in 1812 that Lord Harrowby succeeded in carrying it through Parliament.1 The evil of non-residence was not the only cancer which was eating into the fabric of the Church. The same evil which was visible in the public offices existed in the Church. Men received preferment neither from their abilities nor from their deserts, but through the interest of their friends. Paley was incomparably the But no one ever dreamed of CHAP. II. Bishops. ablest divine of his time. offering him a bishopric. Paley is a great man,' said George III.; will never be a bishop-will never be a bishop.'2 The highest offices in the Church were given Tho to the sons of great men, or to the tutors of great men. In 1815 the Archbishop of Canterbury was a grandson of the Duke of Rutland; the Archbishop of York a son of Lord Vernon; the Bishop of Winchester a brother of Lord North; the Prince Bishop of Durham a son of Lord Barrington; Lord Cornwallis was Bishop of Lichfield; the Bishop of Exeter was a son of Lord Chichester; the Bishop of Gloucester a brother of Lord Harrowby; the Bishop of Chester a brother of Lord Ellenborough; the Bishop of Sodor and Man a grandson of the Duke of Athol. Bathurst, the Bishop of Norwich, was half-uncle to Bragge Bathurst, Lord Sidmouth's brother-in-law. Lord Sidmouth had obtained for one of his tutors, Dr. Huntingford, the bishopric of Hereford; for another, Dr. Goodenough, the bishopric of Carlisle. The Duke of Rutland had obtained for one of his tutors, Dr. Watson, the bishopric of Llandaff; for another, Dr. Sparke, the see, first of Chester, then of Ely. Pitt's tutor, Tomline, was Bishop of Lincoln; Perceval's, Mansel, Bishop of Bristol. Fisher, Bishop of Salisbury, had been tutor to the Duke of Kent; Howley, Bishop of London, had been 1 The debates on the bill will be found in Hansard, first series, vol. iv. p. 611; vol. v. pp. 154, 737; vol. vi. pp. 741, 922; vol. xi. pp. 54, 2 Alison, vol. i. p. 444. II. CHAP. regius professor of divinity at Oxford; Jackson, Bishop of Oxford, had been regius professor of Greek. Burgess, Bishop of St. David's, had been chaplain to Shute Barrington, Bishop of Durham. Majendie, Bishop of Bangor, had been the king's neighbour at Kew. The list exhausts twenty-one out of the twenty-six prelates living in 1815. It is probably possible to extend it still further. But, as it stands, it sufficiently reveals the state of the Church. Birth, interest, and scholarship the sole passports to the bench. The ordinary parish clergyman, who stayed at home and attended to his duties, with little or no chance of ecclesiastical advancement! Abuses of ecclesiastical A bench of bishops thus constituted was more likely to attend to their own interests than to the affairs of the patronage. Church. When Wilberforce moved for the promotion of Christianity in India, he specially complained that the bishops, as a body, gave him no support. The bishops were, in fact, too much occupied in attending to the interests of their children, to think of such distant subjects as Christianity in India. Archbishop Sutton was a very good man; he made an estimable primate; and there is no reason to suppose that he abused the patronage at his disposal more than the rest of his contemporaries. But, wrote the editor of the 'Black Book,' 'the late Archbishop Sutton is an eminent instance of the perversion of ecclesiastical patronage. The Suttons remaining in the Church are very numerous; among seven of them are shared sixteen rectories, vicarages, and chapelries, besides preacherships and dignities in cathedrals. Of the eleven daughters 2 of the archbishop, several had the prudence to marry men in holy orders. Hugh Percy, son of the Earl of Beverley, married one daughter; and, in the course of about as many years, was portioned off with eight different preferments, estimated to be worth about 1 Wilberforce, vol. ii. p. 28. 2 The editor has slightly coloured his story. Archbishop Sutton left nine daughters, three of whom were married to clergymen. II. 10,000l. per annum. Another daughter married the Rev. CHAP. James Croft, who is archdeacon of Canterbury, prebendary of Canterbury, curate of Hythe, rector of Cliffe at Hone-all preferments in the gift of the archbishop.' Pitt's tutor, Tomline, made Archbishop Sutton's conduct appear moderate. One of his sons, G. T. Pretyman, became chancellor and canon residentiary of Lincoln, prebendary of Winchester, rector of St. Giles Chalfont, rector of Wheat-Hampstead, rector of Harpenden. Another son, Richard Pretyman, became precentor and canon residentiary of Lincoln, rector of MiddletonStoney, rector of Walgrave, vicar of Hannington, and rector of Wroughton. A third son, John Pretyman, became prebendary of Lincoln, rector of Sherrington, rector