•'* ^'
 
 
 TRAFFIC IK LIVINGS. 
 
 BY THE 
 
 REV. R. M. GRIER, M. A., R. D., 
 
 AISTD PREBENDARY OF LICHFIELD. 
 
 ''Oni THAT ESTATES, DEGREES, AND OFFICES 
 WERE NO T DERIVED CORR JJPTL Y!" 
 
 Merchant of Venice, 
 
 RUGELEY: 
 PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY THOMAS JAMES, BROOK SQUARE. 
 
 1881
 
 TRAFFIC IN LIVINGS. 
 
 From the history of recent efforts to improve Church Patronage, we may 
 karu, I think, the use of two widely different and often antagonistic institu- 
 tions, Convocation and Dissent. Complaints of the abuses connected with it 
 had long been heard; but it was the action of the Convocation of Canterbury 
 iu appointing Committees to consider Patronage and the law of Simony, 
 and Iiesignations, simple and by exchange, and publishing their reports, 
 liich first called general attention to the subject, and i-endered inevitable, 
 i)ner or later, effectual nif^asures of reform. 
 
 But from the Bishop of Peterborough, to whom the Church is deeply in- 
 chbted for endeavouring with so much zeal and ability to abate a grievous 
 - audal, the avowal has been wrung, that the chief, the only resistance to 
 Inform comes from members of the Church herself. Her enemies are those 
 of her own household. In the House of Lords one of the principal defenders 
 of the sale of next Presentations is that distinguished churchman, the Chan- 
 cellor of the late Conservative Government, Lord Cairns. In the House of 
 Commons, one of the most resolute opponents of Purchase in the Church is 
 that sturdy Xonconformist, the Radical member for Huddersfield, Mr. E. A. 
 Leatham. Xor do I regard it as either generous or just to ascribe the con- 
 duct of the latter to hatred of the Church, when it is equally possible to 
 -eribe it to love of religion. But even if it could be proved that he and other 
 ivocates of Disestablishment desire by exposing her weaknesses, to add 
 atiliction to her bonds, we still have the authority of an apostle for rejoicing 
 that in any way the truth is preached ; yea, and we will rejoice. 
 
 The Report of Convocation a^^peared in 1869 ; another from a select 
 Committee of the House of Lords on Church Patronage in 1874 ; a third 
 Irom Royal Commissioners for inquiring into the same subject in 1879. 
 
 The first contains an admirable summary of the laws in regard to Resigna- 
 tions, Exchanges, Simony, Donatives and Private Patronage, with a statement 
 of the exils arising from them, and recommends that there shall be. — (l) Confir- 
 mation of the Bishop's right to decline to accept a resignation : (2) permission 
 to a Bishop to refuse institution to any clerk who is inexperienced, or 
 apable, or whose resignation has been refused by another Bishop: 
 . greater facilities for effecting Exchanges with the consent of the Bishops 
 (incerned: (4) opportunity to the parishioners to object to the appointment 
 t an incumbent on moral grounds, or for phj'sical or mental incapacity: 
 conversion of donatives into presentative benefices: (6) removal of the 
 -abilities of Roman Catholic patrons, &c., &c. 
 
 These six suggestions were adopted by the Lords' Committee, who advised, 
 ireover, additional precautions in the appointment of Incumbents ; greater 
 Ijlicity in whatsoever relates to the Sale and Exchange of Livings ; and iu 
 n of the present form of declaration against Simony, a distinct enumera- 
 ■u of all transactions forbidden by the law iu the transfer and procuring of
 
 preferment, and a statutory declaration on the part of the clergyman seeking 
 institution, and on the part of the patron presenting him, that none of the 
 things so forbidden had been done. 
 
 The Koyal Commissioners formulate the processes and promises required, 
 if action is to be taken on the lines laid down by the Committee : and fnrtlier 
 recommend the immediate voidance of a living by an incumbent, who owes 
 it to corrupt means on the part of others, though he may not himself have 
 been cognisant of them ; the vesting of the appointment of the curate in charge 
 of a parish, to which the patron defers the presentation, in the Bishop of the 
 diocese ; and the prohibition of the sale of next presentations as well as of 
 the re-sale of any advowson within five years after its purchase, as a safeguard 
 against collusive sales. 
 
