34 way that instead of four archbishops and eighteen bishops + there came to be only two archbishops and ten bishops, and effected a series of further reforms in conformity with the needs of the time. Of other statutes belonging here is to be named especially the 'Tithes Act,' 1 & 2 Vict. (1838) c 109 which substituted for the tithe payable by the tenant (frequently a Roman catholic) a smaller rent-charge to be disbursed by the landowner (as a rule, protestant),35 Clonfert and Kilmacduagh with Killaloe and Kilfenora Dublin and Glandelagh "Cloyne. s 36. The temporalities of the merged bishoprics are to be vested in the commissioners. s 54. The revenues of the archbishopric of Armagh and the bishopric of Derry are reduced. ss 63 ff. The commissioners are to apply the income of the property vested in them to the maintenance of divine service, to the building or improvement of church buildings, to the augmenting of inadequate salaries etc. s 65: it shall not be lawful for any Vestry called or holden in or for any Parish, Union, or Chapelry, or Place in Ireland, or for any Person or Persons, to make or levy any Rate or Assessment for any Church Purposes whatsoever; The opposing provisions of 7 Geo. IV. c 72 are repealed. 4 & 5 Gul. IV (1834) c 90 contains provisions as to the admissibility of suspending appointments to sinecure dignities and rectories without cure of souls whether in royal or ecclesiastical patronage; also, as to disappropriations. s 16: the title to lands etc. which was vested in the Trustees and Commissioners of First Fruits in Ireland' is transferred to the ecclesiastical commissioners. 6 & 7 Gul. IV (1836) c 99. According to s 25 the property of minor canons, vicars choral etc., in cases where no sufficient duties are attached to their offices, may vest in the ecclesiastical commissioners. 34 Before 1833 there were the following provinces and bishoprics :— 35 An Act to abolish Compositions for Tithes in Ireland, and to substitute Rent-charges in lieu thereof. The Irish house of commons of 1735 had already condemned the tithe of agistment (paid in respect of pasture lands), since which time the payment of it could no longer be enforced. Ball, Church of Ireland 218. In the nineteenth century associations were formed to oppose the payment of any tithe whatever. They rendered it impossible over the greater part of the island to collect such dues. Of other enactments in the nineteenth century touching the Irish church we may single out: 52 Geo. III (1812) c 62 An Act to enable Coadjutors to Arch In 1869 the protestant state church was placed on exactly the same level as the Roman catholic church. The 'Irish Church Act,' 32 & 33 Vict. c 42, dissolved from the 1st January, 1871, the legislative union between the church of England and the church of Ireland, divested the latter of its rank as the established church and confiscated the greater part of its possessions to apply them to purposes of general utility. At the same time the not inconsiderable contributions were withdrawn which the state had hitherto paid to the presbyterian church in Ireland for the maintenance of its ministry, and to the Roman catholic college of Maynooth. The protestant episcopal church of Ireland now framed an independent constitution for itself, and adopted the English articles as well as the canons of 1634 and, subject to a new revision, the English book of common prayer. All the fundamental institutions of the English episcopal church were maintained. The revised bishops and Bishops in Ireland to execute the Powers of Archbishops and Bishops respectively; 5 Geo. IV (1824) c 91 An Act to consolidate and amend the Laws for enforcing the Residence of Spiritual Persons on their Benefices; to restrain Spiritual Persons from carrying on Trade or Merchandize; and for the Support and Maintenance of Stipendiary Curates in Ireland; 7 Geo. IV (1826) c 72 An Act to consolidate and amend the Laws which regulate the Levy and Application of Church Rates and Parish Cesses, and the Election of Churchwardens and the Maintenance of Parish Clerks, in Ireland; 6 & 7 Guil. IV (1836) c 31, enabling founders of churches or chapels to vest the patronage in trustees, An Act to amend an Act of George II for the Encouragement of building of Chapels of Ease in Ireland. 36 The following are the provisions most important for our purpose of the measure entitled An Act to put an end to the Establishment of the Church of Ireland, and to make provision in respect of the Temporalities thereof, and in respect of the Royal College of Maynooth. Three state Commissioners of Church Temporalities in Ireland' are appointed, in whom is vested the property formerly vested in the Ecclesiastical Commissioners for Ireland' whose corporation is by this act dissolved-as also all other church property whatsoever. [By 44 & 45 Vict. (1881) c 71 Irish Church Act Amendment Act it is laid down that the corporation of the Commissioners of Church Temporalities shall, as soon as a corporate body under the title of the Irish Land Commission has been constituted, be dissolved and its property vested in the new corporation which shall keep a separate account of the property transferred to them under this act. As to the employment of the surplus left to the state out of