Jon, Is. Net. Cloth, 2s. Net. .661 AT IREAT YINQ CHURCH ^i OF ENGLAND" BY MORRISON DAVIDSON DELENDA EST CARTHAGO ANQLICANA LONDON: FRANCI5 RIDDELL HENDERSON. NEW BOOK BY MORRISON DAVIDSON. Paper Covers, I/- net; Cloth, 2 ~ net. THE SON OF MAN: STANDARD-BEARER } OF HUMANITY. By MORRISON DAVIDSON. Being Chips from the Bench of a Journeyman* Journalist. London : FRANCIS RIDDELL HENDERSON, 26, Paternoster Square, E.C. "THAT GREAT LYING CHURCH" LIST OF WORKS BY MORRISON DAVIDSON. Annals of Toil; Being Labour History Outlines. Roman and British, Parts I, 2, 3 & 4, paper, each is. net. In one volume, cloth, 55. net. The Gospel of the Poor, 4th edition, is. net. Cloth, 2s. net. Let There Be Light ! New Politics for the People, is. net. Cloth, 2s. net. The Old Order and the New, from Individualism to Collectivism, 7th edition, is. net. Cloth, 2s. net. Politics for the People, First Series, is. net. Cloth, 2s. net. The Villagers' Magna Cliarta, jrd edition, is. net. Anarchist Socialism v. State Socialism, Price 2uvre among the legislative coinage issuing from the Tudor Mint. It provides that : "At any avoidance of any Archbishopric or Bishopric within this realm, or in any other the King's dominions, the King our Sovereign Lord, his Heirs and Successors, may grant to the Dean and Chapter of the Cathedral Churches or Monasteries, where the See of such Arch- bishopric or Bishopric shall happen to be void, a Licence under the Great Seal, as of old time hath been accustomed, to proceed to Election of an Archbishop or Bishop of the See so void, with a Letter Missive containing the name of the person whom they shall elect and choose ; by virtue of which Licence the said Dean and Chapter, to whom any such Licence and Letter Missive shall be directed, shall, with all speed and celerity, in due form elect and choose the same person named in the said Letter Missive to the dignity and office of the said Archbishopric or Bishopric so being void, and none other." The impudent mockery of this form of so-called "Election," where neither alternative choice nor refusal is permitted, is almost unmatched in its contemptuous cynicism. But there is worse behind. " If the Dean and Chapter do not elect the person named in the Letter Missive, and signify the election to the Crown within twenty-one days after the receipt of the Licence and Letter Missive, or if any of them admit, or do anything contrary THE CHURCH AS "CIVIL SERVANT" 79 to the Act, then every such Dean and particular person of the Chapter so offending, and their aiders, councillors, and abettors, shall incur the dangers, pains, and penalties of Profmvnire." These penalties are thus set forth by Blackstone : " From the moment of conviction the defendant is out of the King's protection ; his body remains in prison during the King's pleasure, and all his goods, real or personal, are forfeited to the Crown he can bring no action, nor recover damages for the most atrocious injuries, and no man can give him safely comfort, aid, or relief." But Pramunire penalties or none, the Act makes the shortest work imaginable with refactory Deans and Chapters in case Royalty decides to take the bull by the horns. Should the Election be delayed twelve days after the receipt of the Licence and Letter Missive, the Crown shall " nominate and present by Letters Patent under the Great Seal such person as it shall think convenient to be invested and consecrated in like manner as if he had been elected by the Dean and Chapter ! " We have just had an excellent Congl (Tlire object-lesson in the " lifting " of the Right Hon. and Most Rev. Randall Thomas Davidson, D.D., into the chair of St. Augustine. My astute clansman Randall, it is said, knows not merely the secrets of the Court, but of every Episcopal Palace in England, better than their Apostolic Occupants themselves, and hence his " inevitable elevation " to the Primacy of All England. But surely some credit for this great " Society " event may fairly be set down to the fine spiritual discern- ment of the Grand Elector himself, " the Supreme Governor of the Church of England," Albert Edward Wettin, R et /, who initiated the whole business by Gazetting Randall's promotion as he would that of any other Civil Servant. It is a mistake to suppose that Ned spends his whole time at 80 "THAT GREAT LYING CHURCH" bacearat, the battue, horse-racing, or in feasting Hebrew money-lenders. In truth, the Church of England is in the hollow of the hand of Royalty and its creatures, not merely in respect of its emoluments and dignities, but of its doctrines as well, and the marvel is not so much that she is so destitute of spiritual life, as that she has not actually repudiated the Christ altogether and deified our " Wee wee German Lairdies," as Nero and other Roman Emperors were deified in the days of the Decline and Fall. It is only necessary to understand the actual constitution of " THAT GREAT LYING CHURCH " to comprehend the vile sycophancy and heart-breaking "loyalty" of the English character. It is the forcing-house of every poisonous plant that grows in the fair soil of England. " COME OUT OF HER, O MY PEOPLE ! " XIII THE ANGLICAN TURNED USURER "The essence of Establishment is the recognition of a right of interference in ecclesiastical matters on the part of the Civil Authority. An Established Church, in the modern sense of the term, is simply a religious body to which the State concedes certain rights, dignities, and possessions not enjoyed by non-established churches, and over which the State, in return for this concession, exercises an authority from which the non-established churches are free. The essential element of an Established Church is everywhere the acceptance of control by the Church in return for advantages secured to her by the State." Guardian^ October 12, 1887. "Temporal affairs are the State's domain spiritual affairs do not belong to it. It has neither the mission nor the right to teach religion, or to cause religion to be taught in its name." GUIZOT. " I regard the Church as the basic principle of immorality in the world, and the most prolific source of pauperism, of crime, and of injustice to women." MATILDA JOSLVN GAGE. (5) "PETER'S PENCE" AND DISPENSATIONS, HENRY vni., 1534. THAT Act not merely deprived the Pope of a convenient revenue he had drawn from England since early Saxon times, but stopped all future appeals to Rome for licences and dispensations. These latter were first made referable to the Archbishops, but latterly to a Court of Delegates^ delegated by the King in Council. This court was subsequently abolished, at the instance of Lord Brougham, and its appellate jurisdiction retransferred to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council. 81 G 82 "THAT GREAT LYING CHURCH" ^6) THE SUPREME HEADSHIP, HENRY VIII., 1534. But to cut off the stream of " Peter's Pence " to Rome might be irritating enough, but it was only a pin-prick compared with the next buffet dealt to his Holiness by his erstwhile "beloved Son, Henry of England, Dtfensor Fidei"\ " Albeit the King's Majesty justly and rightfully is and ought to be Supreme Head of the Church of England, and so is recognised by the Clergy of this Realm in their Convocation ; yet, nevertheless, for corroboration and confirmation thereof, and for the increase of virtue in Chrisfs Religion, be it enacted, by the authority of the present Parliament, that the King, our Sovereign Lord, his Heirs and Successors, shall be taken, accepted, and reputed the only Supreme Head on earth of the Church of England ; and shall have full power and authority to visit, repress, redress, reform all errors, heresies, abuses," etc., etc. And so it came to pass that the Pope was deposed from the Headship of the Church in England, and, " FOR INCREASE OF VIRTUE IN CHRIST'S RELIGION," Old Blue- beard took his place ! The Chief Magistrate of the State assumed supreme authority in the Church as well, and from that moment till now the Anglican Church has been little more than a mere Department of the Civil Service, piping to whatever Pagan tune the State might call for. Instead of the Christian Church being the keeper of the State's Conscience, as it ought to be, the Pagan State became the Church's supreme spiritual director ! While Romanists and Anglicans were at deadly feud over the Headship of Pope and King, it was left to a handful of despised Puritan Sectaries to recognise the only true Headship, that of the Great Teacher Himself THE ANGLICAN TURNED USURER 83 "Jesus of Nazareth, a Prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the People." Nor is it otherwise at this very hour. The further away a man gets from Popes and Kings, Primates and Parsons, the nearer is he like to come to the Christ the Way, the Truth, and the Life. (7) FOUNDING NEW BISHOPRICS, HENRY VIII., 1539. It is frequently alleged that none of the possessions of the suppressed Monasteries escaped the clutches of Henry Tudor and his lay fellow Raiders. But, as matter of fact, " that part of the Body Politic called the Spirituality " had a certain share of the spoils. And why not? The Spiritual Peers have ever notoriously out-Heroded the Temporal Lords in Pagan acquisitiveness and callous Antichrist indifference to human suffering. This Act recites that the inmates of the Monasteries had led "slothful and ungodly lives," and enacts that the King shall have "full power and authority to establish more Bishoprics, Collegial and Cathedral Churches, instead of the aforesaid Religious Houses, and to endow them with- such possessions." Accordingly, in 1541-42 were founded, we find, the Bishoprics of Gloucester, Bristol, Peter- borough, Chester, and Oxford. They were endowed out of the confiscated monastic property, as were also Cathedral bodies in each of the new dioceses. BLUEBEARD'S " REFORMS " SUMMARISED. In his convincing work, " Church and State under the Tudors," Mr. Gilbert W. Child thus sums up the results of Henry's legislation in respect of the altered relations of the Church to the State : " These Acts for the first time made the Church in England a National Church, but as they incurred the excommunication of the Pope, made it 84 "THAT GREAT LYING CHURCH" also, in ecclesiastical parlance, SchismaticaL Thus when Henry died, a complete revolution had been effected in the position of the Church. Instead of the Church in England, it had become, in good truth, the Church of England ; instead, that is, of an integral part of the great Western Province of Christendom, to which it owed its first con- version, and with which it had been one ever since for nearly a thousand years it had become for the first time in its history a separate Christian Community." (8) LEGALISING USURY, HENRY VIII., 1546. But Henry's Church was not merely " Schismatical " ; in one most important respect, nearly always overlooked by " Reformation " historians, it was Heretical. For many centuries, and indeed till 1872 and the loss of the Temporal Power by Pio Nono, Rome, to her lasting honour, set her face like flint against the Usurer, let him present himself in never so plausible a guise. Her teaching on the subject was comprehensively summed up in a single sentence of St. Jerome: "SOME PERSONS IMAGINE THAT USURY OBTAINS ONLY IN MONEY ; BUT THE SCRIPTURES, FORESEEING THIS, HAVE EXPLODED EVERY INCREASE, SO THAT YOU CANNOT RECEIVE MORE THAN YOU GAVE." Howbeit, in 1546 Henry VIII., for the first time, opened the floodgates of Usury by Statute, in spite of the Pope and in spite of Luther. He allowed a maximum of 10 per cent. Seven years later his son, Edward VI., repealed this law, and decreed that "no person shall lend on Usury or Increase to be hoped or received beyond the sum lent." Fourteen years later, the "Virgin Queen" (13 Eliz., cap. 8) revived the paternal Statute, but was careful to add : "And it is adjudged by authority of Parliament that all Usury, being forbidden by the Law of God, is a crime and detestable." THE ANGLICAN TURNED USURER 85 Indeed, if the subject were not so serious, sundry efforts of Parliament to serve both God and Mammon in respect of Usury would be highly amusing. In 1625, James I., " the British Solomon," reduced the rate of Usury (Interest) to 8 per cent, " Provided that no words in this Statute contained shall be construed or expounded to allow the practice of Usury, in point of Religion or Conscience" Cromwell reduced the rate to 6, and Queen Anne to 5 per cent. ; and now in spite of some recent comical efforts of the House of Lords to demonstrate legislatively that Nathan Rothschild is a public benefactor and Isaac Gordon a mauvais sujet of a very reprehensible type Interest is anything and every- thing, and hundreds of thousands of persons, innocent of one stroke of honest work, live on it in luxury all their lives, and their posterity after them, without any diminution of the Principal. Quite naturally the Anglican " Reformation " affixed its seal to this New Antichrist Commercialism. The anti-usury banner of Christ became a mere Rhodesian "asset." The miraculous oil in the widow's cruse was at last exhausted, but the Reservoirs of Usury are positively inexhaustible. ^10,000 invested at five per cent, gives an annual subsistence of j$oo. In sixty years the investor will have spent ^30,000, or thrice his principal, which will remain intact ! Said not the Prophet Shelley : " THE MOST FATAL ERROR THAT EVER HAPPENED IN THE WORLD WAS THE SEPARATION OF POLITICAL AND ETHICAL SCIENCE ? " To be square with the Usurer is to wipe alike Millionaire and Mendicant, Haves and Have nots t clean off the slate. How long, O Lord ? How long ? " Thou shall not lend upon Usury to thy brother : Usury of Money, Usury of Victuals, Usury of anything that is lent upon Usury." Deut xxiii. 19. 86 "THAT GREAT LYING CHURCH" " If ye lend to them of whom ye hope to receive, what thank have ye ? for sinners also lend to sinners, to receive as much again. " But love ye your enemies, and do good % and lend, hoping for nothing again ; and your reward shall be great, and ye shall be called the Children of the Highest." Luke vi, 34. 35- XIV STATUTORY PRAYER BOOKS " Long before Constantine's time the generality of Christians had lost much of the primitive sanctity and integrity both of their doctrine and manners ; afterwards, when he had vastly enriched the Church, they began to fall in love with honour and Civil Power, and then the Christian Religion went to wreck." MILTQN. " The State has laid another snare for each Prelate. As if wealth and dignity, aristocratic association, and political excitement were not sufficient obstacles to his humility and spirituality of mind, it has surrounded him with numbers of needy clergymen, and invested him with a large amount of patronage, which, while it tends to depress the Clergy into a degrading servility of temper, tempts the Prelate to undue self-exaltation, and is likely to create in him an imperious and arbitrary temper towards those who so much depend upon his favour for their subsistence. " On the other hand, the State has thrown in his way an opposite temptation to servility towards Ministers of the Crown by offering him the prospect of translation to a richer See, and by visions of Lambeth and Bishopsthorpe, where he may feel on a level with the proudest of the Realm. "The smile of a Statesman has made [the Bishop] at once a Peer, the master of a Palace, the owner of a lordly revenue, the Successor of the Apostles. If a man, under these circumstances, is not deteriorated, he must have extraordinary wisdom and virtue." REV. BAPTIST NOEL. (9) COMMUNION IN BOTH KINDS, EDWARD VI., 154?. THIS Act, which still regulates admission to the Lord's Supper in the State Church, decrees that "the minister shall not, without lawful cause, deny the same to any Bersoo ttat will devoutly and humbly desire it." Every 8? 