Cryste without seme all woune in
one which betokeneth parfyht charyte.
The two tonges hangyng behynde on
the Aube of the priestes sholder betoken
that every priest sholde conne God's
lawe and preche it with tonge of dede
and good example and with tonge of
speche " ('Dives and Pauper,' 8 Comm.
c. vii. viii.).

VESTRY

614

VICAR

The vestments of a priest for mass
were the alb with girdle, amice, chasuble,
stole, and maniple.
Of a bishop, stockings and sandals,
amice, alb, stole, reliquary pendent
from the neck, tunicle, dalmatic,
maniple, chasubie when celebrating,
and cope at other times, ring, mitre,
and staff.
The cope was used in processions,
benedictions, solemn matins and ves
pers, and in the mass of the pre-sancti-
fied on Good Friday.
The ministers wore alb and amice,
girdle, stole, and maniple ; the deacon
a dalmatic ; the sub-deacon a tunicle.
The thurifer, acolytes, and candle-
bearers were in alb and amice, as also
the choir ; the acolyte wore a silk
mantle in addition ; the boys who read
the lesson or chanted the gradual wore
surplices (p. 42, 'Sarum Missal,' A. H.
Pearson); Maskell, 'Ancient Liturgy of the
Church of England, ' preface and notes.
VESTRY. The room adjoining the
chancel of a church, in which the vest
ments, &c. , of the clergy are kept, and
in which they are put on for service.
It forms a general business room for
the keeping of registers, &c, and is
used for the meetings of the parishioners
who are members of the parochial
synod which is called "the vestry"
from the place in which they meet.
Vestry. It is a part of the intimate
union of Church and State jurisdiction
in Saxon times, which has descended
to the present day, that the rate-
paying inhabitants of a parish, who
were all communicant Churchmen,
constituted a kind of parochial parlia
ment, who concurred with the incum
bent in appointing churchwardens ;
who elected other parish officers, as
overseers of the poor and of highways ;
and who exercised more or less control
over the expenditure of these officers,
for which they had to supply the
funds. Their meetings being originally
held in the vestry of the church, they
took their name from the place of
meeting.

A vestry meetingmust be summoned
by public notice of such meeting, and
of the place and hour of holding the
same, and of the special purpose there
of, three days at least before the day
to be appointed for holding such ves
try, one of which must be a Sunday,
by the publication of such notice in
the parish church or chapel on some
Sunday during or immediately after
Divine Service, and by affixing the
same, fairly written or pj 'nted, on the
principal door of such church or chapel.
It is the right of the incumbent to take
the chair ; in his absence those present
are to elect a chairman. Ratepayers who
have paid the last rate for the relief of
the poor, have votes according to the
amount of their assessment; those who
are assessed at less than £50 one vote,
and for every £25 above £50 one ad
ditional vote, provided that no one have
more than>six votes.
Now that many ratepayers are not
Churchmen, the vestry is no longer a
parochial synod by which church
wardens may be properly elected and
other business of the Church transacted ;
and no doubt one of the alterations
which will suggest itself in any future
general readjustment of the relations
of the Church to the State, will be the
formation of two "vestries," one for
the secular and the other for the ecclesi
astical business of the parish.
VICAR, Vicarius, one who fills the
place or performs tho duties of another.
The title of the incumbent of a parish
whose great tithe has been appro
priated or impropriated [see those
words]. In theory the holder of the
great tithe is the rector of the parish,
and is liable to the repair of the chancel
of the church, and the vicar in theory
is his locum tenens. In fact the rectors
of appropriate parishes are usually
ecclesiastical corporations, and of im
propriate parishes are laymen, and the
vicars are as entirely independent, and
have as full power and authority in
their parishes as incumbents who are
rectors. In short the chief significance
of the title vicarage, is that it indicates

VICARAGE

615

VISITATION

that the parish has been despoiled of
the major part of its ancient endow
ment. The title Vicar is by recent Act of
Parliament assigned to the incumbents
of the separated portions of ancient
parishes which have been erected into
new ecclesiastical parishes.
VICARAGE. Under the title Appro
priate Benefice, it will be seen how
in the eleventh and twelfth centuries
parochial benefices were frequently
given to monasteries, &c. , as part of
¦ their endowment, in the belief that the
monks would make better provision for
the spiritual wants of the people than
llheretofore, and would spend their surplus
revenues in works of piety and charity
But the monastic institution in time
began to lose its spirit of piety and of
self-denial, and began to fail to make
proper provision for the instruction and
religious care of the people ; generally
employing some poor clerk, at an in
adequate remuneration, to perform the
necessary services.
As the monastic institution lost its
first vigour and fell into disrepute, the
middle classes of the population were
.growing in numbers, wealth, and con
sideration, and their pious liberality
took the form of building cathedrals and
parish churches, and reviving the whole
system of which the bishops and secular
clergy were the ministers. Canons of
the Church enacted that no more ap
propriations should be made without
the consent of the bishop, and that in
future appropriations a sufficient income
should be left for the priests who were
to serve the cure. E.g. Archbishop
Anselm made a canon that monks do
not accept churches without the
; bishop's consent, nor so rob of their
revenues those that are given them as
that the priests who serve them be in
want of necessaries. There also began
a great struggle on the part of the
bishops to recover from the religious
houses enough of the incomes of the
appropriated benefices to establish again
a permanent resident priest in each
parish, with an income sufficient for

his proper maintenance. At length the
Lateran Council (1213) decreed that all
appropriators should provide perpetual
vicars in their benefices, with a com
petent provision for their maintenance.
A constitution of Anselm gave this
canon of the Lateran Council legal force
in England, definitely requiring all im
propriators to present vicars, with com
petent endowment, to the bishop for
institution, within six months ; if they
failed to do so, the bishops were em
powered to take steps to cany out this
intention. Acts of Parliament also
subsequently (e. g. in the reigns of
Richard II. and Henry IV.) insisted
upon the regular endowment of vicar
ages. Armed with these powers the
bishops proceeded to enforce this great
reform. The compromise usually
effected was, that the appropriators
should take the great tithe, i. c. the
tithe of corn, and that the parish priest
should have the rectory house (or a
suitable house), the glebe, the small
tithe, and the fees and offerings. The
priest to be nominated by the appro
priators was no longer to be removable
at their pleasure, but was to have per
manent cure, with the title of vicar
(vicarius = locum tenens of the rector) ;
and tho living secured to him became
an ecclesiastical benefice by the name
of a vicarage. It was a very important
measure of reform, constituting a re-
endowment of numerous appropriate
parishes, and restoring to them the
services of a permanently resident and
responsible priest. Vicarages are usu
ally supposed to have begun in the
eighth year of Henry II., but some
rare instances occur even earlier ; and
occasional appropriations and conse
quent formation of vicarages continued
till the Reformation. [See Impropriate
Parish.] VIRGIN MARY, BLESSED, Worship
of. Immaculate Conception of. As
sumption of. [See Popery]
VISITATION. An authoritative in
quiry for the purpose of correcting
neglects and abuses. The right and
duty of a bishop to visit the faithful of

VISITATION

616

. WALES

his diocese whenever he shall think it
to be for their spiritual well-being,
seem to be inherent in the episcopal
office. But no doubt some bishops'
would find the duty laborious, and
some clergy and people would gladly
be exempted from the close supervision,
and no doubt the duty wouldneed regu
lation. Accordingly, wo find councils
of the Church as early as the fifth
century insisting upon the duty of
every bishop annually to visit each
parish of his diocese for the purpose of
administering confirmation, instructing
the people, inquiring into the conduct
of the clergy, and extirpating unchris
tian practices. The Capitularies of
Charlemagne enjoin visitation on the
bishops of his empire.
In England the practice seems not to
have obtained, or to have fallen into
disuse ; for when Grosseteste, Bishop
of Lincoln, at the beginning of his
episcopate, made a general visitation of
his diocese, it was spoken of as a new
thing ; and his visitation of the chapter
of his cathedral was resisted by them,
and not submitted to until the case had
been carried to Rome, and the Pope
had given a decision which settled, not
only for Lincoln, but for all churches
under his rule, the right of the bishop
to visit the cathedral body for inquiry
and reformation. [See Grosseteste for
an account of his visitation. ]
Wolsey obtained a Legatine Commis
sion to make a general visitation.
Henry VIII. suspended the juris
diction of the bishops while his Vicar-
General Cromwell made a general visit
ation by order of the Royal Supremacy.
Cranmer, Parker, and Whitgift made
provincial visitations, in order to enforce
the uniform carrying out of the changes
made by the Reformation.
The bishops now visit once in three
years (in London once in five years),
and perform their visitation by sum
moning the clergy and churchwardens
to one or more convenient centres, and
there receiving written answers to cer
tain articles of inquiry, and delivering an
address to them which is called a charge.

The archdeacons make an annual
visitation by the same method of
articles of inquiry and a charge,
directed especially to temporal matters.
The rural deans are supposed to make
a personal visitation from time to time
to inquire by actual inspection into the
condition of the fabrics and furniture
of the churches. W
WALES, THE CHURCH IN. To
speak of the Church of Wales is an
error ; there never was a Church of
Wales in the same sense as there was a
Church of England. The Church in
Wales was a part of the Church of
Christ, planted in the Roman Province
of Britain, probably about the middle
of the third century [see Roman
British Church], which gradually ex
tended over the length and breadth of
the land south of the Frith of Forth.
When the Anglo-Saxon tribes con
quered England, the British race re
tired fighting before them until they
were at length able to hold their own,
and maintain their independence, at
least for some centuries longer, in the
western peninsulas of Wales and Corn
wall, and in the districts of Strathclyde
and Cumbria, extending from the -Mer-
sen to the Clyde.
Putting aside mere legend, and
limiting ourselves to ascertained his
tory, we find that while the Angles
and Saxons were establishing their
seven or eight kingdoms, the Britons
of the Welsh peninsula were dividing
into four principalities, in each of which
a separate see was established : Bangor
for Gwynedd (Venedotia); Llanelwy (or
St. Asaph's) for Powys ; St. David's
forMenevia; Llandaff for Gwent. The
date of the actual foundations of the
four Welsh sees is unknown ; Daniel,
the first bishop of Bangor, died 584 ;
St. David 601 ; St. Kentigern, the pro
bable founder of St. Asaph, in 612; in
which year died also Dubricius, the
founder of Llandaff. The four dioceses
varied in extent with the conquests

WALES

617

WELLS

and re-conquests of the several prince
doms. , The Church spread and flourished
in Wales from 400 to 700. It had
intercourse with Ireland and Brittany.
In the sixth century St. David, St.
Gildas, and St. Caradoc greatly influ
enced the Irish Church, and revived
and spread the faith there, and to this
school belong St. Columba of Iona. [See
Celtic Church. ] A link is thus distinctly
established between the teaching of St.
David of Menevia and the Northum
brian Church. There is no sufficient
evidence that any of the Welsh sees
had primatial dignity, though the title
of Archbishop is given to individual
bishops of at least three of the sees.
When Geraldus was trying to prove
that St. David's was the archiepiscopal
see of Wales, it could not be ascertained
that any Welsh bishop had ever re
ceived the pall from Rome ; the Papal
Registers were appealed to with this
negative result. Bernard, the first
Norman bishop of St. David's,_ and
some of his successors, claimed juris
diction over the others, as an ancient
privilege of his see, but never succeeded
in getting it allowed.
The history of the gradual recog
nition by the Welsh bishops of the
jurisdiction of Canterbury is obscure
in details, but simple enough in its
principles : as the Norman kings ex
tended their sovereignty over Wales,
they appointed bishops to the vacancies
which occurred in the Welsh sees ;
these bishops were accepted by the
Welsh dioceses, and they recognised
the jurisdiction of Canterbury for them
selves and their dioceses. The clergy
and people disliked the appointment
of Norman bishops, just as the Saxons
did, but they submitted with as good
a grace as they could to what could
not be resisted. The recognition of
Canterbury was probably not felt to
be any hardship by either bishops,
clergy, or people ; for the sentiment of
ecclesiastical unity was not an un
popular one at the time.
The- freedom and self-government of

the native Welsh Church diminished
gradually as Henry III. and Edward I.
brought English law to bear upon the
subject, pari passu with their gradual
conquest and attempted Anglicising of
Wales. The further history of the Church
in Wales must be sought in the his
tories of the several dioceses. [Sec Ban
gor, St. Asaph, St. David's, Llandaff.]
All the documents relating to the
history of the Church in Wales from
the earliest period to the end of the
fourteenth century will be found ar
ranged in chronological order in Haddon
and Stubbs's ' Councils and Ecclesias
tical Documents,' vol. i. pp. 199 — 668.
WARDEN = Guardian, the title of
the head of certain religious and charit
able foundations.
WEDDING. [Set Matrimony.]
WELLS, Holy. The- reputation for
sanctity which was possessed by a very
considerable number of wells had various
origins. Some very probably had been
considered sacred in old heathen times,
when wells and trees were worshipped
as having in them something of divinity ;
and this worship lingered long after
Christianity covered the land, for so late
as the time of Canute there are laws
forbidding it. Some of these would
no doubt be placed under the invo
cation of a saint, and the old cultus
would continue under a modified form.
Some no doubt had remedial pro
perties, and it was in accordance with
the popular beliefs to put them under
saintly patronage, and to attribute
their natural virtues to the miraculous
power of the saint. Some had been
used for the baptism of a distinguished
person, and thus had acquired the
reputation of a holy well ; e.g. a wooden
church was built over the fountain in
which King Edwin was baptised at
York. He afterwards built a stone
church around the original wooden
church ; the cathedral occupies the same
site, - and the well still remains in the
crypt. (Bede, ' Eccl. Hist.' Book XI. c.
xiv. ) In some cases the well had supplied
a hermit saint both with water for his

WELLS

618

WESLEY, JOHN

daily drink, and for the baptism of his
converts, and on either ground was
sure to be regarded as sacred. At Wyg-
fair, near St. Asaph, an oratory was
built over the spring so as to include
it in one corner of the building ; at St.
Madern's, Cornwall, the neighbouring
rill was conducted under the walls of tho
oratory, and a basin was sunk within
through which the living stream con
stantly flowed. A considerable number
of these saintly well-chapels still exist,
more or less in ruins, in Cornwall, and
will be found described in two papers
in the ' Reliquary, ' vol. ii. p. 126, et seq.
Some again were said to have had a
miraculous origin : e. g. Bede says that
St. Alban at the place of his martyr
dom, "prayed that God would give him
water, and immediately a living spring
broke out before liis feet." .('Eccl. Hist.'
I. c. vii. ) So St. Winifred's well, here
after mentioned, broke out from the
place where her head touched the earth.
These holy wells were throughout the
pre-Reformation period objects of local
pilgrimage, and some of them had a
widespread reputation. Some were so
famous, and famous at so early a period,
that the holy well has given a name to
several parishes of England and Wales.
The Flintshire Holy Well is an
admirable example. The traditional
origin of it is that a noble British
Christian maiden, resisting the addresses
of a neighbouring heathen prince, he
in a fit of rage drew his sword and
severed her head from her body. Where
her head touched the earth a fountain
sprang forth which was found to possess
miraculous properties. The building,
in which the well is enclosed, is a
square vaulted crypt, over which is a
chapel on a level with and contiguous
to the parish church, the entrance to
the well being by a descent of about
twenty steps from the road outside.
The well itself is a star-shaped basin
in the middle of the crypt, ten feet in
diameter, canopied by a graceful stellar
vaulting, and originally enclosed by
stone traceried screens filling up the
spaces between the shafts which support

the vaulting. It is an architectural
gem of the close of the fifteenth century.
A plan and view of it are engraved in
the 'Archaeological Journal, ' iii. p. 148,
and a view of the exterior of the chapel
in Grose's 'Antiquities,' vol. iv. Our
Lady of Walsingham, Norfolk, was
one of the greatest places of pilgrimage
in England ; and here one of the attrac
tions was two brimming fountains of
clear water enclosed in a chapel on the
west of the Priory. They were " wishing
wells ;" the devotee knelt and drank of
the water, dropped in his offering, and
"wished;" the appearance of bubbles
rising up through the water was a sign
that the wish would be fulfilled, and
the devotee was at liberty to continue
to drop in his offerings in the hope of
making the bubbles appear.
Immersion in the Nun's Pool in
Cornwall was a cure for insanity. The
double wells of St. John and the Virgin
at Hondley, Warwickshire, gave those
who bathed in them the gift of chastity.
St. Anne's Well at Buxton is still
famous for its curative qualities. At
Tissington, in the same county, there is
still continued an ancient annual custom
of dressing the well with flowers. On
the west side of Bensey churchyard,
Oxon, was a holy well dedicated to St.
Margaret. Several priests used to dwell
here under the appointment of the
Prior of St. Frideswide's to confess and
absolve devotees, and it is said that
Leeworth on the other side of the river
contained four-and-twenty inns for the
reception of these pious travellers
('Beauties of England and Wales,' xii.
436). In the exterior wall of East
Dereham Church, Norfolk, is an arch
under which St. Withburga is said to
have been buried ; now a spring of water
rises from beneath it.
WESLEY, JOHN, was born June
17, 1703, at Epworth, Lincolnshire, of
which place his father was the Incum
bent. Both John and his younger
brother Charles were educated at Char
ter-house, and sent to Oxford, where
John obtained a Fellowship at Lincoln
College. Here the two brothers be-

WESLEY, JOHN

619

WESLEY, JOHN

came members of one of the societies
for the Reformation of Manners, which
sprang up in the latter part of the
seventeenth century, with the design
of quickening the religious life of
the individual members and leavening
the society about them. Whitfield has
left a full description of this society, of
which he also was, a member, which
probably suggested to Wesley in after
times the idea of the peculiar organisa
tion which he gave to his wide-spread
movement. The great idea of the
Society was the strict carrying out of
the system of the Church, with earnest
ness and fervour ; and Taylor's ' Holy
Living and Dying,' Law's 'Serious
Call' and 'Christian Perfection,' and
'The Imitation of Christ,' were their
favourite devotional books.
On being ordained deacon, he went
to help his father as curate, but on his
father's death in 1734, he declined the
offer of succession to the living, and
returned to his college. Charles,,having
obtained a studentship at Christ Church,
was also in residence at Oxford.
In the following year the two brothers
sailed for the newly -founded colony of
Georgia, as chaplains under the Society
for the Propagation of the Gospel. But
there, notwithstanding the earnestness
and ability of their ministry, their
ritual innovations and endeavours to
enforce a strict Church discipline gave
offence, and hindered their success.
Charles returned to England in 1736,
and John two years after, ripened by
study and experience, but disappointed
and unhappy at his failure. He seems
to have come to hold fully and firmly
the doctrine and discipline of the An
glican Church, and where these seemed
to need explanation or supplement to
have gone to the Primitive Church for
his inspiration. A few weeks after his
return he became acquainted with a
German, Peter Bbhler by name, who
held some spiritual conversations with
him, which made a profound and lasting

impression upon

his character, modify

ing his intellectual grasp of Christian
truth, and filling him with spiritual

fervour. Henceforth, he and his brothen
who received a similar spiritual develop"
ment, having no parochial sphere of
work, began that Home Mission work
which afterwards grew to such magni
tude and importance. At that time
the population had greatly increased,
especially in the mining and manufac
turing towns. The National Church
was still a highly respected institution,
and ministered in a dignified and sober
spirit to a large proportion of the better
classes ; but restricted by inelastic con
ditions, and lacking as yet energy to
burst through the restrictions, it had
done little to provide religious instruc
tion and the means of grace for this
growing population.
To bring the Gospel to the ears of
the masses, to bring the masses into
some religious organisation, to provide
for their growth in the spiritual life,
was the work to which the two Wesley
brothers and Whitfield addressed them
selves. They began to preach in houses,
in the fields, wherever they could find
opportunity. At first Wesley brought
his London converts to a meeting-house
in Fetter Lane of the Moravians
(whom he regarded as a true branch of
the Apostolic Church). He soon found
that these English Moravians had de
parted from their model, and that he
could not work with them ; and accord
ingly formed a new Society, which was
the nucleus of all the subsequent
Methodist Societies. Bristol was an
other great centre in which Methodist
Societies were formed, and from which
its agents went forth. One of the
most original and striking features of
these Societies was the formation of
classes of about a dozen persons, each
under the guidance of a selected mem
ber as class-leader. A small weekly
subscription from every class-member
supplied a revenue ; the vast number
of officers needed gave employment for
the zealous, and kept every member
under constant guidance ; and the
declaration of their religious experi
ences, a modified kind of confession,
enabled the class-leader to deal closely

