rli L I E> R.AR.Y OF THE UNIVLRSITY or ILLl NOIS THE PURCHASE OF NEXT PRESENTATIONS AND THE LAW OF SIMONY BY THE REV. FREDERICK MEYRICK, M.A, RECTOR OF BUCKLING, PREBENDARY OF LINCOLN AND EXAMINING CHAPLAIN TO THE LORD BISHOP OF LINCOLN E u tJon RIVINGTONS, WATERLOO PLACE HIGH STREET i TRINITY STREET 1874 rriHE object of the following pages is not to ""^ exchange with those already convinced words of sympathy or indignation, nor again is it their object to create a general public opinion on the subject with which they deal. Those al- ready convinced do not need further urging. Public opinion is formed. I address the members of the Legislature, more especially the members of the new House of Commons, in the hope that by their efforts a scandal may be removed under which the Church suffers, while for it Parliament and not the Church is answerable. Torquay, Marchy 1874. A 2 ViUC NEXT PRESENTATIONS. IT is frequently said that this is a time both of Church assault and of Church defence. If it be so, it ought also to be a time of Church reform. Assailants ought to be willing, and can hardly declare themselves unwilHng, to see abuses that they denounce swept away ; while defenders ought to lend eager aid towards the removal of blemishes that they cannot justify. Reform of things really requiring reform is the proper reply to assault and the complement of defence. There is a reform which, it would appear, may be at once inaugurated and carried through ; namely, the legislative prohibition of the sale and purchase of the next presentations to benefices. It may be said that there are other reforms needed in jmri materia, and that it is therefore better to wait for a comprehensive measure dealing with them all at once. But this course is seldom or never desirable. Reforms should be effected se- parately. Reform should proceed piecemeal. Else 6 Law of Simony. individual reforms come to be delayed till too late, and reform becomes revolution. But why, it may be asked, select this particular point to be urged at this particular time ? Because we have the testimony of taunting enemies and of grieved friends; and each man who scans the advertisement pages of the Ecclesiastical Gazette has the testimony of his own eyes and conscience, that this is an evil, which is not only an evil, but also an offence to the Christian feeling of the nation at large at the present time. It is therefore ripe for being dealt with. The Church has a right to demand of the new Parliament the help that she requires for correcting this abuse within her borders, which single-handed she cannot remove. She will not easily find a better moment for setting her house in order. It is hard to say what are the exact requirements of the law of Simony, which regulates these sales and purchases, at the present time. The Canon Law pronounces Simony to be cujnditas emendi vel vendendi spiritualia vel spiritualihus annexa. It is evident that though classed together under the one head of Simony, the offence of purchasing spiritualia is one thing, and that of purchasing spiritualihus annexa is another. One would be the purchase or sale of Holy Orders, whether the Diaconate, the Presbyterate or the Episcopate ; the other would be the purchase or sale of any position to which responsibility for the cure of souls is Anti'Simoniacal Declaration. 7 necessarily annexed, such as benefices, deaneries, sees, and other dignities.^ The penalties in both cases were degradation from the Priesthood and of course deprivation of any ill-gotten office.^ The first offence is now happily quite unknown among us. Conscience and public opinion are enough to prevent its commission, without the aid of law to support them.^ The second requires the force of law to restrain and define it, and for this purpose there is needed a simpler and more intelligible law than we have at present. Before institution to any spiritual or ecclesiastical office, clergymen are required to make the following declaration : — " I, A. B., solemnly declare that I have not made by myself, or by any other person in my behalf, any payment, contract, or promise of any kind whatsoever, which, to the best of my knowledge and belief, is simoniacal, touching or concerning the obtaining the preferment of C. D. ; nor will I at any time hereafter perform or ratify, in whole or in part, any such kind of payment, * Another form of vendendi spirittuilia is exacting payment for performing Baptisms or celebrating the Holy Eucharist. The twenty- third canon of the council in Trullo i)ronounces dei)osition on any clergy- man guilty of the latter offence '* as a follower of the wicked error of Simon Magus." Payment for masses is, however, the rule in the modern Roman Church, the price of a mass ranging generally from Gf/. to 5s. 2 See Can. Apost. 29 ; Cone. Chalced. c. 2 ; Cone. Trull, can. 22 : Justin Novel. 123, c. 1, Novel. 137, c. 2. ^ Don Domenico de Panelli, Archbisliop of Lydda, states that he was refused admission into Holy Orders at Rome in 1851, because he would not satisfy a simoniacal demand for fifty liomau scudi. 8 Uncertainty in the Law. contract, or promise made by any other without my knowledge or consent." What constitutes a simoniacal payment, contract, or promise has partly to be gathered from the Canon Law on Simony, partly from the following Acts of Parliament : 31 Eliz., cap. 6; 12 Anne, cap. 12; 7 and 8 George ly., cap. 25 ; 9 George IV., cap. 94. The law, thus compounded, is so confused and con- founding as to have led the Eoyal Commissioners on Clerical Subscription in 1865, to go out of their way to express their opinion that " the law on the subject of Simony urgently requires revision." The same opinion has been expressed by a Com- mittee of the Upper House of Convocation in 1860,^ and by a Committee of the Lower House in 1871.