officiating at St. James's, Hatcham, was heard by Lord Penzance at Lambeth instead of in London or Westminster, or within the diocese of Rochester. The rule was made absolute in November, and Mr. Tooth afterward resigned the incumbency of the parish at Hatcham. that, before the book was prepared, the bishops had been asked to provide for the education, selecting, and licensing of duly qualified confessors; and that for this request the makers of it "were rewarded by the bishops and the public with scorn and obloquy." The society, after the matter was brought to the notice of the public, resolved that no more copies of the book should be supplied; and added, in their action, the expression of the opinion that their commission at ordination and the express terms of the Prayer-Book required them to hear the confessions of those who wished to make them; and that, while the Church taught that confession was not a matter of compulsory obligation, all Christian people had the right to observe it. The society was said to have on its rolls the names of two hundred and seventy members. An address signed by ninety-six peers was forwarded to the Archbishop of Canterbury in August, directing the attention of his grace to the disclosures concerning "The Priest in Absolution,” expressing alarm at the introduction into the Church of the practice of auricular confession, and urging him to express condemnation of the system. In acknowledging the address the archbishop assured their lordships that nothing should be wanting on his part to maintain the scriptural character of the Church, and reminded them of the recent formal statement of the bishops of the Province of Canterbury, and the pastoral letter issued by both provinces in March, 1875, with reference to the doctrine of the Church of England on the subject of confession. In the House of Lords, July 14th, Lord Redesdale called attention to a book entitled "The Priest in Absolution," which had been privately printed and placed at the disposal of an association of clergymen called "The Society of the Holy Cross," for private and limited circulation among the clergy. It was described as containing directions for the examination of both adults and children on the most private and delicate matters, including special questions to be put to children of seven, six, and even five years of age, and also to married persons, the priests being advised in all cases to be careful to frame their questions in discreet language. The book was pronounced directly opposed to the doctrines of the Church, as justifying confession, absolution, and the judicial character of the priest. The Archbishop of Canterbury said that it was a disgrace to the community that such a book should be circulated under the approval of the clergy of the Established Church. The subject of the book and the Society of the Holy Cross received a full discussion in the Convocation of Canterbury at its session in July, of whose action a statement is given in another place. From a communication which was presented to the convocation by the authority of the society itself, it appears that it is a society of clergy, founded in 1855, for the primary purpose of deepening the spiritual life in its brethren. Besides this main The pastoral address of a new society called. object, it is also engaged in aiding or carrying the Order of Corporate Reunion, having for on mission work, at home and abroad; it pro- its professed object the restoration of the spirmotes spiritual and temporal charity among itual authority of the Church, was issued on the brethren, and unites them in common con- the 8th of September. The address is headed sultation on matters affecting their duties and with the words Pro Deo, pro ecclesia, pro pathe interests of the Church. The connection tria, and begins with the formula: "In the of the society with the book called 'The Priest sacred name of the most holy, undivided, and in Absolution' arose from accidental circum- adorable Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. stances. Some members of the society, feeling-Amen. Thomas, by the favor of God, Recthe need of a manual to help them in the diffi- tor of the Order of Corporate Reunion, and cult and important duty of hearing confessions Pro-Provincial of Canterbury; Joseph, by the and giving absolution, to which priests are favor of God, Provincial of York, in the kingobliged by their commission at ordination and dom of England; and Laurence, by the favor the requirements of the Prayer-Book, informal- of God, Provincial of Caerleon, in the Princily asked one of their number to compile such a pality of Wales, with the provosts and memtreatise. The society, under the peculiar circum- bers of the synod of the order, to the faithful stances of the case, was never called upon to in Christ Jesus, whom these presents may conrevise, read, or pass judgment upon the book." cern, health and benediction in the Lord God The communication further stated that the everlasting." A sketch follows of the history book was designed for use only in extraordi- of the Church of England from St. Augustin nary circumstances and under peculiar safe- to the present time, which is made to indicate guards, and claimed that it was wrong to judge indirectly the aims and policy of the order by it as if it were a book for common use; also, pointing to the mistakes and failures of the that the number of persons of all classes who past, the repetition of which should be avoidresorted to confession had multiplied year by ed. In it the submission of the bishops and year, and that many of them were 66 persons clergy in 1586 is declared to have been the of the highest education and refinement." It turning-point of their own and their succeswas asserted by the