Car. I. c. 11), A.D. 1641. In 1642 bishops were deprived of their seats in parliament, and their lands were subsequently seized for the expenses of the civil war. Parliament passed numerous ordinances by which many hundreds of clergymen were turned out of their livings. The cathedral service was everywhere put down, and the clergy were left to read the Liturgy or not, as they pleased, and to take their own way in other things. Marriage was made a civil rite, and was performed by justices of the peace. In 1643 the Assembly of Divines was called together by an order of the two Houses of Parliament, to give their advice respecting a new system of ecclesiastical polity. [WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY OF DIVINES.] The majority of the assembly were Presbyterians; and, in place of the suppressed Liturgy, they formed a Directory of Public Worship, which was established by an ordinance of the parliament on the 3rd of February, 1645. The assembly also laid down a Confession of Faith, which comprehended a Presbyterian form of ecclesiastical polity, and was at once received by the Scottish Church; but it was never distinctly sanctioned by the English legislature. On the 6th of June, 1646, an act was passed which partially established the Presbyterian form of church government in England; but his was confessedly done by way of experiment, as the preamble of the act expressly declares, "that if upon trial it was not found acceptable it should be reversed or amended;" and to this law a further effect was afterwards given by several additional ordinances of the House of Commons; till at last, in 1649, it was declared, without qualification, by the House, that Presbyterianism should be the established religion. The Presbyterian form of church government, however, never obtained more than a limited and imperfect establishment. The clergy were not exclusively Presbyterians: some benefices were retained by their old Episcopalian incumbents; a few were held by Independents; and some by persons belonging to the minor sects, which increased so abundantly at this time. At last, in March, 1653, Cromwell, by an ordinance of council, appointed a Board

of Triers, as they were termed, in al! thirty-eight in number, of whom part were Presbyterians, part Independents, and a few Baptists, to which was given, without any instructions or limitations whatever, the power of examining, approving, or rejecting all persons that might thereafter be presented, nominated, chosen, or appointed to any living in the church. This was tantamount to dividing the church livings amongst these different religious bodies; but the measure was designed by Cromwell to restrain the excessive liberty that had previously existed, when any one who chose might set up as a preacher, and so give himself a chance of obtaining a living in the church. The Board of Triers continued to sit and to exercise its functions at Whitehall, till a short time after the death of Cromwell.

As soon as the Restoration of Charles II. was effected in 1660, the work of reconstructing the Established Church was commenced. The convention parliament passed an act (12 Car. II. c. 17)" for the confirming and restoring of ministers,” and the next parliament, which met in May, 1661, repealed the act which disabled persons in holy orders from exercising any temporal jurisdiction or authority, the effect of which was to restore the bishops to their seats in the Upper House.

The Book of Common Prayer, which had been revised by a cominission ap pointed by Charles II. after his restoration, was unanimously adopted by both houses of convocation, and having been approved of by the king, was transmitted to the House of Peers on the 24th of February, 1662, with a message from his majesty, recommending that the book so altered should be that "which in and by the intended Act of Uniformity shall be ap pointed to be used by all that officiate in all cathedrals and collegiate churches and chapels, and in all parish churches of England and Wales, under such sanctions and penalties as the parliament shall think fit." The act here alluded to received the royal assent on the 19th of May (14 Car. II. c. 4), and was entitled "An Act for the Uniformity of Public Prayers and Administration of Sacra

In 1829, when the Roman Catholic Relief Act (10 Geo. IV. c. 7) was passed, a provision was made for the security of the Established Church; and the oath to be taken by Roman Catholic peers on taking their seat in the House of Lords, and Roman Catholic persons upon taking their seat as members of the House of Commons, contains the following pledge, which is sworn to "on the true faith of a Christian :" "I do hereby disclaim, disavow, and solemnly abjure any intention to subvert the present Church Establishment as settled by law within this realm." Other acts have also been passed which have further departed from the old principle of requiring uniformity of religious faith.

The act 6 & 7 Wm. IV.

c. 85, enables persons to be married according to the rites of their own sect, instead of those of the Established Church only; and the same act permits the marriage contract to be made by a merely civil ceremony, in which respect the law now resembles in effect that which was established during the Commonwealth. In the act 3 & 4 Vict. c. 72, which is an act relating to marriages, the recent acts on the same subject are alluded as being framed with the view of enabling marriage to be "solemnized according to the form, rite, or ceremony the parties see fit to adopt." The act for the registration of births, marriages, and deaths renders baptism unnecessary for civil purposes, and establishes a lay department for the registration of births, marriages, and deaths. The act 3 & 4 Vict. c. 92, enabled courts of justice to admit non-parochial registers as evidence of births or baptisms, deaths or burials, and marriages. In England the chaplains of gaols must be clergymen of the Church of England, but in Ireland there may be appointed for each union workhouse three chaplains, one Roman Catholic, one of the Established Church, and one Protestant dissenter.