 We have to consider, whether a law embodying the above proposals would 
 remedy the evils which were the occasion of their being made. That it would 
 greatly modify them no oue can dispute : would it remove them ? Hoary 
 hairs and physical infirmities would no longer be marketable commodities in 
 the Church ; and the melancholy of a poor fellow, who complained to a friend 
 of mine, ' ' that his chances of preferment were gone ; when he was supposed to 
 have a cancer, he was sounded with reference to four livings, but now that it 
 was known that he only had a tumour, patrons took no notice of him," would be 
 lost in a larger sorrow ; whilst if the sale of benefices were effected by instruments 
 registered in the diocesan registry, a future Lytton might soon write the tale 
 of " The last of the clerical agents,'' a man perhaps of depraved character 
 a criminous clerk with more than one alias, or even as it would appear, like a 
 cat, with more than one life, whom the law now enables to determine with a 
 view to his own profit, who shall have cure of souls as the ambassadors of Jesus 
 Christ ; advertisements of livings in healthy neighbourhoods, within easy 
 reach of good society, with well-built and commodious parsonages, and with, 
 it may be, infrequent duty and immediate possession, would no longer appear 
 in the columns of The Times and Daily Telegraph, The Church Times, and The 
 Record, and bound up with the programmes of a Church Congress, (as they 
 actually were at Sheffield, in 1878) of which an Archbishop is the president; 
 nor would the sale of spiritual charges take place in public houses by 
 public auction, immediately before or after that of gin palaces and hotels, 
 So far so good. But ought the sale of an advowson to be allowed at all ? An 
 old proverb tells us to wash our dirty linen at home. The advice is excellent, 
 but we must beware of thinking that we follow it, when we only keep our 
 dirty linen hidden from the public gaze. 
 
 But let me not be supposed to censure those who have obtained xDreferment 
 by purchase in accordance with the law. It is with the law, for which we are 
 all more or less responsible, iiot with them, that I find fault. Amongst them 
 are men of sterling integrity and earnest piety. If there were not, if even 
 many of ^hem were incapable or bad, the condition of the Church in wliich 
 more than half the incumbencies are saleable, and a large proportion constantly 
 for sale, would be deplorable indeed. Some of them have erred if, (as matters 
 stand, it be fair to charge them with error), in ignorance ; and many church- 
 men who would be right glad to see the Sale of Livings suppressed, have 
 bought them either for themselves or their friends, to prevent their fallinginto 
 disreputable hands. This, no doubt, is one way in which the evils of the 
 system have been lessened ; but is the system right ? 
 
 Now to this question I do not think that the answers of a number of clerical
 
 dignitaries, the most sensitively conservative class in the whole community, and 
 of private patrons, themselves largely interested in things as they are, and 
 of lawyers, with their ner\oas dread of the slightest aiDproach to any attack 
 upon the supposed rights of property, need be regarded as conclusive. The 
 changes which they have advised in the law are considerable ; they could not 
 be expected to advise more. That they have suggested so many, speaks well 
 for their impartiality and badly for the law. 
 
 Two serious ^objections raised to the prohibition of the sale of 
 advowsons are tliat the varied system of patronage in the Church ensures her 
 comprehensiveness, and that a large amount of property has been invested in 
 private patronage. To the latter it is sufficient to reply that provision might 
 be made that any private patron disposing of his livings in a way or ways 
 sanctioned by the legislature, and applying within a specified period for com- 
 pensation should receive it by an annual charge on the living for a given number 
 of years after the next vacancy ; and to the former, that the abolition of the 
 sale of patronage does not necessarily involve the abolition of the private 
 patron. For though no longer allowed to sell his benefices, he might still te 
 allowed to present to them ; only in the event of his losing his lai.ded property 
 in their neighbourhood, or becoming a pauper, bankrupt, or criminal, it ought, 
 I think, to be arranged that the right of presenting to them should pass to a 
 board such as that proposed at the close of the Commissioner's Report, 
 or that the board should be empowered to appoint some other private patron in 
 his room. 
 
 With reference to the plea urged in favour of purchase in the Church — a 
 plea advanced in behalf even of the sale of next presentations, — " that it is often 
 the means of introducing into the clerical body men well fitted for and likely to 
 be devoted to the discharge of clerical duties, who would otherwise not obtain 
 the opportunity of exercising spiritual functions," it is obvious to reply, 1st 
 that it is probably the means of keepiiig from that body many more quite as 
 well qualihed for the work of the ministry, but opposed on principle to the 
 traffic in souls ; 2ndly, that it diminishes the prospect of preferment to priests 
 without wealth or wealthy relatives ; 3rdly, that no opportunity of exercising 
 spiritual functions would be lost to any one, though not a single living could be 
 bought. To maintain the contrary is really to charge many excellent men 
 with pure and bare- faced simony, with seeking the exercise of spiritual func- 
 tions primarily if not solely for i^osition or for gain. ^N'hat is more, under all 
 circumstances money and monied friends will be an advantage to a clergyman. 
 For centuries to come there will be starviugs in the Church which only rich 
 men can afford to hold : and to the end of time patrons, whether private or 
 public, may be trusted to be alive to the claims and merits of those who to 
 good qualities, whether of heart or intellect, unite the popularity resulting from 
 well-spent wealth. Let a father give his son, as his portion, the money with 
 which he now buys for him an important trust, and he will greatly increase the 
 probability of his obtaining preferment, if he be fitted for it ; that he should 
 ' enabled to secure it to him, whether he be fitted for it or no, is too great a 
 ivilege to confer on wealth. For my own part, I rejoiced in the suppression 
 purchase in the army .• all the benefits of the system were more than counter- 
 anced by the injustice accruing from it, and injustice is as offensive amongst 
 the officers of the Church as of the State. Xo doubt it is earnestly to be 
 desired that persons of private means should devote their money as well as their
 
