by adversity. If Monarchy had its martyr, so had the Church; for the sovereign who had perished beneath the headsman's axe was the chief of the Church, for whose sake he was said, and not untruly said, to have laid down his life. The wave of revolution, which swept Strafford from the stage, had been quickly followed by another, which removed Laud from the storm which he had helped so largely to raise. The convulsion which suppressed Prelacy had also abolished the House of Peers. Before the Commonwealth the Church had been a new thing, the outgrowth of a few generations of civil disturbance; and even in King Charles's London, where the bishops were all-powerful, and courtiers coquetted with High-church preachers, it was deemed in good society congruous with patriotism and high tone to deride the prelates as plebeian upstarts, and to speak of the Church as a mushroom establishment, and an unsatisfactory compromise between Papistry and Reform. On the Restoration the Church was no longer a novel experiment, but one of the ancient and venerable institutions which murderous and cruel men had uprooted. On the one hand, it was time to apprehend common sense, and to begin to judge what is true: for you shall have lads that are arch-knaves at the nominative case, and that have a notable quick eye at spying out the verb, who, for want of reading such common and familiar books, shall understand no more of what is plain and easy than a well-educated dog or horse. Or suppose they were taught (as they might much easier be than what is commonly offered to them) the principles of arithmetic, geometry, and such alluring parts of learning; as these things undoubtedly would be much more useful, so much more delightful to them, than to be tormented with a tedious story how Phaeton broke his neck, or how many nuts and apples Tytirus had for his supper. For most certainly youths, if handsomely dealt with, are much inclinable to emulation, and to a very useful esteem of glory, and more especially if it be the reward of knowledge; and therefore, if such things were carefully and discreetly propounded to them, wherein they might not only earnestly contend amongst themselves, but might also see how far they outskill the rest of the world. A lad hereby would think himself high and mighty, and would certainly take great delight in contemning the next unlearned mortal he meets withal. But if instead hereof you diet him with nothing but rules and exceptions, with tiresome repetitions of Amo's and Tv≈rá's, setting a day also apart to recite verbatim all the burdensome task of the foregoing week (which, I am confident, is usually as dreadful as an old parliament fast), we must needs believe that such a one thus managed will scarce think to prove immortal by such performances and accomplishments as these.' This passage from The Contempt of the Clergy' anticipates much of what has been recently said, with greater finish and amplitude, in reviews and magazines, in behalf of educational reform in our grammar-schools and universities.

averred that Charles the First had died to preserve Episcopacy, -a sufficient reason why Prelacy should be re-established and re-endowed. On the other hand, it was stated that the Episcopal Church had fallen through devotion to the crown,-a sufficient reason why the crown should load it with honours and wealth. So the Elizabethan Church was replaced, to the delight of the aristocracy and the satisfaction of an overwhelming majority of the people; and since its restoration no one has ventured to deride it for its want of antiquity.

Thus re-established more than two centuries since in a nation that had discovered an urgent need for it whilst trying to exist without it, the Episcopal Church has flourished to a degree for which even its enemies cannot account, save on the supposition that it is congenial to the intellect and temper of the country, and does upon the whole satisfactorily accomplish the ends for which it was created, reformed, and rebuilt. Every political change which has convulsed the country since the Restoration has been productive immediately or indirectly of honour and stability to a system, imperfect in many respects, but fruitful of beneficent results, and glorious in its traditions. Every fresh generation has seen its clergy grow in power, and draw within its lines a larger proportion of the aristocracy of the land; and even at periods when they have incurred reasonable charges of levity, worldliness, and sloth, the shortcomings of the members of the ecclesiastical order have been slight in comparison with the faults of the laity. If they have reflected the evils of current society, they have also exhibited its virtues. Anyhow, they nave advanced in knowledge and honour; and they have also grown in wealth in a manner which almost justifies the opinion. that, though its Established Church should have no pecuniary endowments, the clergy of a wealthy people would not fail to acquire a liberal share of the riches of the land, so long as no celibatic rule precluded them from marriage.

IN

CHAPTER VII.

HOSPITALITY AND GAMES.

N olden times, before increase of wealth and refinement had raised our parochial clergy above the ordinary kind of affluent or fairly prosperous laity, and rendered them a distinct class in the aristocratic order, rural incumbents, in the exercise of hospitality to their parishioners, were wont to receive as guests at their parsonages families of a quality far beneath the humblest of those who are nowadays admitted to social intercourse with the wives and children of rectors and vicars. The country parson,' says Herbert, 'owing a debt of charity to the poor, and of courtesie to his other parishioners, he so distinguisheth, that he keeps his money for the poor, and his table for those that are above alms. Not but that the poor are welcome also to his table, whom he sometimes purposely takes home with him, setting them close by him, and carving for them, both for his own humility and their comfort, who are much cheered with such friendliness. But since both is to be done, the better sort invited, and the meaner relieved, he chooseth rather to give the poor money, which they can better employ to their own advantage, and suitably to their needs, than so much given in meat at dinner. Having thus invited some of his parish, he taketh his times to do the like to the rest; so that in the compasse of the year hee hath them all with him, because country people are very observant of such things, and will not be perswaded, being not invited, they are not hated.' This general exercise of hospitality towards parishioners was continued by the well-to-do rural clergy, so long as the fashion of taking their tithes in kind, or making special agreements for the payment of them in money, rendered it politic for the incumbents to maintain personal relations and a show of private friendship with their

tithe-paying parishioners; and a vestige of it is still seen in the customary tithe-dinners, which many of the country rectors prefer to give at village taverns, instead of at their official residences, in which many of the formal guests at tithe-dinners are nowadays never received on a footing of equality or even of social friendliness.*