of Winwick. Bishop Sparke had an equally keen eye for his children's interests. His eldest son, the Rev. J. Henry Sparke, became incumbent of Leverington, rector of Littlebury, incumbent of Bexwell, prebendary of Ely, steward of the bishop's manorial courts, and chancellor of the diocese. His preferments were estimated to be worth 4,500l. a year. His youngest son, the Rev. Edward Sparke, succeeded to the consolidated livings of St. Mary and St. Nicholas Feltwell, the vicarage of Littleport, and a prebendal stall in Ely. He was also registrar of the diocese and examining chaplain to his father. His various appointments were worth 4,000l. a year. Finally, the bishop's son-in-law, the Rev. Henry Fardell, succeeded to the living of Waterbeach, the vicarage of Wisbech, and a prebendal stall in Ely. His preferments were worth 3,7001. a year.1 Pluralities, however, were not enjoyed by bishops' sons alone. It is said that Majendie, Bishop of Bangor, held no fewer than eleven parochial preferments.2 Mr. Wright, in his letters to the 'Morning Chronicle,' in 1814, undertook to prove that, in one diocese there are about 1 Black Book, vol. vi. pp. 25-27. 2 Ibid. p. 31. СНАР. The country clergy men. two hundred and sixteen clergymen who each hold two livings; forty who hold three each; thirteen who hold four each; one who holds five; one who holds six, besides dignities and offices.' 1 Such a system could not work well. When benefices were popularly supposed to be the means of providing for a near relation; when the greater part of the emoluments attached to a living were diverted into another parish to support a non-resident clergyman; the clergy could not be expected to entertain any very exalted notions of the duties of their profession. Good men, no doubt, there were in abundance. Gentlemen, struggling on a scanty salary to provide for the spiritual and temporal wants of the people entrusted to their care. Gentlemen providing out of their wealth vast sums for charitable purposes. But the ordinary clergyman had no such disposition. He was usually a sportsman, and, during six out of the seven days of the week, he passed his time in hunting, shooting, or fishing. He was generally not merely a sportsman, but a very keen one. The country squires had other duties to attend to; the country clergyman had nothing to do but shoot or fish. He was frequently the hardest rider, the best shot, and the keenest fisherman in the parish. Nothing interfered with his sport except an occasional funeral: and he left the field or the covert, and read the funeral service with his white. surplice barely concealing his shooting or hunting dress. The people were so accustomed to conduct of this kind that they saw nothing indecent in it. All that they expected of their clergyman was that he should read service and preach on Sundays, and that he should perform the occasional functions, which he was required to discharge, on week days. The rest of his time was at his own disposal; and there was nothing in the public opinion of the day which prevented him from spending it in the same way as his squire. 1 Black Book, pp. 31 and 36. II. The picture may seem overdrawn: but it was painted CHAP. in even stronger colours by a contemporary artist. Crabbe described the parish priest, in the Village,' as, A jovial youth, who thinks his Sunday task 6 Crabbe, indeed, after he had himself taken orders, naturally drew the clergy in more pleasing colours. The vicar in the 'Borough' is a much more estimable character than the jovial youth in the Village.' Old Dibble, the sexton in the Parish Register,' moreover, gives an account of all the clergymen whom he had remembered, and it is fair to add that there was not a sportsman among them. 'Addle,' the first, was a sleepy old don; 'Peele,' the second, screwed up the tithes; Grandspear, the third, was liberal and rich; the fourth was an author; the fifth a consumptive young gentleman from Cambridge. The reader concludes that the village was in private patronage; the parish a college living. macy. If the bishops did little to improve the position of Church the clergy, their influence was at any rate sufficient to supremaintain the supremacy of the Church. Since the days of Charles II. no one had been eligible for a seat in Parliament, or for any office either in the State or a Municipality, who did not first receive the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper, and take the oaths of allegiance, supremacy, and abjuration. The Test Act, which excluded nonconformists from offices in the State, had originally been framed to deprive the Roman Catholics of power. But its effect had been wider than its originators had intended. It had been designed to exclude the Roman |