Rates are levied in England and Wales called CHURCH RATES, which Nonconformists are required to pay as well as churchmen. In Ireland the churches are kept in repair out of funds in the hands of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, which are derived from extinguished sees and other sources.

The principle of the state maintaining an exclusive system of education in accordance with the principles and doctrines of the Established Church has been partially abandoned both in England and Ireland. The parliamentary grants for education are enjoyed by dissenters as well as churchmen. In Ireland the state supports schools which are established on the plan of not permitting the inculcation of the peculiar doctrines of any religious body as a part of the regular course of teaching, but religious instruction is given by the ministers of different religious bodies to the scholars of each denomination separately. In the government plan for founding provincial colleges in Ireland the same principle has been adopted. Lastly, parliament has annually voted funds for the maintenance of an institution (Maynooth) for the education of Roman Catholic priests; and in 1845 this annual vote was converted into a fixed annual payment.

The King and Queen of England must be members of the Established Church, and may not marry a Roman Catholic; but the only other offices from which Roman Catholics are now excluded are the offices of guardians and justices of the United Kingdom, or Regent of the same, the office of Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain or Ireland, the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, and the office of High Commissioner to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland. With these exceptions the members of the cabinet council, privy councillors, the judges and magistrates, all offices in the state and in the army and navy, may be filled by Roman Catholics or dissenters from the Established Church. The repeal of the Corporation and Test Acts opened the Municipal Corporations to Roman Catholics and Dissenters. Jews are the only class of persons who are excluded from the Houses of Lords and Commons, and from municipal corporations; but a bill under the superintendence of the government is at present passing through parliament which contains a form of oath to be taken by Jews who are elected to municipal offices in corporate boroughs. There are at present instances of persons of the Jewish religion who fill the office

of the peace. [JEWS.]

The connection between the Church and State has been brought within comparatively narrow limits by the course of recent legislation. The Established Church is in possession of revenues from land, a large part of which are enjoyed under the old law of Frankalmoigne. [FRANKALMOIGNE.] The clergy also receive certain customary payments for the performance of marriages, christenings, and interments. Its form of polity is also guaranteed by the State. Parliament may alter the distribution of the property of the Church, as it has recently done by uniting and suppressing bishoprics, creating new sees, abolishing sinecures, and disposing of some parts of the revenues of the church for other church [ECCLESIASTICAL COMMISpurposes SIONERS; BISHOPRIC]; but it has not yet sanctioned the diversion of the revenues of the Church to other purposes, though it has been on the point of doing so in the case of the revenues of the Established Church in Ireland.

On the 25th of April, 1836, Lord Morpeth, who was then Secretary for Ireland, brought in a measure which contained a clause known as the "Appropriation Clause," by which it was intended, after supplying the legitimate wants of the Irish Church, to apply 97,6121. out of the revenues of the Church to the moral and religious instruction of the Irish people. The principle of the appropriation clause was affirmed by the House of Commons after three nights' discussion, by a majority of 300 to 261. In the House of Lords the clause was rejected by 138 against 47.

The clergy of the Established Church constitute a distinct order. [CLERGY.] No person can be ordained to holy orders who does not subscribe to the Liturgy and the Thirty-nine Articles, which latter comprehend his assent to the doctrine of the king's supremacy. No person can hold any benefice without taking the oath of canonical obedience to the bishop. The constitution of the Universities of Oxford, Cambridge, Durham and Trinity College, Dublin, is such as to exclude persons who do not belong to the Established Church from a full participation in the

The revenues of the Established Church in England and Wales, as returned to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners in 1831, were as follows:

Archbishops and bi

shops Cathedral and collegiate churches and ecclesiastical corporations aggregate Prebends and other preferments in cathedral and collegiate

churches

54,094

44,705

21,760

21,760

Renewals of leases (average of three years) Benefices* (10,718) 3,251,159 3,055,451 £3,792,885 3,490,497

The following is an account of all pay ments from the public monies to the Established Church of England and Ireland, or to the commissioners of Queen Anne's Bounty, from 1801 to 1840, both inclusive:

ENGLAND. Commissioners for building new churches Grants from 1809 to 1820 inclusive, to governors of Queen Anne's Bounty for poor clergy Drawback on materials used in building new churches. IRELAND. Grants for building churches

from 1801 to 1820 Grants for Protestant charter

schools from 1801 to 1829 Grant for relief of tithe arrears

£

1,500,000

1,000,000

153,000

749,551

741,048 1,000,000

£5,193,599

In reference to the history of the Established Church in Ireland, it will be sufficient here to quote the fifth article of the act for the Union of Great Britain with Ireland (40 Geo. III. c. 67), passed July 2nd, 1800, which enacts, "That it be the

* See the article Benefice, pp. 354-5-6-7.