88 " THAT GREAT LYING CHURCH " partaker at the Supper, and not the celebrant, is to be the judge of his own spiritual fitness; and though, needless to say, Anglican Sacerdotalism has seriously, and for the most part illegally, infringed this fundamental layman's right, it is undoubted that in the Church of England "that part of the Body Politic called the Spirituality" (Clergy) occupies a backmost seat WHO ARE ANGLICANS? Says the "Judicious Hooker": "There is not a man a member of the Commonwealth who is not also of the Church of England." Blackstone's view is co-extensive with Hooker's : " The Laity are such of the People as are not comprehended under the denomination of Clergy." The late Dean Stanley, in his genial fashion, was wont to describe Dissenters as " Noncomformist members of the Church of England," and it is not so long since we had the Rector of Cheadle, Rev. F. A. Macdona, in the Manchester Guardian, declaring : " In law every Parishioner is a Churchman ; so that, if they will, Jews, Turks, Heretics, and Infidels can attend a Vestry Meeting, and vote on questions of vital importance to the Church." Even the Quarterly Review holds that the "National Church " is an institution " into which every man is born just as he is born an Englishman " ; while the Times (Oct. 7, 1876) testifies: "The fact is that all Englishmen are, by law, Members of the Church. It is about as difficult for any Englishman to separate himself from the Church of England as it is for the Church of England to separate himself from him. Indeed, practically, there is no such act, form, or way of separation." In theory, nay, in law, " That Great Lying Church " is the most /^elusive imaginable : in practice it is the most Delusive and STATUTORY PRAYER BOOKS 89 Antichrist, the ready-made tool of Prince, Peer, Plutocrat, and Militarist. (lo) THE FIRST ENGLISH PRAYER BOOK, EDWARD VI., 1549. This compilation, the Act announces, had more than human authority behind it. It was matured " by the aid of the Holy Ghost," and provided that "all ministers in any Cathedral or Parish Church within this Realm shall be bounden to say and use the matins, even-song, celebration of the Lord's Supper (commonly called the Mass), and administration of the Sacraments, and in such order and form as is mentioned in the same Book, and none other, or otherwise." Noncompliance entailed the following penal- ties : first offence, forfeit of one year's fruits of benefice and six months' imprisonment : second offence, "imprisonment for one whole year " and loss of benefice : third offence, imprisonment for life. Clearly the "Sainted Young Solomon" could "tune the pulpits" to some purpose. (ll) ACT TO ABOLISH DIVERS BOOKS AND IMAGES, EDWARD VI., 1549-50. Said " books and images," it was found, " gave occasion to such perverse persons as do impugn the order and godly meaning of the King's Book of Common Prayer, to continue in their old accustomed and superstitious service." The Act, therefore, provided that any person who failed to deliver up, for public cremation, such unholy paraphernalia of Rome, should forfeit to the King, for the first offence, 2 os. (say, ;8) ; for the second offence, 4 (32) ', for the third offence, " imprisonment at the King's will." (12) THE SECOND BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER, EDWARD VI., 1552. In the brief space of three years it was found necessary to revise the First Book of Common Prayer. Notwith- 90 "THAT GREAT LYING CHURCH" standing the part taken in its composition by the Holy Ghost, it still savoured too much of " the old accustomed and superstitious service " to be longer allowed to pass muster. The Second Book is made of "like force and authority " with the First. The penalties imposed are identical, and " all curates " are commanded periodically to read the Act " in church at the time of the most assembly." No wonder Convocation, in its Forty-two Articles of Religion, should describe this temerarious Revision of the Holy Ghost's Edition as "delivered to the Church of England by the Authority of King and Parliament." (13) RESTORING TO CROWN JURISDICTION OVER STATE SPIRITUAL, ELIZ., 1558. No sooner, however, did Mary Tudor, the Catholic, ascend the throne than, as has been seen, " the Authority of King and Parliament" went by the board, and Rome enjoyed her own again, the stolen conventual property alone excepted. But the Romanist innings were short, and, in 1558, the first Act of Good " Reforming" Eliza's reign was one "restoring to the Crown the ancient jurisdiction over the State Ecclesiastical and Spiritual, and abolishing all foreign power repugnant to the same." It revived the "good laws" of "Reformer" Henry, repealed by Mary, and added enormously to their coercive rigour. (14) ACT OP UNIFORMITY, ELIZ., 1559. This astounding Act re-imposes the Second Prayer Book of Edward VI., set aside by Mary, and puts the State halter about the neck of every clerical recalcitrant with incredible indifference and impartiality. Not one of the bishops, for a marvel, could be induced to vote for it, and it, accordingly, enjoys the unique distinction of having been passed by the " assent of the Lords and Commons*" STATUTORY PRAYER BOOKS 91 not with that of the " Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the Commons" the unvarying formula. What was the upshot? Says T. W. Mossman, D.D. ("Relations between Church and State in England ") : "The sequel was, as we all know, that every existing diocesan bishop in England was deprived of his See, and every beneficed clergyman (out of the 12,000) who declined to substitute the new Service Book, resting as it then did upon nothing but Parliamentary authority, instead of the old Catholic Service Books, which rested solely upon spiritual or ecclesiastical authority, was deprived of his living. I cannot imagine what could possibly have been conceived or invented by the wit of man more effectual for making the Church of England, as to her corporate life, thenceforward the creature and absolute bond-slave of the State " In truth, when one considers, in a spirit of Christian charity, how utterly the Pagan State has asphyxiated "THAT GREAT LYING CHURCH," the wonder really is, not that it lies so much as that it lies so little. (15) THE THIRTY-NINE ARTICLES, ELIZ., 1571. These constitute " An Act for the Ministers of the Church to be of sound Religion," and the penalties awaiting the non-subscriber are " deprivation of all ecclesiastical promotions as if he then were naturally dead." It is safe to say that, since the world began, no subject-matter of arrant lying ever came within a measurable distance of the Thirty-nine Articles in fecundity. But how are they to be brought into reasonable harmony with modern research with " Evolution " and the " Higher Criticism " ? There is no way out. " King and Parliament " will not permit the " Spirituality " to move hand or foot in the matter, and if that choicest collection of legislative impostors, land 92 "THAT GREAT LYING CHURCH" grabbers, usurers, gamblers, debauchees, and infidels, were themselves to direct their attention to the subject, the whole world would be convulsed with laughter. Edward VII.'s Prayer Book, as amended by them, would indeed be a study with or without " the aid of the Holy Ghost." DELENDA EST CARTHAGO. (l6) PENALTIES FOR ADHERING TO THE CATHOLIC RELIGION, ELIZ., 1580-!. This " Act to retain the Queen's Majesty's subjects in their due obedience " provides : " All persons whatsoever who shall persuade or withdraw any of the Queen's subjects from the Religion now by Her Highness's authority established within her dominions to the Romish Religion, or to move any of them to promise any obedience to the See of Rome, shall be, to all intents, adjudged traitors, and shall suffer and forfeit as in case oj High Treason." Beyond this savage provision it was impossible to go ; but the Act is rich in penalties for " misprison of treason," non-attendance at Eliza's Church, and cognate offences. Of the fines exacted, " Good Bess " made a judicious triple partition for herself a third ; for the " common informer " a third ; and for the poor a third " in the Parish in which the offence is committed." Needless to say, with such wise consolidation of interests, " divine service as by law established " prospered mightily. " MY YOKE is EASY AND MY BURDEN is LIGHT." XV ANGLICAN " PURGE " FOR " PAPISTS " AND "PURITANS" "There seems to be no two opinions on this subject (the Free Church System) in the United States. Even the Protestant Episco- palian Clergy, who are in many ways disposed to admire and envy their brethren in England ; even the Roman Catholic Bishops, whose Creed justifies the enforcement of the true Faith by the Secular arm, assure the European visitor that if the State-Establishment were offered them they would decline, preferring the freedom they enjoy to any advantage the State could confer. " So far from suffering from the want of Slate support, Religion seems in the United States to stand all the firmer, because standing alone she is seen to stand by her own strength. No political party, no class in the community, has any hostility either to Christianity or to any particular Christian body. The Churches are as thoroughly popular, in the best sense of the word, as any of the other institutions of the country. "The influence of Christianity seems to be, if we look not merely to the numbers, but also to the intelligence of the persons influenced, greater and more widespread in the United States than in any part of Western Continental Europe, and I think greater than in England." JAMES BRYCE: "The American Commonwealth." " I have lived both in a Canadian city and in a country town of the United States. I am much mistaken if Society and life are not fully as religious there, under the free system, as they are in England under the State Church." GOLDWIN SMITH. IN the light of Elizabeth's Act of Uniformity (1559) it was seen how thoroughly the Church of England was "reformed" in spite of itself. In spite of Convocation, in spite of the Lords Spiritual in Parliament, every avowed sympathiser 93 94 "THAT GREAT LYING CHURCH" with the old Catholic faith and ritual was rigorously purged out of Good Bess's Episcopate and Priesthood, the more contumacious being " adjudged traitors^ to suffer and forfeit as in the case of High Treason" But no sooner was the Anglican Church effectively purged of " Papists " than it fell a prey to "Puritans" Presbyterians and Independents, more particularly, to whom "Bishops," Protestant or Papist, were alike anathema. The Separatists (Independents) even went so far as to question the Queen's Supremacy, thereby running many of the same risks as the Romanists. In 1593 three of their leaders Barrow, Greenwood, and Penry were hanged. Archbishop Whitgift was directly responsible for their deaths. He hunted them down, took a leading part in their examination, and signed their death-warrants. Bancroft, who succeeded Whitgift in the Primacy, was the first Protestant Prelate much to Scottish King Jamie's delight to maintain the Divine Right of Bishops, as a sort of corollary to His Majesty's famous dictum, " No Bishop, no King." At the historic Hampton Court Conference " the British Solomon " had said of the Puritans, " I will make them conform, or I will harry them out of the land," and he did his best to keep his word. STATE CHURCH PERSECUTIONS. This unholy pact for pact it was between King and Bishop for the subversion of every form of human liberty was renewed when Charles I. ascended the throne in 1652, and bore the bitterest of fruit. To take but a single illus- tration : Dr. Leighton, an entirely reputable Scotsman, father of the truly Christlike Archbishop Leighton of Glasgow, had written a perfectly legitimate book against Episcopacy. He was brought before the Court of Star Chamber and condemned; whereupon Laud took off his rt PURGE ~ FOR " PAPISTS =* AND " PURITANS * 95 cap and thanked God for the conviction. Nor was that all. In his Diary the " Martyred Primate " (!) thus gloats over the sufferings of this heroic Pioneer of Civil and Religious Freedom : "(i) He was severely whipped before he was put in the pillory. (2) Being set in the pillory, he had one of his ears cut off. (3) One side of his nose was slit. (4) He was branded on the cheek with a red-hot iron with the letters S.S. [Sower of Sedition]. (5) On that day seven-night the sores on his back, ear, nose, and face being not yet cured, he was whipped again at the pillory in Cheapside, and had the remainder of his sentence executed upon him by cutting off the other ear, slitting the other side of his nose, and branding of the other cheek." Dr. Leighton languished in a noisome dungeon for ten years, and when the Long Parliament was eventually able to rescue and honour him it was too late. He was a wreck in body, and sorely debilitated in mind. And now came a strange and all but (purposely) obliterated episode in the history of " THAT GREAT LYING CHURCH." In 1643 the House of Commons, to cement its alliance with the Scots, adopted the Solemn League and Covenant, and formally abolished Episcopacy. Presby- Urianism thus became " the Church of England as by Law Established ! " The memorable Assembly of Westminster Divines was convoked " for the purpose of settling the Government and Liturgy of the Church of England." This body was made up of 120 anti-Episcopal Divines, 10 Lords and 20 Commoners, with 4 Divines from Scotland 154 all told. They drew up a Confession of Faith and a Directory of Public Worship, and this form of Church Government lasted till the Restoration (1660), though in the time of the g6 "THAT GREAT LYING CHURCH" Commonwealth capable Independents and others who were not Presbyterians were liberally admitted to livings. In Scotland alone did the seed sown by the Westminster Divines take permanent root. The " Westminster Stand- ards " are there, in the Church Courts, still subscribed in their integrity ; and what Presbyterian Scot has not in his youth wrestled with the grim theological propositions of the Shorter Catechism ? That unique document is a most logical compilation, and if you admit the premises you are in for all the infinitely harrowing conclusions, squirm as you may. It has secretly embittered the entire lives of some of the very best Scotsmen I have ever known, and has come to constitute an element of dourness in the national character unknown in pre-Reformation times. That pious Scotland should to-day be living spiritually, or pretending to live, on the husks of a cruel, barbaric, and exploded theology, imported from England two centuries and a half ago, is certainly one of the most singular psychological facts in contemporary history. Nor has any adequate explanation of the phenomenon, so far as I know, ever yet been offered. The fact remains that we Scots complacently strut about in a cast-off suit of English theological " old clo' " without knowing it ! We now come to the last important modifications in the Constitution of the Church of England, the bases substantially on which " That Great Lying Church " rests at this hour. THE ACT OF UNIFORMITY, 1662, purged the Church as effectively of "Puritans" as the Elizabethan Act (1559) had purged it of "Papists." In the Parliament elected in 1661 the Episcopalians were in a gigantic majority which they used with a giant's might. They enacted that all who held Municipal offices should " PURGE " FOR " PAPISTS " AND " PURITANS " 97 publicly renounce the Solemn League and Covenant ; take the Sacrament according to the rites of the Anglican Church; and swear that under no circumstances was it lawful to bear arms against the King. The Prayer Book was again amended to render it, if possible, still more unacceptable to Nonconformists of every stripe, and the new Act of Uniformity, which imposed it, for the first time required that every beneficed Clergyman should publicly affirm his " unfeigned assent and consent to everything contained in and proscribed by the Book," as well as be episcopally ordained. To their lasting honour, 2,000 of the most devoted pastors in the Church preferred principle to pocket, and paid the penalty of ejectment. The Covenanting English Presbyterians are to-day, curiously enough, represented by the Unitarians, who have done so much to liberalise religious thought in