WESLEY, JOHN

620

WESLEY, JOHN

and effectually with those entrusted to
his care. These classes were guilds
such as we are becoming accustomed to
in this day ; and the members of them
were encouraged to attend regularly on
the services and sacraments of the
Church. Some of the books which were
put forth in the early stage of the move
ment, such as the ' Hymns on the Lord's
Supper ' by the two Wesleys, and the
volume ' On the Christian Sacrament
and Sacrifice,' extracted from a book by
Dr. Brevint, and J. Wesley's modified
version of 'The Imitation of Christ,'
and his own sermons ' On the Sacra
ment of Baptism, ' and on ' Regeneration
in Baptism,' and on 'The Christian
Sacrament and Sacrifice,' are conclusive
evidences as to the tone of Churchman-
ship which he impressed upon his dis
ciples. The first building which he used
as a meeting-house was a large shed in
Moor Fields which had formerly been
used for casting artillery. Wesley took
it in 1740, on a lease, and fitted it up
for his uses ; a small house adjoining
the Foundry he took for his own resid
ence. All this was not done without
exciting comment. A few clergymen
concurred in the movement and adopted
Wesley's methods in their own parishes ;
some assisted him by preaching up and
down the country. On the other hand,
the boldness of the innovations startled
and alarmed many good people ; while
in some places the Methodists met
with the reception which any unusual
exhibition of religious earnestness is
sure to meet- with from the thoughtless
and vicious, of coarse ridicule and occa
sional violence. The very Important
addition to Wesley's organisation of
lay preachers is said to have arisen
almost by accident. On one occasion,
in the absence of Wesley, his school
master, an intelligent, zealous young
man, preached to the people assembled
in the Foundry. At first Wesley blamed
him, but on further consideration of
the matter came to a resolution to adopt
lay preachers as a part of his system.
In June 1744 the Wesleys held their
first Conference, consisting ,of five or

six priests who had joined them in
their work ; it is disputed whether or
not any of the lay preachers were pre
sent. The result was the division of
England into "Circuits," and a plan
by which the lay preachers were as
signed to labour in each circuit for a
given time. These circuits have since
been multiplied, and the period of
residence has been extended from one
year to two or occasionally three years ;
but the itinerant system still remains a
conspicuous feature of the Wesleyan
system. By the year 1744 Wesley's plan
seems to have been completed, and the
work grew rapidly. The brothers sought
episcopal sanction for it more than onco
from the Archbishop of Canterbury
and the Bishop of London ; but these
and other prelates, while apparently
favourably impressed with their sin
cerity and earnestness, did not think
well to give any formal sanction to their
work outside the traditional lines, but
abstained from hindrance or censure.
Indeed, it is to be specially noted, that
not one of the bishops either of England
or Ireland inhibited the Wesleys from
preaching in their dioceses. Their
attitude and that of tho clergy gener
ally towards the movement was one of
doubt, hoping that it might do good,
but fearing the possible evil results of
the germs of fanaticism and separation
whioh the system from its beginning
contained. The hostility of some of the
clergy, who refused Holy Communion
to the Methodists, 'drove many from
the Church, and compelled them to
regard the meeting-house as their spirit
ual home ; and Charles Wesley began
to celebrate Holy Communion in the
meeting-house. John Wesley as director of this new
movement in the Church made regular
journeys of inspection. On Sunday,
wherever he was, if invited to assist in
the service of the Church he gladly did
so ; if not, he always attended Church
on Sunday forenoon ; and at an earlier
hour, and again in the latter part of the
day, either in a building, in a square,

WESLEY, JOHN

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WESLEY, JOHN

under a tree, whatever mibst convenient
place could be obtained by his local
friends, there he preached. His preach
ings were continued on the week-days
also. In 1749, Charles Wesley, who had
hitherto shared equally with his elder
brother in the government of the
Societies, retired from that responsi
bility, though he continued a member
of the Connexion, and preached and
wrote hymns for it ; and, ceasing to
travel, resided either in London or
Bristol. Charles, it is said, had not a'
high opinion of the lay preachers, and
foresaw that on his brother's death they
would assume the privileges of the
priestly office, and was unwilling to
share the grave responsibility of such a
measure. His marriage at this time
also led him to desire a more settled life.
In 1751 John Wesley married the
widow of a- London merchant, and
necessarily resigned the Fellowship of
Lincoln which had so long afforded him
a maintenance. His domestic relations
were not happy, but they were not
allowed to interfere with his work, and
need not be further alluded to.
In 1755, at the Annual Conference at
Leeds, the question of existence inde
pendent of the Church was raised by
some of the lay preachers, and the re
sult shows on the face of it traces of a
compromise ; it was unanimously agreed
that it was not expedient, whether law
ful or not, to separate from the Church.
But the desire for a separate and inde
pendent Church organisation was grow
ing in the minds of the community,
and gave great cause of anxiety to the
Wesleys, who opposed it with all their
authority. At this time a step was
taken which circumstances made expe
dient, but which led still further in the
direction of this independent organis
ation. Some of the lay preachers were
"set apart "as "itinerant" preachers
to be permanently engaged in the work
of evangelization, and were to have a
competent maintenance provided for
them by the Societies, while others j
remained as " local " preachers, pur- I

suing their proper trade or calling, and
preaching in their own neighbourhoods.
By 1767 Methodism had become a
power in England. There were about
twenty clergymen, ninety-two itinerant
preachers, and some hundreds of local
preachers, exercising an influence all
over England ; and the movement was
daily gaining ground. In 1791 the
itinerant preachers had increased to
312 ; and preaching-houses were being
built in most of the large towns and in
some of the larger villages. In 1770
commenced a bitter controversy which
raged for six years between the Wesleys
and Fletcher of Madely on one side,
and Whitfield, Shirley, Toplady, and
Rowland Hill on the other ; the one
taking what they called an Arminian
line of doctrine, while the other defended
their Calvinistic opinions. At length
the advanced age of Wesley led to the
consideration of what was to be done
with all the property of the Connexion,
and what was to be substituted for his
autocratic government of the body,
after his death. The result was a very
carefully-drawn document, drawn up by
Wesley, and enrolled in Chancery, a.d.
1784, which provided for the continual
maintenance by co-option of one hun
dred trustees, who, meeting annually as
the " Conference, " should precisely fill
the place which John Wesley had filled
in his life-time, as the patrons of the
chapels, and the supreme governing
body. [See Methodism.]
In 1786 the old question of inde
pendent existence was again revived in
Conference, and it was again unani
mously resolved "to remain in the
Church. " Towards the close of his long
life John Wesley was generally regarded
with respect by all classes, and he was
constantly invited by the clergy to
preach in their churches, and received
marks of kindness from several of the
bishops. In 1789, on the last of many
visits to Ireland, he preached before the
lay preachers at Cork the famous ser
mon on the priestly office which he
appears to have preached more than
once in England. At Dublin he found

WESLEY, JOHN

622

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that most of the members of the Society
did not go to Church on Sunday, viz.
they remained at home or went to
some dissenting meeting. Wesley him
self was coerced into sanctioning a
service in the preaching house during
Church hours, but on condition that
they should go to Holy Communion at
St. Patrick's on the first Sunday in the
month. Though growing feeble in
body during his last few years he re
tained his vigour of mind, and in 1791
made a journey of visitation in various
parts of England. He died in the
ensuing spring, March 2, 1791, at the
age of 88, and was buried in the
cemetery attached to his New Chapel
in the City Road.
The one point on which the future
character of Wesley's Society turned,
whether an order in the church, or a
sect outside the church, was on the1
question of ordination : it is therefore
important to note Wesley's opinions
and practice on this point.
In the 'Arminian Journal 'of Decem
ber 27, 1745, the two Wesleys expressed
their belief that "there is, and always
was, in every Christian Church, an out
ward priesthood and an outward sacri
fice offered by authorized stewards of
the Divine mysteries." The minutes
of Conference 1747, say that, "the
three orders are plainly described in the
New Testament, and that they generally
obtained in the Churches of the apostolic
age." Shortly after this John Wesley
came to the conclusion that there is no
essential distinction between the first
and the second orders ; that a bishop
is only a presiding presbyter. Wesley
continued to the end to retain a high
idea of the saeredness of the priestly
office, and to the last resisted the con
stantly growing desire of his-itinerant
preachers to assume its functions ; while
his view of the nature of the episcopal
office led him at least in one instance to
think himself entitled to exercise one
of the functions of a bishop, viz. that
of ordination. It was under very ex
ceptional circumstances. The United
States of America, after their independ

ence, were left with a few scattered
priests of English ordination, but with
no bishop, so that while the population
grew there was no means of increasing
the provision of the means of grace for
them through the regular channels.
The Americans sent over Dr. Seabury
with the request that the English
bishops would consecrate him, but the
law officers of the Crown raised diffi
culties. Wesleyan Societies had been
founded, and, in the circumstances,
flourished in the States, and Wesley
was importuned to make through his
Society further provision for the needs
of the people. At length he yielded to
the argument of apparent expediency.
To Dr. Coke, already a priest, and to
F. Ashbury, he gave a commission
to superintend the Societies and the
preachers in America ; and ordained
two others of his preachers as elders for
America. Having thus yielded the
principle, Wesley could no longer refuse
to continue the course thus entered upon,
and shortly after he "yielded to the
judgment of others " and ordained three
of his preachers for Scotland ; again he
took a further step, in 1787, by ordain
ing three of the preachers "without
sending them out of England." It is
said by some of his biographers that
they were intended to be sent to
America or to Scotland, as occasion
might require ; the fact is that they
remained in England, and carried on
their ministrations here. Wesley had
thus opened a gap through which it was
practically impossible to prevent the
lay preachers as a body from pushing
through and assuming to themselves
the priestly office, and creating their
Connexion into a sect. [See Method
ism.] (Southey's ' Life of Wesley ; ' ' John
Wesley's Place in Church History,'
Rivingtons, 1870; Curteis's 'Bampton
Lectures. ')
WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY OP
DIVINES, THE, was called into being
by an Act of Parliament, June 10, 1643 ;
its members were nominated by the
knights and burgesses, two from each

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county, to the number of 120, and
others were added from time to time by
Parliament. Thirty laymen, members
of both Houses of Parliament, were
associated with them. Some of the
bishops and eminent clergy were nomin
ated, but refused to recognise the
authority by which they were sum
moned; six or seven were Independents
lately returned from exile. The Scottish
Commissioners were also admitted as
representatives of the General Assembly
of the Scotch Church.
The Preamble of the Ordinance of
Parliament for convening them ran
thus : — "Whereas among the infinite
blessings of Almighty God unto this
nation none is or can be more dear
unto us than the purity of our Religion,
and for that as yet many things remain
in the Liturgy, discipline, and govern
ment of the Church, which do neces
sarily require a further and more per
fect reformation than as yet hath been
attained : and whereas it hath been
declared and resolved by the Lords and
Commons assembled in Parliament,
that the present Church government by
Archbishops, Bishops, their Chancel
lors, Commissaries, Deans and Chap
ters, Archdeacons and other ecclesias
tical officers depending upon the
hierarchy, is evil and justly offensive
and burdensome to the kingdom ; and
that therefore they are resolved that
the same shall be taken away, and that
.such a government shall be settled in
the Chureh as may be most agreeable
to God's holy word, and most apt to
procure and preserve the peace of the
Church at home, and nearer agreement
with the Church of Holland and other
reformed Churches abroad ; and for
the better effecting hereof, and for the
vindicating and clearing of the doc
trine of the Church of England from
all false calumnies and aspersions, it
ii thought fit and necessary to call an
Assembly of learned, godly, and judi
cious Divines, to consult and advise
in such matters and things touching
the premises as shall be proposed unto
them by both or either of the Houses

of Parliament, and to give their ad
vice and counsel therein to both or
either of the said Houses, as often as
they shall be thereunto required."
They were not to divulge their reso
lutions without the consent of either
or both Houses. They were not to
exercise any jurisdiction or ecclesias
tical authority, except what was parti
cularly expressed in the ordinance. A
prolocutor and two secretaries were
nominated. They were to meet in
Henry VII.'s chapel. The members
were to receive four shillings a day
(equivalent, perhaps, to about forty
shillings now), and to be excused from
forfeiture for non-residence.
At their first sitting, July, 1643,
they were directed by Parliament to
examine and revise the Thirty-nine
Articles, and proceeded to do so. In
the mean time, one of their first public
acts was a petition to both Houses,
in which they ask that all ministers
may be strictly charged to catechise
the young and ignorant people. That
the grossly ignorant and profane may
be prevented from coming to the Lord's
Supper. That the bold venting of cor
rupt doctrines may be speedily sup
pressed everywhere ; " and that in
such manner as may give hope that
the Church may be no more infected
with them. " That the Lord's Day may
not be profaned. That there may be
"a thorough and speedy proceeding
against blind guides and scandalous
ministers," and a way provided of ad
mitting godly and hopeful men into
the ministry, "without which there
will suddenly be such a scarcity of able
and faithful ministers that it will be
little purpbse to cast out such as are
unable, idle, and scandalous." That
the law may be quickened against
swearing and drunkenness. That some
severe course be taken against fornica
tion, adultery and incest, which do
greatly abound, especially of late, by
reason of impunity. That all monu
ments of idolatry and superstition be
totally abolished. That justice be ex ¦
ecuted on all delinquents. That means

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be used for the release of our brethren
imprisoned in Oxford, York, and else
where. In August, an ordinance of Parlia
ment empowered certain members of
the Assembly of Divines, and certain
London ministers, to examine candi
dates and admit them as preachers.
On September 25, 1643, both Houses
of Parliament, with the Assembly of
Divines, met in St. Margaret's, West
minster, and took the Solemn League
and Covenant ; and on October 12, the
Assembly received the Parliament's
orders to leave the consideration of
the Thirty-nine Articles and take up
the consideration of Church govern
ment ; the object being to carry out
the engagement with the Scots, to
bring the English Church to an agree
ment with their Presbyterian model,
as the price of the assistance of their
army against the king.
The basis of their ideas of Chnrch
government was that "Jesus Christ,
as King of his Church, hath himself
appointed a Church government, dis
tinct from the civil magistrate," and
they proceeded to lay down a scheme
of Church government in Congrega
tional, Classical, Provincial, and Na
tional Assemblies ; and declared govern
ment by presbyters to be of Divine
right. Parliament, however, bitterly
disappointed them (March 1645-6) by
declining to declare presbytery to be
"of Divine right," and substituting
the words, that it was "agreeable to
the Word of God." In March 1645-6
an ordinance laid "the foundation of
presbyterial government in every con
gregation subordinate to. Classical,
Provincial and National Assemblies, in
such manner as shall be established by
Parliament, and all of them subordinate
to Parliament." October 20, 1645, an
ordinance of Parliament ordered persons
guilty of certain crimes and sins enu
merated, to be suspended from Holy
Communion, and made the members of
both Houses, who were also members
of the Assembly of Divines, or any
seven of them, a standing committee,

to pronounce upon the causes of suspen
sion from Holy Communion not men
tioned in the ordinance.
The Scotch Commissioners objected
to the subjecting of Church assemblies
to the control and decision of Parlia
ment ; to the seeming exemption of some
distinctions of persons from ecclesias
tical censures ; to the administering the
Sacrament to some persons against the
conscience of the ministry and elder
ship. Parliament, however — resolved
to retain in the new Church the supre
macy which the Crown claimed in tho
old, and to keep themselves exempt from
the spiritual discipline of the Assem
blies — issued a declaration to the nation,
explaining their refusal to consent to
the granting an unlimited jurisdiction
to near ten thousand judicatories, as in
consistent with the fundamental laws
of the nation, and excluding Parliament
from having any share in ecclesiastical
jurisdiction. While this discussion on the consti
tution and government of the Church
was proceeding, the Assembly were deal
ing more successfully with other depart
ments of their work. They drew up a
Directory of Public Worship, which
gave no forms of prayer, but only sug
gestions of the topics. This Directory
was adopted by Parliament, in an Act
which came into force on August 24, St.
Bartholomew's Day, 1645, abolishing
the Prayer Book, and requiring the
Directory to be observed in all churches.
The penalty for using the Prayer Book
either in public or private was £5 for
the first offence, £10 for the second,
and a year's imprisonment for the third.
The Directory was to be observed under
a penalty of forty shillings for each
omission, and whosoever spoke against
the Directory was to be fined not less
than £5 nor more than £50.
The Assembly also, in place of a
revision of the Thirty-nine Articles,
drew up a Confession of Faith, which
was ordered by Parliament to be printed
April 29, 1647. They also proceeded
to embody the doctrines of their Con
fession of Faith in a Larger Catechism

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625

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and a Smaller Catechism, to supply the
place of the old Church Catechism in
the instruction of the young. They
also drew up a Book of Discipline, but
the Independents had sufficient influ
ence to prevent this from being fully
executed. All this time a controversy had been
going on in the Assembly between the
Presbyterians and the small but influ
ential party of Independents, the con
troversy being carried from the As
sembly to Parliament, and from Parlia
ment to the nation. In 1643 the In
dependents in the Assembly pleaded
for the toleration of their worship; and,
being refused by the Presbyterian ma
jority, petitioned to Parliament on the
subject. In 1645 a Committee of Par
liament was appointed to consider an ac
commodation between the Assembly and
the "Dissenting Brethren." At this
Committee the Independents requested
that they may not be forced to com
municate as members in the parish
churches in which they dwell ; and that
they may have liberty to form con
gregations of their own, without mo
lestation from the laws against Non
conformists. The Presbyterians in their
reply, premise that they could not tole
rate refusal to assent to the substance
of Divine worship held forth in the
Directory, or to the Confession of Faith,
or to the doctrines of the Reformed
Churches contained in their Confessions
and Writings. Assuming that the
Independents concur in these, then
they state that their request cannot be
granted, because it "supposes the law
fulness of gathering Churches out of true
Churches," "in countenance of which
liberty there is not the least example
in all the Holy Scriptures." _ "This
would encourage perpetual schism and
division in the Church. "
After some three years of discussion
on the question of Church government,
Parliament at length, in 1648, issued a
"grand ordinance" in favour of the
scheme of government by presbytery ;
but no penalties were imposed for its
enforcement ; there were already many

sectaries in possession of benefices,
and, supported by the growing power of
the Independents, they disregarded the
Directory and the new discipline. So
that before Presbytery was definitively
established, the ground was already
slipping away from beneath it.
After the murder of the king in spite
of the protest of many of the Presby
terian ministers, many members retired
from the Assembly. The members who
remained were formed into a committee
for examining those who were presented
to livings. On the dissolution of the
Long Parliament, in 1635, the Assembly
ceased to exist with it.
The Confession of Faith and Larger
and Lesser Catechisms still remain as
the doctrinal standards of certain of the
dissenting bodies.
WHITGIFT, JOHN, Archbishop of
Canterbury; born 1530 ; died 1604 ; was
born at Great Grimsby, Lincolnshire,
of an ancient Yorkshire family ; his
father was a merchant at Grimsby,
and he had an uncle, abbot of a mon
astery of Austin Canons at Wellow,
near that town, who was inclined to the
reformed opinions. He was sent for
education to St. Anthony's School,
London, and thence on his abbot
uncle's recommendation to Pembroke,
Cambridge, of which he was elected
Fellow 1557. It was well known that
he held reformed opinions, and this
probably accounts for his not having
taken orders till he was thirty years
old (1560). On the accession of Eliza
beth, Cox, Bishop of Ely, at once took
him as his chaplain, and gave him the
Rectory of Teversham, Cambs. In 1563
he was made Margaret Professor of
Divinity ; 1565, chaplain to the Queen ;
1567, President of Peterhouse, and in
the same year Master of Pembroke,
and three months afterwards Master
of Trinity. As Master he proceeded
against Cartwright, Margaret Pro
fessor, for teaching erroneous doctrines,
expelled him from his Fellowship, and,
moreover, published a confutation of
his errors. In 1571 he was made Dean
of Lincoln. In 1572 the Puritan party