 lives to their Master's service; but I may be pardoned for thinking that the 
 office of a Priest of God ought to be sufficient attraction in itself to men de- 
 sirous of doing ihe noblest work in the noblest way, no matter what their 
 fortune or what their rank. 
 
 But the i^resent system is supposed to strengthen the Established Church by 
 associating her with the goveniing classes in this country. I answer, 1st. that 
 even the retention of her temporalities may be too dearly purchased ; there are 
 occasions when she should be prepared to say to a tempting world, "Thy money 
 perish with thee," and 2ndly, that no more certain way of ensuring their loss 
 could possibly be devised, than that of allying her with property for the per- 
 petuation of a wrong. The power of the future is not, I suspect, with the 
 aristocracy, whether of riches or of birth. The Church must be in sympathy 
 with the poor in all their righteous aspirations, if she is to stand and extend 
 her iniluence. Politically speaking, it is her weakness, not her strength that 
 she is so generally on the side of affluence and rank. 
 
 But all this is beside the great important question, is it right that any man 
 should be permitted to make money by disposing of a spiritual charge, or give 
 money to acquire it ? What would be said if the Government projoosed to 
 sell a certain number of the judgeships in this countr}^, under any restrictions 
 that can be imagined, to barristers of good standing, and to devote the money to 
 the reduction of the National Debt ? The position of an incumbent is not 
 inferior in dignity, and ought to be vastly superior in usefulness, to that of any 
 judge upon the bench, and yet it is calmly suggested that the law should 
 continue to allow it to be sold and the money pocketed by private individuals. 
 Sir Pit Crawley could add £1500 to his income by selling the representation 
 of Mudborough with a carie blanche on the slave trade. The Sir Pitts 
 of the present day have been deprived of the privilege without receiving any 
 compensation, but they are still, it seems, to be iDermitted to sell the charge 
 of Mud-church with a carte pres(iac hlanohe on religious views and ministerial 
 work. 
 
 And why should the sale of next presentations be prohibited and that of 
 perpetual presentations be allowed F Stop the former and you would at once 
 stimulate and increase the latter ; and the scandal of the highest spiritual 
 interests being a subject of barter would remain. Besides, in one way the sale 
 of advowsons is even more objectionable than that of next presentatioiiS ; the 
 man who buys the latter cannot present himself ; the man who buys the former can ; 
 and however apt we may be to form too flattering an estimate of the powers and 
 virtues of our friends, most of us, I am afraid, are still more apt to form too 
 flattering an estimate of our own. 
 
 It must moreover be remembered that so long as the sale of advowsons 
 continues, patronage can hardly fail to be regarded rather in the light of a 
 property than of a trust, and there will be an insuperable obstacle to one 
 iirgently needed reform, the ada]ptation of the incomes of the clergy to the 
 work which they have to do. 
 
 The examination of witnesses before both the Lords' Committee and the 
 Royal Commissioners left little to be desired ; but it revealed as might have 
 been expected one of the ordinary weaknesses of English Legislators, their 
 fond belief in the omnipotence of acts of Parliament. Resignation Bonds, 
 were illegal as well as Simoniacal some 50 years ago ; they are legal now ; and 
 it was more than once intimated by the examiners that they are thcref ( r
 
 Sinioiiiacal no more. Bub with the mist pi'ofouncl respect for Parliament, I 
 am not to be persuaded tint the State can change by its decrees tlie moral 
 nature of our acts. Murder would be murder still, though the legislature 
 permitted the taking away of human life, and Simony is Simony, all the laws 
 in England on the subject nothwithstauding, To arrange for the voidance 
 of a living when a little boy in the nursery or at school shall be old enough 
 to take it, is to treat a spiritual charge as a piece of property, and is assuredly 
 whatsoever may be said to the contrary, of the nature of Simony. No better 
 definition can be given of that sin than Lancelot's, " Simonia est 
 studiosa voluntas sive cupiditas emendi vel vendendi spiritualia, vel spiritualibus innexa.'' 
 