Rev. A. H. Mackonochie, sors' degradation. The paragraphs following one of the most prominent of the Ritualists, this declaration state that, notwithstanding the religious advantages gained by the Simeonite and Oxford movements, the opposition to God's truth has since become more and more violent; and, moreover, that in the Established Church "every vestige of distinct corporate entity has now utterly disappeared. As examples in proof of this proposition are cited the mode of nomination, election, and confirmation of the bishops of the establishment, the extraordinary oath of homage which their lordships take on their knees to the Queen on their appointment, by which they solemnly declare that they "receive all spiritual as well as all temporal power and authority" from her majesty. The division of existing sees and the erection of new dioceses by letters patent alone, as well as the recent Public Worship Regulation Act, and other examples of the strained power involved in "royal supremacy," are asserted to have brought about the existing crisis and the coming disestablishment. A formal and solemn protest follows "against all and every intrusion and interference of the civil power in spiritual things, whether past or present," both as contrary to the Word of God, and "because the great and venerable charter of our liberties secured in 1215 recognized and solemnly guaranteed the spiritual freedom of the Church of England." Among the special objects of protest are carelessness in administering baptism, the disuse of chrism in confirmation, the abolition of unction for the sick, the abrogation of spiritual discipline, looseness as to the marriage of divorced persons, the Public Worship Regulation Act, appeals to the Privy Council, and the anti-Christian character of board schools. The authors of the pastoral express their desire "to avoid all violence, schism, and disobedience to constituted authority in things secular, regarding it as our duty rather to support and restore, as Almighty God may permit, the ancient constitution of our country in Church and state, than to cooperate in any rash and dangerous work of demolition and destruction, the consequences and end of which none can foresee,' profess a frank and unreserved acceptance of the faith and teaching of the undivided Church, and appeal to a general council to bring about corporate union. In order to gather up and preserve the canonical authority which, it is alleged, the bishops of the establishment have yielded up, the order has secured three distinct and independent lines of a new Episcopal succession. While claiming all their rights as citizens and sharers of the legitimate benefits of the establishment, the members of the order are represented as intending to refuse to recognize any intrusion of "Cæsar or Cæsar's servants into spiritual affairs. All members of the order must be certainly baptized; no clergyman will be admitted who has had two wives, no divorced person who has been married again, nor any person who has married a divorced woman, and no freemason or member of any similar secret society can be a member, except in all these cases after the renunciation of his error and subjection to due discipline. The document is signed by Adrian de Helte, Notary Apostolic. A prospectus has been issued for the establishment of a new religious order in London in the spring of 1878, to be called The Fraternity of Jesus. The fraternity will consist of three orders: the first order to include brethren living under the three vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, in the strictest sense; the second order to consist of brethren at business in the world, but who live in the college of the fraternity, paying for their board and lodging, and who will keep the three vows in a modified form; and the third order to consist of associate brethren, who will live at their respective homes, but who will subscribe according to their means toward the expenses of the fraternity, who may visit the college at any time they may choose, and will keep the vows of poverty and obedience as the second order, but whose vow of chastity will be limited to conversation. The fraternity will engage in parochial and mission work, and will encourage the formation of societies and guilds to be under the management of its brethren. Its affairs will be managed by a fortnightly conference of the first order, and a general monthly conference of the three orders. Mr. Frederick Martin, compiler of "The Statesman's Year Book," was requested by the Liberation Society, in 1875, to make an estimate of the extent, nature, and value of the property in possession of the Church of England. He presented in May, 1877, the following estimate of the income of the Church: £7,238,000 Total annual revenue... . . . . This statement has been criticised on the ground that the sum applied to the building and repair of churches is the result of free-will offerings, and, therefore, not properly classed among the revenues from endowments; also, that a discount showed in the annual value of the parsonages, the average of which is estimated, it is alleged, at too high an amount. Making deductions on account of these items, the revenues of the Church would be about six million pounds sterling per annum, representing a capital amounting to £150,000,000. Mr. Martin's report furnishes also the material for the following statement of the number of acres of land included in the properties of the Church: Ecclesiastical commissioners. Bishops.... Deans Colleges of Oxford.. Colleges of Cambridge.. Area of Land in Acres. On the other hand, it is asserted that the revenues of the Church are altogether derived from voluntary gifts, and a publication called the National Church gives the following table: 1. The endowments of the Established Church amount to a little more than four millions sterling. 