the confiscated property see Ball, Church of Ireland, app. LL.] No compensation is to be made to the queen for her rights of patronage. The rights of private lay patrons are abolished (with compensation if applied for) in so far as they do not rest on endowment out of private means. All ecclesiastical corporations are dissolved. On the other hand it shall be lawful for her majesty to incorporate a Representative Church Body' with power to hold lands to such extent as is provided in the act. [This has been done. The incorporation was in 1870; its members are the archbishops and all the bishops, one clerical and two lay representatives from each diocese, and co-opted members equal in number to the number of dioceses for the time being.] From their funds the commissioners are to pay to holders of benefices an annuity for life equal to the ascertained amount of the yearly income of such benefices; also to the representative church body £500,000 as an equivalent for private endowments now become vested in the commissioners. By this and a later act [38 & 39 Vict. c 42 The Glebe Lands, Representative Church Body, Ireland, Act, 1875] the acquisition of churches, school-houses, burial grounds, parsonages and glebe lands by the representative church body is facilitated. Ecclesiastical courts 6 prayer-book for Ireland was published in 1877.37 Shortly after the disestablishment fifty-four canons were agreed which contained, in particular, regulations for the external forms of divine worship and which aimed at resisting the endeavour to assimilate the worship of the protestant episcopal church to that of the Roman catholic. The most important constitutional provisions were laid down in 1870-71 in a Constitution of the Church of Ireland' and have been subsequently revised. At present the highest authority in the church is the general synod consisting of two houses, the house of bishops and the house of representatives. It was formed after the passing of the disestablishment bill by the union of the two earlier provincial synods with the addition of lay representatives.38 In the house of bishops sit the archbishops and bishops for the time being; the house of representatives is made up of elected representatives of the clergy and laity, chosen at the diocesan synods.39 Provincial synods are no longer held. The diocesan synods 10 consist of the bishop, of the beneficed and the licensed clergymen of the diocese, and of lay synodsmen chosen at the parish vestries." In the parishes besides the parish vestry there is a select vestry (consisting of the incumbent, his curates, if any, the, churchwardens and not more than twelve other persons elected by the parish vestry from among its members) and two churchwardens taken from the registered vestrymen, one ap. pointed by the incumbent, the other elected by the vestrymen. 40 Side by side with the above and subject in essential points to their direction are the usual officers of the episcopal church. Upon their choice the laity exercises mediate or immediate influence. The parish clergy are nominated by a board, which consists of the bishop, three diocesan representatives and three parish representatives. Private persons may by founding churches obtain a limited and (except in so far as relates to matrimonial causes) ecclesiastical law are by this act abolished. The right of Irish bishops to be summoned to sit in the house of lords is extinguished. Laws preventing the holding of synods, convocations etc. are repealed. 37 The Athanasian creed is contained therein; but the rubric directing its use is omitted.-It is retained as a creed in the Articles of Religion.-The variations of the Irish from the English prayer-book will be found in Ball, Church of Ireland, app. RR. 38 the General Synod shall have chief legislative power and such administrative power as may be necessary for the Church and consistent with its Episcopal constitution. (Preamble and Declaration of the Constitution of the Church of Ireland.) As to the measures in the interim before the establishment of the new constitution see Church Year-Book for 1883, pp. 450 ff., where it is stated that the statutes of the General Convention, with others enacted by the General Synod, were consolidated, codified and re-enacted under the title of the Constitution of the Church of Ireland, 1879.' 39 There is also a 'Standing Committee of the General Synod,' composed of the archbishops, the bishops, the secretaries of the general synod, members chosen by the general synod and members co-opted by the committee. 