WHITGIFT, JOHN

626

WHITGIFT, JOHN

drew up two ' Admonitions ' (as they
called them) ' to Parliament, ' in which
Cartwright and his friends set forth their
grievances, brought all the arguments
they could find against the Episcopal
government and against the English
Prayer Book, and maintained their own
scheme of discipline to be the only way
agreeable to God's Word. Whitgift
was engaged by Archbishop Bancroft to
write ' An answer to the Admonition to
Parliament,' which was generally es
teemed as able a defence of the Church
of England against the Puritans as
Bishop Jewel's 'Apology' was against
the Church of Rome. Before his death
Cartwright had considerably modified
his views ; Whitgift obtained his pardon
from the Queen, showed him much
kindness, and tolerated his preaching
at Warwick. ¦ In March 1577 he was
appointed to the see of Worcester, and
on Grindal's tendering his resignation
of Canterbury, Whitgift was chosen by
the Queen to be his successor. But
Whitgift declined to accept the office
during Grindal's lifetime ; and it would
appear, that some arrangement was'
made by which Whitgift acted virtually
but informally as Grindal's coadjutor
during the few remaining months of his
life ; then (1583) Whitgift succeeded to
the archbishopric. He soon found that
the result of his predecessor's laxity in
maintaining the laws of the Church, and
his tacit encouragement of the Puritan
party, was that many benefices in his
province were held by men who, while
"eating the Church's bread," were un
faithful to her doctrines and disloyal
to her government ; and he set himself
to remedy these abuses. With this
view he obtained an Ecclesiastical Com
mission, in which the Bishop of London
and others were joined with him in a
general visitation of his province ; and
drew up a form of twenty-four articles
which he sent to his suffragans, enjoin-
ingthem tosummon the suspected clergy
and require them to answer these articles
upon oath, to subscribe to the Queen's
Supremacy, the Book of Common Prayer,
and the Thirty-nine articles, At the

same time he held conferences with
some of the leading Puritans, and en
deavoured to bring thom to a compli
ance. This reversal of the policy of
his predecessor, and the firmness with
which he carried it out, raised a bitter
clamour against him, and even brought
remonstrances from the Council and
from Lord Burleigh, in spite of which
he was resolute in maintaining the
doctrine and discipline of the Church.
In 1595, when the disputes about
Church discipline had somewhat abated,
the Predestinarian controversy took
place. The universities were almost
entirely in the hands of men who held
Calvinistic views ; it was the fashion to
denounce those who did not hold them as
persons inclined to popery ; about 1595,
the heads of houses at Cambridge cen
sured a divine who had denied some
points of Calvinistic doctrine and
spoken disrespectfully of Calvin. A
number of leading men met .at the
archbishop's request at Lambeth, and
drew up articles called the Lambeth
Articles, which embodied some of the
leading points of Calvinism ; the Arch
bishop of York also accepted them ;
and Whitgift sent them to Cambridge
with a letter recommending that no
thing be publicly taught to the con
trary. _ The articles had no authority ;
complaints were made about them to
Lord Burleigh and to the Queen, and
they were quietly dropped.
On the death of Elizabeth, Whitgift,
and the Church generally, were in great
alarm at the possible result of the
accession of James, who had been
brought up in Calvinistic principles of
Church government and doctrine. In
the course of the king's journey south
wards he received a petition called
"the humble plea of the thousand
ministers for redressing offences in the
Church." As soon as the king had
entered upon the government he issued
a proclamation concerning a meeting for
the hearing and determining things
said to be amiss in the Church ; and
finally a conference between the bishops
and the leaders of the Puritan party

WHITGIFT, JOHN

627

WHITGIFT, JOHN

was held in the presence of the king at
Hampton Court, in January, 1604. It
was probably the anxiety which these
proceedings caused the archbishop
which brought on a fit of paralysis,
which terminated fatally next day,
Feb. 29, 1604. He was buried at
Croydon. He was not deeply learned,
but was a firm and able administrator.
" It is by his conduct in this that his
character has been estimated by pos
terity, and has been variously estimated
according to the writer's regard for, or
aversion to, the constitution of the
Church of England. " His bold speech
to Queen Elizabeth on sacrilege deserves
to be adduced here. It was while he
was Bishop of Worcester he opposed
before the Queen a request of the Earl
of Leicester, the powerful favourite, for
a grant of Church lands ; hot words
followed ; the bishop feared that the
Earl might importune the Queen into
compliance ; he therefore returned at
once into her presence and addressed
her in the following words : " I beseech
your Majesty to hear me with patience,
and believe that yours and the Church's
.safety are dearer to me than my life,
but my conscience dearer than both ;
and therefore, give me leave to do my
duty and tell you that princes are de
puted nursing Fathers of the Church and
owe it a protection ; and therefore God
forbid that you should be so much as
passive in her ruin, when you may
prevent it ; or, that I should behold
it without horror and detestation, and
should forbear to tell your Majesty of
the sin and danger of sacrilege. And
although you and myself were born in
an age of frailties, when the primitive
piety and care of the church's lands
and immunities are much deranged,
yet, Madam, let me beg that you would
first consider that there are such sins
as profaneness and sacrilege ; and that
if there were not they could not have
names in holy writ, and particularly in
the New Testament.
# * * *
"And therefore, good Madam, let not
the late lord's exceptions against the

failings of some few clergymen prevail
with you to punish posterity for the
errors of this present age ; let particular
men suffer for their particular errors ;
but let God and His Church have their
inheritance. And although I pretend
not to prophesy, yet I beg posterity to
notice of what is already become visible
in many families, that Church land
added to an ancient and just inherit
ance hath proved like a moth fretting a
garment, and secretly consumed both ;
or like an eagle that stole a eoal from
the altar, and thereby set her nest on
fire, which consumed both her young
eagles and herself that stole it. And
though I shall forbear to speak re
proachfully of your father, yet I beg
you to take notice that a part of the
Church's rights added to the vast trea
sure left him by his father hath been
conceived to bring an unavoidable con
sumption upon both, notwithstanding
all his diligence to preserve them. And
consider that after the violation of those
laws which he hath sworn in Magna
Charta, God did so far deny him His
restraining grace, that as King Saul,
after he was forsaken of God, fell from
one sin to another, so he, till at last he
fell into greater sins than I am willing
to mention. Madam, religion is the
foundation and cement of human
societies, and when, they that serve at
God's altar shall be exposed to poverty,
then religion itself will be exposed to
scorn and become contemptible, as you
may already observe it to be in too
many poor vicarages in this nation.
And therefore as you are, by a late Act
of Parliament, entrusted with a great
power to preserve or waste the Church's
lands, yet dispose of them, for Jesus'
sake, as you have promised to men and
vowed to God, that is, as the donors
intended ; let neither falsehood nor
flattery beguile you to do otherwise, but
put a stop to God's and the Levites'
portions, I beseech you, and to the ap
proaching ruin of His Church, as you
expect comfort at the last great day ;
for kings must be judged. Pardon
this affectionate plainness, my most dear

WHITSUNDAY

628

WICLIF, JOHN

Sovereign, and let me beg to be still
continued in your favour, and the Lord
still continue you in His. "
WHITSUNDAY. It was on the
Jewish festival of Pentecost that the
Holy Ghost came down upon the Church,
according to the promise of the Lord ;
and there is reason to believe that the
festival continued to be observed in the
Christian Church in commemoration of
that great occasion ; for it is mentioned
by Tertullian and Ircnaeus. From the
first it was one of the great days for
the administration of baptism, Easter
eve being the other. There are rival
theories of the derivation of the word :
some would make it a corruption of
Pentecost, like the German Pfingsten-
tag ; some would derive it from Wit, the
old English for wisdom ; but we find
that as early as the first half of the
thirteenth century it was spelt hwite
sundei, and it is more probable that the
popular voice named it White Sunday,
because the white dresses of the candi
dates for baptism gave a special cha
racter to the appearance of the congre
gations in the churches on that day.
The Welsh name is Sulgwyn = White
Sunday. WICLIF, JOHN, is known to have
died a.d. 1384, and is supposed to have
lived about sixty years ; if so the date
of his birth would .be about 1342 ; it
was probably a little earlier than that
date. Of his birth, parentage, early
education, and early career, nothing is
really known, though much has been
conjectured ; and much confusion has
been introduced into the history of his
later life, by the fact that one if not
more John Wiclifs lived at the same
time with him. The recent researches
of Professor Shirley have, however, dis
entangled the history ; and his narra
tive is adopted in the present article.
We do not arrive at any certain fact
in the history of the Reformer's life
till the year 1361, when he was Master
of Balliol ; and on May 16th of that
year was instituted, on the presentation
of his college, to the Rectory of Fil-
lingham in Lincolnshire, and shortly

after, resigning his mastership, went to
reside on his living. From that time
to his death, twenty-one years after, we
do not lose sight of him for any length
of time.
In 1363 he took his degree of Sacrce
Theologies Professor, or Doctor in Theo
logy. To the period previous to this,
says his editor, must be attributed all
his logical, physical, and metaphysical
works, by which he had already ob
tained eminence as a philosophical
and scientific teacher ; his work ' On
the Reality of Universals,' revived
the credit of the theory of Realism,
which had for some years been over
shadowed by Ockam's able advocacy of
the rival philosophical theory of Nom
inalism, and marked an epoch in the
history of philosophical opinion. On
taking his doctor's degree he began the
work, which it entitled him to under
take, of lecturing on theology to such
as chose to attend his instructions. It
was the fashion of those days to give
characteristic titles to famous doctors :
Aquinas was called the Angelical Doc
tor ; Bonaventura the Seraphic Doctor ;
Duns Scotus the Subtle Doctor ; Ockam
the Invincible Doctor ; a habit of
constant reference to the Gospel as the
basis of his teaching gained for Wiclif
the title of the Evangelical Doctor.
Three years after his doctorate (a.d.
1366) Wiclif brought out what was
one of his most important works, ' On
Dominion' ('De Dominio Divino').
Like many other men of earnest spirit
and lofty imagination, he had con
structed in his mind aii ideal of what
a Christian State shoujd be, as Dante
had done half a century before in his
book 'On Monarchy,' as Savonarola
tried to do in practice at Florence a
century later. Wiclifs ideal State was
built up on a feudal basis. All power,
he held, belonged to God, and was by
Him committed to earthly possessors :
temporal power to rulers and magis
trates, spiritual power to the Church,
to be held on the tenure of obedience
to the commandments ; in his own
phrase "dominion depends on grace."

WICLIF, JOHN

629

WICLIF, JOHN

When the possessors of power fall from
grace, and abuse their power, they for
feit it. But this theory he tried to
balance by another, which goes to ex
cess in the other direction, viz. that
God permits, nay enjoins, nay gives
the example of, obedience to existing
powers, though they be powers of evil ;
which he expresses in the strange if
not irreverent phrase, Quod Deus debet
dbedire diabolo — that God ought to
obey the devil. Wiclif put forth his
book as an ideal, with full admission
that it was incompatible with the ex
isting state of society ; but such ideals
are intended to educate men's minds,
and to bring about their own fulfil
ment ; and this work falling upon a
society in a state of great political and
ecclesiastical ferment, did produce a
considerable practical effect. The dis
contented seized — as they were sure to
do — upon the theory which made
dominion depend on grace, and ignored
the counterbalancing theory ; and to
accept the first half without a strong
corrective was to make every subject
judge in his own cause, whether he any
longer, in equity, owed any obedience
to his superior — child to parent, servant
to master, subject to Sovereign, Chris
tian man to his parish priest or bishop —
if he chose to consider that his superior
had fallen from grace ; it gave every
Christian an appeal from his earthly
superior, from the whole hierarchy of
superiors, to God. " It was an attempt,
from a feudal and scholastic point of
view, to occupy the ground which was
occupied in the hands of the sixteenth
century reformers by the doctrine of
justification by faith. The emancipa
tion of the individual conscience was
the aim of both."
The practical deduction from these
theories which Wiclif most earnestly
pressed, was, that the Church, in order
to maintain the spiritual authority
committed to her by God, ought to
return to her primitive state of poverty
and independence. Henceforth Wiclif
made himself conspicuous by attacking
the ecclesiastical abuses of his time, as

many eminent Churchmen had done
before him. He denounced the Pope
as anti- Christ. He attacked the wealth
and pomp of the prelates, the claims
of the clergy to exemption from the
secular jurisdiction, their ignorance,
self-indulgence, and neglect of preach
ing ; the abuses of the privilege of
sanctuary. He held that the temporal
lords were entitled to resume such
Church endowments as were abused.
And these things he not only main
tained with learning and scholastic
logic in Latin treatises, but promulgated
them among the rising middle class,
in tracts written in a popular and strik
ing style in vigorous English. The
eloquent preacher of such doctrines
found admirers and supporters among
all classes ; the religious enthusiasts
were heartily with him in his condemna
tion of the current abuses ; the king
and nobles, who desired to humble the
prelates ; the Commons, who envied
the wealth of the clergy ; and all classes
who resented the corruptions and ex
actions of the Papal Court. All saw a
valuable ally in the famous Oxford
Doctor, with his bold and eloquent ex
posure of the abuses of the Church,
and his declaration in favour of primi
tive poverty. He became a person of
political importance, was consulted by
princes and statesmen, and not un
willingly allied himself with those who
might give practical effect to his views.
In 1363 Wiclif exchanged his living
of Fillingham for that of Ludgershall,
Bucks ; and, having been appointed to
the honorary dignity of one of the king's
chaplains, he was, in 1375, presented
by the Crown to the rectory of Lutter
worth, Leicestershire ; which he held
till his death. Such opinions as he
continued to publish could not but give
great offence to those whom he attacked.
Political as well as ecclesiastical motives
led to his being summoned before Con
vocation in 1377, and required to answer
to the charges against him before a
Commission held at St. Paul's. But
when he appeared he was accompanied
by the Duke of Lancaster, and Percy

WICLIF, JOHN

630

WICLIF, JOHN

Earl Marshall, the leaders of the feudal
opposition to the Prelates, with a long
train of knights. These thrust through
the crowd assembled in St. Paul's, in
order to gain the Chapter House where
the Commissioners sat. Angry recrim
inations were at once exchanged be
tween Courteney, Bishop of London,
who presided, and the two noblemen.
The crowd took the part of their bishop,
and the sitting of the Council was
broken up by the tumult.
The Pope was induced by the friars
to take up the question. He required
the university to arrest Wiclif and send
him for trial before the Primate. The
university, jealous of the Pope's inter
ference, and friendly to Wiclif, delayed
action. Wiclif retorted by new argu
ments against the usurped authority of
the Roman See. Meantime, the old
king, Edward III., died, June 1377 ; his
son, the Black Prince, had already died
before him ; his grandson, the new
King Richard, was a boy under the
Regency of his mother. The clergy
felt themselves stronger for the change,
and Wiclif was at length compelled to
appear before a Council at Lambeth,
to answer the charges brought against
him. But again his political allies
interposed ; a message from the Regent
forbade the Council to take further
proceedings ; and while they hesitated,
the rabble burst in and broke up the
meeting in confusion.
With the death of Gregory XL the
series of French popes at Avignon came
to an end, and a disputed election gave
rise to the great schism which ranged
the Churches of Europe into two camps,
and weakened the Church's prestige
everywhere. England embraced the
cause of the Italian pope, and his op
position to France mitigated the popu
lar English feeling against the papacy.
At this time there was a great oppo
sition at Oxford to the friars, who
about forty years before (a.d. 1224) had
opened their first houses in the univer
sities, and had rapidly won a European
reputation for learning. There were
special reasons for opposing their in

fluence and teaching. When their re
putation as teachers had attracted vast
numbers of students from all parts of
Europe, they had tried to get the
teaching of the university into their
own hands, and to get their best students
to join their ranks ; this produced such
a panic among parents that they sent
their children elsewhere for education ;
so that the students at Oxford fell off
from thirty thousand to six thousand.
Wiclif took a strong and prominent
part in the opposition to them. He
did not limit his opposition to words,
but proceeded to oppose to them a
rival institution. It is not known
at what time Wiclif began to send
forth his priests, and this interesting
attempt to establish an order of itine
rant missionary preachers, on a plan
which should save them from the
faults which had already overtaken the
Dominican Order of Preaching Brothers
(Friars), may as well be told here as
elsewhere. It would seem that Wiclif
sought out suitable men, whom he
taught and trained so far as to enable
them to preach the great truths of reli
gion — and, probably, to preach against
the chief abuses of the day — in a
homely popular style. They seem, at
least, in the early days of the move
ment, to have been ordained priests.
He provided in some way a main
tenance for them, and forbade them to
imitate the mendicancy of the friars.
And so he sent them forth, clad in a
long russet-coloured robe, with staff in
hand, and Wiclifs gospels at their
girdle, to teach and preach through
town and country, the avowed rivals
and opponents of the friars. They were
never numerous ; they were condemned
and commanded to silence by the Lon
don Council of 1382.
About 1380 he entered upon a new
field of work ; hitherto he had attacked
the ecclesiastical abuses of his time ;
now he began the translation of the
Bible, which will be hereafter men
tioned, and about the same time he
began his attack upon the received
doctrine of Transubstantiation : and

WICLIF, JOHN

631

WICLIF, JOHN

continued, to the end of his life, an ex
posure of what he considered to 'be the
doctrinal errors of the contemporary
Church. In 1381 took place Wat Tyler's re
bellion ; the priest, John Ball, who was
one of its leaders, declared himself a
follower of Wiclif, and Wiclifs oppo
nents declared, not altogether without
reason, that the rebellion was the
natural outcome of Wiclifs doctrines ;
but there is no reason to believe that
Wiclif had any other than this remote
moral relation to the outbreak.
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Simon ,
of Sudbury, having been murdered by
the rebels; Courtenay, Bishop of
London, succeeded to the Primacy, and
at once brought the question of Wiclifs
opinions before a Council (1382 A.D.),
which condemned ten conclusions from
Wiclifs writings as heretical, and
fourteen as erroneous. An earthquake
occurred in the' midst of the sitting,
¦ • which some thought to indicate
heaven's displeasure at Wiclifs con
demnation, but which the Primate
dexterously interpreted as an exhi
bition of earth's sympathy with their
endeavour to eject such heresies from
its bosom. A penitential procession of
the clergy barefoot to St. Paul's, testified
the grief of the Church at the prevalence
of these heresies, and Friar Peter Stokes
preached a sermon against them. Then
the authorities proceeded against Wiclif
and his followers. Three of Wiclifs
most prominent followers — Philip Re-
Jf , pyngdon, Nicolas Hereford, and John
'f ?'Ayshton — were deprived and sentenced
"to various punishments, recanted, and
were restored. Wiclif himself appeared
before the archbishop and other pre
lates at Oxford, and gave some explan
ations, which his judges accepted, and
dismissed him. The reforming party at
Oxford was broken up,and Wiclif retired
to his rectory at Lutterworth, where he
spent the remaining two years of his
life, defending his doctrines by learned
works, and disseminating them by a.
great number of English tracts, and
completing his translation of the Bible.