this country and America. Nor was loss of emolument the worst. As many of the "ousted" held meetings of their adherents for divine worship, Parliament in 1664 and 1669 passed Conventicle Acts so cruel that the Magistrates not infrequently resigned rather than enforce them. In 1665 a large subsidy was voted to the " Merry Monarch," ostensibly to enable him to carry on an ignominious war with the Dutch, but really on condition that he should assent to the passing of the Five Mile Act, under which the ejected ministers were prohibited from coming within five miles of their former benefices or oj any corporate town. And in framing and enforcing such shameful enactments, it is almost superfluous to say that Primate Sheldon played the leading part. In the sight of all men the Church of England had now practically renounced Christianity altogether, and had degenerated into a mere persecuting political faction a character up to which it has ever since done its best to live. H 98 "THAT GREAT LYING CHURCH" With what result it is not for me, a son of the Solemn League and Covenant, to say ; for I cannot forget that in the mad attempt to foist English Episcopacy and the English Prayer Book on my countrymen, during the reigns of Charles II. and James II., some 20,000 unyielding Scots were cruelly harried to death. As the Protestant martyrs under Mary Tudor created in England a deep-rooted horror of Popery, so the martyrs of the Covenant, with much better reason, inspired Scotland with an ineradicable loathing of Prelacy. " The Solemn League and Covenant Cost Scotland blood, cost Scotland tears ; But it sealed Freedom's sacred cause If thou'rt a slave, indulge thy sneers." Let us, therefore, have the unimpeachable witness of Historian, Rev. J. R. Green (" Short Hist. Eng. People ") : " The Rectors and Vicars who were driven out were the most learned and the most active of their order. They stood at the head of the London Clergy, as the London Clergy stood in general repute at the head of their class throughout England. They occupied the highest posts at the Universities. No English Divine, save Jeremy Taylor, rivalled Howe as a preacher. No parson was so renowned a controversialist, or so indefatigable a parish priest, as Baxter. And behind these men stood a fifth of the whole body of the Clergymen, whose zeal and labour had diffused throughout the Country a greater appearance of piety and religion than it had ever displayed before. " With the expulsion of the Puritan Clergy all change, all efforts after Reform, all national development, suddenly stopped. From that time to this the Episcopal Church has been unable to meet the spiritual needs of its adherents by any modification of its government or its worship. IT STANDS ALONE AMONG ALL THE RELIGIOUS BODIES OF WESTERN CHRISTENDOM IN ITS FAILURE, THROUGH TWO HUNDRED YEARS, TO DEVISE A SINGLE NEW SERVICE OF PRAYER OR PRAISE." " As a general rule, it [Cathedral Service] is the very reverse of a model of perfection. Far too often the whole service is cold, chilling, dull, slovenly, and irreverent. If a man wants his soul stirred by common prayer and praise ; if he wants his conscience roused and his mind informed on spiritual matters ; if he is labouring and heavy-laden, and wants to find rest ; if he wants to know more about Jesus Christ and the Gospel, about the last place of worship such a man ever thinks of going to is a Cathedral. In no part of this island does the Church of England annually pay away such an immense sum to her ministers as she does in every Cathedral town, and in no part does she show such a wretched return for what she expends. It is disgraceful, and makes one think of a lion turned into a barn to catch mice, or a 6oo-pounder firing at sparrows, or a locomotive dragging a child's perambulator, or an elephant harnessed to a bath-chair." BISHOP RYLE (Liverpool) : " Church Reform Papers." "To the best of my knowledge, the duty of the Dean is to give dinners to the Chapter, and the duty of the Chapter is to give dinners to the Dean." SYDNEY SMITH. " I, , now consecrated Bishop of , do hereby declare that your Majesty is the only Supreme Governor of this your Realm in Spiritual things as well as Temporal, and I acknowledge that I hold the said Bishopric, AS WELL THE SPIRITUALITIES AS THE TEMPORALITIES thereof, only of your Majesty. So help me God." BISHOP'S OATH OF HOMAGE. IN pre-Reformation times Cathedrals, Bishops, Deans, and Chapters were quite in keeping with the stately ceremonial which the Catholic Church had borrowed from the splendid 99 100 "THAT GREAT LYING CHURCH" sensuous ritual of Pagan Rome. In our day it is quite different. The simpler forms of Protestant worship as wittily observes Dean Howson of Chester (" Essays on Cathedrals ") " rattle in them like dry bones in a coffin " ; while to the man in the street the Cathedral is little more than "a museum of curiosities, with the verger for a showman." At first the Bishop was the head of the Cathedral Clergy. There was his Cathedra, or official seat, whence, with pastoral zeal, he sent forth his brethren as missionaries to Christianise the circumjacent heathen. Later in the day, as the Parish Churches increased in number, the Cathedral Clergy all but lost their missionary character, and, singularly enough, the Bishop his authority. The whole management passed into the hands of the Dean and Chapter and such management ! In 1861, Archbishop Tait, a fairly liberal- minded Scotsman, who had had the advantage of a Presby- terian upbringing, frankly told the House of Lords that, as Dean of Carlisle, he had spent two years " in vain attempts to find out what were the duties of his office." But his investigations were insufficient ; it was afterwards discovered by a brother Prelate that " the Dean of Carlisle is bound by the statutes of his Cathedral to pray for the soul of Henry VIII." ! And like Dean like Canon. Says Historian Freeman : "One might have expected that Residentiaries, chosen from among their brethren by the Chapters for the express purpose of residing, would have resided. But the strange notion began to prevail that the Chapter was sufficiently represented by the presence of one Canon at a time, and thus arose that anomalous being, ' the Canon in residence.' He is supposed to represent for a term, never, I believe, exceeding three months, the whole residentiary body, just as the residentiary body itself was designed to represent " LOAVES AND FISHES " 101 the whole Capitular body. One man, in short, is set to discharge the duties of perhaps fifty. Residence is strangely construed to mean nine months' absence from the place of residence. In some places, indeed, it has sometimes meant a perpetual absence." LOAVES AND FISHES: In the Cathedrals remodelled or founded at the Refor- mation the influence of the Crown and the Lord Chancellor predominates in all appointments. In the "old founda tions " the Canons and other faineants, except the Dean, are chosen by the Bishops. It is impossible to state with any degree of assurance how much public money the Deans and Chapters feel it their "duty" to expend annually in "giving dinners, the Dean to the Chapter, and the Chapter to the Dean." Such deceptive figures as are vouchsafed are almost worse than want ; but here is a scale of salaries (Clergy List, 1892) sufficiently intelligible : THAT GREAT LYING CHURCH " DIOCESE. BISHOP. DEAX. CANONS. Canterbury ..... ,15,000 10,000 6,500 4,200 5,000 4,200 5.500 4,200 5,000 4,200 4,000 4,500 4,200 4,500 5,000 4,500 3, ico 4,200 4,500 5,000 3,109 5,000 10,000 7,000 4,5oo 4,200 4,200 4,200 2,000 2,OOO 2,OOO 7OO ,OOO ,000 ,500 2,000 ,5co ,5oo 1,000 1,000 2,000 700 16,00 2,800 1,000 1,500 700 700 1,000 1,400 2,000 3,000 1,300 1,000 1,500 1,000 6 ea 4 5 4 4 4 6 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 6 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 6 4 4 4 4 ch ,1,000 1,000 910 350 600 500 916 (in 1,000 (in 600 700 650 500 1,000 350 800 1,400 500 750 350 350 500 400 750 400 1,000 700 (in 500 600 500 1885) 1885) 1885) London Winchester Bangor Bath and Wells... Chichestcr Ely Exeter Gloucester . . Bristol Lichfield Lincoln Landaff Oxford Peterborough Rochester , St. Asaph St. David's Salisbury Truro Worcester York Durham Carlisle ... , Chester Manchester The Cathedral Act of 1840 and other Reform measures, it is true, removed the more glaring abuses of the Capitular System prospectively ; but life interests, it need not be said, were religiously safeguarded, and as recently as March, 1889, Dean Gregory is reported to have told the English Church Union that a friend of his had enjoyed a prebend of ^5,000 a year for sixty years, " his whole duty being to preach two sermons a year, which was done for him by a Minor Canon for a guinea each ! " Who shall say the English are not an " LOAVES AND FISHES " IO3 " Imperial race " ? Who but they could produce a Major Canon of the calibre of Dean Gregory's friend ? AGAINST PROGRESS. But if Deans and Chapters have nothing to do, and do it well, what of the Successors of the Apostles ? What return do the Reverend and Right Reverend Fathers-in- God make to the People for their not inconsiderable dignities and emoluments ? If, like the Deans and Canons, they confined their energies to dining and wining, their delinquencies might almost be overlooked. But theirs are sins of commission of the most aggravated and persistent character. As legislators, their record is one of unsurpassed baseness and inhumanity, their latest notable malfeasance being their united support (with the illustrious exception of him of Hereford) of the most reactionary Education Act (1902) it was possible for Pagan Priests and an Agnostic Prime Minister to formulate. During the Nineteenth Century the Bishops demonstrated that they were in the true line of Apostolic Succession by the following votes in Parliament : 104 "THAT GREAT LYING CHURCH BISHOPS. FOR. AGAINST. 1810 1819 1821 1829 1831 1832 1833 1858 1834 1867 1867 1858 1860 1867 1860 1862 1863 1865 1876 1877 1877 1877 1880 1883 1883 1883 1891 Reform of Criminal Law.... O 3 2 10 2 12 3 7 2 2 O O O I I I I 3 4 10 o 2 2 7 IS 25 19 21 iS 20 II 22 4 3 24 16 7 4 12 8 12 16 15 II 8 6 22 17 O Education Bill ... Catholic Disabilities Removal Reform Bill Reform Bill Repeal of Jewish Disabilities ". ". . " Opening of Universities Abolition of Tests in Universities i> _ Church Rate Abolition n ii M i> Abolition of " Muzzling " Declaration (Qualification for Office) ii ii ii ii II 1! Nonconformist Services in Churchyards ii i ii it ii 1 ! l II II II Marriage with Deceased Wife's Sister.. i_ j ii Abolition of Payment of Wages in Public-houses Factories and Workshops Bill (Inclu- "LAY NOT UP," ETC. But whatever be their sins of omission or commission, there is one pastoral function which the Successors of the Apostles discharge wkh most exemplary fidelity. They never fail to shear the sheep to the very cuticle. The amount of Personal Property left by thirty-nine deceased Anglican " LOAVES AND FISHES " 105 Prelates, from 1856 to 1885, was found on Probate to average .54,000 ! Thus : CONSECRATED. NAME; DIED. INCOME OF SEE. PERSONALTY LEFT. l827 1856 /"4.SOO /"oo.ooo 1830 Monk 1856 C..OOO I4O.OOO 1824 Blomfield l87 lOjOOO 6o,OOO 1824 Bethell l8CO 4,OOO 2O,OOO i8ti Maltby 1860 8,OOO 120,000 l8^I Murray 1860 5,OOO 6O,OOO 1837 l8dO Musgrave Peovs. ... 1861 1862 lO.OOO 5,OOO 70,000 50,000 1856 Villiers 1864 8,OOO 2O,OOO 1826 Su inner 1864 I5,OOO 60, coo l84< Turton 1861; 5,OOO 4O,OOO l8?Q Davys 1864 4, coo 80 ooo 1848 186"; 4,5,00 18,000 1860 Wigram 1867 s.ooo 45., OOO i843 1848 1864 Lonsdale Hampden Jeune 1867 1868 1868 4,500 4,200 4, COO 90,000 45,000 m.ooo 1836 1868 I5,OOO ds.OOO l8C4 Hamilton 1869 S.OOO 14,000 1811 Philpotts 1869 5,OOO 60,000 1863 1848 Waldegrave . . . Lee 1869 1869 4,500 4.2OO 20,000 40,000 1842 Gilbert 1870 4,2OO 12,000 1847 Auckland...... 1870 s.ooo 120,000 1841 Short 1872 4,200 14,000 1845 1826 Wilberforce . . . Sumner 1873 1874 7,000 10,000 60,000 80,000 1840 1841 Thirl well Selwyn i875 1878 4,500 4, COO 16,000 16,000 IK6 Baring 1879 8,OOO 120,000 18(6 Tait. ...... 1882 1 5,000 36,, OOO 1849 1867 1865 1857 Ollevant Bickersteth.... Jacobson Jackson 1882 1884 1884 188? 4,200 4,500 4,500 10,000 30,000 25,000 65,000 72,000 1868 1869 1870 Wordsworth .. Moberly Fraser 1885 1885 188; 5,000 5,000 4,200 85,000 29,000 85,000 1873 Wood ford 1885 5,000 19,000 106 "THAT GREAT LYING CHURCH" " FREELY YE HAVE RECEIVED, FREELY GIVE. PROVIDE NEITHER GOLD, NOR SILVER, NOR BRASS IN YOUR PURSES. NOR SCRIP FOR YOUR JOURNEY, NEITHER TWO COATS, NEITHER SHOES, NOR YET STAVES : BUT THE WORKMAN IS WORTHY OF HIS MEAT." XVII " The earliest Tithepayers acted, no doubt, under the influence of the Judaic idea that they were under religious duty to give the Tenth of their Income to the Church. But when this idea had once taken root in Public Opinion, anyone who refused to pay Tithe was treated as a breaker of the Law of the Church, and was subjected to Excom- munication. If this had no terrors for him, the aid of the Secular Arm was implored, and by a process which ultimately took form in the Writ Dt Excommiinicato Cafiene/o, he was cast into prison. Thus the Voluntary Subscription became a TAX." SIR WALTER PHILLIMORE. " The first Secular Notice [of the liability of the Tithe to the Relief of the Poor] is contained in the following law of Ethelred, A.D. 1014 : ' And concerning Tithe, the King and his Witan have chosen and said, as right it is, that the third part of the Tithe, which belongs to the Church, shall go to the reparation of the Church, and the second to the servants of God, and the third to GOD'S POOR and needy men in thraldom.' "Thus, according to the view of the Anglo-Saxon Church, ratified by the express enactment of the Witan (Parliament), A THIRD OF THE TITHE WAS THE ABSOLUTE PROPERTY OF THE POOR." KEMBLB : 11 Saxons in England." "It is vain to deny that the Church of England Clergy have been a party in the country from Elizabeth's time downwards, and a party opposed to the cause, which, in the main, has been the Cause of Improvement." ARNOLD OF RUGBY. In early days the Cathedral Clergy, it has been seen, were the chief evangelisers of England, the Cathedral 107 108 "THAT GREAT LYING CHURCH " being the centre of their missionary journeyings to and fro in the Diocese. Presently, however, numerous Local Churches with Resident Ministers began to spring up, and gave birth to that most fundamental of British institutions the Parish. The origin of the Parochial System was, according to Blackstone, on this wise : " The Lords, as Christianity spread itself, began to build Churches on their own demesnes or wastes, to accommodate their Tenants in one or two adjoining lordships; and, in order to have divine service regularly performed therein, obliged all their Tenants to appropriate their Tithes to the maintenance of the one officiating minister, instead of leaving them at liberty to distribute them among the Clergy of the Diocese in general, and this tract of land, the Tithes whereof were so appropriated, formed a distinct Parish." But "distinct Parishes" were not the universal rule till circ. 1 200 A.D., though we find Theodore, Archbishop of Canterbury, as early as 680 A.D., with the sanction of Royalty, fatally "offering the Perpetual Patronage of Churches as an encouragement for their erection " by lords of manors. For centuries, however, this right of presen- tation to a benefice had no market value t and it never was intended, as Bishop Ryle of Liverpool has indignantly protested, that "a cure of souls should be sold like a flock of sheep or a drove of pigs," as is the case in " the Great Lying Church " at this hour. The patronage of parochial "benefices," "livings," or "incumbencies" these common nouns are singularly appropriate is about shared equally between official personas and private individuals : BUYINGAND SWAPPING "CURES OF SOULS" 1 09 PUBLIC PATRONS. Livings. The Crown 388 The Prince of Wales 20 The Lord Chancellor 674 Duchy of Lancaster 41 Archbishops and Bishops 2,912 Cathedral Bodies 876 Archdeacons 52 