2. Of this sum, Tithes and rents voluntarily given to the Church of England by charitable persons BEFORE the Reformation bring in.... Tithes, rents, and interest on money voluntarily given to the Church of England SINCE the Reformation bring in........... Total endowments. Of which sum the state takes as taxes, etc., other than income tax and sums usually paid by occupiers....... Total net endowment.. £1,949,200 2,251,100 £4,200,300 714.000 £3,486,300 3. The sum of £3,486,300 is, therefore, the amount of the net salaries received by the 20,000 bishops, priests, and deacons of the Church. It is thus divided: 2 Archbishops.. 26 Bishops.. 70 Archdeacons.. 30 Deans.. 127 Canons. 120 Minor deacons.. 600 Singers... Lay officers and servants.. 13.041 Rectors and vicars... 5,706 Curates.... Total net salaries.... receive £138,600 receive sidered in the paper, and in the remarks which followed it, in the light of the most practicable manner of introducing Christianity to the people of the Mohammedan faith. The subject of Christian Faith and Skeptical Culture" was considered in papers by Prof. Pritchard and Prof. Wace; that of "The Church in Relation to Trades' Unions and Agricultural Laborers' Unions," by the Rev. Mr. Oakley and the Rev. V. H. Staunton. On the second day's session, the papers read by Canon Garbet and Canon Farrar on "The Best Means of promoting United Action and Mutual Toleration between Different Schools of Thought within the Church" called forth an important and interesting discussion of the attitude of the several parties in the Church toward each other. Other subjects considered on this day were, "Representative Assemblies of the Church of England, General and Diocesan" (paper by Archdeacon Emery); "Intemperance, and the Legislative Remedies and Church Action by which the Evil should be combated" (papers by Canon Duckworth and Dr. A. Carpenter); "Pauper and Truant Children" (papers by Francis Peck and R. Weston); "The Church in Relation to Public Amusements" (paper by Canon Money, of Charity Organization in its Deptford); and " Christian Aspect, with Reference to Almsgiving and Medical and Provident Institutions-their Use and Abuse" (papers by Sir Lovelace T. Stammer and Dr. Fairlee Clark). The principal discussion of the third day was on "The 201,600 Readjustments, if any, desirable in the Relations between Church and State." The subject was opened with papers by Canon Gregory, Canon Ryle, and the Rev. T. Lee. Other subjects considered during the day were, "The Position of Voluntary Schools under the Education Acts of 1870 and 1876, and the Duty of the Church with Reference to Board Schools" (papers by Mr. Talbot, M. P., the Rev. J. Munn, and Mr. Grantham, M. P.); "The Observance of the Lord's Day" (papers by Archdeacon Hessey, the Rev. J. C. Egerton, and the Rev. J. Gritton, Secretary of the Lord's Day Observance Society); and "Personal Religion in Daily Life.' On the fourth day, papers were read on "The Mutual Relations of the Church and Nonconformity at Various Periods of the Nineteenth Century," by Canon Curteis, Mr. George Harwood, and the Rev. T. P. Garnier, and the subject was discussed by the Dean of Bangor, Mr. Thomas Hughes, the Rev. Levison Loraine, Canon Ryle, the Rev. W. Benham, Canon Brooke, and Mr. Beresford Hope, M. P. Papers were also read on "Biblical and Theological Study" (the Dean of Durham, Prof. Stanley Leathe, Canon Hoare, and the Bishop of Lincoln); "The Permanent Diaconate and Lay Help" (the Bishop of Guildford and Lord Hatherly); "The Church's Duty toward Children of the Upper and Middle Classes" (the Rev. Dr. Butter, head master of Harrow School, the Rev. R. Elwyn, and the Rev. E. C. Wickham). The sessions closed with a conversa receive 3,146,100 £3,436,800 The seventeenth annual meeting of the Church Congress was held at Croydon, beginning October 9th. The opening sermon was preached by Canon Lightfoot. The Archbishop of Canterbury presided, and made an opening address, in which he said that the question whether the congress was for the good of the Church must be considered as settled favorably. It operated, he said, as a kind of safety-valve, furnishing the opportunity for the free expression of thought, and was also a manifestation of motion and life in the Church. He spoke of certain styles of discussion of theological subjects as bearing a relation to regular argument similar to that which the operations of irregular forces like those of Bashi-Bazouks and Cossacks bear to those of the regular army, and declared them out of place in the nineteenth century. At the close of his address, he referred, amid loud expressions of applause and some dissent from the audience, to the Church of England as "the grand old historical Church as it came to us from the fathers of the Reformation." The discussions were opened with the reading of a paper on "Mohammedanism," which had been prepared by Bishop Steene, of Zanzibar. The subject was con zione, at which the Archbishop of Canterbury made a second address, congratulating the congress on the success of its meeting, and declaring that it had been wise to avoid certain difficulties and "burning" questions with which it had been supposed it would be agitated, but had not hesitated to touch upon the great principles on which such questions should be settled. It was observed at the opening of the congress that a part of the extreme evangelical" party of the Church were absent, but that the attendance of the opposite party and churchmen of the moderate school was greater than usual. The differences between the managers and agents of the Church Missionary Society and the Bishop of Colombo, in reference to the