One of his greatest works, the ' Tri-
alogus,' written at this time, is a
systematic exposition of theological
doctrine and discipline, and may be
regarded as his deliberate and final
utterance upon these subjects. But
no doubt his most important work was
his translation of the Bible. It is not
quite true to say that the Bible was
hitherto kept back from the laity ;
nearly everybody who could read at all
could read Latin, and there was no'
attempt to keep the Latin Bible out of
the hands of the laity. It is not quite
true to say that no previous attempt
had been made to bring the Bible to
the knowledge of the illiterate in an
English version. The Epistles and
Gospels of the Communion service, the
Psalter, and the Gospels, were by no
means unknown in an English form.
The truth is, that Wyclif lived at the
age when English was rising to the
dignity of a language in which poets
and scholars no longer disdained to
write. Gower and Chaucer, and the
author of ' Piers Ploughman, ' were the
contemporaries of Wiclif. The time
was ripe for a complete English version
of the Bible, and Wiclif has the merit
of having undertaken the great work.
He was assisted by Nicolas Hereford,
who translated nearly the whole of the
Old Testament, while Wiclif trans
lated the New Testament. The whole
was an uncritical translation from the
Vulgate, for there was no Englishman
at that time who knew Hebrew, and
Greek scholars were very rare.
In the last years of Wiclifs life, a
revised version, which almost amounted
to a new translation, was in progress,
which was largely the work of Purvey,
Wiclifs curate. Both versions have
been printed by Forshall and Madden,
with a valuable preface. It is a
popular error that Wiclifs Bible had
at once a large circulation among the
people. The fact that a copy of it
would have cost a sum equal to £40 of
our money is enough to prove that it
could not have had a large popular
circulation as a whole. Still Forshall

WICLIF, JOHN

632

WICLIF, JOHN

and Madden describe MSS. of the Bible
as a whole, of the New Testament, and
of smaller portions, to the number of
170 in all. The great importance of
Wiclifs translation was, that he and
his preachers, making the Bible the
sufficient test of all institutions and
all doctrines, were thus able to refer
the unlearned to an authority which
they could read for themselves for the
truth of their teachings. As a literary
work it was far inferior to Tyndale's,
which borrowed little or nothing from
it, but was itself the basis of all sub
sequent versions.
A few months before Wiclifs death,
the Pope, Urban VI., summoned him
to Rome to answer to the charge of
heresy. Wiclif answered that if he
were able he would obey the summons,
and defend his opinions, and if neces
sary, suffer for them, but that his
bodily infirmities made the journey im
possible. He had already had a para
lytic seizure, and shortly after, while
attending service in his own church,
he was struck speechless, carried home,
and died on the following day, on the
feast of Thomas-a-Becket, 1384.
The Bishop of Lincoln (Wordsworth),
in a paper to his Diocesan Conference
in 1884, gives an analysis of Wiclifs
tenets, which is here very briefly sum
marised. He rightly maintained the
sufficiency of Holy Scripture in matters
of faith and doctrine ; but erred in
extending this principle to rites and
ceremonies, and concluding that no
rites or ceremonies are to be used but
such as are set down in Scripture. He
erred in teaching that the Church con
sists only of holy persons predestined
by God to salvation, and that the
benefit of the Word and Sacraments
was vitiated and nullified by the heresy
and wickedness of the minister. On
the Christian ministry he erroneously
says: "I boldly affirm that in the
Primitive Church, in the time of St.
Paul, two orders of clergy were suffi
cient, namely, the order of priest and
deacon ; and a presbyter and a bishop
were the same" ('Trial.' iv. 15). He

affirmed the necessity of baptism, and
that sin original and actual was
washed away by it. For confirmation
he had but a slight regard. He
denounced the doctrine of Transubstan
tiation as an anti-Christian heresy,
"but what his positive teaching was is
not so evident. Sometimes he seems
to incline to what is called Zwinglian-
ism, as when he says that the words of
our Lord, 'This is My Body,' 'This
is My Blood,' may be illustrated by
his language concerning John the
Baptist, ' This is Elias, ' and are spoken
only figuratively and sacramentally ;
but elsewhere he affirms that our Lord's
Body which is in heaven is actually pre
sent in the consecrated elements ; " and
in one place he condemns as heretics
those who deny the Sacrament to be
God's Body. He did not consider
the Levitical prohibitions of marriage
within certain degrees of relationship
to extend to the Christian Church,
"and seems to have been inclined to
reject all prohibitions entirely ('Trial.'
iv. 20). This is a charaeteristic
specimen of the impatient waywardness
of his mind. " He clung to the belief in
Purgatory, but held that the poor and
such like would share in the treasury
of the merits of the Church without
payment. He believed in the eternity
of rewards and punishments. He re
jected the doctrine of the mediatorship
of saints, and declared Christ the only
Mediator. While we admire Wiclifs learning,
originality, and fearlessness, and sym
pathise with his advocacy of many
important truths, which since then
have won general acceptance, we can
not but recognise that he fell into the
common error of self-willed reformers,
of being carried too far by his antago
nism, and falling into opposite errors ;
that his opponents were called upon by
their office to condemn these errors ;
and that his doctrines as a whole must
have been condemned by any Church
Synod whatsoever.
After his death his opinions, espe
cially the most extreme of them, under

WIDOWS

633

WIDOWS

the name of Lollardism, continued to
spread widely, especially among the
middle and lower classes ; and at
length severe measures were taken for
their suppression. [See Lollardism.]
But the political commotions o£ the
latter part of the century turned men's
thoughts to other, and, for the time,
more absorbing questions, and Lollard
ism died out in England. It was carried
by Bohemians, who had lived here in
the train of Queen Anne of Bohemia,
the wife of Richard II., to their
country, where they were largely re
ceived. But it is remarkable how
little direct effect Wiclif had upon the
Reformation of the sixteenth century in
England. Wiclifs opinions were years
after his death finally condemned, to
gether with those of John Huss and
Jerome of Prague, by the Council of
Constance ; by order of the Council his
bones were disinterred from their place
in the chancel of Lutterworth church,
burnt in the churchyard, and their
ashes scattered in the rivulet which
runs close by.
Of his works the greatest have
been printed : the Bible, by Forshall
and Madden. The ' Trialogus. ' The
'Fasciculi Zizaniarum,' in the Rolls'
series, edited by Professor Shirley.
Arnold's 'Select English Works of
Wicklif.' The Early English Text
Society has published the principal
English MSS. of Wiclif, ed. by F. D.
Matthews. 1880 a.d. A large collec
tion of MSS. not yet printed, exist
in England, and others have recently
been brought to public knowledge in
the Library at Vienna. A Wiclif
Society has been recently established,
with the object of publishing part or
the whole of these. See ' Wicklif, his
Place in History,' by Prof. Burrows.
Life by Lechler. 'Catalogue of the
Exhibition of Bibles at the British
Museum on the Wiclif Quincentenary,'
1884. ' The Church and her Members,'
by Dr. J. H. Todd. 1851.
WIDOWS. Called also Vowesses.
A wife who loses her husband so
often loses her place and her interest

in the world, that it is not to be
wondered at that religious - minded
widows should be found in considerable
numbers giving themselves to a life
of spiritual interests and occupations.
The Old Testament gives us the illus
trations of Judith and Anna. The
Primitive Church had its roll of widows,
who had a quasi-religious character,
and received maintenance from tho
Church (1 Tim.v. 5, 9, 10). In subse
quent ages it was common for widows
to take vows of perpetual widowhood,
and to devote themselves to such prac
tices and charitable offices as those
alluded to in the text above. The
mediaeval service books contain an
Office for the Blessing of a Widow. She
was invested with a mantle, veil, and
ring. She was not necessarily separated
from the world in any way, and might
continue to live in her own house or
among her friends ; but frequently such
widows took up their residence in a
nunnery, either giving their property
to the house on condition of receiving
proper maintenance, or simply as
boarders.* The Registers of Bishops
contain instances of widows taking the
vows, e. g. in the Register of Bath and
Wells, 1413, is a record of Margaret,
widow of Leonard Hakeluyit of Bridge-
water, taking the. vow of perpetual
chastity. There is a curious instance
in the York Registers in 1479, in which
a man, Henry Andrew, was admitted
by Archbishop Booth to the Order of
Hermits, and his wife, Mistress Alice*
at the same time -made her vow as a
Widow (Ormsby's 'Hist. Dioc. York,'
p. 211). This consecrated widowhood
was regarded as an order of religion,
and she who abandoned it was liable to
proceedings in the ecclesiastical court.
The ordinary "widow's weeds," or
mourning costume, seems to have been
derived from the habit of the religious
widow ; there are examples of it to be
seen in monumental brasses, e. g. of
Eliz. Poste (1516), at Etwall, Derby-
* It was very customary for widows with
out taking vows to become lodgers in a re
ligious house (' Test. Ebor.' iii. 201, note).

WINCHESTER

634

WINCHESTER

shire, engraved in the 'Reliquary,'
vol. i.
When the Reformation had inter
rupted all formal religious vows, the
biographies of holy women show that
the primitive idea of consecrated widow
hood survived and was still practised
('Scenes and Characters of the Middle
Ages,' p. 152). In the religious revival
of the Stuart period we find numerous
biographies of saintly widows, who were
manifestly reviving in their practice the
ancient idea of consecrated widowhood.
WINCHESTER, DIOCESE OF. The
Christian traditions of the city of Win
chester run back to the most venerable
antiquity, for Winchester is only the
Saxon form of Caer Gwent, where,
the legend preserved by Bede says,
Lucius, King of Briton, "built a
cathedral on a scale of grandeur and
magnificence which has never since
been equalled, annexing a monastery
to it." Though there never was a
Lucius King of Briton, still it is very
possible that there may have been a
church and monastery at Caer Gwent
in the Romano-British period.
In the Anglo-Saxon Conquest of the
deserted Province, a body of Saxon
adventurers found their way up the
Southampton Water and the rivers
which run into it; a party of allied
Jutes pushed their keels up the Meon,
and settled along its valley ; a body of
Jutes, helped by the Saxons, conquered
the Isle of Wight, while the main body
of the Saxons pushed northward as far
as the Thames valley, and westward till
the dense forests of the Frome valley
stopped them ; so that before the end
of the sixth centuiy they had formed a
kingdom of the West Saxons, under
the royal house of Cerdic, which ex
tended over the countiy now known as
Hampshire, Oxfordshire, Bedfordshire,
and Bucks.
In 633 Birinus, a priest of Genoa,
sought permission of Honorius to go as
a missionary to those parts of England
where the gospel had not yet been
preached. He was consecrated as a
bishop by Asterius of Genoa, landed

on the Wessex coast, and presented
himself to King Kynegils. It happened
that Oswald, the Christian King of
Northumbria, had come at that time
to seek the daughter of Kynegils in
marriage, and no doubt used his in
fluence in the matter ; Kynegils em
braced Christianity, and Birinus was
accepted as Bishop of the West Saxons,
placing his see at Dorchester, near the
junction of the Thames and the Isis.
The king also laid the foundation of
a great church at Winchester. Two
years afterwards Birinus died, and
Agilbert, a Gallic bishop who had been
studying in Ireland, happening to come
into Wessex, was induced to act as
their bishop. Agilbert, however, was
ill acquainted with the Saxon tongue,
and the king, Kenwalk, selected Wina,
' one of the monks of his church of
Winchester, sent him to Gaul to seek
consecration, and subdividing the dio
cese, placed him in Winchester as
bishop of the south part of the king
dom, leaving the northern part to
Agilbert. Agilbert was displeased,
and retired to Gaul ; three years after
wards the king was dissatisfied with
Wina, and expelled him. Agilbert
being invited to return, excused him
self, he was now Bishop of Paris, but
recommended his nephew Elentherius,
who came and was consecrated by
Theodore of Canterbury in 670. Eleu-
therius was succeeded by Hedda, who
removed the see to Winchester. In
his time King Ceadwalla conquered the
South Saxons (a.d. 685). The colony
of Jutes settled in the valley of the
Meon owed their evangelisation to St.
Wilfred of York, during the time that
he was living among the South Saxons,
and probably as a sequence of Cead-
walla's conquest of Sussex. St. Hedda
was King Ina's bishop, and no doubt
his counsellor in the celebrated laws
which still remain among the earliest
of the Anglo-Saxon codes. On Hedda's
death (705) the diocese was divided;
the eastern half, including Hants,
Surrey, Sussex, and the Isle of Wight,
remaining to Winchester, while 'the

WINCHESTER

635

WINCHESTER

western parts of the kingdom were
formed into a new bishopric, with its
see at Sherborne ; and a few years later
(711) the see of the sub-kingdom of the
South Saxons was revived at Selsey.
The monastery of Chertsey was
founded by Erkenwald, afterwards
Bishop of the East Saxons, in 666.
King Ina richly endowed the monastery
of Glastonbury, a Roman foundation,
revived by the Irish missionaries, and
founded a magnificent church of stone
beside the existing timber church.
The monastery of Nursling trained
Winfred (St. Boniface) for his great
work as the Apostle of Germany, and
his letters to Daniel, Bishop of Win-
'chester, help to enhance our opinion of
the learning, wisdom, and saintliness
of the Wessex prelate.
The Danes harried this "part of the
kingdom year after year, destroyed the
religious nouses, plundered the people,
and drove the king into concealment.
When Alfred had broken their power
and driven them back into the East of
England, he had to build up anew the
civilisation and religion of his kingdom.
It is part of the history of England
how he brought learned monks from
Mercia and Wales, from St. Omer and
Corbey, and encouraged learning among
his clergy and people ; it is more es
pecially part of the history of the
diocese how he founded New Minster
in the burial-ground of the cathedral
at Winchester, and a monastery at
Athelney, and two nunneries, one at
Winchester, the other at Athelney.
Edward the Elder, Alfred's son, founded
Romsey Abbey.
In 909 Plegmund consecrated seven
bishops at once : one for Winchester,
two others for Selsey and Dorchester,
which were all three vacant, and Sher
borne, which was vacant at the same
time, was subdivided into four — Sher
borne, Wells, Crediton, and Bodmin.
Under Edgar and his great minister,
Dunstan, this diocese, together with
the rest of the West and South of Eng
land, made great progress in prosperity,
in religion and learning, and in the

arts. Ethelwold, trained at the revived
Glastonbury, and afterwards Abbot of
Abingdon, and consecrated by Dunstan
Bishop of Winchester, was one of the
leading spirits in this revival. Not
only in his own diocese, at Winchester,
Abingdon, and Chertsey, but at St.
Neots, Ramsey, Ely, Peterboro,Thorney,
he revived the monasteries which the
Danes had destroyed, and made them
again centres of civilisation and religion
to their several neighbourhoods. In
his own cathedral he replaced the secu
lar canons (964) by Benedictine monks
from his late Abbey of Abingdon, three
only of the old canons conforming to
the new rules. And in all the other
houses which he restored he instituted
the Benedictine Rule, which he trans
lated into Saxon for the benefit of the
monks. Again in 994 the Danes invaded the
country. Ethelred the Unready ( =
redeless, without counsel, or without
judgment ; rash) sent out orders from
Winchester for the massacre of the
Danes on St. Brice's Day (Nov. 13),
1002 ; and the massacre began in that
city. Next, Sweyn invaded England
and harried the southern and eastern
districts ; Ethelred died in 1016, and
the Witan at Winchester elected Cnut
to the throne.
From the time of Egbert, Winchester
had been not only the royal city of
Wessex, but in a sense the capital of
England ; but though Edward the
Confessor was crowned there, his chief
residence was at Westminster ; and
though through some subsequent reigns
Winchester retained its prestige as the
place where the kings were crowned
and held their royal Court at the great
festivals, yet London became more
and more the practical centre of the
kingdom. When Bishop Alwyn died in 1047,
Stigand, Bishop of the East Anglian see
of Elmham, was translated to Winchester,
but was allowed still to hold Elmham
with it. When Earl Godwin and the
national party had driven out the
Norman favourites of Edward the

WINCHESTER

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Confessor, Stigand was made archbishop
in place of the banished Archbishop
Robert, and still held Winchester, re
signing Elmham to his brother Ethel-
mar. The Abbot of the New Minster
died on the field of Senlac ; the
Conqueror confiscated a portion of the
manors of the monastery, and built a
royal castle at Winchester to overawe
the city and neighbouring country.
On Stigand's deposition by the Council
of London (1070), Walkelin, a kins
man, and one of the chaplains of the
Conqueror, was consecrated to the see ;
Stigand continued to reside in some
sort of custody at Winchester.
Bishop Walkelin rebuilt the cathe
dral as a vast cruciform church, in the
simplest and most severe style of Nor
man architecture, the central portion
of which still remains, viz. the tran
septs, low central tower, and part of
the nave ; originally the nave extended
forty feet further westward, and had
two towers ; and the eastern limb ter
minated with a rounded apse, flanked
by two small towers, from between
which a small apsidal lady chapel ex
tended still further eastward. The
new cathedral was consecrated on St.
Swithin's day, 1093. The central
tower indeed fell seven years later, but
the piers were strengthened, and the
tower was rebuilt.
Bishop Gifford, his successor, re
moved the New Minster, or St. Grim-
bald's Abbey, from the cathedral yard
to Hydemeadow ; he also founded the
monastery of St. Mary Overy at South
wark, and a priory of canons at Taunton
(1127) ; he founded the first English
house of Cistercians at Waverly in 1129 ;
and built himself a palace at South
wark, with a large park, which became
the town house of the bishops for five
succeeding centuries.
Henry de Blois (1129—1171) is the
most conspicuous of the Bishops of
Winchester. Nephew of Henry I.,
brother of King Stephen, and papal
legate, his royal birth, great position,
and talents, made him one of the most
powerful persons in the kingdom. The

part which he took in the civil war
between Matilda and Stephen — taking
first the side of his brother, then of
the empress, then of his brother again
— belongs to the general history of the
country. What specially concerns
Winchester is the civil war which was
waged for seven weeks within the city
itself, when the bishop held his castle
and the precincts of the cathedral on
the part of Stephen, and the Earl of
Gloucester held the royal castle and
the north of the High Street, where the
houses of the citizens in general stood,
on the part of the empress. The
bishop's soldiers threw fireballs into
the quarter held by their besiegers, by
which the New Minster at Hyde, the
royal palace, the Abbey of St. Mary,
twenty churches, and , a great number
of houses were burnt. In Stephen's
reign every noble built a castle for his
own protection amidst the prevailing
anarchy, which may partly account for
the number built by Bishop Henry de
Blois : he built Wolvesey Castle on
the site of the old episcopal palace
at Winchester, Farnham Castle, and
castles on the other principal manors
of the see — Taunton, Merdon (Hursley),
Waltham, and Downton. He founded
the Hospital of St. Cross, near Win
chester, which still remains, one of the
most interesting and picturesque sur
vivals of the mediaeval religious life.
In his episcopate the Priory of the
Canons of St. Denys at Southampton
was founded. The bishop founded also
a Benedictine nunnery at Ivinghoe,
and a college of four canons at Marwell,
and was a liberal donor to the convent
at Taunton, which his predecessor had
founded. He was-also a benefactor to
every parish in his diocese in this way :
A Synod over which he presided decreed
that all chalices must be of precious
metal. The next time the clergy were
taxed, he ordered that every rector
should bring the amount of his taxa
tion in the form of a silver chalice.
When they were brought he returned
them as a gift to the several parishes
for the use of the Holy Communion ;