^ It is not to the credit of English law that transactions simoniacal in the eye of the law should be regarded as innocent and beneficial out- side the world of lawyers, and that transactions simoniacal in the apprehension of the natural con- science should run the risk of being pronounced non-simoniacal in the eye of the law. It is not creditable that there should be serious doubts whether a given transaction is or is not simoniacal. Such a state of the law causes scruj)les to tender consciences, and gives wilful transgressors oppor- tunity of escape. * Chronicle of Convocation, Feb. 17, 1860, p. 224. 2 Report of Committee on Patronage and the Law of Simony, pre- sented in Feb. 1871. Concessions. g The Committee of the Upper House of Convo- cation in 1860 recommended "that a statute be passed forbidding the sale of next presentations, or permitting it under such restrictions as may remove the grievous scandal incident to the present mode of advertising and selling next presentations to livings." The time has come for the first of these alternatives to be acted upon. I am not about to hold up to general scorn or censure the advertisements in the Ecclesiastical Gazette, nor to repeat the bitter mockeries of oppo- nents, or the sorrowful complaints and acknow- ledgments- of friends. These things are known. Why recall them ? When a disease is confessed it is not necessary to prove its existence. I depre- cate the use of declamatory language, sometimes indulged in with the view of exaggerating the .extent or the turpitude of the evil to be remedied. Its limits must be carefully defined, and any excuses or arguments that can be urged in its favour must be calmly examined and weighed. I allow, in the first place, that the purchase of a presentation is not Simony in the exact sense in which the word is used with reference to the sin of Simon Magus in the Bible. Simony, in this the primary meaning of the word, would consist, as I have said, in paying money for the gift of holy orders — for being invested with the clerical character. But the act about which we are in- A 3 lo Concessions. quiring has to do, not with the original bestowal of the clerical functions, but with the sphere in which those functions, already bestowed, shall be exercised. In other words, it is an offence emendi spiritualihus annexa, not emendi spiritualia. I allow also that the purchase of a presentation is an act which, so far as morals are concerned, might be performed innocently, and even on motives which to the agent might appear praiseworthy. For example, a man may find himself in middle age deprived, by circumstances over which he has no control, of a curacy that he has long held. His desire is to find for himself a sphere of work where he may best devote the talents that Grod has given him to the ministry of the Church, which he took upon himself at the time of his ordination. He believes himself more suited for the work of a sole cure than for an assistant curacy. He has no interest with those who have benefices to bestow. He thinks that he cannot better spend some part of the worldly goods of which he is possessed than in procuring for himself that sphere of work for which he believes himself best suited. He will gain no pecuniary advantage by such a step. He does not do it for any social advantage. The argument is so plausible, that in doing wrong and evading the law as it even at present stands, he deceives himself with the idea that he is acting uprightly, imselfishly and religiously. I believe tliat I have stated the case for the other Need of Greater Stringency. 1 1 side as favourably as it can be stated. Now why do I urge a greater stringency in the law which prohibits the purchase of presentations, instead of a relaxation of its provisions ? Why should not the man that I have described be allowed to act in the way in which he has persuaded himself that morally he may rightly act ? This is not the place to enlarge upon — though I must not omit — the fault of presumption which is inseparable from his act; others, too, act pre- sumptuously in selecting their sphere of life. A sufficient reason against it from a political or statesman's standpoint is the following. Law is not framed for the few who more or less perfectly are a law to themselves, but for the average mass of mankind. Law can take no account of motives, and cannot be partially applied. An act that it allows to one it must also allow to another. Granted for the moment that the person of whom we have spoken has acted unblamably. If he is allowed thus to act, his neighbour, who is not thus unselfishly directing his steps, must be allowed to do the same. His motives are not un- selfish. He does seek pecuniary benefit. He does seek solid advantages. His leading thought is not, "Where can I best work for Grod?" but, "How can I derive most benefit for myself?" And so he traffics in things devoted to Grod's service for his personal gain. And others, following his example, do the like, and thus a money-seeking spirit grows 12 Sale of Advowsons. up among those who ought to be specially free from it, and men see these things, and, in scrip- tural phrase, " abhor the offering of the Lord." In short, these four evils necessarily result : — 1 . There is trafficking for gain in things consecrated to spiritual uses, which Grod abhors. 2. There is an unspiritual mind generated in the clergy. 3. There is offence given to devout congregations. 4. There is scandal before '' those that are without." The cause of such evils as these — evils which friends and foes of the Church alike declare to be at the present time too rife among us — must be removed. But what should be done? How far are we to go ? It is easy to cry out, Let all transactions that h^ve to do with the sale and purchase of livings be utterly prohibited. But is this equit- able ? There are claims of justice and of expe- diency which have to be heard. The general prohibition of the sale of advowsons I, for my part, do not ask. If it could be effected, which is hardly possible, however stringent the law might be, it would, in my opinion, be neither just nor expedient. When a property to which an advowson is attached — an advowson appendent, as it is called — changes hands, I allow that it would be unjust and undesirable to say that the right of presenting to the benefice should not pass to the new owner with the property. Such bene- fice was originally created by the liberality of a Sale of Advowsons. 