missions in Ceylon, have been made the subject of a correspondence which has taken a wide range. An account of the origin of these differences is given in the ANNUAL CYCLOPÆDIA for 1876. They involve the question of the jurisdiction of the colonial bishops over the missions of the Church Missionary Society. They began in an attempt by the Bishop of Colombo to exercise control over the Tamil Coolie Mission-a mission which, though nominally connected with the Church Society, is supported by members of several denominations and to remove and appoint agents to conduct the same. This assumption was resisted by the Missionary Society, and a sharp discussion of the merits of the case ensued, which has been continued at intervals through a large part of the year. Among the propositions to which it led was one for the direct establishment of the Colonial Church, which, however, was not carried. In March, 1877, the bishops in India, having met in conference, unanimously adopted resolutions declaring that the bishop of every diocese is, in the last resort, responsible for all teaching and work done in his jurisdiction; that all appointments of spiritual. teachers ought to be made after consultation with him and subject to his veto; that any change in the conduct, place, or order of worship ought only to be made with his approval; that churches or places of worship should not be consecrated or allowed to be used for the celebration of the holy communion without such property is first made over entirely to the Church forever. They also decided to have these questions referred to and considered by the bishops of the other provinces of the Anglican Church, and finally to secure an expression upon them from the Pan-Anglican Synod which is to meet in 1878. The resolutions were forwarded to the committee of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel and to the Church Missionary Society. The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel made a reply explaining what its policy had been in the establishment of missions and the administration of them by bishops, and sustaining the Indian bishops in the main points of their positions, expressing particular approval of the theory that the missions of the Church should be brought more directly and more effectually under Episcopal influence. The Church Missionary Society made a formal reply to the resolutions, traversing and contradicting their pretensions in plain language. It asked how a diocesan organization could exist in India among military chaplains, assuming that, if such organization were established, it should be done by native bishops of free and independent action. As much liberty was claimed in the matter of the appointment of lay readers and city missionaries as was enjoyed in the Church at home. The society declared that, if the alternative of working without licenses or ceasing to evangelize India was presented, the same course would be adopted as on a previous occasion-the former would be chosen. The Bishop of Colombo replied to these resolutions, July 20th, with statements showing that the society was mistaken in assuming that the province of the bishops in Ceylon was not the organization of the native Church, representing the facts to be as follows: The Bishop of Colombo is "appointed" by "letters patent" not to "European work" only, but also, and in an equal degree, "to the superintendence, management, and discipline of missionary work and the This I proceed to prove: 1. It is so provided by the development of the organization of native churches." letters patent themselves, which constitute the bishop ordinary over all clergy of the Church of England in Ceylon and all churches in which the services of the Church of England are used. 2. It will probably be admitted that the bishop appointed by the crown has the full authority of a bishop, whatever it may be, over the chaplains and catechists who are paid by the crown and are officers of the department over which he presides. The whole number of these, inthese, fifteen or (omitting one who ranks as Eurocluding three aided chaplains, is twenty-five. Of pean) fourteen are natives, and all in priest's orders. From this it is evident that the bishop's legally-defined jurisdiction is in a very large degree to be exercised over the native Church. Besides, the clergy of the Propagation Society, a part of whom were natives, with their people, were under the management of the bishop, and the bishop was made a trustee in the case of every church built or school founded by natives. A few days before this letter was written, July 10th, the Rev. Mr. Clark, the missionary who had been suspended by the bishop, wrote to him, stating that he had received advice from his society, that the opinion of counsel learned in ecclesiastical law had been received, to the effect that the revocation of his license was bad on the merits, and void for informality, and giving notice that, unless steps were taken to give him a judicial trial and revoke his license legally, he should resume his ministerial functions. The bishop replied with an argument in support of the legality of his position, assuming that, as the order in council constituting the diocese declared English ecclesiastical law to be established, under it he could withdraw licenses without assigning reasons. He would, however, if the Metropolitan would consent to such a course, give him a hearing before a spiritual court, which might or might not be, strictly speaking, informal, but which would be conducted according to the spirit and practice of the Church of England, and from whose decision there would be an appeal to the Metropolitan, but no further," and suggested that, pending the submission of this plan to the Metropolitan, the suspended missionary should continue the provincial submission which he had hitherto thought right. Mr. Clark declined to accept the offer of such a trial as the bishop proposed, and shortly afterward resumed the exercise of his functions as a minister. II. THE IRISH EPISCOPAL CHURCH.