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Iff

if

n

and himself paid the cost of them to
the king out of his own purse.
Bishop Godfrey de Lacy (1189 —
1204) instituted a confraternity to last
for five years and no longer, to collect
alms for the renovation of the cathe
dral. The result was the present
beautiful east end of the cathedral,
beginning from the back of the apse,
all excepting the lady chapel at the
extreme end, which belongs to the
fifteenth century. In his episcopate
King John founded the Cistercian
Abbey of Beaulieu.
Bishop Peter de Roches (1204 —
1243), the minister of Henry III., left
his mark on the diocese ; he estab
lished both the Dominicans and Fran
ciscans at Winchester, founded the
famous Hospital of God's House at
Portsmouth, whose chapel is the pre
sent garrison chapel ; a priory of Austin
Canons at Selborne, and Praemonstra-
tensian abbeys at Titchfield, and at
Hales Owen in Shropshire. It is not
certain whether Netley was founded
by this bishop, or in the year after his
death. On the death of Bishop Peter
the see was vacant for five years owing
to a dispute between the chapter and
the king ; then William of Rayleigh
ruled for five years (1244—1249). On
his death one of the Poitevin relations
of the king, Aylmer de Valence, was
', elected, but postponed consecration ;
so that while enjoying the income and
administering the temporal affairs of
the see, he avoided the necessity of
giving up the rich preferments which
he already held. On his persecuting
the prior of the cathedral, the pope
took up the prior's cause, and gave to
him and his successors the right to
wear mitre, ring, and crosier. One of
the first acts of the barons, when they
rose against the king's misgovernment,
was to dismiss Aylmer with the rest of
the foreign favourites into banishment.
Bishop I. Sawbridge (1282—1305)
founded a college dedicated to St.
Elizabeth of Hungary, for the purpose
of promoting learning among his clergy ;
and in his episcopate St. Johns House

or Hospital was founded by a citizen,
John Devenish, for the relief of sick
and lame soldiers, poor pilgrims, &c,
to have free diet and lodging for one
night or longer. The charity has sur
vived till this day, and its beautiful
Early English chapel has been restored
to its original use.
The terrible plague which destroyed
more than half the population of
England in 1348, began at South
ampton, and committed dreadful rav
ages there, and in the neighbouring
towns. William of Wykeham's (1367—1404)
first post under the Crown was that of
architect, before his knowledge as a
lawyer led to his appointment as chan
cellor, and his ability as a statesman
made him one of the most influential
politicians of the troubled period in
which he lived. His political life bo-
longs to general history ; he has left
behind him in his diocese more abun
dantly than any other of its bishops,
the marks of his magnificence, his en
couragement of learning, his skill as
an architect, and his wisdom as an
administrator. He found the episcopal
residences in ruinous condition, and
restored them all. He founded the
college at Winchester for seventy
scholars, and New College at Oxford,
where they might complete their edu
cation. He restored the nave of the
cathedral with bold originality of con
ception ; at first carving mouldings of
the style of the period (Perpendicular),
in which he was perhaps the greatest
master, upon the Norman stones ; and
then, changing his plan, by casing the
Norman piers with new work. In the
early years of his episcopate he thrice
diligently visited the whole diocese,
both parishes and religious houses, and
in the next year appointed Commis
sioners with power to reform the abuses
which he had observed. He founded
a chantry of five priests at Southwick
to pray for the souls of his parents,
and founded his own chantry in the
cathedral in the place where he had
loved to pray when a child. "From

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WINCHESTER

the time of his being made bishop, he
abundantly provided for a certain
number of poor, twenty-four at the
least, every day ; not only feeding
them, but also distributing money
among them to supply their necessities
of every kind. He continually em
ployed his friends, and those that at
tended upon him, to seek out the pro-
perest objects of his charity ; to search
after 'those whose modesty would not
suffer them to apply for relief ; to .go
to the houses of the sick and needy,
and to inform themselves of their
several calamities, and his beneficence
administered largely to their wants.
He supported the infirm, he fed the
hungry, he clothed the naked. To the
poor friars of the orders subsisting on
charity he was always very liberal.
His hospitality was large, constant,
and universal ; his house was open to
all, and frequented by the rich and
great in proportion as it was crowded
by the poor and indigent. He was
ever attentive and compassionate to
such as were imprisoned for debt ; he
inquired into their circumstances, com
pounded with their creditors, and
procured their release ; in this article
of charity he expended three thousand
marks. The roads between London
and Winchester and in many other
places were very bad and almost im
passable ; he repaired and amended
them, making causeways and building
bridges at a vast expense. He repaired
a great number of churches in his dio
cese which were gone to decay ; and
moreover furnished them, not only in
a decent but even in a splendid manner,
with books, vestments, chalices, and
other ornaments. In this way he be
stowed one hundred and thirteen
chalices and one hundred pairs (i.e.
full suits) of vestments ; so that the
articles of this kind, few in comparison,
which we find in his will, were only
intended by way of supplement to
what he had done in his lifetime, that
those churches of his patronage which
he had not had occasion to consider
before as objects of his liberality, might

not, however, seem to be wholly neg
lected by him. Besides all this he
purchased estates to the value of two
hundred marks a-year, in addition to
the demesne lands of the Bishop of
Winchester, that he might leave there
memorials of his munificence of every
kind."* Beaufort (1404 — 1447), who suc
ceeded William of Wykeham, was a
far more important political personage
than he, but he was a far less important
Bishop of Winchester. His life is
sketched elsewhere in this book. [See
Beaufort.] He was a great benefactor
to St. Cross Hospital. His beautiful
chantry is still one of the ornaments
of the cathedral.
In Waynflete's time (1447—1487) a
papal bull was obtained (1550) to trans
fer the Channel Islands from the dio
cese of Coutanee, to which they had
hitherto belonged, to an English juris
diction. At first they were put under
Salisbury, then transferred to Win
chester ; but the transfer was not
actually carried into effect until 1508.
He left a monument of his munificence
and care to promote learning in his
foundation of Magdalen College, Ox
ford. Waynflete seems to have been
one of the first to set the example,
which Wolsey afterwards followed, of
suppressing religious houses which
were doing no good service, and appro
priating them to the endowment of
education. Thus, the Priory of Sel
borne first decayed in discipline, then
diminished in numbers, till at last
there was neither prior nor canon resi
dent ; whereupon the bishop obtained
the papal sanction to appropriate it to
his new college, they maintaining a
chantry priest at Selborne to say
Divine service in the chapel there.
_ There are other illustrations in the
history of the diocese, besides the great
foundations of Wykeham and Wayn
flete, of the way in which the great
prelates of the period encouraged the
general diffusion of education among
the people, e.g. Bishop Langton (1493
* 'Bishop Lowth.

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— 1500) not only fostered Winchester
school, but "he collected a number of
youths whom he caused to be educated
in his palace ; the most promising of
them he sent to Italy." Bishop Fox
(1500 — 1528) not only founded Corpus
Christi College, Oxford, for secular
students, but also a free school at
Taunton, and anqtiier at Grantham
near his native village, and helped very
many poor scholars at the university.
Wolsey was bishop for three years
(1528 — 1531), but he seems to have
regarded the bishopric only as one of
the emoluments of his office as minister,
for he was installed by proxy and never
visited the cathedral. Gardiner, his
successor in the see, fills an important
place in the history of the Reformation
period, rather than in that of the dio
cese.' Poynet succeeded him, and alien
ated from the see the palace of Marwell,
and the manors of Marwell, Highclere,
Bitterne and Twyford, which the Pro
tector Somerset gave to his brother
Henry Seymour : the palace of Waltham
and its estates were given to the Earl
of Wiltshire.
In 1567 a body of Walloons, fleeing
from persecution in the Netherlands,
settled in Southampton, and were al
lowed to set up their worship in the
chapel of God's house.
There is a curious anecdote relating
to the fate of the popish recusants
in Hampshire. Antony Uvedale held
the manor of Woodcote near Bramdean
on the service of the safe-keeping of
Winchester gaol. He was himself a
S" papist, as was also his son, and both
* finding it contrary to their conscience
to act as gaolers of the recusants com
mitted to prison, the manor was made
over to the grandson, a child of seven.
The Bishop, Bilson, complained that
the recusant prisoners, in this friendly
:. custody, "had been feasting and enjoy
ing themselves mightily ; one Kenyon,
a seminary priest, had been allowed to
escape ; other recusants had been al
lowed to go home and resume their
r eccupations, returning to prison when
the time of the sessions came , then,

their trial being postponed, they have
gone home again ; and so it has gone
for ten or twelve years in some cases."
Mr. Benham brings together some
examples of the foundation of grammar
schools in the diocese by private bene
factors, in the sixteenth and seven
teenth centuries at Ringwood, Aries-
ford, Alton, Holybourne, two at An-
dover, two at Basingstoke, at Ports
mouth, Romsey, two at Southampton,
at East Tytherley, Hinton, Ampner,
Lymington, South Stoneham, Boldre.
In 1717 there were thirty-four " charity
schools " in Hampshire. Of the edu
cational foundations of Surrey, he
mentions Guildford, Chertsey, Farn-
ham, Kingston-on-Thames.
Of the times of the Long Parliament
and the Commonwealth this diocese
has a record of the usual experiences ;
how the Parliament's troops broke into
the west doors of the cathedral while
morning service was going on, and
marched up the church, two troops of
horse with them, with colours flying,
drums beating, and matches lighted,
and began to plunder and destroy, till
the inhabitants rushed in, and de
clared they would die before seeing
their church demolished ; and Waller
thought it prudent to check the de
struction. So at Odiam, February 11, 1644, a
party of soldiers from the garrison at
Farnham Castle rode into the church
during service, and presented their
pistols at the minister, commanding
him to cease his preaching ; one pistol
was fired, and a woman died of fright.
At Hound, the first intruded minister
had been a weaver, and some jesters
dangled a shuttle from the front of
the gallery : he resigned, and his suc
cessor was a quondam saddler, where
upon the village jesters replaced his
pulpit-cushion with an old saddle. At
Over Wallop a tinker was put in as
afternoon lecturer, and afterwards, on
the sequestration of the rector, suc
ceeded to the benefice.
, One of the most interesting episodes
| of this period is the history of the

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WORCESTER

maintenance, the siege, and at length
the capture, of Basing House, which,
however, rather belongs to general
than to ecclesiastical history. Basing
church, however, has very interesting
architectural and monumental remains
of the period. If this article were a
history of the bishops of the diocese
it would have much to say of Bishops
Lancelot Andrewes, Duppa, Sir J.
Trelawney, Hoadley, and Wilberforce.
The diocese at present includes the
entire county of Hants, of Surrey, and
portions of adjoining counties, and the
Channel Islands : population, 156,169 ;
3 archdeaconries, Winchester, Isle of
Wight, and Surrey ; 29 deaneries ; 585
benefices ; 512 resident incumbents.
WORCESTER, DIOCESE OF. The
Angles conquered Northumbria from
the East coast. The West Saxons,
landing in the Southampton Water,
pressed forward north and west ; the
Mercian kingdom consisted at first of
an aggregation of small tribes of dif
ferent nationalities, who came in last,
and had to push forward into the
middle of the Island. Ultimately the
Midland kingdom extended north and
south from the Thames to the Humber,
east and west from the Fens, which
formed the west boundary of East
Anglia, to the shores of the Severn Sea.
It was founded a century later than the
kingdom of Kent ; and it was another
century before it was Christianised.
, Peada, the son of the old heathen
Penda, seeking a Northumbrian princess
for his bride, embraced Christianity
(653), and brought back four Northum
brian priests to preach in Mercia.
One of the tribes which made up the
Mercian kingdom were the Hwiccas or
Wiccii, who had won the country on
the left bank of the Severn, from the
junction of the Avon for fifty miles
northward. Two Wiceian princes, Ean-
freth and Eanhere, were baptised A. d.
661, and from that year the Christian -
isation of their principality is dated.
A monastic cell is said to have been
founded at Tewkesbury in 675, and
one even earlier still by Ethelmund

the Ealdorman, at Deerhurst. Osric,
prince of the Wiccians under the
Mercian Ethelred, probably founded
St. Peter's at Gloucester ; his brothei
Oswald, Pershore Abbey ; and his
3ister Cyneburgh was the first Abbess
of Gloucester. Oshere, prince of the
Wiccians, founded monasteries at
Ripple and Withington. This Wiecian
prince desired to have a separate bishop
for his people. Ethelred approved, and
this was part of Archbishop Theodore's
scheme for the subdivision of the
dioceses, and was approved at the
Council of Hertford (673) ; but Wini
fred, Bishop of the Mercians (Lich
field), opposed the division ; he was de
posed in 675 ; and five years later the
Council of Hatfield carried the division
of Mercia into effect, and the church of
St. Peter of Worcester, founded a little
time before by Saxulph, Bishop of
Lichfield, which had a staff of clergy,
offered a suitable bishop's see ; Hilda's
famous monastery at Whitby supplied
the first bishops : Tatfrith, who died
before consecration, Bosei the first
bishop, and Oftfor the second. On his
death the Wiceian Church was no longer
dependent upon others for a suitable
man ; Egwine, a native of noble or
even royal birth, succeeded. He
founded Evesham Abbey, and resign
ing his see, retired to end his days
there. In 760 St. Mary's Abbey was founded
close to the cathedral. During the
seventh and eighth centuries monas
teries sprang up in every part of the
diocese, some the creation of the kings,
some of the nobles, some of wealthy
Thanes. The foundations of Tewkes
bury, Deerhurst, Gloucester, Pershore,
Ripple, Withington, St. Peter's, and
St. Mary's, Worcester, have been men
tioned. Early in the eighth centuiy
Bredon was founded by a cousin of
King Ethelbald ; Kidderminster rather
later ; Winchcombe by Kenulph, about
the beginning of the next century.
The Danes found ready access into the
Mercian kingdom by the Severn and
the Trent ; and the Welsh found in

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641

WORCESTER

the Mercian necessity their opportunity
to harass their hostile neighbours.
"So late as the time of the Norman
conquest, in a deed of Bishop Ealdred,
Danish ' thanes in Worcestershire are
mentioned as a distinct class. Few
Danes appear in the high places of the
Church among the Wiccians. This part
of England, unlike the north-eastern
counties, never became Danish. "
One remarkable result of the Danish
invasions, however, was a close con
nection between the diocese of Wor
cester and that, of York. Four bishops
during the latter part of the tenth cen
tury and the earlier quarter of the
eleventh, were one after another raised
from Worcester to York, and held both
sees together. The historian of York
says that the northern diocese, peopled
with Danish settlers, was so much a
Danish Church that its bishop was
allowed to retain Worcester, or to
nominate a relative to it, as a means of
attaching him to the Church system of.
the rest of England. Oswald, nephew
of Archbishop Odo of Canterbury,
educated in the abbey of Fleury, was
raised to the see in 961, in succession
to Dunstan, and retained it thirty
years. He took a large part in that
restoration of the discipline of the
monasteries, and that revival of re
ligion, learning, and civilisation which
took place in the southern half of
England under the reign of Edgar and
the primacy of Dunstan. Under his
management a stately new church
(with twenty-seven altars) was built
for the monastery of St. Mary, Wor
cester, and the abbey was enriched and
fostered by the bishop- at the expense
of St". Peter's ; at last the Canons of
St. Peter's consented to take monastic
vows, and were transferred to St.
Mary's, to which the bishop removed
his episcopal chair. King Edgar gave
many immunities to the manors be
longing jointly to the bishop and the
convent, consolidating them into the
Hundred of Oswaldslowe under the
bishop's court. Oswald also restored
monastic discipline at Westbury, where

he introduced twelve monks from
Fleury, under Germanus ; thence he
sent monks to reorganise Ramsey
(Hants) ; he also substituted monks
for canons at Winchelcombe, Pershore,
and Evesham. Gloucester continued
to retain its secular canons for another
century, when Wulfstan reformed it.
Oswald was also instrumental in re
modelling Ely and St. Albans. The
list of pre-Norman bishops closes with
three remarkable men. Living, the
counsellor of Canute, held the sees of
Crediton and St. German's, together
with Worcester. In his time Hardi-
canute punished the city with fire and
sword, and the cathedral of St. Mary
was left in ruins. Ealdred was one of
the foremost of the counsellors of
Edward the Confessor, a man of great
versatility and force of character. He
held the dioceses of Hereford and
Ramsbury with Worcester ; resigned
Hereford on his promotion in 1060 to
the archbishopric of York, and obtained
the nomination of Wulfstan to Wor
cester, over which he continued to
exercise some kind of patronage. He
crowned both Harold and William I.
Wulfstan was the one Saxon bishop
who retained his see at the Conquest.
The remarkable relations which had so
long existed between the sees of York
and Worcester led the new Norman
archbishop of York to claim jurisdic
tion over Worcester ; but two Councils
in 1072 decided that Worcester was
in the southern province, and under
the jurisdiction of Canterbury. _ Wulf
stan began a new cathedral, a little to
the south-west of Oswald's ; the crypt
and other parts which still exist in
dicate the solidity and grandeur of
the building. The priory of Great
Malvern was founded in his days.
It was in his days also that two monks
from Winchcombe and one from Eve
sham set out to Northumbria to revive
the ' monastic life, and rebuild the
monasteries there which had so long
lain in the ruin in which the Danish
rapine had left them. [See Durham,
Diocese of.]