13 forefather or representative of the present landlord, on the condition of the perpetual presentation being vested in himself and his heirs or successors in the estate. When a stranger in blood succeeds by purchase to the position of landlord, it is just and expedient that the right of presentation should pass to him also ; and as that right of presentation makes the property more valuable, it is just that he should in consequence pay an increased price for the property. In other words, it is just that one should be allowed to sell and the other to buy the advowson apperident to the property. It is also desirable : for when a property has passed from one family to another, it would be highly in- expedient that the nomination to the benefices on that property should remain in the hands of those to whom the property no longer belongs. This would not conduce to that harmony between the landed proprietor and the incumbent which it is so desirable to foster, and it would do away with one of the strongest motives now impelling a patron to select the best nominee that he can find, namely, the desire after the spiritual welfare of his own tenants and cottagers and their children. Instances might be readily cited of villages in which every farmhouse and every labourer's dwelling belongs to the squire, who is also the patron of the living. If the farms and cottages pass from him to another, the patronage of the living should pass with them, in order that the motives which have acted upon 1 4 Sale of Presentations. him in selecting the incumbent may continue to actuate his successor. The sale of advowsons appendent, therefore, ought not to be prohibited. There is another class of advowsons, called advowsons in gross, uncon- nected with the land, in respect to which the above arguments do not apply, or apply with much less force. Nevertheless, the distinction between the two classes of advowsons would be so difficult to make and so invidious to enforce, that it would perhaps be undesirable to attempt it at present. The sale of the next presentation to a benefice stands on totally diiferent grounds. There is no plea of justice to be urged for the sale of a single presentation. The original founder of the benefice delivered it to his descendants as a trust, and he never intended that they should derive pecuniary profit for themselves, in such a way as that, out of his devotion of his substance to Almighty God. Indeed, such a plea is not put forward, except as a cover for baser reasons which are not convenient to be avowed. Nor is there any plea on the score of expediency, as was the case with regard to advowsons. I have shown that under some circumstances the sale of the advowson is likely to lead to the best available presentee being secured by the patron for the incumbency. But the sale of the presentation is likely to lead to the appointment of the worst pos- sible presentee, as he will be nominated on other Insufficiency of Existing Law, 1 5 grounds than those of merit, and for other reasons than because he appears suitable for the fulfilment of the duties of the vacant post. Again, what harmony and respect would there be between a patron who has sold what he knows that he ought to have given, and an incumbent who has paid, or for whom has been paid, to the patron the market price of that which he knows ought not to have been purchased ? And in what degree of rever- ence can and do the rest of his congregation hold their pastor ? And how does he regard himself ? It may be said, But is not enough done ? Al- ready (1) the purchase of a next presentation by a clergyman for himself, and (2) the sale of an ad- vowson during a vacancy, quoad the next presen- tation, are contrary to law. Is not this enough ? It is not enough. It is true that if these pro- hibitions did not exist, still greater scandals would arise than at present. For as soon as a living of considerable value in the patronage of an irreligious man fell vacant, there might be an open auction, purchaser perhaps bidding against purchaser, in the sight or within the knowledge of scandalised and indignant parishioners, who from that moment would turn their backs on their parish church. But, nevertheless, the enactment prohibiting sale during a vacancy, valuable as it is in itself, ^yo- duces special scandals and evils of its own, simply because it stands by itself without other provisions to support it. " Its result," says the Re23ort of 1 6 Evasion of Existing Law. Convocation on Patronage, " is well known to be the filling up of the living, when it is desired to sell the advowson or the next presentation, with some incumbent whose advanced age gives the hope of an early vacancy." (p. 9.) What care of the sheep can there be under a system in which the shepherd is chosen, not because he is competent, but because he is past his work and unlikely to hold his office long ? I am far from saying that the prohibition should be therefore repealed, but it is clear that, as it stands, it is insufficient for the prevention of the evils which it proposes to prevent, and that in some sort it intensifies them. Another reason w^hy the existing provisions of the law are not enough is, that they can be so easily evaded, and notoriously are so habitually evaded. The nomination of an aged man as a stop-gap is in itself an evasion of the spirit of the law; but the ingenuity, I will not say of sellers and purchasers, but of