Universities- Oxford 403 Cambridge 313 ?i6 Eton and Winchester Colleges 57 Parishioners and Ratepayers 21 Miscellaneous 89 Total Public Patronage 5,846 The evils of public patronage, though less flagrant than those inherent under private control, are yet a deep disgrace to any professedly Christian land. The appoint- ments, if not simoniacal, are notoriously rarely other than political. Even Black-wood's Magazine has ben known to aver that Ministers of the Crown used Church Palronage as so much " grease to make the wheels of the Goveoajnent run smoothly." Put 674 " livings " as they fall in, at the disposal of my Lord " High Jobber " ChaneeHor Halsbury, and no one doubts for a moment what to expect. St. Peter himself, " keys " and all, would not have the ghost of a chance of the smallest " living " unless he could toe the indisputable Tory Party line. But the mode in which some of the Capitular Bodies triumphantly solve the " cure-of-souls "-appointment pro- blem is, perhaps, everything considered, the best, as it is certainly the simplest. It is almost literally a "toss up/' It has been thus tersely described : 1 10 " THAT GREAT LYING CHURCH " " During the first meeting, every year, of the Chapter, the members draw lots for the various " cures of souls " within the patronage of their body. The name of each living is written upon a slip of paper and deposited in a box. The Canons then draw out one after another, and, if the living mentioned on the paper so drawn becomes vacant during that year, the fortunate possessor of the prize in this State-ecclesiastical lottery has the patronage of that living for the time being ! Thus is this disgraceful farce enacted." PRIVATE PATRONAGE. Under this Antichrist system of officering " the Great Lying Church," is reached the very acme of abuse when the " advowson " (the perpetual right of presenting), or the right of " next presentation " only, is put up for sale by public auction. This infamous traffic has of late years obtruded itself less in the form of newspaper advertise- ments; but not so long ago the Times had this typical announcement : A VALUABLE LIVING FOR SALE IN THE SUBURBS OF LONDON. Sale urgent. Prospect of early possession. Net Income ^900. Light work. The best Society. Practically no Poor." But just as public sales of advowsons have decreased, the secret traffic in " the accursed thing " by clerical agents is known to have increased. One of the principal of these, Mr. Emery Stark, in 1878, thus testified before a Royal Commission of Inquiry : "The Commissioners [Ecclesiastical] are well aware that the sale of advowsons with the understanding that immediate possession is to be given is, according to the law, illegal. Three-fourths of the patrons with whom I BUYING AND SWAPPING " CURES OF SOULS " III have come in contact, and among them clergymen of the highest standing, do not recognise any moral crime in an infraction of the present Law of Simony, and the conse- quence is that they freely and unhesitatingly sell and purchase advowsons with the understanding that immediate possession is to be given, not looking upon it as any sin. When I say clergymen of high standing, I have had business with ex-Colonial Bishops, Canons, and other dignitaries of the Church who, of course, would be above suspicion in every way." " These moral clergymen " [commented Archbishop Magee, then Bishop of Peterborough], " who first ask you to break the law, then take an oath that they have not broken the law ; so that every one of these clergymen of high standing and of high moral character has been guilty of wilful and corrupt perjury ? " " Yes ! " Time after time efforts have been made in Lords and in Commons to render private advowsons no longer market- able, but without avail. The Morning Post, as far back as 1875, when Archbishop Tait besought the Peers to abolish the sale of "next presentations," stated the reason with commendable candour : " Most of their lordships are patrons of livings, and many of them regularly sell their patronage in their lawyer's offices, or in the Auction Mart. They have a sort of vested interest in the abuses which the Bill was framed to remove." If it cost .778,887 to compensate Irish Establishment Patrons, to what sum would those of " the Great Lying Church " not lay claim ? The ratio is well-nigh unthinkable. "SWAPPING" CURES OF SOULS. The following advertisement appeared quite recently in the Guardian ; "Exchange (London Preferred). Charming Benefice in the West. Income, tithe commuted at .394, with glebe ^50 (in hand;, ^"70 (on 112 " THAT GREAT LYING CHURCH " lease) and house. The house contains 20 rooms, besides kitchen, dairy, bakehouse, store rooms, etc., and stands in 20 acres of beautifully Umbered park land. Three kitchen gardens and orchard. Stabling for 4 or 5 horses, large barn, piggeries, etc. Incumbent is Lord of the Manor. Population 460. Church modern and pretty. Church schools. Good society. Excellent shooting may be had. Suitable only for man of means. No agents. Apply, etc." "This advertisement," comments the Westminster Gazette^ " is an excellent example of the condition of the Church of England in the rural districts. Here we see the attractions of the living set forth down to the piggeries, the garden, the stabling, and the timber. The good society, the shooting, and the lordship of the manor all go to show that the 460 souls can only be shepherded by a ' man of means.' The rural clergy accept this state of things without a protest, and yet wonder that men of earnestness and brains are disgusted with the whole system." So much for the question of Patronage, Public and Private. Let us next glance at the Church's Revenues and their sources. These the Ecclesiastical Commissioners professed to supply in a Parliamentary Return, 1891 ; but they cannot be complimented on their performance, the reason, perhaps, being to be found in the farcical composition of the Commission itself. Constituted originally in 1836 to prevent the grossest abuses, it now consists of the two Archbishops, the thirty-two Bishops, three Deans, five Cabinet Ministers, four Judges, and twelve other Eminent Laymen. Anyhow, the Commissioners' figures work out thus : BUYING AND SWAPPING "CURES OF SOULS " 113 THE LOAVES AND FISHES. NATURE OF PROPERTY. ARCH- BISHOPS AND BISHOPS. CATHE- DRAL BODIES. PAROCH. CLERGY. ECCLES. COMS. TOTALS. Tithes 21, SOI 44,";84 2,682,874 273. WI 2,968,352 Lands 61,508 08,027 QQI.2I2 219,660 1.371,107 Houses, Ground- rents, etc Minerals 1,656 38,673 oo^ 132,626 ^vIII 391,570 26?, 841 555,948 26q,8i;6 Queen Anne's Bounty, etc. Dividends, etc. 14,241 10,473 255,222 200,617 99, 165 255,222 132,456 98,908 192,460 4,213,662 1,247,327 5,753,557 But that is by no means a complete statement of the Church's actual revenue. It, for example, takes no stock of such " unconsidered trifles " as Army and Navy chaplaincies ; nor of pew-rents, baptismal, marriage and burial fees, varying in amount with ancient local custom ; nor of rent-free Church fabrics; nor of Clerical Rating "Doles"; nor, of course, of such an audacious raid on the public purse for the support of Anglican schools as the Education Act (1902) implies. In addition, Mr. Howard Evans, in his instructive "Short History of Christianity in England," estimates the "voluntary contributions" to the coffers of "the Great Lying Church " at from ^5, 000,000 to ^6,000,000 per annum ; so that from all sources this baleful Ecclesiastical Corporation expends yearly a princely income of NOT LESS THAN ^12,000,000 in systematically perverting the eternal i 114 "THAT GREAT LYING CHURCH" verities of the Religion of Christ and darkening the intelligence of the English People. " Then Christ sought out an artisan, A low-browed, stunted, haggard man, And a motherless girl whose fingers thin Pushed from her faintly want and sin. These set He in the midst of them, And as they drew back their garment hem For fear of defilement, l Lo, here,' said He, ' The images ye have made of Me. 1 " XVIII TITHES AND GLEBE LANDS " Is there anything that can be conceived more hostile to Natural Justice than for men to be compelled to take away from the means of supporting their families a considerable part of the fruit of their labour, and to give it to men for preaching a doctrine in which they do not believe, and for performing a service in which their consciences forbid them to join ? If there be anything more hostile to Natural Justice than this, I should like to have it pointed out to me." WILLIAM COBBETT. " The National Church was deemed a great venerable Estate of th Realm, but now it has been determined to be one of the many theo- logical sects, churches, or communities established in the Realm, but distinguished from the rest by having its Priesthood endowed durante bent placito by favour of the Legislature." S. T. COLERIDGE. " It was not until the Reformation, when England broke away from the authority of Rome, and became, in ecclesiastical as in civil matters, a self-governing Kingdom, that Establishment received its full develop- ment, and the Church became wholly subject to the Civil Power. But from the first Establishment of the Church in England, its affairs have been regulated by Public Law ; and since the time of Parliaments upwards of 1,400 Statutes of the Realm have been passed for that purpose." " CASE FOR DISESTABLISHMENT." " Not one jot or one tittle of the Prayer Book can be varied except with the consent of Parliament." Guardian^ December, 1890. THE principal source of Anglican Church Revenue, it has been seen, is Tithes, amounting t6 about ^3,000,000 per annum. These were originally voluntary gifts, until the "5 Il6 "THAT GREAT LYING CHURCH" State stepping in rendered them compulsory, thereby converting them into a Tax. (See Appendix B.) TITHES. Previous to the Tithe Commutation Act (1836) Tithes were paid "in kind." That is to say, the cultivator of the soil was required to give up to the tithe-receiver (usually the Parish Parson) the tenth sheaf, the tenth colt, the tenth calf, the tenth lamb, the tenth pig, the tenth fleece, the tenth sack of potatoes, the tenth cheese, and the tenth part of the butter. Nothing escaped. Gardens and orchards, wood and water all were laid under contri- bution. And so, at one time, even the " handicraftsmen " had to pay " personal tithes " the tenth part of their earnings. For this barbarous form of levy the Tithe Commutation Act substitued a "Tithe Rent-charge," the precise amount of which fluctuates with the varying price of corn. The Tithe Act (1891) went a step further and made the direct payment of the Tithe obligatory on the landlord, thus allaying the intense irritation inherent in the impost without in the least altering its essential character. But if Tithes are the creation of Law, how comes it, it will naturally be asked, that so much Land is tithe-free. A distinguished Master of the Rolls has explained this seeming anomaly thus: "By the fundamental principles of the Common Law, all land is equally charged with Tithes. To suppose a single acre not charged is quite a mistake. From the earliest period Tithes were everywhere due to somebody. Even in extra-parochial places they are payable to the King ; and although when in spiritual hands no tithes were paid, this was from the rule, ecclesia decimas non solvit TITHES AND GLEBE LANDS II? ecdesia (the Church does not pay Tithes to the Church), and not from any non-charge inherent in the land." But this "unity of possession" was a common coinci- dence when the great abbeys were in potestafe, and when these were dissolved at the " Reformation " and distributed by Bluebeard among his Court parasites, an Act of Parlia- ment was passed providing that " all persons that should come to the possession of the lands of any abbey then dissolved should hold them free and discharged of Tithes, in as large and ample a manner as the abbeys themselves formerly held them." Other vast tracts of land, held by such Religious Orders as the Knights Templars and Cistercians, were exempted by Papal Bull, and some became free even by custom and prescription. But the Clerical Tithe remains as it was, and must revert to the State whenever " the Great Lying Church " shall cease to lie in the name of the Nation. It has been proposed to abolish Tithes, but that were indeed suicidal ; for grievously as they are misapplied, they constitute the sole fragmentary interest that remains to the English People in the soil of their native land. The landlords, God wot, would cheerfully add the Tithes to their rent-rolls, and there abolition would begin and end. CHURCH LANDS. The second main source of Clerical endowment is the Church Lands. These, according to the 1891 Return, yield a Revenue of ;i, 37 1,107. Fi rst come the lands attached to the Episcopal Sees and Cathedral Bodies. They are estimated to yield a total Revenue of ,379,195, and as regards their origin there is but little doubt. Anglo- Saxon Charters, still extant, demonstrate incontestably that a very large proportion of the landed estates of the Il8 "THAT GREAT LYING CHURCH" Archbishops, Bishops, and Capitular Bodies were carved out of the foldand (people's land) by the Kings and Witanagemots (Parliaments) of pre-Norman days. Some- times, indeed, these " Assemblies of the Wise," it seems, would have acted with greater wisdom had they been a trifle less generous, or more cautious, in disposing of the folcland. In Kemble's " Saxons in England " we read : " At a very early period, however, it became a practice to carve hereditary estates out of the folcland, which thus became the private property of the individual. These estates were always granted by book or charter, and thence bore the name of bocland. The pretext upon which these conversions of folcland into bocland were made at first was the erection and endowment of a religious house upon the land, by the grantee ; and we learn that sometimes the conversion was made the thane presented ivith the estate, but the Church or Monastery not constructed." When ever was there lacking device or pretence for robbing the people of their common inheritance in the soil? GLEBE LANDS. How the earliest Parish Churches came to have glebe attached to them is involved in no small obscurity. While tithes remained mere gifts at will, and population was sparse and land plentiful, to bestow a little estate on the Church of the township, as a sort of permanent gift, would occur very naturally, whether to King or Lord of Manor. But there is nothing to show that the grants were not originally made by public authority, rather than by private generosity. Anyhow, in recent times it is indisputable that much " glebe land," now held by the parochial clergy, has been given them by the State, under various Enclosure Acts, in exchange for Tithes. There are two exasperating TITHES AND GLEBE LANDS lip Parliamentary Returns (1865) professing to elucidate the exchanges thus effected ; but, like most transactions touching the " temporalities " of our National Zion, they " are wrop in mistry." It seems impossible to ascertain the total acreage thus clericalised. In some counties no assignments seem to have been made, while in others they are both numerous and extensive. In Lincolnshire, it would appear, 62,000 acres have been added to the parsonic holdings in lieu of Tithes ; in Northamptonshire 39,000 acres ; in Gloucestershire 28,000 ; in Cambridge- shire 24,000 ; and in Bedfordshire 23,000. In 1887, however, a Return of "all Glebe Lands in England and Wales, showing the Parishes in which they are respectively situate, and the estimated Annual Value of the several Glebes " was presented to Parliament. This document sets down the total Area of Glebe at 659,548 acres, and the total Rental of Glebe at ^908,281. But even this Parliamentary Paper, which for a wonder is drawn up on an intelligible enough principle, cannot be made to tally with the Church Revenue Return, the latter giving ^991,212 as the amount actually received by the clergy from Glebe Lands, or about ^83,000 in excess of the former. " Wrop in mistry " again ; but why such discrepancies and mystifications should exist is the question. The Church of England is at best a mere branch of the Civil Service, maintained to inculcate the humanising cult of " the Squire and his relations, and to keep us in our proper stations," and why every payment of public moneys to its officers, from whatever source arising, should not be as open and above board as, for example, in the Departments of the Post Office and the Inland Revenue, is what the unsophisticated and much- enduring taxpayer would like to know and has every right to be informed. 