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The Domesday survey shows that at
the time of the Conquest nearly half
the landowners in Worcestershire, and
a smaller proportion in Gloucestershire
were ecclesiastical corporations, The
cathedral church, besides its landed
estates, had the patronage of about
fifty benefices ; it received pensions
(as being the mother church) from
some forty more which were in the gift
of other monasteries, as well as from
the rectors in the diocese. *
Of the bishops of Worcester some
were men known in history like Roger,
116-4 ; William of Blois, 1218 ; Canti-
lupe, 1237 ; and Giffard, 1.268 ; some
were better known in the history of the
diocese, as Carpenter, 1444 ; an unusual
prop&rtion had a very short tenure of
the see, being old men when appointed,
or speedily translated to another see.
Keeping to the general history of
the diocese rather than of the bishops,
it may be noted that the Cistercian
monks were planted at Hales in 1246.
A house of Franciscans was planted in
St. Helen's parish, and another, under
the auspices of Beauchamp, Earl of
Warwick, in the east of Worcester.
The Beauchamps of Powick planted
the Dominicans in the north of the
city. The Trinitarian friars, settled
themselves in St. Nicholas parish ; and
the Friars of the Sack settled in Wor
cester about the same time.
In the middle of the century John
the Prior of Worcester obtained leave
from the Pope to wear mitre and ring
in presence of the bishop, and to bear
the crozier in his absence ; and the
Abbot of Gloucester about the same
time obtained the ¦ same privilege.
The foundation of chantries was one
of the principal forms of religious
munificence in the latter part of the
mediaeval period. One in St. Helen's
parish, Worcester, 1288, was one of
the earliest. Early in the fourteenth
century Guy, Earl of Warwick, founded
* Before the Conquest it received the tithes
as well as the pensions from the churches
belonging to it ; after the Conquest only tho
pensions.

one at Elmley Castle, and another at
Elmley Lovett. Soon after chantries
were founded at Ripple and Hartle-
bury ; later by the Mounts at Hamp
ton Lovett ; in St. Helen's parish and
other parishes in Worcester and else
where. At the very end of the century
Robert Walden of Warwick founded
one in Tredington church, and another
in the collegiate church at Warwick.
To anticipate here some later founda
tions :— In '1400 Thomas Ball founded
a chantry in Holy Trinity church,
Bristol ; in 1476 John Twynebo one at
Lechlade ; and the Duchess of York,
mother of Edward IV. , founded another
for three priests in the same church.
During yhis episcopate William Can-
ynge, the wealthy mayor of Bristol,
the personal friend of Bishop Carpenter,
received holy orders at his hands, and
retired from secular life as one of the
canons of the college of Westbury.
It was customary for all the guilds
in Worcester to go in procession on
Corpus Christi day to the church of
the Dominicans, and thence to the
cathedral. In 1445 Bishop Carpenter (1444 —
1476) offered forty days' indulgence to
all who aided in repairing the king's
highways in four several localities, and
in the repair of the west bridge at
Gloucester and the bridge at Bidford.
The growing custom for gentlemen of
rank and wealth to entertain chaplains
and have private chapels in their own
houses is illustrated by the number of
licences issued for this purpose by
Bishop Carpenter, e. g. in 1445, his
own auditor, William Pyllesden and
Eleanor his wife received a licence to
have Divine offices in their mansion-
house in the city of Worcester, "so
that no prejudice accrue to their own
parish church." The same licence was
granted in the same year to Thomas
Lyttleton and Johan his wife, and
their servants, the licence to remain
in force during the bishop's pleasure ;
to Nicholas Poyntz and his wife and
their children ; also to Thomas Rouse,
Esq., and his wife, to have Divine

WORCESTER

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service in their oratory within their
mansion-house of Rouse Lench ; and
in 1450 to John Clopton, Gent, of
Clopton, within the parish of Stratford-
on-Avon. It was this same Bishop
Carpenter who added largely to the
cathedral library, and endowed it with
the stipend of a librarian. This
bishop also, like some others, dealt
with some of the smaller religious
houses in his diocese — probably because
they had fallen into poverty, had
dwindled down to a small number of
members, and were in a state of indis
cipline — by adding them to larger
houses ; thus he united the Priory of
Dodford to the Abbey of Halesowen ;
he appropriated the Monastery of Al-
cester to Evesham Abbey, on condition
that daily services should be kept up
at Alcester by a prior and two monks ;
he annexed the Priory of Deerhurst
to Tewkesbury, on condition that the
services should be kept up by a warden,
four monks, and a secular priest. He
also appropriated (a late instance of
such appropriations) certain parish
churches to other uses : the church of
Little Compton to Tewkesbury Abbey ;
Dursley to the Archdeaconry of Glou
cester ; Oxford to Evesham Abbey ;
Kemsey with its chapelries of Norton
and Stoulton to the college at West-
bury. "It was the habit of the
Bishops of Worcester to enrich Tewkes
bury with appropriations. In 1500
Sylvester Giglis appropriated to it the
church of Fairford, and five years later
those of Wooton-under-Edge and
Preston-upon-Stour. " On the other
hand the tithes great and small of
Crowle were freed from their appropri
ation to St. Wulfstan 's Hospital, and
restored to the parish ; St. Mary's
chantry in St. Giles, Bredon, was added
to the rectory.
In 1459 new arrangements were
made about the charnel-house and its
chapel belonging to the cathedral.
The sacristan was to maintain therein
a chaplain who was to be a bachelor of
divinity, who was to say mass in the
chapel daily, and read once or twice a- T

week a moral lecture on the New Testa
ment, or at the discretion of the bishop
to deliver a sermon in the cathedral, or
at the cross in the churchyard every
Friday. He was also to have tho
custody of the library and its books.
In 1502 Prince Arthur was buried in
the cathedral with a sumptuous cere
monial, which is described by the
historian. At Tewkesbury in 1438 a beautiful
chapel was built by the Countess of
Warwick over the remains of her first
husband, Richard Beauchamp ; and
she left the abbey a legacy of 3000
marks, and all her jewels, worth as much
more, on condition that six monks
should be added to the foundation.
The soft sandstone cliffs overhanging
the course of the Severn contained
several hermitages, as at Redstone,
Astley, and Blackstone rock near
Bewdley. There was also a hermitage*
near the charnel-house of the cathe
dral. The Diary of Prior Moore of the
cathedral monastery is very interesting
in the light which it throws upon the
everyday, life, all the year round, of
the prior of a cathedral establishment
just before the Reformation.
There are some points of special
interest in the account of the dissolu
tion of the Worcester religious houses.
For the . priory of Great Malvern,
Latimer intercedes with Cromwell that
it may be spared, ' ' nott in monkerye,
God forbyd," but for any purposes.
which may seem good to the king,
such as teaching, preaching, study with
prayer, and liberal hospitality. He
suggests that "if 500 marks to the
king's highness, and 200 marks to
yourself for your own good will," could
promote the prior's wish they should
be forthcoming. Latimer ends with
an expression of his own feeling that
some of the monasteries should be
spared for such uses as indicated above.
"Alas, my good lord, shall we nott see
ij or iij in every shire turned to such
remedye ? " Of the Poleworth Nunnery
the Commissioners report that it con
tained an abbess and twelve nuns of

AVORCESTER

044

WORCESTER

good report throughout all the country,
who brought up the children of the
neighbouring gentry there right vir
tuously, sometimes to the number of
thirty or forty, or even more, and
therefore they advise that this nunneiy
be not suppressed. We know how
useless all such pleas were. Like the
rush upon a newly -discovered gold-field,
the king and his courtiers were seized
with a mania for plunder, and did not
leave a stick or stone behind which
could be turned into money.
The Cathedral priory was reorganised
into a college consisting of a dean and
ten prebendaries, ten minor canons,
ten lay clerks, ten choristers, two
schoolmasters, forty king's scholars,
and some inferior officials. The late
prior was made the new dean, and five
of the monks were made prebendaries.
The diocese was also divided, and
<Jloucester was erected into a new
diocese, the Abbot of Tewkesbury being
made the first bishop. Bishop Bland-
ford's Diary details the gradual process
by which the old state of things was
changed into the new : " In January,
1539, the monks of this church put on
secular habits, and the priory surren
dered. A.D. 1547, on Candlemas day,
no candles were hallowed or borne ; on
Ash Wednesday no ashes hallowed.
a.d. 1548, March 25, being Palm
Sunday, no palms hallowed, nor cross
borne ; on Easter Eve, no fire hallowed,
¦but the Paschal taper and the font.
On Easter day the Pix, with the sacra
ment in it, was taken out of the sepul
chre, they singing 'Christ is risen",'
without procession. On Good Friday
no creeping to the cross. Also on the
20th October was taken away the cup
with the Body of Christ from the high
altar of St. Mary's church, and in other
churches and chapels, a.d. 1549, no
sepulchre, or service of sepulchre on
Good Friday. On Easter Eve no
paschal hallowed, nor fire, nor incense,
nor font. On the 23rd of April was
mass, matins, evensong, and all other
service, in English. All books of
Divine Service, viz. mass-books, gradu-

als, pies, portasses and legends, were
brought to the bishop and burnt."
The lust for Church plunder had
extended throughout the countiy, and
laid hands not only on the property of
the monasteries but of the parishes
also. Latimer, in his first sermon
before Edward VI., says : " We of the
clergy had too much, but that is taken
away, and now we have too little."
" The gentry invaded the profits of
the Church, leaving only the title to
the incumbent." " Many benefices
were let out in fee-farms, given to
servants, for keeping of hounds, hawks,
and horses ; " " the poor clergy being
kept to some sorry pittances, were
forced to put themselves into gentle
men's houses, and there to serve as
clerks of the kitchen, surveyors, re
ceivers," and other offices of the like
kind. The subject of the Puritan Lecturers
receives considerable illustration from
the annals of this diocese ; e. g. in the
long-continued dispute between the
cathedral authorities and the Corpora
tion of Worcester, the latter claiming
to nominate a lecturer in the cathe
dral ; in the foundation of a lecture
at Evesham, the first lecturer to be
appointed by four celebrated Noncon
formist ministers in London, and his
successors by four of the most " able and
painful " ministers of the same city.* ,
The history of the diocese supplies a
good deal of interesting information
on the details of the life of the clergy,
during the troublous times of the Civil
War and the Commonwealth. " Many
gentlemen went sadly to the six o'clock
morning prayers in the college to take
farewell of the Church of England
service." The bishop, Prideaux, re
tired on a small weekly allowance to
the house of a son-in-law at Bredon,
where he lived out the brief remainder
of his days in cheerful poverty. Tra
ditions lingered long about the good
old man. He was met one morning
going into the village with something
* Rev. V. Onslow's 'Worcester,' p. 234—
237. S.P.C.K.

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645

WORCESTER

hidden under his cloak, and replied
cheerfully when questioned as to his
errand that he was like an ostrich
living upon iron — the burden being
some household utensils which he was
selling to purchase food. Dean Houlds-
worth retired into obscurity, and died
of a broken heart after the. murder of
the king. The chapter estates' were
sold for some £23,000. The lead from
the steeple, as well as other saleable
articles about the cathedral, was sold
to the highest bidder. Richard Moore,
an independent minister, was put in
charge of such services as were per
formed in the cathedral. The pre-
bendal residences were either rented, td
the laity or allotted to "preachers of
God's Word of various denominations ;
and the great wave of Puritan dreari
ness flowed without a break, without
one emergent island, over the whole
diocese of Worcester. Many of the
laity, even of those most deeply and
fervently attached to the Church of
their fathers, thought it right not to
reject the only spiritual ministrations
possible to them. Among the clergy
good men decided the question in dif
ferent ways, and equally with the
approval of their consciences. If to
some, in after years, it was a proud
thing to tell how they had given up
all and followed David into exile,
others could write with equal self-
congratulation that they had 'never
gone abroad as some others,' and had
Scarcely been absent from their flock
from the day when they had become
its pastors. Many faithful men, such
as Archdeacon Hodges at Ripple, were
able to retain their posts all through
the Commonwealth." " It is not clear
what became of the many clergymen,
who had either been rejected or who
had resigned their parishes for con
science' sake. In many cases they re
mained in the diocese, or lingered about
their old parishes, ready to discharge
in secret any of the Church offices
which might be required at their
hands." * On the other hand : Pro-
* Rev. P. Onslow's '"Worcester," p. 245-6,

bably tho intruding ministers had a
difficult task in many parishes, where
the greater part of the population
would naturally look on their services
with contempt and mistrust, and on
themselves with personal aversion." t
Lastly, on the Restoration, on Aug.
31, 1660, the first service in the cathe
dral was performed " according to
ancient custom," and on Sept. 2 "there
was a very great assembly at morning
prayers by six in the morning, and by
nine o'clock there appeared at prayers
all the gentry, many citizens, and
others numerous, and after prayers
Dr. Dodderwell, a new prebendary, did
preach the first sermon. "
One of the first duties of the new
bishop was to issue articles of inquiry
into the canonical qualifications of those
who held offices, in the diocese, with
results of which these are examples :
Emmanuel Smith, rector of Hartlebury,"
produced letters of orders, institution,
and induction, and a licence from
Bishop Thornborough to preach and
to practise the medical art. Robert
Jennings held the cure of Alston and
Washborne. He had received ordin
ation as a deacon from the Bishop of
Oxford, but beyond that only presby-
terian ordination "per 5m classem
presbyterii ; " he was thereupon licensed
to serve the cure, but not to preach or
administer sacraments. Robert Mynors,
minister of Dormiston, was not in holy
orders at all ; he was inhibited from
exercising any office in the ministry,
&c. " The enquiry was conducted with
forbearance, and with readiness to re
cognise any ordination which could be
considered within the limits of the
order of the Church." (Ibid. p. 275.)
It is pleasant to conclude with the
advice which Richard Baxter gave to
his flock when he was obliged to give
up his place at Kidderminster, " not to
take every bitter reflection on them
selves or others, occasioned by differ
ence of opinion or interest, to be a
sufficient cause to say that the minister
preaoheth against godliness, and to
t mi. p. 25Q.

WORSHIP

646

YORK

withdraw themselves." In the census
of the diocese made in 1676 by order of
the Bishop of London, the population
is returned as 43,378, out of whom are
Papists, 727 ; Nonconformists, 1533.
The diocese now consists of the
entire counties of Warwick and Wor
cester, part of Stafford, and portions of
adjacent counties: population, 1,124,688;
2 archdeaconries, Worcester and Coven
try ; 31 rural deaneries ; 478 parochial
benefices. WORSHIP, the paying of respect or
reverence to persons or things. We
most frequently apply it to the public
or private prayers and praises which we
offer to God ; but it has other appli
cations. In 1 Chron. xxix. 20 it is said
" that the congregation of Israel bowed
their heads, and worshipped the Lord
and the king. " The honorary address
j)o certain magistrates is "Your wor
ship." In the marriage service the
man says to the woman, "With my
body I thee worship."
WORSHIP of the Blessed Virgin
Mary. [See Popery.]
WORSHIP of the Saints. [See
Popery.]

YEAR, ECCLESIASTICAL. [See
Calendar.] YEW. In so many of our church
yards there is one old yew-tree, often on
the south side of the church, as to
make it certain that it is a significant
part of the usual garniture of a church
yard ; a good deal of speculation has
been bestowed upon the subject of their
origin and meaning.
As to their origin : some of them are
of an age which extends back to the
time before the Saxon conversion.
The French botanist, De Candolle,
declared the vast tree in Crowland
churchyard, Kent, to be 1200 years
old ; that in Brabourne churchyard, in
the same county, to be earlier than the
Christian era. There is one still more
ancient-looking in Sedburgh church
yard, Yorkshire ; and another which

rivals it in appearance of antiquity,
beside the Saxon church of Corhamp;
ton, in Hampshire. Another, "sup
posed to be 2000 years old," still
nourishes in the churchyard of Darley
Dale, Derbyshire, and there are many
churchyard yews which may challenge
comparison with these in apparent
antiquity. In Wales some of the
churchyard yews are known by the
names of saints, as the tree of St.
Dubritius or St. Teilo. The ancient
laws* of the Principality extend a
special protection to such trees ; the
fine to be paid by any one who shall
unlawfully cut down "a yew-tree of
the wood, " i. e. an ordinary forest yew-
tree, is fifteen pence, the fine for " the
yew-tree of a Saint" is one pound.
Giraldus Cambrensis, in ' his ' Topo-
graphia Hiberniae,' mentions them.
He was in Ireland in 1186, and speaks
of churchyard yews which were old in
his time: "The yew, with its bitter
juice, abounds here more plentifully
than in any land which I have visited,
especially in the ancient cemeteries
and holy places, planted long ago by
the hands of saintly men. " They must
have continued to be planted generally
in churchyards throughout the centu
ries for so many of all ages to have
survived as we still possess.
What was their use or meaning ? It
has been conjectured (but not proved)
that they may have been for use, viz.
to afford the shelter of their broad
horizontal boughs from rain ; and it
has been conjectured (again without
proof) that they may have been in
tended, with their funereal colour but
evergreen foliage and vast longevity, to
have been symbolical trees, symbolical
at once of death and immortality.
(See summaiy of what has been
written on the subject in the ' Beauties
of England and Wales,' Vol. for North
Wales. Also a paper in the ' Church
man's Family Magazine,' vol. i. p. 249.)
YORK, DIOCESE OF. Eboracum was
the capital city 'of the Roman province
* The Laws of Howel Dha repeated in the
Demotion Code.

YORK

647

YORK

. of Britain, and possessed an Imperial
palace in which Severus and Constan-
tius died, and from which Constantine
the Great Went forth to be saluted as
Augustus by the British Legions.
When the Church was established in
Britain, probably not later than the
middle of the third century, there is
every reason to believe that it was
organised like the Churches in the
other parts of the Empire, and that
Eboracum was the chief metropolitan
see. The Bishop of Eboracum, Resti
tute by name, was one of the three
British bishops at the Council of Aries,
314 A.d. There is no reason to suppose
that he was the first, and in all proba
bility he was succeeded by others down
to the time of the invasion of the
Angles and Saxons. Tradition has pre
served the names of Sampson, Pyramus
or Pyrannus, and Thadicius as those of
occupiers of the see during the period
of the invasion. The fact that two little
British kingdoms, called Lordis and
Elmete, still existed a few miles west
of York down to the seventh century,
makes it the more probable that a
Church may have continued to exist,
and a succession of British bishops to
have lasted there, who would probably
retain the title from Eboracum, till its
conquest by King Edwin of North
umbria. Wilfred, in the seventh century,
speaks of recovering the sacred places
which the British clergy had abandoned
when they fled before the invasion ;
just as we find ancient British churches
still standing at the time of the con
version of the Jutish kingdom, and
then recovered to sacred uses. [See
Canterbury, Diocese of.]
At York, however, as at London and
at Caerleon, which were also sees of
Roman- British bishops, among all the
relics of Roman occupation which have
been brought to light, there is a re
markable absence of any evidences of
0 li r i s ti rmi t V •
The Anglian conquest of Northumbria
was effected under conditions which
left a political division between the
people to the north and those to the

south of the Tees— just as the East
Anglian Kingdom was divided into
Northfolk and Southfolk. In their
early history they were sometimes two
separate kingdoms, Bernicia and Deira ;
sometimes they were united under one
king by the Bemician or Deiran race
of princes gaining the victory over the
rival race; and when finally united into
the one kingdom of Northumbria, the
social division of the people continued
to affect their history. The Deiran
Prince Edwin, before 625, conquered the
Bemician Etnelfrid, and then proceeded
to the conquest of the Britons, including
the kingdom of Elmete, throughout
the country between the Humber and
the Forth, from sea to sea. Moreover,
he was acknowledged as over-lord by
five States of mid- Britain. Christianity
had already been established in Kent.
Edwin, desiring the hand of Ethelburga,
the daughter of Ethelbert and Bertha
and sister of the reigning King Ethel
bald, was accepted on the same condition
on which her mother had been given
to Ethelbert, viz. that she should be
allowed the free use of her religion,
and should have a staff of ecclesiastics
to maintain the Divine Service in her
chapel. Paulinus the priest, now or
dained bishop, and Jacob the deacon,
accompanied the princess to the north,
and settled at the Northumbrian Court.
Bede gives us in considerable detail
the interesting story of the introduction
of Christianity into the Northern king
dom, specially interesting as illustrating
the state of mind of the heathen Angles
at this time, and the motives which
led them to abandon their old religion
and embrace the new. No doubt one
main reason underlying all the rest
was, that the Anglo-Saxon people were
growing out of barbarism into civilis
ation, and had already outgrown their
old religion which was only adapted to
a barbarous condition. Christianity
was the religion of civilisation, and
had been embraced by all the kindred
tribes who had founded kingdoms on the
ruins of the Roman Empire, the Angles
and Saxons being the sole remaining

