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assuredly, from some points of view, strengthened Lecture the position of the Established Church. The expansion, or transformation, of the High Churchmanship, which was the peculiar creed of a Church party, into the Anglicanism which at this moment apparently characterises the general body of the clergy, and may be described as the faith of the modern Church of England, has welded the clergy and their adherents into a homogeneous body which can exert considerable political power in defence of the interests or the convictions of churchmen. The same change has also more or less dissociated zealous churchmanship from Tory principles. The advance of democracy has transferred political predominance from the ten - pound householders, among whom lay the strength of the Dissenting interest, to the working classes, who, so far at any rate as they are represented by the artisans, are seemingly indifferent to the religious questions which divide High Churchmen from Low Churchmen, or Churchmen from Dissenters. The body of wage-earners may not read the reports of a Church congress, but there is no reason to suppose that they subscribe largely to the funds of the Liberation Society. Indifference tells in favour of the Established Church as of other established institutions. Opposition, lastly, to individualism constitutes a genuine, if as yet unrecognised, bond between clericalism and collectivism. No doubt there is another side to the picture. The changes of ecclesiastical opinion since 1834 have, in some respects, widened the separation between the convictions of the clergy and the convictions of the laity. All that need here be insisted upon is that, from

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Lecture some points of view, the political, and therefore the legislative power of the Established Church has been increased; in any case it has been for seventy years and more a power which every politician has been compelled to take into account.1

Since 1832 not an Act of Parliament directly or indirectly affecting the Church has been passed which does not bear traces of the influence exerted by ecclesiastical opinion.

From this date onwards the conflict between the dominant liberalism of the day and clerical or ecclesiastical opinion made the political position a strange one. The Established Church, as the Whigs soon found, was not the weakest, but one among the strongest of existing institutions. The attempt to deal, in the most moderate manner, with the patent defects of the Church Establishment in Ireland shattered the Reform Ministry. Within two years after the passing of the Reform Act the Whig Premier gave a pledge not to sanction attacks upon the Church. To open English universities to Dissenters was an impossibility; to provide Dissenters with anything like a real university of their own overtasked the power of the Ministry. The election of 1834 showed that the tide of public opinion no longer flowed strongly in favour of reform, but it also showed that the nation demanded the removal of

1 Political dissent or the development among Nonconformists of distinct opposition to all connection between Church and State on any terms whatever dates, it is said, from 1834. The movement for Disestablishment has combined with the High Church movement of 1835 to prevent fundamental alterations in the position or the doctrine of the Establishment. In 1832 the Church forbade Disestablishment. Political dissent, as represented by Mr. Miall and the Nonconformist newspaper, has negatived all idea of comprehension.

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those defects of the Church Establishment which Lecture were condemned by all serious churchmen and all intelligent Conservatives. For this work Peel was as ready as any Whig Premier. The creation of the Ecclesiastical Commission and all the reforms it involved were made possible because in this matter the Whig Ministry of 1836 was supported by the Bishops and by the Conservative Opposition.

Gradually the necessary, or at any rate the easiest, line of action became clear. The fundamentals of the Establishment must be left untouched; patent abuses which shocked the dominant opinion of the day, or grievances which irritated powerful classes, must be removed, but even the most salutary reforms might be long delayed and tempered or curtailed out of deference to the principles or the sentiment of Churchmen. Here we have the policy of conservatism combined with concession which has coloured the whole of modern ecclesiastical legislation.

B. The Actual Course of Ecclesiastical Legislation

Note first its essential conservatism. Parliament has in no way altered the doctrine or extended the boundaries of the Church of England.1 Noncon

1 In 1791 Bishop Watson wrote to the Duke of Grafton: "In "England we certainly want a reform, both in the civil and ecclesias"tical part of our constitution. Men's minds, however, I think, are "not yet generally prepared for admitting its necessity. A reformer of "Luther's temper and talents would, in five years, persuade the people "to compel the Parliament to abolish tithes, to extinguish pluralities, "to enforce residence, to confine episcopacy to the overseeing of dioceses, "to expunge the Athanasian Creed from our Liturgy, to free Dissenters "from Test Acts, and the ministers of the establishment from subscrip"tion to human articles of faith."-Watson's Memoirs, p. 256, and see Bain, James Mill, p. 381. More than a century has passed since

Lecture formists who stood outside the National Church in 1832 have not been brought within its limits.

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Note next the extent of the concessions gradually made to the permanent demand for reform, and note, at the same time, that each concession to liberalism has been tempered by deference for ecclesiastical opinion.

The demand for reform took two shapes. It was either a demand for the amendment of abuses within the Established Church, i.e. for internal reform, or a demand for the removal of grievances connected with the Establishment, but which were mainly felt by persons not belonging to the Established Church, i.e. for external reform.

As to internal reform.-Abuses which shocked even zealous Churchmen were in 1835 made patent to the whole nation by the Report of the Commissioners appointed to inquire into the financial condition of the Establishment. The state of things thus revealed has been well described by a judicious writer.

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'The income of the Episcopate was found sufficient to provide, on an average, £6000 a year "to each see. But how was this distributed? So as to give over £19,000 a year apiece to the Archbishop "of Canterbury and the Bishop of Durham; over £11,000 a year to the Archbishop of York, and to "each of the Bishops of London, Winchester, and 'Ely; while Rochester had to put up with less than

Watson wrote these words. Observe how incompletely his anticipation of impending changes has been fulfilled. Tithes are still paid, the Athanasian Creed still remains part of our Liturgy, ministers of the Church are not freed from subscription to human articles of faith.

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£1500, and Llandaff with but £900 a year. The Lecture "revenues of the cathedrals and collegiate churches "were on such a scale that the Commissioners had no "hesitation in reporting that the objects of those institutions might be fully secured and continued, "and their efficiency maintained, consistently with a "considerable reduction of their revenues, a portion of which should be appropriated towards making "a better provision for the cure of souls. The deficiency of church accommodation in the big towns, "and the dearth of clergy, caused almost a denial of religious instruction to the population of many parishes, so far, at least, as the State Church was concerned. In four parishes of London and the suburbs, containing over 160,000 persons, there was "church accommodation for little over 8000, while in 'the same district there were but eleven clergymen ; " and this notwithstanding all that had been done by private generosity and by Act of Parliament to "increase the number of churches and chapels and "to augment benefices throughout the kingdom. In many parishes the income was too small to support a clergyman, so that the work was often done by the "incumbent of another parish, thus giving rise to "another evil, that of non-residence and the holding "of a plurality of livings by one clergyman. Nearly '300 livings were found to be of less value than £50 "a year, rather more than 2000 less than £100, and about 3500 less than £150, and in many of these incumbencies there was no house for the incumbent. "At the other end of the scale were nearly 200 livings enjoying an income exceeding £1000 a year, the "most valuable being that of Doddington, in the

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