120 "THAT GREAT LYING CHURCH" THE GLEBE LANDS ACT This was a well-meant Act, but in practice it has belied expectation. Its object was to enable the poorer country clergy to sell their lands under such conditions as would facilitate the acquisition of " allotments " by Agricultural Labourers. But as no sale could take place without the consent of Bishop and Patron, nor otherwise than "for the permanent benefit of the benefice" (a just enough provision in view of the Nation's reversionary interest), the results have luckily been insignificant, inasmuch as not an inch of public land ought ever to be sold under any pretext. The Report of the Board of Agriculture (1891) states that up to that time only 2,996 acres had been sold for the sum of ;i 74,685, which "has been invested for the benefit of the respective incumbents." It adds significantly : " In all cases where it did not appear that the price was likely to be diminished by offering the land, or some part of it, for sale in small parcels, such offer was made, but without material results as regards the acquisition of land by Cottagers and Labourers, who either have not been desirous or have not had the means of purchasing" Who has any doubt about the Labourers' "desire" had the " means of purchasing " been forthcoming ? But when Disestablishment comes about, these extensive Glebe Lands, situated in every part of the Kingdom, will be a most valuable national asset, and ought to be made the nuclei of a system of Communal Tillage the foundation- stones of the GRAND CO-OPERATIVE COMMONWEALTH OF THE FUTURE. XIX "THE PARSON'S FREEHOLD" "Whether years, or decade of years, be taken for the severance of the Church from the State, however it may be deprecated, and how- ever opposed, accomplished it will certainly be. History has for ages been preparing its way. In past ages it has been conceded over and over again. God's arm is thrusting it on, and man's power cannot keep it back." DEAN ALFORD. " It is wonderful what Irish Churchmen have done during the past ten years [of Disestablishment] for their Church certainly far more than hundreds of years previous cathedrals built or restored; churches built, rebuilt, and adorned ; glebe houses erected all over the country." Irish Ecclesiastical Gazette t December 10, 1881, " Church [Irish Protestant Episcopal] work is, doubtless, more obvious in Ulster and Leinster than in Munster and Connaught ; but even in the most remote districts of the West, where two or three Church people can gather together, they appear to be endowed with more life since the Church was disestablished than ever they were before. No matter what place I stayed at on my journey, wherever there was a church I found some evidence as well in the church buildings as in the members of the Church of renewed life. Whether in a large town like Belfast, with its twenty churches, or in a remote country parish, I could not help remarking the increased cctivity of the Church, as compared with what it was only five-and- twenty years ago." SPECIAL COMMISSIONER, Western Mail, 1892. "No Christian who knows the Gospel can possibly believe that it warrants him in living uselessly by the sweat of another man's brow." GOLDWIN SMITH. IN last section the nature and approximate amount of Anglican Church Revenue, arising from Tithes, Lands 121 122 "THAT GREAT LYING CHURCH" Episcopal and Cathedral, and Parochial Glebe Lands, had some measure of attention. But other miscellaneous items remain. GROUND-RENTS, HOUSE-RENTS, "MINERAL ROYALTIES." These mostly accrue to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, who draw over ^300,000 a year from the Counties of Middlesex and Surrey alone. The source, needless to say, is the princely endowments of St. Paul's and the Sees of London and Rochester, about which the Church Property Return (1891) is judiciously silent. The Com- missioners, moreover, net largely on "mineral royalties." From County Durham they extract over ^240,000 per annum. Every ton of coal brought to the surface pays toll to " That Great Lying Church " a monstrous exaction when the hardships and perils of the mine are considered. Then there is the matter of ECCLESIASTICAL BUILDINGS. No estimate of the Annual Value of the Cathedrals and Parish Churches has ever been attempted ; but they are a national asset of obvious importance, and why a single re- actionary and persecuting SECT should have been permitted to monopolise their use so long is inexplicable, except on the ground that we really are " mostly fools," the residue of us being born serfs, bereft of the most rudimentary sense of Justice. From 1840 to 1873, ^25,548,703 were spent on church fabrics (cases where total cost under ^500 not included), and from 1873 to 1891, ^20,531,402. These large amounts, it is true, were chiefly made up of voluntary contributions ; but it is a sound maxim that wha-t is given to a National Institution is given to the Nation. If we proceed on any other principle when "THE PARSON'S FREEHOLD" 123 Disestablishment comes about, we shall have to hand over Westminster Abbey to Cardinal Vaughan and the Bishop of Rome. In regard to Clerical Residences, the Church Property Return is somewhat more satisfactory, though it culpably fails to account for the Rateable Value of these in its Summary of Revenues (amounting to ys,753,557). The items are : Episcopal Palaces ,11,151 Cathedral Residences 18,928 Parsonage Houses (11,667) 518,054 Total 548,133 QUEEN ANNE'S BOUNTY. On the other hand, it is stated in the Return that the Capital, held by Queen Anne's Bounty Governors on behalf of meagre benefices, is ^"4,456,124; and that the Dividends, Interests, etc., payable in respect thereof to the Incumbents, amounting to ^133,799, are included in the Summary (previously quoted) under the head, " Parochial Benefices." It may here be well to explain the origin of this " Bounty." The fund had come down from very early times. It consisted of the whole of the first year's income of all spiritual offices and a tenth of them afterwards. Till the Reformation the Pope enjoyed these goodly perquisites ; afterwards they fell to the Crown. It was Bishop Burnet who got " Good Queen Anne " to restore them to Mother Church. The money was, accordingly, formed into a per- petual fund for the augmentation of benefices of small value, and put under the control of certain personages, eminent in Church and State, and known as "Governors of Queen Anne's Bounty." 124 "THAT GREAT LYING CHURCH" And this precedent of 1704 was followed in 1836 by the appointment of an august Board of ECCLESIASTICAL COMMISSIONERS expressly charged to reform the administration of the Revenues of the Establishment. They found the grossest abuses on every hand 5,000 Incumbents with livings under ^200 a year; 5,250 Curates averaging ;8o; while the following Episcopal stipends were being gaily pocketed : Archbishop of Canterbury 22,216 Archbishop of York I3>7O3 Bishop of London 15>I33 Bishop of Durham 21,991 Bishop of Ely 12,627 Bishop of Winchester 12,107 That the Commissioners have latterly exerted themselves to divide " the loaves and fishes " at their disposal some- what more evenly than heretofore need not be doubted. Indeed, in their Report for 1893 they claim that, since 1840 (52 years;, "the total increase in the Incomes of Benefices resulting from the operation of the Commis- sioners exceeds ^987,700 per annum, and may be taken to represent a capital sum of ^29,428,000." And now sixty-two years have elapsed since the creation of the Common Fund, and we find the Commissioners, in their last Report (year ending October 31, 1902), claiming to have permanently augmented benefices over ^1,069,880 per annum, representing a capital sum of ^32,188,000. There ! Is that not good clerical " biz " ? But where, pray, does Christ, and "Hodge," and the "Unemployed" come in ? Let my Right Hon. and Most Rev. Clansman, Randall Thomas Davidson, Successor of St. Augustine, "THE PARSON'S FREEHOLD" 12$ say ivhere. Why fortify still further with the sinews of war the already all but impregnable zareba of "THE PARSON'S FREEHOLD," thus, on a time, pungently described by the Rev. Dr. Jessop, the accomplished Rector of Seaming, Norfolk : "The philosopher of the future will, I believe, be amazed and perplexed by nothing so much as by the strange vitality of this legal phenomenon the parson's freehold. Imagine a postman, or a prime minister, a clerk in the Custom House, or the captain of a man-or war, an assistant in a draper's shop, or your own gardener, having an estate for life in his office, and being able to draw his pay to his dying day, though he might be for years blind, and deaf, and paralysed, and imbecile so incapable, in fact, that he could not even appoint his own deputy, or so indifferent that he cared not whether there was any deputy to discharge the duties which he himself was paid to perform. Yet all this, and much more than this, is possible for us beneficed clergymen. I am myself the patron of a benefice from which the late rector was not resident for fifty-three years." And not merely has the Parson in himself, during his lifetime, the freehold of his parsonage house, the glebe, the tithes, and other dues, but, as Bishop Ryle (Liverpool) complained, "an ecclesiastical preserve within which no Churchman can fire a spiritual shot, or do anything without leave of the Incumbent." Nor is that all : " SHEEP WITHOUT A SHEPHERD." " It is nonsense [he continues] to deny that there are scores of large parishes in almost every diocese in England, where the parochial clergyman does little or nothing beside a cold, formal round of Sunday services. Christ's truth is 126 "THAT GREAT LYING CHURCH" not preached. Soul-work is neglected. The parishioners are like sheep without a shepherd. The bulk of the people never come near the church at all. Sin, and immorality, and ignorance, and infidelity increase and multiply every year. The few who worship anywhere take refuge in the chapels of the Methodists, Baptists, and Independents, if not in more questionable places of worship. The parish church is comparatively deserted. People in such parishes live and die with an abiding impression that the Church of England is a rotten, useless institution, and bequeath to their families a legacy of prejudice against the Church, which lasts for ever. Will anyone pretend to tell me that there are not hundreds of large English parishes in this condition ? I defy him to do so. I am writing down things that are only too true, and it is in vain to pretend to conceal them." THE CHURCH AND THE " ESTIMATES." No; "the parson's freehold" is already sufficiently "free and easy " in all conscience, without any further strengthen- ing of its stakes or lengthening of its cords by the Ecclesi- astical Commissioners or any other benefactors, public or private. And that reminds me that among the former the Commissioners, who are at most nothing more than an Executive Committee of the Legislature, do not stand alone. On more occasions than one the Church has figured directly in the Annual Parliamentary Estimates, cheek by jowl with the Army and Navy. In 1818 the pious and faithful Commons voted ; 1,000,000 for Church building purposes. In 1824 they added a further sum of ^500,000 for the same object ; while between 1809 and 1829 they granted ^1,000,000 in augmentation of the incomes of the poorer clergy, not to mention a variety of smaller concessions. And these grants, though in amount comparatively trifling, are in point of principle of the highest "THE PARSON'S FREEHOLD" 127 importance, inasmuch as they conclusively show that, in the view of Parliament, there is not the slightest distinc- tion between moneys annually voted for the Church and the settled national property in Tithes, Lands, Ground-rents, Houses, Minerals, etc., out of which it is, in the main, so comfortably provided. XX SHEEPLESS LONDON SHEPHERDS " We are bound to admit that Christianity was a vast Economic Revolution more than anything else. The first Christians did not seek to acquire wealth; like Christ, they sought to annihilate it. Like their Master, they had no conception of Civic Government ; the Religious Idea so dominated them as to destroy all differences of Nationality or Social Condition." PROFESSOR F. S. NITTI : " Catholic Socialism." "The Bishop of London pursues his policy of promoting the long- neglected, hard-working clergy of the East End to more desirable preferment. The Rev. David Cowan, who has earned a splendid record at St. John's, Isle of Dogs, is succeeding Mr. Coney in the valuable benefice of St. John the Evangelist, Red Lion Square, where he will find parishioners almost as poor, but less responsive than his stevedores. Mr. Cowan is a Scotsman who has served all his ministerial career in East London, and before he literally went to the 'dogs' was curate of Dalston. His new benefice is worth ;6oo per annum, with an excellent residence in the very centre of London, but he will be saddled with the payment of a pension to his predecessor." Daily News, March 10, 1902. CURES OF SOULS IN LONDON. IT is always solacing to a Scotsman to learn that a slice of " desirable preferment " has come the way of a worthy " brither Scot " ; but I could have wished, nevertheless, that Mr. Cowan had elected to fight out the good fight of faith, if need be, "to a finish," in the Apostolic im- pecuniosity of the Isle of Dogs. In these days of gross, unblushing Materialism of almost universal Mammon 128 SHEEPLESS LONDON SHEPHERDS I2Q worship the example of even one life of primitive Christian renunciation is of priceless value. The aim of the Founder of the Faith and of His immediate followers was not to "get on," but to "get off the people's back" (as Tolstoy would say) ; and, so far as we know, they attained their object in unmistakable fashion. With the exception of John, none of the Apostles, it is believed, escaped martyrdom. Matthew was slain in Ethiopia by sword-stroke. James, son of Zebedee, was beheaded at Jerusalem. James, the " brother of the Lord," was thrown from a pinnacle of the Temple, and then beaten to death with a fuller's club. Philip was hanged against a pillar of Hieropolis, a city of Phrygia. Bartholomew was flayed alive at Albanopolis, in Armenia. Andrew perished on a cross at Patrae, in Achaia. Thomas was run through the body with a lance at Cora- mandel, in the East Indies. Thaddeus was shot to death with arrows. Simon Zelotes found a cross in Persia. Peter was crucified, head downwards, in the Neronian Persecution, at Rome ; while Paul, as a Civis Romanus, enjoyed the privilege of being beheaded. Matthias was first stoned, and then beheaded. Judas Iscariot, after the betrayal of the Master, in a frenzy of remorse, hanged himself. Not much "desirable preferment" in that record, quotha; and yet these poor and (Paul excepted) un- lettered men, by their very contempt for "soft places" and the good things of this life, RENOVATED THE HUMAN CONSCIENCE, in times very much resembling our own, when it had become hard as adamant "sensual," devilish " ; or, shall we say, " Jingo-Imperialist " ? How different, for example, then and there, was a " Cure of Souls" from what is known as such in the "City" of London to-day ! By the " City," of course, I mean the K I3O "THAT GREAT LYING CHURCH" Central Square mile of festering rottenness which impu- dently arrogates to itself that title. But we are apt to dwell too exclusively on the Municipal iniquities of that truly " Corrupt Oligarchy." Nevertheless, these can hardly