YORK

648

YORK

exception. The refusal of their royal
Christian kindred to give their daughters
and sisters in marriage to them except on
the condition that they should retain
their religion and full means of exer
cising it, no doubt had its influence.
The social community which still existed
in these Teutonic tribes is shown in the
fact that the change of religion was
dealt with as a question which affected
not the individual only, but was a
matter of common interest as affecting
the national life.
When, after two years, or thereabout,
Edwin had been brought, partly by the
teaching of Paulinus, partly by the
influence of his wife, to be willing to
adopt Christianity, he summoned his
chiefs and wise men to council on the
subject. Bede tells us how Coifi, the
chief priest, was willing to forsake the
gods he had hitherto worshipped on
the ground that they had done so little
to reward himself for his worship of
them ; and how a thoughtful old thane,
in a beautiful apologue, set forth the
deeper, nobler aspirations of the human
soul : " The present life of man, 0 King,
seems to me like as when you sit in
winter with your chiefs in the light
and warmth of your hall, while there
are darkness and storms outside, and
a sparrow flies out 'of the night in at
one door, into a short space of light
and warmth, and out at the other into
the night again. So this life of man
appears in this world for a short space ;
but of what went before or what is to
follow, we are utterly ignorant. If this
new doctrine contains something more
certain, it seems justly to deserve to be
followed." It was resolved to embrace
the new religion. " King Edwin, there
fore, with all the nobility of the nation,
and a large number of the common sort,
received the faith and the washing of
regeneration." A wooden church was
erected over a spring of water at York
for the baptism of the king, and no
doubt many of his nobility were baptised
there with him. Over this wooden
chapel a stone church was commenced,
which was the germ of the present

glorious minster. Tradition relates that
Paulinus baptised 10,000 "of the com
mon sort " in a day, in the river Kennet.
And so the church was planted in
Northumbria. From York, as his see,
the labours of Paulinus extended far
and wide. We only read of one other
church being built -in Yorkshire, viz.
at the royal town of Campodunum
(Doncaster) ; but his work reached as
far north as the Forth, and in the
south he crossed the Humber and
preached in Lincoln, when the Reeve,
Blceeca by name, being converted, built
there a church of stone. As far south
as Nottinghamshire he is said to have
baptised multitudes in the Trent near
Southwell, which has always claimed
this saint as its founder, and until tho
Reformation belonged to the see, and
had an episcopal palace in which the
Northern archbishops often, resided.
While at Lincoln, Honorius sought con
secration of Paulinus, the only bishop
remaining in England outside the Celtic
Churches, as fifth Archbishop of Canter
bury. The work of Paulinus was brought
to a sudden termination, and the greater
part of it destroyed, by an invasion 6f
the British King Cadwallon, in alliance
with Penda of Mercia, in which Edwin
was defeated and slain. His two sons
apostatised ; his widowed queen, Ethel-
burga, fled by sea to her native Kent,
under the escort of Paulinus, who had
brought her thence. James the deacon
remained behind to do his best for the
remnant that was left.
When Edwin had conquered Bernicia,
Oswald, the son of the defeated Ethelred,
had sought refuge in Iona, and there
embraced the Christian faith. After a
while Oswald was able to gather adher
ents, and to offer battle to Cadwallon.
He encountered his foe at a place called
Heavenfield, where he erected a wooden
cross as his standard, and kneeling
around it with his followers prayed for
victory. The result of the battle was
the defeat of Cadwallon, his flight
southward, and the final victory of
the Angles over Bernicia and Deira. .
Oswald sent to Iona for Christian

YORK

649

YORK

teachers. Aidan was sent, who founded
his monastery on the Island of Lindis
farne ; and from that centre the Celtic
missionaries and their native disciples
went forth to the reconversion of the
Northumbrians. The Celtic method of Church work
was by the foundation of Christian
communities, where opportunity was
given, in which the youth of the
cohntry were taught and trained, and
from which evangelists itinerated round
the neighbouring country. Nunneries
also were founded from the earliest
times. Hilda, the grandnieco of King
Edwin, became the head of a Sister
hood at Hartlepool, and' afterwards at
Whitby ; from Hartlepool the Abbess
Hieu retired to another House at
Lancaster. Aidan, on his death, in 651, was
succeeded by Finan, who came from
Iona. In his time Peada, the son of
old Penda of Mercia, came a-wooing to
Alchfled, the daughter of King Oswy ;
Peada's sister, Kyneberga, was already
married to Alchfrid, Oswy's son ; he
was converted to the faith, and re
ceived his bride, and took back with
him four Northumbrian priests —
Ceadda, Addi, Betti, and Diuma — to
preach the gospel among the people,
who were under his special rule. In
his time, also, Sigebert, King of the
East Saxons, paid a visit to Oswy, was
converted, and took back with him the
Northumbrian priest, Cedd, from his
monastery of Lastingham, who recon
verted the East Saxons.
Oswy was attacked by Penda. On
the eve of battle he vowed his infant
daughter to God, and twelve tracts of
land for twelve monasteries ; a great
battle at Winnaldfield gave the victory
to Northumbria. Penda fell in the
battle, and the old paganism fell with
him ; and Christianity spread without
further hindrance over all the king
doms, with the one exception of Sussex.
Oswy founded his twelve monasteries,
six in Bernicia, and six in Deira, and
placed his little daughter Elfleda under
the care- of Abbess Hilda at Hartlepool.

Finan died in 661, and was succeeded
by Colman. In his time the. disputes
between the two parties — the Celtic
and the Continental — came to a head.
Oswy was a disciple of the Celtic
school ; Eanfleda, his Queen, had been
baptised by Paulinus, and was now
under the direction of Romanus, and
adhered to the Continental customs.
Oswy summoned at Hilda's monastery
of Whitby (664 A. D.) a meeting of the
chief representatives of both schools to
discuss the subject. Bishop Agilbert,
attended by Agatho, a priest, and
by Northumbrian Wilfrid, happened
to be paying a visit to Alchfrid, the
king's son, and they were also present ;
Cedd, the bishop of the East Saxons,
was also present ; and Wilfrid acted as
interpreter. Bede records the proceed
ings of the Council : they resulted in
Oswy's acceptance of the Continental
customs, and Colman's resignation and
retirement, with all the Celtic and
thirty Northumbrian members of his
community. Eata, a disciple of Aidan,
was appointed Abbot of Lindisfarne,
and Tuda was consecrated as bishop.
The Council of Whitby also resulted in
the refoundation of the see of York.
Wilfrid was chosen by the Witan as
the new bishop, and he went to the
Continent to seek consecration in the
school in which he had been brought
up. Bishop Agilbert and twelve other
prelates consecrated him, with a mag
nificent ceremonial, early in 665. But
he delayed so long in France,, that
when he returned he found that the
see had been filled up by Chad, who
was consecrated by Wini of Winchester,
and two British bishops, probably of
the native Church still existing in
Cornwall. Wilfrid retired to his
monastery at Ripon.
Now Archbishop Theodore comes
upon the scene, 669. On his arrival
in Northumbria he found fault with
Chad's consecration. Chad retired to
his monastery (and was soon after
appointed Bishop of Lichfield), and
Wilfrid commenced his rule over the
Northumbrian Church. He restored

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the basilica at York, built other
basilicas at Ripon and Hexham, and
adorned them with costly ornaments
and furniture ; visited his diocese dili
gently, multiplied the number of priests
and deacons labouring in it, and was a
powerful, energetic, wealthy, magnifi
cent, gracious, and successful ruler of
his Church. Theodore visited North
umbria again in 678 ; called a synod
of bishops, of whom Wilfrid (being
absent from his see) was not one ; by
whom it was agreed to divide the vast
Northumbrian diocese ; and Theodore
(alone) consecrated at York three new
bishops : Bosa, a monk of Whitby, for
Bernicia; Eata, Abbot, of Lindisfarne,
for Devon ; and Eadhed for Lindsey,
which had shortly before been regained
for Northumbria by King Elfrid. On
Wilfrid's return he remonstrated, and
was answered — "We allege nothing
against thee, but our act is irrevocable."
He declared his determination to appeal
to the judgment of Rome, and his
declaration was received with shouts of
derision. He fulfilled his threat, and
set out for Rome, passing through
Friesland, where he was the first to
preach the gospel, and obtained from
the Roman Court a sentence that the
newly-created bishops should be ex
pelled, and Wilfrid reinstated in his
original diocese ; he was then to sum
mon a Council at York, and with their
concurrence choose assistant bishops,
who were to be consecrated by Theo
dore. Meantime, Theodore had conse
crated two more bishops, Tunbert,
Abbot of Gilling, with Hexham for
his see, Eata remaining altogether at
Lindisfarne ; and Trumwine at With-
erne, as Bishop of the Picts, who then
recognised the supremacy of North
umbria. Eadhed being .obliged, to
retire from Lindsey, was seated at
Ripon. In 680 Wilfrid returned, and laid
the papal decision ' before the Witan,
which received it with every mark of
contumely, and condemned Wilfrid to
prison, where he remained nine months,
and then was banished from North

umbria. Being refused leave to settle
in Mercia, and in Wessex, Wilfrid
went into Sussex, and became the
apostle of the South Saxons.
In 684 Tunbert, Bishop of Hexham,
was deposed by Theodore ; Eata took
his place, and Cuthbert was consecrated
bishop, and took Eata's place at Lindis
farne. In 685 the Picts recovered their
independence in a great battle ; Bishop
Trumwine and his monks fled to Whit
by, and the Tweed instead of the Forth
was henceforward the northern boundary
of the Northumbrian kingdom.
At the end of Theodore's life he was
reconciled to Wilfrid, and wrote in his
favour to Aldfrid, now king, and to
others. Wilfrid was allowed to return
to Northumbria (686) ; and Hexham
being vacant by the death of Eata,
Wilfrid was put into possession of it.
Soon after Bosa retired from York, and
Eadhed from Ripon, and Wilfrid's rule
was extended over those districts also.
In.the following year John of Beverley
was consecrated to Hexham, on Cuth-
bert's death, 20th March, 687. Wilfrid
ruled over Lindisfarne also for a year,
until Eadbert was consecrated bishop.
Thus Wilfrid exercised a certain au
thority over the whole kingdom, while
recognising the need of suffragans for
its efficient administration.
The old quarrel, however, soon broke
out again between the king and the
bishop. The king seems to have in
sisted upon the carrying out of the
arrangements which Theodore had
made, and Wilfrid refused to agree to
them, and retired to Mercia, where he
administered the vacant see of Lich
field, Bosa being reinstated at York,
and obtained from Pope Sergius a con
firmation of the decree of his pre
decessor. At length, in 702, a Synod of the
whole English Church was held at
Austerfield under Archbishop Bert-
wald ; Wilfrid was present, and his
case was considered. He was required
by the Council to accept the arrange
ments of Theodore, refused, and again
threatened an appeal to Rome ; having

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a safe conduct to attend the Council,
he was allowed to go, but sentence
of excommunication was pronounced
against him and his adherents. From
Rome he again brought letters, giving
an opinion in his favour, but King
Aldfrid refused to pay any deference to
them. Aldfrid died 705, and Osred,
his successor, called another Council to
settle the ease of Wilfrid. The result
was a compromise ; Wilfrid was to
have the see of Hexham, and the
monastery of Ripon ; Bosa continued
in the see of York, and, dying shortly
after, was succeeded by John of Bever
ley. Wilfrid died 709.
John, in 718, resigned, and was
succeeded by Wilfrid II. , who in 745
was succeeded by Egbert, a scion of
the royal House of Northumbria.
In the preceding half-century civilis
ation and learning had been making
great progress in the north. Benedict
Biscop had founded his two monasteries
of Wearmouth and Jarrow, and had
been going backwards and forwards to
Rome, returning laden with books and
works of art for the enrichment of his
foundations. Bede had taught in these
sister monasteries, and written works
which had obtained for him a Euro
pean fame. And now, under Egbert,
the see of York was to become one of
the most famous in Europe. Bede,
whose scholar the new prelate had
been, wro'te him a letter of advice on
his accession, which throws consider
able light upon the general condition
of the Northumbrian Church at the
time. It shows that the zeal of earlier
days had grown lukewarm, and that
abuses had crept into the monastic
communities, which, as we have seen,
were the special form of Church organ
isation of the Celtic school. Bede
exhorts the new bishop to the reform
ation of these. He recommends the
multiplication of priests in order that
the villages might not lack needful
teaching, and the due administration
of the Sacraments. He advocates the
teaching of the Creed and the Lords
Prayer to the unlearned in their mother

tongue. He advises, also, an extension
of the episcopate, reminding him of
Gregory's original scheme of a northern
province with twelve bishops, and urges
him to endeavour to carry it out. The
country north of Humber was accord
ingly formed into a new province, with
York for its metropolitan see. [See
Egbert.] Under this princely prelate
the Church was wisely ruled, and
made great progress ; especially the
school of York and its library be
came renowned, not only throughout
England, but in foreign countries also.
The settlement of clergy in the several
manors and townships was so exten
sive that Egbert is said to have been
the founder of the parochial system
in the north. One of his books, the
'Pontifical' [see Pontifical], has come
down to this day, an invaluable evi
dence of the public offices of Divine
worship in the Saxon Church at this
period. Egbert was (766) succeeded by his
kinsman Albert, who had been his
master of the schools. Albert ably
carried on the work of his predecessor,
making the 'famous Alcuin a canon of
his cathedral and master of the schools
in his own place. His work on the
Minster, lately injured by fire, probably
amounted almost to a rebuilding. He
added greatly to the treasures of the
library. About 779 Albert consecrated
his pupil Eanbald as his successor, and
himself retired to a monastic cell. It
was while Alcuin was on his journey
to Rome, to fetch the complimentary
pall for Eanbald, that the meeting
occurred with the Emperor Charle
magne, which resulted in Alcuin's
leaving York to take charge of the
Palatine school of the great emperor.
Eanbald died 796, and was succeeded
by another of the same name, a pupil
of Alcuin (who died 812). All this
time the northern see was the most
illustrious school of learning in Europe,
and the northern province was making
great advances in civilisation.
This happy period was to be suc
ceeded by one of great misery. In 865

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the Danes first appeared in the Hum-
ber, sailed up the Ouse, and took
possession of York. In 876 Halfdene
conquered and settled in Northumbria.
From the time of Eanbald II. 's death
to the end of the century, and for
certainly the first twenty years of the
succeeding century, the ecclesiastical
history of Northumbria is in utter
obscurity. The names of the successive
archbishops are preserved, but very
little is known of them. After the
invasion of the Danes the country
must have been in a lamentable state ;
and in many parts, probably, the public
ministrations of religion were altogether
laid aside, Christianity itself maintain
ing but a feeble and precarious exist
ence. York lay within the Danish dis
trict, and its archbishop was affected by
Danish influences and sympathies, and
was sometimes of Danish blood. When
Dunstan was at the head of affairs he
induced Oswald, Bishop of Worcester,
to take charge of the northern primacy
without resigning Worcester, and it is
a curious fact that for a long period
the Archbishop of York was allowed to
hold the bishopric of Worcester also,
or to appoint one of his own choosing
to it ; and it is suggested that this was
done partly to give to the archbishop a
suitable income, which the poverty of
the ravaged north no longer afforded,
and partly to bind the archbishop by
the bonds of ecclesiastical organisation
to the interests of the Church of the
English part of the country. This
precedent, once established, continued
down to the Conquest. Aldred was
the last Saxon archbishop ; he crowned
Harold, and on Harold's death, and
William's recognition by the Witan, he
crowned William also, first exacting
from him an oath to respect the rights
and liberties of his Church, and to rule
according to the laws of England.
Aldred died 1069, and immediately
after his death occurred the revolt of
the north, which William punished by
slaying the people and devastating tiie
country. When Thomas of Bayeux was nomin- I

ated as the first Norman bishop, the
number of suffragan bishops in the
northern province was insufficient to
give canonical consecration ; the see of
Canterbury, also, was vacant, so that
Thomas had to wait for Lanfran'c's
consecration to Canterbury before he
himself could receive consecration.
Lanfranc claimed a profession of obedi
ence and subjection to the chair of
Augustine. Thomas refused. The king
ordered Lanfranc to consecrate uncon
ditionally ; but Lanfranc pointed out
to the king the expediency of there
being only one ecclesiastical head of
the Church throughout the realm.
The settlement of the dispute was
referred to the Bishop of Rome, where
both went together to receive their
palls. The Pope referred it to a
national synod, and the synod decided
that the northern primates were to
swear obedience to Canterbury, and
to appear with their suffragans when
bidden to a Council within that
province. A claim which the Arch
bishop of York made to include Wor
cester and Dorchester (Lincoln) within
his province was given against him,
but in lieu the Archbishops of York
were to have Selby Abbey, and St.
Oswald's Monastery, Gloucester.
Thomas found his minster burnt, his
canons dispersed, and his city a ruin.
He reorganised the cathedral body,
increasing the number of canons, and
assigning them prebends (see Chapter,
Cathedral), and appointing a dean,
chancellor, treasurer, and precentor.
He appointed two archdeacons for
York and Richmond, with more definite
functions than heretofore. He began
to rebuild the minster. It will be
observed that the cathedral body were
secular canons ; it was the same at
Beverley, Ripon, and Southwell. The
old monasteries had been destroyed by
the Danes, their inhabitants dispersed,
and they had not been restored and.
repeopled. When Thomas came to tho
see the monastic. system had absolutely
disappeared from Northumbria.
The monastic system was restored,

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and the Benedictine rule revived in
the north by the three monks, Aldwin,
Elfwy, and Reinfrid, from Worcester,
as is mentioned in the history of that
diocese. [See Worcester, diocese of.]
After reviving the monastery of Jarrow
Reinfrid reoccupied Whitby, c. 1078,
with the permission and help of William
de Percy ; thence one of its monks —
Stephen — went to York, and with the
help of the Earl of Richmond began
to restore Earl Siward's abbey there ;
William' Rufus laid the foundation
stone, 1089, and changed the dedica
tion from St. Olave to St. Mary. Selby
Abbey had already been , founded by
William the Conqueror. These two —
St. Mary York, and Selby — were the
only two mitred abbeys north of
Trent. We may pass over the bishops Girard
and Thomas, but Thurstan (1114 —
1144) fills an important place in the
history of the diocese ; he was the
great restorer of monasticism in the
north. The question of the obedience
of York to Canterbury delayed his
consecration for seven years, and was
at last compromised : Thurstan was to
pay obedience to Archbishop Ralph,
but it was not to be binding on his
successors. It was probably this ques
tion which induced Ralph's successor
at Canterbury, W. de Corboil, to seek
the appointment of papal logate, as
a means of obtaining the desired
supremacy. Thurstan is the prelate
who, on the invasion of the Scots,
gathered together the barons and yeo
men of the north, and under the
banner of St. Cuthbert of Durham, St.
Peter of York, St. John of Beverley,
and St. Wilfrid of Ripon, fought the
battle of the Standard (1138), which
saved the north of England from
devastation by its fierce enemy. [See
Durham, diocese of.] We have said
that he was the great restorer of
monasticism -in the north. He had
become acquainted with St. Bernard,
and had learned from him a high
appreciation of the religious life. He
founded the Cistercian House of

Fountains, and the first nunnery in
the north since the Conquest at
Clementhorpe, near York (1130).
During his rule six Augustinian Houses
were founded in his diocese : Kirk-
ham, by Walter l'Espee ; Gisburgh, by
Robert de Bries ; Bridlington, by
Walter le Gant ; Bolton, by William
de Meschines and his wife in memory
of "the Boy of Egremond," whose
hound hung back when his master
leaped the Strid, and dragged him by
the leash into the gulf below. Nostal
and Drax make up the tale. Walter
l'Espee also founded a Cistercian House
in the valley of the Rye, as a memorial
of a son who came to an untimely end.
Another very important event of his
rule was the severance of Cumberland
and Westmoreland, and. their creation,
with the king's consent, into a new
diocese, with the monastery of tho
Austin Canons of Carlisle for its see.
William's tenure of the see was of
the briefest (1153) ; he was in York
only thirty days, but his reputation
for sanctity, and the miracles said to
be wrought by him,, living and dead,
enabled the Church of York, which up
to that time had no local saint, to
procure his canonisation, and his re
mains were placed in a fitting shrine
behind the high altar.
William was succeeded by Roger,
who revived the old claims of his see
to independence and to jurisdiction
over Lincoln, Lichfield, Worcester, and
Hereford. At a Council at Westminster,
at which the papal legate presided,
Canterbury had taken his place on the
legate's right hand ; when York came
in he sat down in Canterbury's lap,
and was dragged away and hustled out
of the Council. Roger also claimed
the obedience of all the Scottish sees
to the archsee of York.* He is said
to have been opposed to the monastic
system. * Their independence (except Witherne)
was definitely established a few years after
wards. St. Andrews was raised to the
dignity of the metropolitan see of Scotland
by Pope Soxtus IV., a.d. 1466.