 But the present system, it is contended, works well, and we are asked what 
 system would work better It would be, we are assured, highly undesirable to 
 increase episcopal patron.ige, and the patronage boards of the Irish church do 
 not give universal satisfaction : No system will. On the whole, I believe that the 
 Bishops have been wise and conscientious in the exercise of patronage, and as 
 for the Irish boards, it is, I submit, early days to pass a sweeping condem- 
 nation upon them. Composed of men new to their work, they have to deal with 
 priests trained in the system which obtains in England. The old canonist tell 
 us that there are three kinds of Simony, maims [lingua) et obsequii ; priests familiar 
 with the first and worst are not likely to be averse from the other two. 
 Soon, I believe, that there, as I hope that here, erery clergyman will be 
 able to say with the Apostle to his disciples, ''neither at any time used we 
 flattering words, as ye know, nor a cloke of covetousness, God is witness :" 
 But if not, it will be because abuses cling to every scheme with which im- 
 perfect men have to do ; the objection to the buying and selling of livings 
 is not merely that it leads to abuses, but that it is an abuse itself, wrong 
 ah initio, indefensibly wrong. 
 
 And if this be so, we dare not tolerate, we cannot spare it simply because 
 it would seem in numberless instances to have worked well. Detestable to 
 every man with a living fath in the God of righteousness must be the morality 
 of ^landeville's Fable of the Bees, where private vices are represented as 
 public benefits, or of Goldsmith's essay entitled, "Asim," where the incon- 
 veniences of residing in a world of too great virtue are graphically described. 
 We men, with all the accumulated experience of at least six thousand years, 
 are bad judges of the consequences of our actions. The ramifications of the 
 evil in which we acquiesce are infinite and beyond our ken. So far, however, 
 as we can see in the matter before us purchase in the Church alienates thousands 
 upon thousands of God-fearing men from her communion and greatly impairs 
 the influence of her clergy. Is it not very probably one of the chief causes of the 
 general scepticism as to their disinterestedness, of disbelief in their mission, and 
 of disregard of their most earnest appeals to their brother-men to forsake 
 Mammon and serve God ? Commercial dishonesty was never more general 
 or shameless than now in England; infidelity in forms more subtle and in. 
 
 lious than any that have hitherto assailed the truth is rife and openly 
 wed ; political corruption, as the recent elections have proved, is wide- 
 spread and is not regarded with the scorn and indigna<:ion which it ought to 
 provoke ; even the ermine of our judges has been shewn by recent 
 ♦ ' clesiastical judgements not to be without spot; it is for the clergy 
 t) correct these evils; but if they are to deal with them successfully, 
 they must not merely have clean hands, but hands acknowledged on
 
 8 
 
 all sides to be clean. No breath of suspicion should rest on the accredited 
 soldiers of the Cross of Christ. Knights doing battle against all the 
 wickedness of the world, they ought to be sans feur et sans reproche. 
 
 And if "this trafficking in Christ," as Alexander of Alexandria termed it in 
 the 3rd century, is to be checked, it should be done at once. For it has grown 
 and is growing. It was encouraged by the substitution in 1864 of a declaration 
 for the old oath against Simony, and would probably be still more so by the 
 substitution of the proposed limited declaration against certain defined illegal acts 
 for the present one. It received a great impetus in 1836 by an act for the 
 sale of more than one hundred livings in the gift of Town Councils, and 
 recentl}'- by that for the sale of more than three hundred in the gift of the 
 Lord Chancellor, whilst the altered relations between the Church and the 
 Universities are disposing the Colleges both at Oxford and Cambridge 
 tt) pait with their ecclesiastical patronage in order to increase their Educa- 
 tional E ndowments, and the appointment to one benefice at least in the gift of 
 the parishioners has not, as the Commissioners suggested, been placed in 
 the hands of an elected board, but is being sold for public and secular 
 purposes, — a precedent upon which some future Chancellor of the Exchequer 
 may find it convenient to improve. 
 
 But if the evil is sx)reading, the time would seem to be especially favour- 
 able for removing it. A government without any very strong prejudice against 
 change or superstitious veneration for vested interests is in power, and might 
 probably in consequence of the grievance which it has just inflicted upon the 
 clergy, be the more ready to listen to their representations and redress an 
 odious wrong ; whilst the possibility of redressing it has been proved by the 
 abrogation of the sale of patronage in the disestablished Church of Ireland, 
 and the established Kirk of Scotland. 
 
 ^ It must not be thought that I am here fnuling fault eithm- ivith the Commissioners 
 the Lords' Committee. 
 
 THOMAS JAMES, PRINTEB, EUfiELEY. 
 
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