be regarded as quite so flagrant as those connected with the intra-mural Churches or ecclesiastical polity. If Disestab- lishment and Disendowment are imperatively demanded in Wales, what can any mortal man say in defence of the " Cures of Souls " of " famous London Town " ? " INCUMBENTS M INDEED ! We all know, in a general way, that these Churches are remarkable for two features : the amplitude of their In- cumbents' salaries I like that word "incumbent"; it is etymologically so significant and the smallness of the congregations. Otherwise we pass them heedlessly by, or, if by chance we have entered them, it has only been to recall, on exit, Burns's lines on the " Kirk of Lamington " : " As cauld a wind as ever blew, A caulder kirk, and in't but few ; A caulder preacher never spak Ye'll a' be in hell ere I come back.'' But some time ago we had to thank the Rev. Henry W. Clarke for some startling facts and figures on the City Churches, which he had the clerical temerity to lay before the Bishop of London, in an "open" letter. At intervals of a month, Mr. Clarke made four Sunday visits to every one of the Churches open for divine service. On each occasion he counted the congregation, at morning and evening service, not including the choristers, most of whom are as much stipendiaries as the " Incumbent " himself. The Diocesan Calendar for 1896 supplied Mr. Clarke with the revenue of the different " livings " there is a fine SHEEPLESS LONDON SHEPHERDS 131 unblushing frankness about that word "living," which "incumbent " can hardly beat and other information he obtained as best he could. Of forty-three Parish Churches, standing within the Old City area, Mr. Clarke found four entirely "closed"; but the salaries of Incumbents and Parish Officers were not in the least affected by the " Closure." Thus Mr. Clarke : "(27) Sf. Mildred's, Bread Street, before it was recently closed, had an average attendance of one at the morning service, which was the only service on Sundays. The church was always closed during the week. There was, therefore, about one hour's service in that church for the whole week. The Rector's income is ^308; he is also Barnard Hyde's Lecturer at St. Mary-at-Hill, ^40 a year ; he resides at Croydon. " (41) St. George's, Botolph Lane. This church has been closed since 1891 ; the parish has not yet been united to any other contiguous parish. The Rector receives over j6oo a year, and the parish officers are also in receipt of their salaries." It will thus be seen that a " Cure " of Salaries may exist without any corresponding " Cure of Souls " whatever. They have either no necessary connection or the cause expires, but the effect survives. But this is not all : "Very few of them [the Incumbents] reside in their parishes ; over twenty of the parsonage houses are leased and converted by the lessees into offices ; the Incumbents reside at Hampstead, in Kensington, Eton College, Ted- dington, Isle of Wight, Dorking, Eltham in Kent, Croydon, Woolwich, Brockley, Upper Clapton, St. Leonard's-on-Sea, etc. They hasten to the City to do Sunday duty, and when over they hasten out of it again." But though our Spiritual City " pastors and masters " are so much addicted to devout meditations in salubrious 132 "THAT GREAT LYING CHURCH" suburban neighbourhoods, and the yet more bracing air of the Isle of Wight and St. Leonard's-on-Sea, it would be rash to say they had no eye for business, though where the Master's business comes in it were difficult indeed to indicate. Some of the spacious rectory-houses are let for sums greater than the incomes of many worthy village pastors from all sources. Nor is your City Parson at all fastidious as to the use to which he devotes his parsonage, provided it will "pay, pay, pay." One worthy Man of God has converted his clerical domicile into a flourishing restaurant or " pub.," and one can only be thankful that he has done no worse, for it is notorious that no small propor- tion of the revenues of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners is derived from " rookeries." SHEEPLESS SHEPHERDS. The Rev. Henry W. Clarke's figures will hardly admit of embellishment. Unadorned they are adorned the most. For example, St. Alphage, London Wall, with an income of 925, has an average attendance of four in the morning and six in the evening. St. Olave, Hart Street, averages thirty-four in the morning and twenty-seven in the evening. The income is ,2,050 a year with a house, which the present " incumbent," resident in Kensington, has leased for 220 a year. But Mr. Clarke's own form of presentment is the best : "(19) All Hallow?, Barking, averages 52 morning, 78 evening ; income, .2,000 ; vicarage leased ; vicar resides in parish. "(22) St. Margaret's, Pattens, averages 36 morning, 62 evening ; income, 980 ; rectory leased ; rector lives in Isle of Wight ; curate does all the work. "(35) All Hallows', Lombard Street, averages 19 morn- ing, 26 evening; income, 1,085; tne rector is also SHEEPLESS LONDON SHEPHERDS 133 residentiary Canon of Canterbury Cathedral, with income annexed thereto in addition ; rectory-house leased, and has for years been converted into a restaurant ; he lives in Victoria Street ; there is a large sum accumulating for a rectory-house for many years past, but none obtained yet. "(37) & Peter's^ Cornhill, averages 40 morning, 32 evening ; lectures on Wednesdays, half-past twelve, attract average of 120; lectures on Thursdays, at twelve noon, attract only 6 on an average ; this is an additional proof that the brilliant speaker without paper sermons will attract the City Man; income, .2,526; rectory let; rector does not reside in the parish." The 120 "City Men " who come (or came) to St. Peter, Cornhill, on Wednesdays, like so many brands plucked from the burning, are the one redeeming feature of the whole iniquitous business, and surely their salvation is a trifle costly. A Jew, it is calculated, cannot be converted down of an expenditure of 5,000 ; and the City Man's conscience, it seems, can only be touched by a battery of almost equal financial calibre. Truly, both are "hard nuts " ; but certain " proselytes," Christ said, the priests made two-fold more the children of hell than themselves, and, peradventure, the converted stockbrokers are but indifferent " Christians " after all. A given fifteen of the City Churches have a united income of .9,933 a year, paid punctually, quarterly, with rectories, vicarages, etc., as well. The average aggregate congregations of said fifteen Church< ; number 148 persons in the morning, and 155 in the evei ng. That is an average income per Church of 662 a ye ur, with house, for an average attendance of about 10 pers( is, morning and evening ! WANTED A SECOND WVCLIF. Here, then, we have " desirable preferment " as it is in "That Great Lying Church of England "in its fullest 134 "THAT GREAT LYING CHURCH" fruition. VVyclif, the first and greatest of Church Re- formers, denounced "the Rich Church which had fallen away to the Devil." His " Poor Clergy " strove as strenuously against Mammon-worship as against Romish Sacerdotalism, and who will venture to say that a Free Church of England, based on Fourteenth Century Wyclifite tenets, is not the noblest ideal it is possible to call upon all Englishmen gentle and simple, rich and poor, taught and untaught to embrace ? Anyway, it is a consumma- tion by many degrees more desirable than that which was actually attained by the assertion of the hard, dogmatic, mercenary and capitalistic Middle Class Protestantism of Luther, Calvin, and Knox in the Sixteenth Century. Con- structive Christianity, in truth, not merely abolishes Poverty (by organising Communism), but with it the State or Economic System of Individualism, which is the parent of Poverty and most other forms of human misery. In the preface to " Darmesteter's " Prophets of Israel " it is wisely enjoined : "Go back to the sources of Christianity; take up the words of the inspired Socialists, Isaiah, Ezekiel, and Jeremiah ; put them into the mouths of your priests ; be a Revolutionary in the spirit of those anavim^ and you will make the Church again the Guide and Controller of Human Society, while curing Europe of its moral and social diseases. " Jf this be not done, the necessary work will be accomplished by other and more powerful means" "FOR IF BEFORE HIS DUTY MAN WITH LISTLESS SPIRIT STANDS, ERE LONG THE GREAT AVENGER TAKES THE WORK FROM OUT HIS HANDS." XXI HOW NOT TO DISENDOW " ' How delighted we should all be to throw open our doors to Him (Christ) and listen to His divine precepts. Don't you think so, Mr. Carlyle ? ' asked a fine Society lady. Truthful Thomas replied : ' No, madam, I don't. I think if He had come very fashionably dressed, with plenty of money, and preaching doctrines palatable to the higher orders, I might have had the honour of receiving from you a card of invitation, on the back of which would be written, "To meet our Saviour." But if He came uttering His sublime precepts, and de- nouncing the Pharisees, and associating with the publicans and the lower orders, as He did, you would have treated Him as the Jews did, and cried out, "Take Him to Newgate and hang Him."' "Love! Yes, the whole secret is in that one word. By adding love to the conception of the God of His people, by exemplifying it in His own life, and demanding it in His followers, Jesus accomplished what had baffled all the wisdom of the Greek Sages. He restored the moral unity of man, abolished the whole world, and made a new Heaven and a new Earth." THOMAS DAVIDSON : " Aristotle." " I desire that all my brethren should labour at useful occupations, that one may be less of a burden to the people. Those who cannot work let them learn to work. The lukewarm, and those who do not work sincerely and humbly, will be rejected by God." St. FRANCIS o'Assisi. "Let him that stole steal no more; but rather let him labour, working with his hands. These hands ministered to my necessities, and to them that were with me." ST. PAUL. " My Father worketh hitherto, and I work." JESUS CHRIST. WHEN "That Great Lying Church" comes to be dis- established, it is devoutly to be hoped that Disestablish- '35 136 "THAT GREAT LYING CHURCH" ment in Ireland (1869) by the late Grand Old Man will not be seriously taken as a precedent. Why ? Because it was characteristic of Mr. Gladstone's statesmanship that he never abolished one abuse without creating another, or others, in its place. Though he disestablished the Irish Church, he can scarcely be said to have disendowed it. It was only the sentimental grievance that was removed. The Irish People have been "compensated" out of nearly any pretence of substantial benefit. RUINOUS "COMPENSATIONS." Gladstone estimated the Yearly Income of the Irish Estab- lishment at ,700,000 ; Capitalised Value, i 6,000,000. Of the latter amount ^8,650,000 were to go in " com- pensations," leaving " a sum at the disposal of Parliament for other purposes of not less than between ,7,000,000 and ;8,ooo,ooo." But both amounts have proved to be under-estimates, particularly the former, as will now be seen : ACTUAL ESTIMATED COMPENSATION (1869) TO COMPENSATION (I8 9 2). 1. Bishops, Dignitaries, and Parochial Clergy 4,900,000 6,468,597 2. Curates 800,000 I >873>935 3. Lay Officers 600,000 677,965 4. Lay Patrons 300,000 778,887 5. In lieu of Private Endowments 500,000 500,000 6. Building Charges 250,000 466,660 7,350,000 10,766,044 7. In lieu of Presbyterian Regium Donum 733ooo 773.420 8. In lieu of Catholic Maynooth Giant 367,000 372,331 9. Cost of Irish Church Commission.. 200,000 5 I S562 8,650,000 12,427,357 HOW NOT TO DISENDOW 137 WHOLESALE MANUFACTURE OF CURATES. It is not difficult to account for this enormous excess in 'compensations" of ^3,777,357 over the estimated total. The Lords, for example, were pleased to add a bonus of 12 per cent. (,800,000) to all life-interest commutations; while the phenomenal excess in compensation to curates of ^1,073,935 was every way characteristic and worthy of "the Great Lying Church." In 1868, when Mr. Glad- stone's Disestablishment Resolution was first carried in the House of Commons, they were 500 in number; on January i, 1871, when the Act came into force, they were over 900 ! During the previous December, 200 were appointed ; and the following advertisement, which appeared in the Belfast News of December 28, 1870, when there was certainly no time to lose, tells its own infamous tale : " CURATES WANTED. Wanted immediately two or three Curates in full or deacon's orders. Annuities almost certain. Apply by letter, Wednesday (28th Dec., 1870), or Thursday (29th Dec., 1870), to R. H., Box 259, Post Office, Belfast; or by telegraph to George Hughes, Esq., Donegal Place, Belfast." THAI SURPLUS! But what of the Surplus which Mr. Gladstone's Bill had righteously destined for " the relief of unavoidable calamity and suffering"? It amounted, in 1892, to Six (not Seven or Eight) millions ; and of that sum, thanks to a dexterous Lords' "Amendment," the portion of " calamity and suffering " was but ^meagre. Suffering Landlords, however, contrived, in 1882, to pocket ;i, 220,226 in the name of Rent-Arrears, and, in 1891, ^1,516,589 as the vendors of worthless estates from 138 "THAT GREAT LYING CHURCH" which Economic Rent had almost entirely disappeared ! Altogether, Church Disendowment in Ireland was, in effect, a gross SWINDLE, and, depend on it, it will be no fault of our Rulers if in England and Wales it should be otherwise. All good Liberationists must, there- fore be schooled to regard Irish Disestablishment, not as a precedent, but a WARNING. WHAT TO DO WITH A CHURCH SURPLUS. Mr. Gladstone contended that " its application should bear upon it some of those legible marks of Christian character which would be, as it were, a witness to its first origin and its long-continued use," and therein he was entirely in the right. One could confidently name off-hand a score of purposes of which the Master, were He amongst us to-day, would warmly approve, chief of these, perhaps, being Old Age Pensions. But the objects of appropriation in the Welsh Disestablishment Bill of 1895 seem unexceptionable: " i. For the erection or support of cottage or other hospitals, or dispensaries, or convalescent homes, " 3. For the provision of trained nurses for the sick. "3. For the foundation and maintenance of public, parish, or district halls, institutes and libraries. " 4. For the provision of labourers' dwellings to be let at reasonable rents, and allotments. " 5. For technical and higher education, including the establishment and maintenance of a library, museum or academy of Art for Wales. " 6. For any other purpose of local or general utility for which provision is not made by Statute out of public rates." Such a use of the revenues of "the Great Lying Church " could not be other than pleasing to Him who HOW NOT TO DISENDOW 139 said, " Inasmuch as ye have done it to the least of these My brethren, ye have done it unto Me." (See Appendix C.} THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH. And this raises a question of far wider and deeper import. Why have any Clericity at all, Conformist or Nonconformist ? Why, at any rate, any " hireling " priest, parson, or pastor? In the Apostolic and sub- Apostolic Church, it is certain Clericalism did not exist. The very idea of Episcopacy, or of a salaried Clergy of any kind, never once occurred to the immediate followers of the Master. There were no Clergy. All were Laymen alike, with a few simple divisions of duty to avoid confusion. The place of meeting was generally a private house or, later, a building constructed like the hall of a private dwelling. The assembled Christians were hardly anything more than a large family party. Mothers were asked to take their children on their knees at certain stages of the service, which would imply that, at other times, the little ones toddled freely about. First came a benediction , then a hymn. A reading from the Scriptures followed, supple- mented by an pddress or addresses of a simple, homely, and practical character. A second benediction closed the service. There was seemingly, at first, no prayer, Christ having forbidden orisons in public. Whoso prayed was to pray " in secret," with closed doors. Present-day high mass, or ritualism in any form, has absolutely nothing in common with the worship of the early Christians. It is not a development ; it is a Pagan usurpation. The differ- ence is the difference between the free natural life around the domestic hearth and the artificiality and stilted pomp of a life "acted" upon the stage, with the Laity as sightseers in pit and gallery. In truth, 140 "THAT GREAT LYING CHURCH" "A HIRELING CLERGY," as the early Quakers phrased it, has, from first to last, been the ruin of the Religion of Christ. A man who prays to God for his fellow-men, and then claims from them a pecuniary reward as his due, must needs be either the unreflecting slave of custom or a person of the coarsest moral fibre. When virtue ceases to be its own reward, it ceases to be virtue, and in all profitable religions we may justly suspect the value and sincerity of the doctrine ; for how are we to know that it is not preached for the profit alone ? Conceive of Christ or any one of His Apostles teaching for a money-stipend ! They were Communists, of course, and on their journeys partook of whatever the faithful set before them ; but, under ordinary circumstances, they laboured diligently at their respective callings to supply their necessities. St. Paul's practice we know from himself. He was by far the most intellectual and strenuous of the Apostolic band, yet he stuck manfully to his trade of tent-making to the last, and was chargeable to no man. But his example, alas ! has not been followed. The clergy of to-day as well the Spurgeons and Parkers of the unctuous "Nonconformist Conscience" as the David- sons and Maclagans of " the Great Lying Church " are among the foremost in the ranks of the Children of Mammon. Be it specially noted that Play-actor Parker has just been succeeded in the pastorate of the City Temple by one Campbell, whose chief distinction so far has lain in his warm support of the policy of Cecil Rhodes, unquestionably the most unblushing financial malefactor and blood-stained criminal of this generation. Taking them all round, clerics hunt keenly after livings, as if in derision of the Master's "Woe unto you that are rich, for ye have received your consolation ! " Like Judas, HOW NOT TO DISENDOW 141 Aey have sold the Master for gold, and must with Judas go to their own place. They fawn on kings, aristocrats, and plutocrats as if in downright mockery of the injunction, " He that would be greatest among you, let him be the servant of all." They "press not forward to the things that are before." Nay, they neither enter into the Kingdom themselves, nor will they ever permit others to enter in so long as they remain mere stipendiaries of the alUr. XXII ANGLICAN PRIESTS AND ABSOLUTION " And when ye pray, ye shall not be as the hypocrite! ; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you they have received their reward. " But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thine inner chamber, and having shut thy door, pray to thy Father, who is in secret ; and thy Father, who seeth in secret, shall recompense thee. " And in praying, use not vain repetitions, as the Gentiles do; for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking. " Be not therefore like unto them ; for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of before ye ask him." MATT, vi, 5-8. " The woman saith unto Him, Sir, I perceive that Thou art a Prophet " Our fathers worshipped in this mountain, and ye say that to Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship. "Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when neither in this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, shall ye worship the Father. " But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in Spirit and in Truth ; for such doth the Father seek to be His worshippers. " God is a Spirit, and they that worship Him must worship in Spirit and in Truth. " The woman saith unto Him, I know that Messiah cometh (who is called Christ) ; when He is come, He will declare unto us all things. "Jesus saith unto her, I THAT SPEAK ONTO THEE AM HE." JOHN iv. 19-26. THE BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER. IN 1549 there was issued for use in "the Great Lying Church" Edward Sixth's First Book of Common Prayer. 142 ANGLICAN PRIESTS AND ABSOLUTION 143 It was expressly declared to be prepared "by aid of the Holy Ghost " ; but that did not in the least prevent " the Sainted Young Solomon " and his advisers, in 1552, from publishing an amended edition, or Second Book of Common Prayer, overhauling the handiwork of the Holy Ghost to the further prejudice and discredit of the Bishop of Rome. But Catholic Mary Tudor, as has been seen, made haste to reinstate his Holiness ; and it was not till " Good Queen Bess," the " Virgin," who was a great Doctor of Divinity, came on the scene, with her ferocious Act of Uniformity (1559), that further important changes were effected, and that (1571) the Thirty-nine Articles were imposed as the legally authorised Faith of Englishmen. In the reign of his "Most Christian Majesty," Charles II., was enacted (1662) a Second Act of Uniformity (to which the Book of Common Prayer is contemptuously annexed as a Schedule !), and to it substantially is owing the existing Constitution of the Parliamentary or Civil Service Church of England, not a jot or tittle of which can be altered without another Act of Parliament. Now, what is the actual teaching of this strange con- glomerate of traditional pietism, crude superstition, and repulsive snobbery, which, for the first time in my life, I have just been examining with some reasonable degree of care? What to conclude? That he would be an utterly untruthful witness who was not ready to confess that the queer, illogical jumble contains passages of singular spiritual beauty, without any parallel in the remorselessly argued Shorter Catechism on which 1 and most other Presbyterian Scots have been suckled. For instance, can anyone con- ceive of petitions more tenderly human, more truly Catholic, than these from the Anglican Litany ? 144 "THAT GREAT LYING CHURCH" TRULY CATHOLIC PETITIONS. " That it may please Thee to bring into the way of truth all such as have erred, and are deceived. "That it may please Thee to strengthen such as do stand ; and to comfort and help the weak-hearted ; and raise up them that fall ; and finally to beat down Satan under our feet. " That it may please Thee to succour, help, and comfort all that are in danger, necessity, and tribulation. " That it may please Thee to preserve all that travel by land or by water, all women labouring of child, all sick persons, and young children ; and to show Thy pity on all prisoners and captives. " That it may please Thee to defend, and provide for, the fatherless children, and widows, and all that are desolate and oppressed. " That it may please Thee to have mercy on all men. "That it may please Thee to forgive our enemies, persecutors, and slanderers, and to turn their hearts. " That it may please Thee to give and preserve to our use the kindly fruits of the earth, so as in due time we may enjoy them." Well, such comprehensive orisons as the above are, I venture to assert, the only ones that God Almighty has ever been known to answer, or is ever likely to answer. The Common Father of mankind has no favourites, and will assuredly turn a deaf ear to every egoistic importunity and selfish desire of the human heart. How stultifying is it, then, to read, side by side with these ennobling aspira- tions for the welfare of ALL my Prayer Book is not quite up to date such crying contradictions as "That it may please Thee to be her ['Thy Servant VICTORIA, our Gracious Queen's '] defender and helper, giving her victory over all her enemies. ANGLICAN PRIESTS AND ABSOLUTION 145 "That it may please Thee to give all Nations unity, peace, and concord." How even Deity could be expected to bestow both victory in war and concord in peace simultaneously fairly passeth the wit of man. Surely the second supplication, standing by itself, would have better met the exigencies of the case. Nor am I enamoured of the petition "That it may please Thee to endue the Lords of the Council, and all the Nobility, with grace, wisdom, and understanding." From the Norman Conquest to this hour, Our Old Nobility endless supplications for them notwithstanding have never shown the least sign of being endued with one or other of these virtues. Their record is one of inveterate wrong-doing and oppression, and no better proof than that could any sceptic desire to cite of the inefficacy of prayer, if we except the still more prayed for, and yet more disreputable Monarchy of England. Surely it is about time to conclude that these Royalties and Nobilities are long past praying for. There is a touch of comedy about the following "Prayer for Clergy and People," almost worthy of the wit of Sydney Smith : " Almighty and everlasting God, who alone workest great marvels, send down upon our Bishops and Curates, and all Congregations committed to their charge, the healthful spirit of Thy grace," etc. " Marvels " is distinctly good ; but the next matter on which I light is indisputably serious. ANGLICAN ABSOLUTION. Do the alleged Anglican " Priests," marvels apart, really profess to forgive sins ? L 146 "THAT GREAT LYING CHURCH" " Almighty God," I read, " hath given power and com- mandment to his Ministers, to declare and pronounce to His people, being penitent, the Absolution and Remission of their sins : He pardoneth and absolveth all them that truly repent, and believe His holy Gospel." Again, in the Order for Visitation of the Sick, occur the words, "Who hath left powers to His Church to absolve all sinners . . . and by His authority, committed to me, I absolve thee." Moreover, whenever a priest is ordained, the Bishop is called on to say: "Receive the Holy Ghost for the office and work of a priest in the Ourch of God, now committed unto thee by the imposition of our hands. Whose sins thou dost forgive are forgiven," etc. Here, it may be and is said, Absolution follows true repentance; but I have yet to learn that in the Church of Rome it precedes it. Is it contended, then, by our Anglican " Priests " that genuine repentance by the sinner is insufficient for God's gmce without their concurrence ? If so, the Anglican drift Romewards is readily explained, and the duty of Parlia- ment to disestablish and disendow " the Great Lying Church," with the least possible delay, becomes more and more manifest. The Nation pays, and pays sweetly, for a National Protestant Church, and is surely entitled to the genuine article for its money. It would be the same if she were paying for a Romanist Establishment. The officers of the Church, in that case, ought to be genuine Romans, and not traitorous Protestants masquerading as such. ST. ATHANASIUS'S CREED. That this atrocious " Confession of our Christian Faith " should still form an integral portion of the Book of Common Prayer is of all " survivals " the most astonishing and revolt- ing. It is worse than the worst Calvinism ever inculcated ANGLICAN PRIESTS AND ABSOLUTION 147 North of the Tweed, a sort of diabolism worthy of " Darkest Africa " at its darkest. The doctrine of the Trinity (3=1 and 1 = 3) is pro- pounded in the baldest credo quia impossibile form. Thus: " Such as the Father is, such is the Son ; and such is the Holy Ghost. " The Father uncreate, the Son uncreate ; and the Holy Ghost uncreate. "The Father incomprehensible, the Son incompre- hensible ; and the Holy Ghost incomprehensible. "The Father eternal, the Son eternal; and the Holy Ghost eternal. " And yet there are not three eternals, but one eternal. " Also there are not three incomprehensibles, nor three uncreated ; but one uncreated and one incomprehensible. "WHICH FAITH EXCEPT EVERY ONE DO KEEP WHOLE AND UNDEFILED : WITHOUT DOUBT HE SHALL PERISH EVERLASTINGLY." That is to say, the most self-sacrificing of men even those who do their utmost to walk in the footsteps of the Christ, unreservedly accepting Him as their unerring Guide throughout their pilgrimage on this Sorrowful Planet are doomed to " everlasting fire " unless they set their reason, God's noblest gift, at utter defiance, and profess to believe in a most palpable negation of that gift. That is spiritual terrorism of the worst kind, and, damnation or no damna- tion, a Faith to be execrated as in the last degree anti-human and Antichrist. Anyhow, there is no warrant in the recorded sayings of Christ for such a barbarous theology. He merely taught that " the good people are the kind people, and the kind people the good people," and that goodness and kindness, Individualism and Mammon-worship, cannot co-exist in the 148 "THAT GREAT LYING CHURCH" Kingdom of God which He planted, not in nubibus t but on this solid Earth, here and now. We of the Socialist house- hold of Faith are in reality the only true Christians and why? Because, unlike the professors of Creeds, Anglican or other however unable we may be to define Christ's relation to Supreme Being we yet believe in Him in the way and for the reasons for which He asked men to believe in Him. " Do and ye shall know." We are doing as well as the false teaching and, indeed, sheer negation for long centuries of Christ's Gospel have permitted us. Con- sciously or unconsciously, the Faith of the "Common People" in Christ, creedless though it may be, is as strong, or stronger than ever it was. "And were His blameless feet To-day within our streets, methinks men's doubti Would chafe Him little, and His hand would grasp The hand of many an outcast from the fold That boasts Him shepherd, and His test of Love WOULD TURN MUCH GOLD TO DROSS, MUCH DKGSS TO GOLD." XXIII THE CHURCH OF THE FUTURE The ' Church ' must squarely take the side of Labour against Capital not, indeed, the side of the Working-man against the Capitalist, but the side of Labour labour of hand, or head, or heart, against the power of Capital, the Money-power, the power to corrupt, to bribe, to unman against that power which reduces 'men' to the level of ' things,' and makes merchandise of all sacred human ministries. The ' World ' very frankly subordinates Man to Mammon, and is governed by its ' commercial interests.' The Church ought to accept the challenge, ought just as frankly and distinctly to subordinate Mammon to Man, and ought to be governed by purely human and divine interests. This is the kind of Socialism that I freely and gladly profess." REV. CHARLES FERGUSON, Syracuse, U.S.A. "It is said of Madam Guion, the Catholic, that she met in her vision an Angel bearing a furnace and a pot of water. ' Whither goe c t thou ? ' she asked. ' I go,' was the answer, ' with this furnace to burn up Paradise, and with this water to quench Hell, that men may hereafter love God without fear and without hope of reward.' " " If a man say, I love God, and hateth his neighbour, he is a liar." ST. JOHN. "Christianity has been tried for more than eighteen hundred years ; perhaps it is about time to try the Religion of Jesus." DEAN MILMAN. I HAD intended to pursue my study of that most curious Act of Parliament, " The Book of Common Prayer," some- what exhaustively ; but, like most other statutes, the more closely you examine it, the less does it tend to edification. Its beslavering of Royalty and our Old Nobility is alone 149 I5O "THAT GREAT LYING CHURCH" enough for me, reading as I do, in my New Testament, the express dicta of the Son of Man : " Woe unto you that are rich, for ye have received your consolation." " Blessed be ye poor, for yours is the Kingdom of Heaven." " Call no man master, for all ye are brethren." " THE PRINCES Of THE GENTILES BEAR DOMINION OVER THEM, AND THEIR GREAT ONES EXERCISE AUTHORITY UPON THEM. BUT SO SHALL IT NOT BE AMONG YOU; BUT WHOSOEVER WILL BE GREAT AMONG YOU, HE SHALL BE YOUR MINISTER, AND WHOSOEVER OF YOU