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After a ten years vacancy, Geoffrey
Plantagenet (1191—1207), the ille
gitimate son of Henry II., was pro
moted to York, and his evil episcopate
gives the greater lustre to the great
reign of his successor, Walter de Gray
(1216—1256), the chancellor of King
John, and one of the most trusted
counsellors of Henry III. The same
abilities which were exercised in the
affairs of the nation were brought to
bear also for near forty years upon the
government of his diocese. He dealt
with the questions of clerical marriage,
and the hereditary descent of livings,
which seem to have been common
down to his day ; he defended the
benefices from the encroachments of
their patrons, and against the impro
priation of the religious houses, and
insisted upon the endowment of per
petual vicars in the impropriated
parishes ; he also promoted the build
ing of chapels in outlying hamlets, and
the settlement of resident priests to
minister in connection with them. He
also increased the cathedral staff, and
rebuilt the small transept of the
minster. He built a palace at Bishop-
thorpe, and a town house for the see
at Westminster ; he built the west
front of Ripon, and founded a chantry
for himself in his cathedral church.
In this reign the friars were intro
duced into York (1227), and soon after
into all the principal towns of York
shire. The work of rebuilding the minster
on a grander scale, begun by Gray, was
carried on by his successor, and we
learn something of the way in which
funds were raised for it. The bishops
and the cathedral dignitaries gave
largely out of their incomes. The
diocesan penitentiaries commuted pen
ances into a donation to the building.
Briefs were issued for the raising of
collections in the churches of the
diocese, and indulgences were offered.
The wills of the period show how deep
and widespread was the interest taken
in the work. "The great baron and
the wealthy churchman gave their £40

or their £20, a clerk of lesser degree
his half-mark, whilst a husbandman
bequeathed his shilling, and it is some
what affecting to find a poor leper in
the hospital at Monkbridge leaving his
sixpence to the work." Archbishop
Romanus (1286—1296) successfully
resisted an attempt to increase the
encroachments of Rome on the rights
of the English Church by the appropri
ation of a stall in his cathedral to a
hospital at Rome ; he also maintained
the right of the archbishop to the
visitation of the chapter.
With the commencement of the
fourteenth century a succession of
statesmen-archbishops arose. Green
field, Melton, and Zouche, were all of
this type. The importance of York at
this period was great. It was flourish
ing as a commercial city. A class of
wealthy merchants and rich tradesmen
had sprung up, and the craft that came
up the Ouse from Hull made it a busy
inland port. Owing to the wars with
Scotland, it became a military centre.
It was a political centre also. In 1298
Edward I. held a parliament here,
and the courts of justice were removed
from London, and sat in York for
seven years. Parliaments were also
held here in 1299 and 1300, and for
a time it was almost the capital of
England. The high position which
the archbishop held led to his being
perforce involved in the negotiations
with Scotland, and also in tho wars
by which they were constantly inter
rupted. The routine work of the
diocese was committed to the care of
a suffragan, commonly the poorly-
endowed Bishop of Witherne.
Greenfield forbade the Chapter of
Ripon to hold markets in their minster;
prohibited the adoration of an image
of the Blessed Virgin Mary at Foston,
which had attracted the superstitious
feeling of the multitude. Melton for
bade the offering of prayers at the tomb
of the Earl of Lancaster, executed after
the battle of Boroughbridge, whom the
people regarded as a saint. He com
pleted the nave of the minster. Zouche

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commanded a division of the English
army at the battle of Neville's Cross ;
in his time the Black Death desolated
the diocese, togetiier with the rest of
England. Thoresby was one of the most emi
nent of the long roll of archbishops.
He resigned his secular employments,
and devoted himself to his diocese.
At the beginning of his reign the dis
pute with Canterbury was arranged.
Each archbishop was to have his cross
carried erect in the province of the
other. At parliaments and councils
Canterbury was to sit on the king's
right hand, and York on his left, each
with cross erect. In procession their
cross-bearers were to walk abreast, but
in a gateway or other place where there
was not room for both, that of Canter
bury was to take precedence. The
Archbishop of Canterbury was to be
styled Primate of All England, and
the Archbishop of York Primate of
England. Thoresby took great pains
to elevate the religious condition of his
diocese. He tells his clergy that the
ignorance of the people is the fault of
their own ignorance and carelessness.
He requires their obedience to Injunc-
' tions which he has put forth at a Pro
vincial Council, requiring the clergy to
explain to the people in the plainest
manner possible, at the least every
Lord's day, the articles of faith, the
precepts given in both the Old and
New Testaments, the works of mercy,
the cardinal virtues, the sacraments of
grace, and the deadly sins. The at
tendance of the parishioners, both men
and women, to receive this teaching is
to be diligently urged, as also the care-
• ful instruction of their children. To
assist his clergy in the work he drew
up a document, which he caused to be
translated into English, embodying the
teaching which he wished to be given.
This English version was dispersed in
small pagynes" among the common
people. The Hermit of Hampole s
works in English had already become
popular. The ' Handlynge of Synne
of Robert de Brune, a Gilberbne Canon

of Sempringham, and Dan Michel's
' Ayenbite of Inwit ' (Remorse of Con
science), which were systems of spiritual
divinity, came soon after ; and these
again were followed by the works of
Wiclif. These facts are enough to
indicate the intellectual activity of the
period, and the great efforts which
were being made to elevate the intel
lectual and spiritual condition of the
people. Two of the sixteenth century arch
bishops, through their connection with
the stormy politics of their time, came
to unhappy ends. Alexander Neville
was a devoted adherent of the cause of
Richard II., and when that cause was
lost, the archbishop fled into exile, and
died as a parish priest at Louvain,
eking out his stipend by teaching a
school. Richard Sorope, who came
next but one after Neville, was one of
the supporters of Richard's rival, and,
on Richard's deposition, joined his
brother archbishop, Arundel, in leading
Henry IV. to the throne. But he took
part with the Earl of Northumberland
and the Earl Marshall in the rising in
the North against Henry, was con
demned in his own hall at Bishopthorpe,
and beheaded in a field hard by. The
people regarded him as a saint, and,
though he was never formally canon
ised, his shrine was visited down to
the Reformation, and none yielded a
larger treasure of precious offerings to
the spoilers. At a Provincial Council
held at York in 1466, Archbishop
George Neville again promulgated a
constitution similar to that of Thoresby
above-mentioned. As early as the reign of Edward III.
the Scriptorium of the monastery had
ceased to be the only place where books
were transcribed. Numbers of laymen
took up the occupation ; and, after the
custom of the times, they soon organ
ised themselves into a trade guild, or
corporation, under the name of Text-
writers. There was such a guild in
York ; as early as Richard II. records
of their bye-laws occur in the city
archives. The craft included several

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classes of workmen ; the limners, or
painters of the pictures, and the illu
minators of capital letters ; the notours,
who put in the musical notation to the
Church service books, and perhaps to
the secular songs of the day ; the tum
ours and fiourishers, who added the
graceful flourishes which grace the
initial letters and the margins of the
pages. When the art of printing was in
vented it was soon introduced into
England, first at Westminster Abbey
by Caxton, in 1474 ; it was soon
taken up at the University of Oxford,
and at St. Albans abbey, where books
are said to have been printed as early
as 1480 ; and a printing-press was es
tablished in York before the end of the
century. It is an interesting testimony
to the importance of York, for it is
the only other provincial town where
printing was practised before the be
ginning of the sixteenth century. It
was probably in 1496 that a Dutchman
named Frederic Freez settled in- York
as a printer ; his brother Gerard also
carried on the trade of a seller of
printed books. No book issuing from
his press is known to exist.
The great name of Wolsey appears
on the roll of the Archbishops, but it
was simply one of the Church prefer
ments by which he was provided with
an income suitable to the Minister of
England, and he was never at York
during the whole time that he was
minister ; it was not till after his dis
grace that he entered the diocese.
The general history of the Reforma
tion is told elsewhere. [See Reforma
tion Period.] , The important episode
of it which specially belongs to the
northern province, and particularly to
the diocese of York, is the revolt against
it which was called the Pilgrimage of
Grace. Avery great number of the people
viewed the changes introduced Iry the
reform movement with great distaste.
The multitude were not very much
affected by modifications in the theo
logical standards of the Church, but
were keenly sensitive to the consequent

changes in the ceremonies and customs-
The abrogation of the miracle-play of
the Nativity at Christmas, of the grand
illuminations of the churches at Candle
mas, of the procession on Palm Sunday,
of the creeping to the cross on Good
Friday, of the sepulchre on Easter "Day,
and of a score of other striking cere
monies to which they had been used all
their lives, and which occupied so large
a space in their religious observances,
seemed to multitudes like a sweeping
away of half their religion. The Act
of Dissolution, which at a stroke sup
pressed all the Friars, and three hundred
and seventy-six of the smaller monas
teries all over the country, affected the
personal interests and shocked the best
sentiments of thousands of the people.
These sweeping changes begat* appre
hensions of still further revolutions.
A rumour got abroad that it was con
templated even to pull down the parish
churches. In the remoter and more
backward parts of the kingdom the
changes were naturally least under
stood, and excited the greatest fears.
At length the opposition broke out
into resistance. It began in Lincoln
shire. Many of the gentry of the
county, with their high sheriff at their
head, the Abbot of Barlings and his
canons, the ejected monks, many of
the parochial clergy, and multitudes of
the people assembled at Horncastle,
and formulated their grievances. They
demanded— (1) The restoration of the
suppressed religious houses. (2) A re
mission of the subsidy lately demanded.
(3) No more tenths and first-fruits to
be paid by the clergy to the Crown.
(4) The repeal of the Statute of Uses.
(5) The removal of men of villein de
scent from the Privy Council, which
was directed against Cromwell and Sir
Robert Rich. (6) The deprivation of
certain bishops, whom they charged
with heresy. At Horncastle they
murdered the Chancellor of Lincoln,
who was Cromwell's chief representa
tive there. A similar outbreak occurred
at Lincoln, where the bishop's palace
was pillaged, The king" refused to

YORK

657

YORK

grant any of the demands, and send a
force against them ; the tumultuous
assembly was in no position to stand
an attack ; they gave up some of their
ringleaders, who were executed ; the
rest were pardoned and dispersed.
But the revolt spread into Yorkshire,
and there assumed more formidable
proportions. Robert Aske, a Yorkshire
gentleman, who had been concerned in
the Lincolnshire rebellion, found him
self put forward as head of the York
shire movement. The archbishop and
many of the nobility and gentry of
Yorkshire openly encouraged or secretly
connived at the movement. Towns
declared for the agitators, castles were
given up to them and manned by them.
Their army assembled at Doncaster.
Thomas Percy, a younger brother of
the Earl of Northumberland, led the
van of 5000 men with the banner of
St. Cuthbert. The men of Holderness
and the West Riding followed with
Ashe and Lord Darcy at their head.
The rearguard consisted of 12,000 horse
from the dales of Richmondshire and
the Bishopric of Durham. Sir Mar-
maduke Constable stated afterwards :
"We were 30,000 men, as tall men,
as well horsed, and well appointed as
any men could be." The Duke of
Norfolk and Lord Shrewsbury com
manded the forces they had hastily
mustered on the king's side, which
were greatly inferior in number. But
the royal generals temporised, offered
to bring representatives of the insur
gents to the king's presence and ensure
them a favourable hearing. The king
received them graciously, and after
keeping them for a fortnight, sent
them back with vague conciliatory ex
pressions and appeals to the loyalty
of the insurgent nobles, and promised
them an answer further on. This tem-
jorising policy succeeded. An irregu
lar levy of insurgents cannot be kept
together inactive for long. The king
promised a free pardon and a Parlia
ment at York to consider their griev
ances, and invited the leaders of the
movement to come to London and dis-

la

cuss the matters in debate. Meantime
he was mustering an army. The in
surgents saw their danger, and the
whole country was in commotion. At
length Sir Francis Bigod of Mulgrave
Castle and others commenced hostilities
by attempting to seize Scarborough.
The Duke of Norfolk, at the head of a
powerful army, marched into York
shire, seized the rebels, and the insur
rection was at an end. Then martial
law was proclaimed ; the principal
leaders were seized and executed. The
Abbots of Sawley, Hexham, Fountains,
Jervaulx, and several others were
hanged. Sir Francis Bigod, Sir G.
Lumley, Sir J. Bulmer, Sir M. Percy,
Ashe, Lord Darcy, Sir C. Constable,
and many others were hanged. Lady
Bulmer was burnt alive. They were
guilty of armed rebellion, and no doubt
their fate was just ; but those who are
content that their attempt to frustrate
the reform failed, may yet be permitted
to mourn over their unhappy fate.
The surrender of the Yorkshire ab
beys was facilitated by the bloody
extinction of the Pilgrimage of Grace,
for the king seized all the abbeys whose
abbots had been executed, under the
fiction that they were forfeit by treason
to the Crown. The rest soon followed.
Fountains, and Gisborough-with-Bever-
ley, were to have furnished the materials
of two new Yorkshire bishoprics ; but
this good intention went the way of
many others. Some of the estates were
retained by the Crown, others granted to
courtiers, others sold to merchants, yeo
men, and others ; and many of the pre
sent landed gentry owe the commence
ment of their territorial position to a
profitable purchase of monastic lands.
Under the Act of Six Articles Valent-
tine Freez, a son of the printer above-
mentioned, and his wife, were burnt at
York. In 1591 new statutes for the cathedral
of York were issued Under the Great
Seal to correct certain abuses ; by these
statutes every canon, whether residen
tiary or not, had the right given him
to take part in the deliberations and

YORK

658

YORK

acts of the chapter, a regulation which
still continues in force, contrary to the
practice of other cathedral chapters.
It is a curious fact that on the death
of Lee, and the appointment of Hol-
gate in 1544, the pall was given to the
new archbishop by Cranmer, with a
special service of benediction and in
vestiture ('Gent. Mag.' 1860, p. 522).
On the accession of Queen Mary, Hol-
gate was deprived as a married bishop,
and committed to the Tower for a time
on the charge of treason ; after eigh
teen months was released, and died at
his native village, probably in 1556.
He founded the three grammar schools
at York, Old Malton, and Hemsworth.
Heath succeeded him, and under his
influence and that of Tunstall, Bishop
of Durham, the North suffered little
of the persecution which marked the
later years of Mary's reign. On the
accession of Elizabeth, Heath retired
to his own estate at Cobham in Surrey,
and Thomas Young was translated
from St. David's to York.
In the northern counties the attach
ment to the old forms of religion still
continued strong and widespread, and
showed itself once more in the rebellion
of 1569, under the Earls of North
umberland and Westmoreland. Like
the Pilgrimage of Grace, this . revolt
fell to pieces, and the vengeance of the
Government inflicted heavy punish
ments in death and confiscation upon
those implicated in it. Grindal suc
ceeded Young, and did his best, by
appointing able preachers, and other
means, to convert the people of the
North to his own Puritan opinions.
He was succeeded by Sandys, who was
in favour of strong measures against
the popish recusants. In his time the
statute of 1581 was passed, which
made it high treason to embrace the
religion of Rome, or to convert another
to it, and misprision of treason to aid
in such an act, or to conceal the know
ledge of it for more than twenty days.
Any priest saying Mass to forfeit 200
marks and be imprisoned a year, and
so long as his fine remained unpaid.

Any lay person attending Mass to
pay a fine of 100 marks and a year's
imprisonment. Any one above the
age of sixteen failing to attend his
parish church to pay a fine of £20 for
every month's absence. In 1585 an
other statute banished all Jesuits,
seminary priests, and others in Roman
orders, on pain of treason, and all who
harboured them were to suffer death
and forfeiture as felons ; and all who
failed to inform of them were to suffer
fine and imprisonment at the Queen's
pleasure. Another statute of 1593,
" for the restraining of popish recusants
to some fixed abode," enacted that if
they went more than five miles from
their dwellings they were to forfeit
goods, chattels, and lands. It can
serve no good purpose to hide the fact
that under these statutes the popish
recusants suffered much persecution '¦;
out of one hundred and eighty-eight
put to death under them in Elizabeth's
reign, forty-one were hanged at York ;
of these twenty-six were in orders.
Mrs. Clitheroe was pressed to death
for refusing to plead. Forty more are
said to have died in prison. Torture
was used ; imprisonment, confiscations,
and fines were freely applied. Again,
after the Gunpowder Plot, fifty Roman
ists were imprisoned in York on sus
picion, and three laymen and two
priests were executed in James's reign ;
and the strictest surveillance was main
tained over the recusants generally.
The Archbishop of York takes pre
cedence of all dukes not being of the
blood royal, and of all the great officers
of State except the Lord Chancellor.
He has the privilege to crown the
Queen Consort.
The diocese now consists of York
city, the entire East Riding, part of
North and West Riding, and portions
of adjacent counties. It is divided
into three archdeaconries, viz. York,
East Riding, and Cleveland ; 31 rural
deaneries, 628 benefices.
The Bishops and Archbishops of
York, and dates of their accession or
enthronement, are as follows :

YORK

659

YORK

BISHOPS.
Restitutus ~\ 314 a. d.
Sampson i-
Pyrannus |
Thadicius J
Paulinus, 627-663.
(Interval of about 30 years. )
Wilfrid, 665.
Chadd j
Bosa (
St. John of Beverley, 705.
Wilfrid II., 718.

ARCHBISHOPS.

EgbertAlbertEanbald Eanbald II.
Wulfsius ...
Wigmund ...
Wulfhere Ethelbald ...
Redewald or Lotheward
Wulstan Oskytel
Ethelwold ...
OswaldAdulph
Wulstan II.
Alfric Puttock
Kinsius
AlfredThomas of Bayeux
GerardThomas II.
Thurstan ...
St. William of York
Henry Murdac
St. William reinstated
Roger de Pont l'Eveque
{Died 1181, vacancy of
Geoffrey Plantaganet ...
(Vacancy of '9 years.)
Walter de Gray
Sewall de Bovill
Godfrey de Ludham
Walter Giffard
William Wickwaine
John Romanus

A. D.
732766780796812831854895

> Uncertain. ... 956
. Uncertain. ... 972
... 993
... 1002
... 1023
... 1051
... 1060
... 1070
... 1100
... -1109
... 1114
... 1144
... 1147
... 1153
... 1154
10 years.) ... 1191
... 1216
... 1256
... 1258
... 1266
... 1279
... 1286

Henry de Newerk
Thomas de Corbridge
William de Greenfield
William de Melton
William la Zouche
John de Thoresby
Alexander de Neville
Thomas Arundel
Robert Waldby
Richard Scrope
Henry Bowet
John Kemp
William Booth
George Neville
Lawrence Booth
Thomas Rotherham
Thomas Savage
Christopher Bainbrig;
Thomas Wolsey
Edward Lee
Robert Holgate
(Deprived 1554.)
Nicholas Heath
(Deprived 1560.)
Thomas Young
Edmund Grindal
Edwin Sandys
John Piers . . .
Matthew Hutton
Tobias Matthew
George Monteigne
Samuel Harsnett
Richard Neile
John Williams
( Vacancy of 10 years. )
Accepted Frewen
Richard Sterne
John Dolben
Thomas Lamplugh
John Sharp
Sir William Dawes, Bart.
Lancelot Blackburne
Thomas Herring
Matthew Hutton
John Gilbert
Robert Hay Drummond
William Markham ...
Edward Venables Vernon
Harcourt
Thomas Musgrave ...
Charles Thomas Longley
William Thomson ...

1296130013041316134013531374
1388 1397139814071426 14521465
147614801501 1508
15141531 1545155515611570157715891595
1606 162816281632
1641 166016641683
1688 1691
1714 1724174317471757 176117771808184718601863

THE END.

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