-The report of the Commissioners on Church Temporalities in Ireland for 1876 stated that the commissioners had now advanced so far in realizing the property vested in them by the Irish Church Act, that they were able to form a tolerably accurate estimate of the surplus which will remain to be applied as Parliament may direct, under the provisions of the sixty-eighth section of that act. That surplus, they believed, would be larger than they had thought would be the case two years ago, but it would be a yearly receipt and not a capital sum. The net annual revenue at the end of 1879, when the present commission expires, will, it is estimated, be £593,000, and the capital value of the surplus at that time the commissioners put approximately at £6,068,000. In 1893, the annual revenue will, according to their estimate, be £600,000, and the capital value of the surplus £10,494,100. The commissioners then suggested a mode by which the surplus of six millions, anticipated in 1879, might be then made available for public purposes by postponing or prolonging the liquidation of the debt due to the Government. The report of the Irish Church Representatice Body shows that the total funds possessed and administered by them in 1876 were £7,524,710, of which £6,959,582 was capital, and the remainder interest, profits, contributions, and miscellaneous receipts, and that the year 1877 was begun with a capital balance of £6,938,097. The income of 1876 had been £320,227, of which a balance remained after expenditure to 1877 of £41,915. The sum of £6,474,212 was invested in securities, producing a yearly income of £286,298. The Irish parish had raised for stipends during the year £124,424. The excess of annuities over interest for 1876 was £122,167. Three hundred and fifty glebes out of nine hundred were vested in the representative body. The dioceses of Cork, Dublin, and Down seemed to be the most pros In the House of Bishops, the Archbishop of Dublin opposed the new preface in its entirety, as requiring certain of the bishops, himself among the number, to impose a declaration on candidates which they themselves did not believe. The preface was carried in this House by a vote of 5 to 4; the Bishops of Cashel, Killaloe, Meath, Ossory, and Kilmore, voting in its favor, the Primate, the Archbishop of Dublin, and the Bishops of Down and Derry, voting against it. It passed the clergy by a vote of 94 to 10, and the laity by 137 to 3. The "High Church" bishops, clergy, and laity had, to a great extent, absented themselves when the final vote was taken in the Lower House. June, 1878, was fixed upon as the time for the new Prayer-Book to come into operation. The preface, which presents a complete summary of the seven years' work of the synod in revision, is as follows: When this Church of Ireland ceased to be es tablished by law, and thereupon some alteration in our public liturgy became needful, it was earnestly desired by many that occasion should be taken for a new and full review thereof (such as had already more than once been made in former times), and for considering what other changes the lapse of years or might have rendered expedient. And though we exigency of our present times and circumstances were not unaware of many dangers attending on such an attempt, yet we were the more willing to make it, because we perceived to our comfort, that all men, on all sides, professed their love and reverence for the Book of Common Prayer in its main substance and chief parts, and confessed that it contained the true doctrine of Christ, and a pure manner and order of Divine service, according to the Holy Scriptures what was sought by those who desired such a review and the practice of the primitive Church; and that was not any change of the whole tenor or structure of the book, but the more clear declaration of what they took to be its true meaning, and the removing of certain expressions here and there, which they Church has already, in its Convention of 1870, rejudged open to mistake or perversion. And as this ceived and approved the book as it then stood and was in use, so we now declare that, in such changes as we have made on this review, we imply no censure upon the former book as containing anything stood and equitably construed. The true reasons contrary to the Scriptures, when it is rightly underof such changes will, for the most part, appear on a comparison of the two books; but it has been thought good to add some further explanation why certain things have been altered and others retained. As concerning the Holy Communion, some of our brethren were at first earnest that we should remove from the Prayer-Book certain expressions which they thought might seem to lend some pretext for the teaching of doctrine concerning the presence of in the Articles of Religion, wherein it is expressly Christ in that sacrament repugnant to that set forth declared that the body of Christ is given, taken, and eaten in the Supper only after a heavenly and spiritual manner, and that the mean whereby it is therein received and eaten is faith; but upon a full and impartial review we have not found in the formularies any just warrant for such teaching, and therefore, in this behalf, we have made no other change than to add to the Catechism one question with an answer taken out of the twenty-eighth of the said articles. As for the error of those who have taught that Christ has given himself or his body and blood in this sacrament to be reserved, lifted up, carried |