The repast, of which the rector of the seventeenth century invited his tithe-payers to partake at his private board, was an entertainment of homely fare, though cordial welcome. The dishes consisted of the solid joints and substantial puddings, which even the aristocracy of the time regarded as the choicest of food; and though the principal toasts were drunk in canary,

* In olden time, after no less than before the Reformation, the exercise of generous, and even lavish hospitality, was one of the first duties of the superior clergy. Whilst the well-beneficed rector was required to spend a large proportion of his income on the sustenance of the poorer, and on the social enjoyments of the richer, of his parishioners, the archbishops and bishops were bound to live grandly, keep great tables, and scatter bounties whithersoever they went. The bishops of the present day are far less conspicuous personages in the social system than their precursors of three centuries; but relieved of the necessity of exercising general and wasteful hospitality to strangers the whole year round, they have opportunities for amassing private wealth never enjoyed by the prelates of old time. In his 'Life of Cranmer' Strype says:-For in the year 1541 the archbishop, with the consent of the other archbishop and most of the bishops, and divers other deans and archdeacons, made a constitution for moderating the fare of their tables; viz. "That archbishops should not exceed six divers kinds of flesh, or as many dishes of fish on fish-days; a bishop not above five; a dean, or archdeacon, four; and all under that degree, three. But an archbishop was allowed at second course to have four dishes, a bishop three, and all others two; as custards, tarts, fritters, cheese, apples, pears, &c. But if any of the inferior clergy should entertain any archbishop, bishop, dean, or archdeacon, or any of the laity of like degree, as duke, marquis, earl, viscount, baron, lord, knight, they might have such provision as were meet for their degrees: nor was their diet to be limited when they should receive an ambassador." It was ordered also, "That of the greater fish or fowl, as cranes, swans, turkeys, haddocks, pike, tench, there should be but one in a dish; of lesser sorts than they, as capons, pheasants, conies, woodcocks, but two; of less sorts still, as of partridges, an archbishop, three; a bishop and other degrees under him, two. The number of the blackbirds was also stinted to six at an archbishop's table, and to four for a bishop; but of little birds, as larks, snipes, &c., the number was not to exceed twelve." The object of these measures of retrenchment is expressly stated by the archbishop, who provides, "That whatever was spared out of the old housekeeping should not be pocketed up, but laid out and spent in plain meats for the relief of poor people." Concerning Bishop Parkhurst's hospitality at Norwich in Queen Elizabeth's reign, and the consequent impoverishment of the prelate, the same

the cloth was no sooner removed than the guests looked for no more delicate drink than sound home-brewed ale and steaming punch. The conversation turned chiefly on agricultural matters, the affairs of the parish, and the political interests of the Church; and whilst his reverence and the churchwardens exchanged sentiments on such familiar topics, their admiring and less enlightened auditors nodded their heads approvingly over their tobacco-pipes. That the clergy of the Restoration Period were habitual, if not excessive, smokers, and saw no sin in the delight which comes from the fumes of the aromatic weed, may be inferred from the arrangements made for clerical smokers at Lambeth Palace during Sheldon's primacy. It was a practice,' writes Eachard's biographer, 'I suppose, from time immemorial,

author tells: 'He kept twenty-six men-servants in his house; among whom were, besides his secretary and gentleman, a cook, a middle cook, a brewer, a cater, a baker, a yeoman of the horse, a bailiff, two carters, and divers other inferior servants, besides six maids, six retainers, four poor aged folks maintained in the house, and three scholars found by him, one at Oxford, another at Norwich, and a third at Ipswich . . . . For some years before his death he retired from Norwich, and lived at his house at Ludham; where latewardly he retrenched his family for his debt to the queen, yet lived in some port still. But before that misfortune his hospitality was so notable, that though the proportion of his yearly revenues was much inferior to others, it gave place to none of his profession and degree. He was not contented to feed the poor at his gate with fragments and scraps, but he had a table set for them; bringing them into his house, and having all necessaries ministered unto them for the relief of their needs.' If we go from the poor see of Norwich to the rich bishopric of Winchester, we find another Elizabethan prelate living beyond his means to fulfil the burdensome obligations of his place. Bishop Curtess of Winchester died 1585, and, noticing the inventory of the prelate's effects, Strype says:-'In which inventory are set down his books (valued 201.), his parliament robes, one velvet cushion embroidered with gold and tasselled, one silk grograine gown faced with velvet, a velvet cassock, another grograine gown faced with velvet, a night-gown of buffin, one cloak lined with bayes, one velvet hat laid to pawn, one silver cup laid to pawn, two standing cups, gilt . . . . His armour reckoned, viz. six corslets, six head-pieces, twelve calivers, ten pikes, ten jacks, ten bows, twelve halberds, sheaf-arrows, powder and match, seventeen caps and skulls . . . . This bishop seemed to overlive his income; affecting good housekeeping and hospitality, after the quality of a lord bishop, and so died in great debt to the queen.' Of the hospitality which George Bull (bishop of St. David's), more than a century later, exercised at Brecknock, on his poor Welsh bishopric, Robert Nelson says: 'His doors were always thronged with the poor and needy, who found comfort and support from his bounty; and all the time he lived at Brecknock, which is a very poor town, about sixty necessitous people, truly indigent, were fed with meat, or served with money, every Lord's Day at dinner-time.'