40 In many dioceses now united under one bishop there are still separate diocesan synods,—23 in all at the present time. 41 In the diocesan synod of Dublin the university is also represented. right of patronage.42 The bishops are to be elected in the diocesan synods by majorities both of the clergy and of the laity. If the majority amounts to two-thirds of the members voting of each order, the election is final. Otherwise, at least a second person must be chosen by a simple majority of each of the two orders, the bench of bishops electing from those whose names are submitted to it. To that bench also falls the appointment if the proper return has not been made by the synod within three months from the day of its meeting. The election of an archbishop of Dublin is on the same lines as that of a bishop. The archbishop of Armagh is primate of all Ireland. On the occurrence of a vacancy in the see of Armagh the diocesan synod elects in the ordinary way a bishop who bears the name temporarily of 'bishop of Armagh.' Then all the bishops, including the newly elected, choose the archbishop from among their number. If the chosen is other than the 'bishop of Armagh,' then the two exchange sees. All the authorities and officers named are private. One and all, they are without corporative rights. In respect of property it is only the protestant episcopal church as a whole that forms a corporation, and this is externally represented by the 'Representative Church Body' consisting of clergy and laymen, which was called into existence under the Irish Church Act of 1869.43 42 The development of such rights of patronage is furthered by 47 Vict. c 10 Trustee Churches, Ireland, Act, 1881, which, in the case of chapels of ease etc. exempted from the operation of the Irish Church Act of 1869, gives the trustees the power to transfer the property therein to the representative church body, and so to bring them under the ordinary church constitution. 43 There are (1894) the following archbishoprics and bishoprics in Ireland (they are as at the combination of sees in 1833-34, except that since the disestablishment Clogher, formerly joined to Armagh, has been made independent) : I. Province of Armagh. 1. Armagh (the bishop is the archbishop of Armagh) 2. Meath 3. Derry, Raphoe 4. Down, Connor and Dromore 5. Kilmore, Ardagh and Elphin 6. Tuam, Killala and Achonry 7. Clogher II. Province of Dublin. 8. Dublin, Glendalough and Kildare (the bishop is the archbishop of Dublin) 9. Ossory, Leighlin and Ferns 10. Cashel, Emly, Waterford and Lis more 11. Cork, Cloyne and Ross 12. Killaloe, Kilfenora, Clonfert and Kilmacduagh 13. Limerick, Ardfert and Aghadoe. 4. THE ENGLISH EPISCOPAL CHURCH IN THE COLONIES AND ABROAD. § 12. a. General." THE first formation of congregations belonging to the episcopal church in the colonies or abroad was of a purely voluntary character. As a rule, the growth of a congregation began in a combination of settlers to establish a place of meeting for divine worship and to raise funds for the maintenance of a clergyman. In the sixteenth and the first half of the seventeenth century such congregations of English episcopalians were founded in extraordinarily small numbers. By far the greater part of English emigrants dispensed with every form of church organization or preferred the system of some other church. Here and there, however, even in early times the colonial authorities granted state support to clergymen of the episcopal church. An order of the privy council of 1st October, 1633, and a subsequent order of the king, transmitted to the English communities abroad by several letters of archbishop Laud, effected a primary conjunction of the scattered communities. It was laid down that English subjects outside of England might only appoint as their preachers clergymen who conformed to the doctrine and discipline of the church of England; to the bishop of London certain powers of supervision were entrusted. Hence there arose by degrees the view that the bishop of London possessed in respect of Englishmen resident abroad all the rights of a diocesan bishop. In 1634 the king set up a commission which was to have the supreme control of colonial affairs. On this commission was conferred, among other things, the right of providing for the endowment of the church in the colonies by means of tithes and other sources of income.* 1 James I had demanded that he should have the right of setting a moderator over the English ministers in Holland. The ministers petitioned against such a proceeding (1624). Their letter is printed in Collier VIII, 50. Laud then (22nd March, 1633) proposed a general regulation of divine service in English factories and among English troops abroad. His suggestions to the privy council are to be found in Heylin, Cyprianus Anglicanus Ed. 1719 pt. I p. 148. According to Heylin, l.c. pt. II p. 19, on the 1st October, 1633 an order in council was issued, corresponding essentially to the proposals of Laud. The letter of Laud, 17th June, 1634, addressed to the factory of Delph (Holland) is printed in Collier, Eccles. Hist. Ed. 1852 VIII, 89. Similar letters were forwarded to other factories. 'Their warrant is printed in Hazard, Historical Collections etc. I, 344. Anderson. The History of the Church of England in the Colonies and Foreign Dependencies of the British Empire. 2nd Edition. London, 1856. 3 vols.-Perry. Hist. of the Engl. Church, vol. III cc 7, 13, 21, 25, 26, 30, 31.-Phillimore. Eccles. Law 2230 ff-Smith, Thomas. The History and Origin of the Missionary Societies. 2 vols. London, 1824, 25. (Vol. I relates to the missions of the moravians and of the baptist missionary society; vol. II to those of the London missionary society, the church missionary society and the wesleyan missionary society.)-Tucker, H. W. The English Church in other Lands. London, 1886.— Statistical information as to the several colonial bishoprics and their gradual origination is contained in the Year-Book of the Church of England. |