WILL BE THE CHIEFEST SHALL BE THE SERVANT OF ALL." Nay, further, when our great Exemplar, the Wonderful, the Counsellor, had occasion to refer to His own titular Sovereign, Herod Antipas, He certainly did not allude to him as his " Gracious Majesty," but as " That P'ox " or jackal, the most opprobious epithet in the whole Hebrew vocabulary. Indeed, how any man or woman can profess to be a Christian and a supporter of Monarchy and Aris- tocracy at the same time be other than a Republican in politics is beyond my comprehension ; for be it never forgotten that when Jehovah, in the days of the Prophet Samuel, gave the Hebrews a King, it was as the direst punishment he could inflict on them for " rejecting " Him- self, "that He should not reign over them." Whereupon, "All the people said unto Samuel, Pray for thy servants unto the Lord thy God that we die not, because we have added unto our sins this evil TO ASK A KING." And what more pestilent stuff could be taught to the young than this on which I alight, in the Anglican Catechism, in reply to the Question, "What is my duty towards my neighbour " ? " To honour and obey the Queen, and all that are put in authority under her : To submit myself to all my THE CHURCH OF THE FUTURE 151 governors, teachers, spiritual pastors and masters : To order myself lowly and reverently to all my betters." Why, Pobiedonostseff and the Holy Synod of Holy Russia could not well exceed that. And to say that the English People should retain an army of some 23,000 " spiritual pastors and masters," at a cost of some ^12,000,000 per annum, to impart such servile and per- nicious doctrine as " AN INSTRUCTION TO BE LEARNED OF EVERY PERSON BEFORE HE BE BROUGHT TO BE CONFIRMED BY THE BISHOP" may, indeed, well account fortheir extraordinary gullibility by their " betters " in regard to almost everything affecting their most vital and obvious interests. What a commentary on the texts, " My service is perfect Free- dom " ; " Where the Spirit of the Lord is there is Liberty " 1 In fine, WHAT IS TO BE DONE? This " Great Lying Church " cannot be permitted to go on lying for ever. It has done evil continually all the days of its life. Its career, as has been seen, has been as infamous as its origin was base, which is saying volumes. There is but one possible answer : " Cut it down, why cumbereth it the ground ? " Delenda est Carthago Anglicana, And Disestablishment and particularly Disendowment once rigorously effected, what then ? The Church fabrics, parish and other, remain to be utilised. Let that grand old Commonwealth's Philosopher, Winstanley, "the Digger" wisest of economists, past or present say how. His "Freedom in a Platform" let me premise, forbids all BUYING AND SELLING OF LANDS, COM- MODITIES, OR SERVICES, so that no question of loaf or 152 "THAT GREAT LYING CHURCH" fish could arise under his all-embracing Church, He was, I think, the first English Universalist who " Held it true, with him who sings To one clear harp in diverse tones, That men may rise on stepping-stones Of their dead selves to nobler things. That not a worm is cloven in vain, That not a moth with vain desire Is shrivelled in a fruitless fire, Or but subserves another's gain. That nothing walks with aimless feet, That not one life shall be destroyed, Or cast as rubbish to the void, When God hath made the pile complete." WIITSTANLEY'S "CHRISTIAN MINISTRY." " He who is chosen Minister for the year shall not be the only man to make sermons or speeches; but every one who hath any experience, and is able to speak of any Art or Science, or of the nature of the heavens above or the earth beneath, shall have free liberty to speak when they offer themselves, and in a civil manner desire an audience ; yet he who is the Reader (for the year) may have his liberty to speak too, but not to assume all the power to himself, as the proud and ignorant clergy have done, who have bewitched all the world by their subtle covetousness. "And everyone who speaks of any herb, plant, art, or nature of mankind is required to speak nothing of imagination, but what he hath found out by his own industry. And thus to speak, or thus to read the Law of Nature (or God) as He hath written His name in everybody, is to speak the Truth as Jesus Christ spake it, giving to everything its own weight and measure. THE CHURCH OF THE FUTURE 153 "Yea, and if this liberty were granted, then many secrets of God and His Works in Nature would be made public, which men nowadays keep secret to get a living by; so that this kingly bondage is the cause of the spreading of ignorance in the Earth. But when Com- monwealth's Freedom is established, then will knowledge cover the Earth as the waters cover the seas, and not till then. " In that Nation, where this Commonwealth's Govern- ment shall be first established, there shall be abundance of peace and plenty, and all Nations of the Earth shall come flocking hither to see its beauty, and to learn the ways thereof ; and that Law shall go forth from that Zion ; and the Word of the Lord from that Jerusalem, which shall govern the whole Earth." MICAH iv. i, 2. " ' Ay, but,' saith the zealous but ignorant professor of religion, 'this is a low and carnal Ministry indeed. This leads men to know nothing but the knowledge of the Earth and the secrets of Nature ; but we are to look after spiritual and heavenly things.' " I answer : To know the secrets of Nature is to know the works of God, and to know the works of God within the Creation is to know God Himself ; for God dwells in every visible work or body. And, indeed, if you would know spiritual things, it is to know how the Spirit or Power of Wisdom and Life, causing motion or growth, dwells within, and governs both the several bodies of the stars and planets in the heavens above ; and the several bodies of the earth below, as grass, plants, fishes, beasts, birds, and mankind ; for to reach God beyond the Creation, or to know what He will be to a man after the man is dead, is a knowledge beyond the line or capacity of man to attain to while he lives in his compounded body." 154 "THAT GREAT LYING CHURCH" CONCERNING "DIVINING DOCTRINE." "This Divining Doctrine [Theology], which you call ' spiritual and heavenly things,' is the thief and robber that comes to spoil the vineyard of a man's peace, and does not enter at the door, but climbs up another way. They who preach this Divining Doctrine are the murtherers of many a poor heart, who is simple and bashful, and cannot speak for himself, but keeps his thoughts to himself. This divining spiritual doctrine is a cheat ; for while men are gazing up to heaven imagining after a happiness or fearing a hell after they are dead, their eyes are put out, and they see not what is their birthrights, and what is to be done by them here on earth while they are living. This is the filthy dreamer and the cloud without rain. " And indeed the subtle Clergy do know that if they can but charm the People by their Divining Doctrine to look after heavenly riches and glory after they are dead, that then they shall easily be the inheritors of the Earth, and have the deceived People to be their servants. " This Divining Doctrine, which you call ' spiritual and heavenly/ was not the Doctrine of Christ ; for His words were pure knowledge. They were Words of Life ; for He said He spoke what He had seen with the Father, for He had the knowledge of the Creation, and spoke as everything was. "And this Divinity came in after Christ, to darken His knowledge ; and is the language of the Mystery of Iniquity and Antichrist, whereby the Covetous, Ambitious, and Serpentine Spirit cozens the plain-hearted out of his portions of the Earth. "But surely Light is so broke out that it will cover THE CHURCH OF THE FUTURE 155 the Earth, so that the Divinity charmers shall say: The people will not hear the voice of our charming, charm we never so wisely. And all the Priests and Clergy, and Preachers of these ' spiritual and heavenly things,' as they call them, shall take up the lamenta- tion which is their portion : Alas, alas, that great City Babylon, that mighty City Divinity, which hath filled the whole Earth with her Sorcery, and deceived all people, so that the whole world wondered after this Beast ; how is it fallen, and how is her judgment come upon her in one hour 1 " REV. xviii. 10. APPENDICES. APPENDIX A. ELIZA AND " SWEET ROBIN." Only in the case of "Sweet Robin" did the "Virgin Queen " for a time almost outvie the impetuous Queen of Scots in sheer abandon. Queen Elizabeth succeeded to the throne in 1558, and very soon afterwards mutterings of discontent at her relations with Dudley began to be heard. Dudley was always about her, and his wife was in retirement. The Queen herself made little concealment of her inclinations, and it took all the skill and firmness of Cecil to prevent her from causing an open scandal. The evidence we have as to what was going on during these months is contained in a letter from Alvarez de Quadra, Bishop of Aquila, and Spanish Ambassador in London, to his master Philip II. The letter forms part of the singular archives of Simancas. De Quadra relates that one night, late in the summer of 1560, Cecil came secretly to his house and told him that all his efforts to keep the Queen straight had failed; she was rushing upon destruction, and he could not save her ; she had made Lord Robert Dudley master of the Government and of her own person ; Dudley's wife was about to be murdered, and was at that moment with difficulty guarding herself against poison. Blind to all danger, and careless for the moment of aught but her own passion. Elizabeth 156 APPENDIX A. 157 would be content with nothing short of raising Dudley to the throne, and to this his unhappy wife would not long be an obstacle. In possession of the knowledge thus surprisingly vouchsafed to him, the Ambassador sought and obtained an audience of the Queen herself. Of what passed no record apparently has been discovered beyond that De Quadra declares Elizabeth allowed " she was no angel." But his letter to Philip incontestably proves that before the death of Dudley's wife Cecil knew what was coining, and lets in a flood of light on the whole transaction. On 8th September, 1560, the body of Amy Robsart was found at the foot of a steep staircase at Cumnor Hall. The house was built about a quadrangle, and the staircase in question was at almost the farthest point from her rooms. To my mind, for Elizabeth Tudor's complicity in the taking off of gentle Amy Robsart there is just about as good warrant as for Mary Stuart's in the " removal '' of the vicious Darnley. APPENDIX B. EXPIATORY TITHE-TAXES. Some Tithes, however, were State-imposed burdens ; that is to say, genuine Taxes by origin. For example, in 794, Offa, King of Mercia, having killed Ethelbert, King of the East Angles, convoked a Council, which decided that the people of Mercia should pay Tithes in expiation of the Monarch's crime. The murderer went free, but the people paid the piper in perpetuity, and so ransomed the soul of their ruler. So in 925, Athelstan, King of the West Saxons, guilty of the murder of his brother Edwin, decreed Tithes in expiation of his crime. Again : In 965, Edgar, much addicted to the outrage of virgins, having slain King Ethehvold in order to possess his wife Elfreda, decreed : " And if any man refuse to pay his Tithe as we have prescribed, then let the King's Sheriff, the Bishop of the Diocese, and the Priest of the Parish, come together, and let them by force take the tenth part and give it to the Church to which it was due, and of the nine parts the owner to have one, the Bishop four, and the Lord of the Manor the other four." In 1017, Canute the Dane, guilty of the murder of Eadwig, brother of Edmund Ironside, and probably of Edmund himself by the hand of a poisoner, imposed ample piacular Tithes. Moreover, Holy Church had methods of her own in bringing Passive Resistors to reason. It is gravely related how (" Howett's History of Priestcraft ") " St. Austin, coming to Comiton to preach, the Priest there complained 158 APPENDIX B. 159 that the Lord of the Manor had withheld his Tithe 2 for which St. Austin ex-communicated him and, saying mass, forbade him to be present. Presently a corpse, buried 170 years before, came and stood afar off. Austin asked him who he was : he said he was a man who, when alive, would never pay tithe to the Priest and, dying, went to hell for his crime. Austin raised the dead Priest, who affirmed that that was the man who would never pay tithe. Austin, thereupon, sent the quickened dead man back to the grave, observing he had been long in Hell, that is in Purgatory. The Lord of the Manor, seeing all this, became a due payer of tithes," and no wonder. APPENDIX C. STEPS IN DISESTABLISHMENT. In point of fact, " That Great Lying Church " has been undergoing a process of salutary piecemeal disestablish- ment throughout the Nineteenth Century. Thus: 1689. Toleration Act. 1828. Repeal of Test and Corporation Acts. 1829. Catholic Emancipation Act. 1836. Marriage and Registration Acts. 1846. Penalties and Disabilities Repeal Act. 1852-57-80. Burial Law Amendment Acts. 1854. Oxford University Act. 1855. Liberty of Worship Act. 1856. Cambridge University Act. 1857. Divorce and Matrimonial Causes Act. 1858. Admission of Jews to Parliament. 1860. Opening of Grammar Schools to Dissenters. 1866. Qualification of Offices Act. 1867. Religious Disabilities Removal Act. 1868. Abolition of Compulsory Church Rates. 1869. Grammar Schools Act 1870. Abolition of University Tests. 1882. Removal of Clerical Restrictions at Oxford and Cambridge. What then ? In the above long chain of sect-privilege, so toilsomely annulled link by link, there is probably not a single fetter that any enlightened Churchman would now seek to re-rivet. In truth, he is left with nothing further to conserve than the holy shekels. But in his hands still remain the thirty pieces which he nervously clasps. 1 60 ,.i,f.9. U .I, H ?. EGIONAL LIBRARY FACILI- i35th Thousand, is. Net. A 000117762 THE NEW BOOK OF KINGS. By MORRISON DAVIDSON, ' There are many valuable truths in ' The New Book of Kings,' justly and forcibly expressed. The remarks on the existing Monarchy should be laid to heart by all thoughtful and candid readers." ALGERNON C. SWINBURNE. " If Mr. Davidson had not fortified all his assertions by UNQUESTIONABLE HISTORICAL AUTHORITY, one would be very much inclined to set down his book as the nightmare of a man with a very powerful and a very morbid imagination." T. P. O'CONNOR. LONDON : FRANCIS RIDDELL HENDERSON, 26, Paternoster Square, E.C. Crown 8vo, pp. xvi. -f 434, Cloth Gilt, Bevelled Sides, 5s. net; also a Cheaper Edition, in Four Parts, each Is. net. BEING Cafcour fmtorp Outlines, Roman $ Britisb. IN FOUR PARTS. BY J. MORRISON DAVIDSON. PART I. The Lot of the Ancient Labourer Celtic Britain The Doomsday Book, etc. Medieval "Classes" and " Masses." PART II. The Peasants' Revolt Cade's Rebellion Pro- testantism and Pauperism Commonwealth, Cromwell and Collectivism. PART III. Eve of the Capitalist Regime ( 1 660- 1 TOO) The Coming of the Capitalists Chartists and Chartism. PART IV. Trade-Unionism and Co-operation ]eo- Socialist "Origins"' Socialists and Socialisms Reali- ties, Probabilities, and Possibilities. " An earnest, entertaining, and eminently weighty compilation by a thoughtful Scotsman." Outlook. " Two things strike the reviewer the enormous amount of historical information lodged in the mind of John Morrison Davidson, and the entire single-hearted devotion of the same Morrison Davidson to the Democratic Cause." The Sew Age. " Mr. Davidson is an iconoclast, if ever one were. Every national idol we have he knocks down from its pedestal. . , . ' The Annals of Toil ' contains much interesting information of a curious our-of-the- way kind. Its author has evidently devoted hoth t:nie and thousrht to his work ; unfortunately, however, he has allowed his riympathy f or the Poor and hatred for the Rich to lead him astray.'' Pall Hall F. E, HENDESSON, 23, Paternoster Square, London, E.G.