the clever attorneys who are employed by such traffickers and make a livelihood out of the business, has invented so many more evasions, that almost every page of the paper on which the law is written seems to have been torn into shreds and scattered to the winds. It is not my business to enumerate and denounce these base ingenuities. One of the latest of them is for a simoniacal purchaser to buy, not indeed the next presentation, because that is forbidden by the letter of the law, but tlie patron's life-interest in Proposed A^nendment of Lazu. 1 7 the advowson with respect to presentations, which is the same thing, but is not so directly prohibited by the words of the Act. This tricksy evasion has happily not been admitted in the law courts, but it is a specimen, though a bad one, of other evasions which have crept through the courts and have become precedents. A law easily and habitually evaded ought either to be repealed or amended. The amendment required in the present case is stated in a single sentence by the Eeport of the Committee of the Lower House of Convocation : — " That the sale of presentations, apart from advowsons, be made illegal." (p. 14.) The absolute prohibition of the sale and purchase of presentations is a simple thing, more easily under- stood, more easily enforced, and less easily evaded. A further security is suggested by the Committee : " That in addition to the penalties imposed upon the patron and his presentee, when proved to be guilty of Simony, the law shall also provide some punishment for such persons as shall be proved to have wilfully aided such patron and presentee in the commission of Simony." (p. 14.) A clause embodying this suggestion would have the good effect of putting an end to establishments which, by being " the means of doing ill," " make ill deeds done." But, it will be objected, the simple prohibition of '* the sale of presentations apart from advowsons " 1 8 Objections. would only increase the number of the sales of advowsons : for men would purchase an advowson, and immediately after the induction of the pre- sentee would again sell it. If this were so, still the trafficking in benefices would be enormously restrained. To purchase a presentation is not so costly a thing, and can be done with little risk of pecuniary loss. The purchase of an advowson of any value is a thing to which few clerical purses are equal, and indeed the purchase of an advowson of any kind is an investment which no cool-headed lawyer would advise. As soon as the purchaser is in possession, the value of the purchase sinks in market price according to the age of the new owner. He cannot recover anything like the sum expended for him in the purchase money. There has been permanently lost a far larger capital sum than is likely to be recovered by the income de- rived from the purchase. It is not probable, there- fore, that this base traffic would be extensive. Still, it is well that it should be at once effectually stopped. This might be done by a clause for- bidding the resale of an advowson for a period of (say) twenty years from the time of its purchase, or still better, by a clause providing that any pre- sentation occurring within the first (say) ten years after the purchase should fall to the bishop of the diocese or some other public patron. Either of these provisions would so add to the risks of the trafficker that he would hardly be tempted to Objections. 1 9 make so dangerous a venture. Accordingly the Committee recommends further : — " That at every sale of an advowson the deed of conveyance be enrolled by the purchaser, and that such purchaser be not allowed to present to the benefice until at least years after the date of such enrolment ; and that in the event of the bene- fice becoming vacant during such years, the right of presenting thereto be exercised by some public patron, such as the Crown or the bishop. " That before such enrolment be made, it be requisite for the deed of conveyance to be sub- mitted to the Ordinary, without whose consent to the same, signified by his hand and seal being affixed thereto, the conveyance be of no effect in law." (p. 14.) Further, a purchaser should be made for ever incapable of presenting himself to the advowson purchased by him. Another objection has been urged. Would it not be unfair to hinder curates who have no interest with patrons from rising to the indepen- dence of an incumbency by their own act when they cannot look to others for help ? The reply is obvious. If it is a wrong act by which they hope to rise, it is not wrong to prohibit it ; and I have argued that such an act is wrong in itself and from its effects. Besides, when we weigh in the balance the personal advantages accruing, if it were so, to a few men who have been unsuccessful in life 2 Objections, on the one side, and the advantages accruing to a whole parish and to the Church at large from pure appointments on the other, we see at once on which side the scale inclines. But, after all, would it be the case that disappointment of legitimate hopes would result from what is now proposed ? There is a definite number of benefices in England. If the presentations to these bene- fices are not sold, they must be given. There would be as many incumbents under one system as the other. The only difference would be, that whereas at present those who have money have an advantage over those who have merit, under tlie proposed system those who have merit would have an advantage over those who have money. The only three classes indeed who might suffer under the proposed arrangement are, first, those owners of property who, while their pride would shrink from totally separating the advowson from the family estate, desire to make a mean and shabby profit out of it by the sale of a single presentation which they ought freely to bestow ; next, those clergymen who have no re- cognisable claim of merit, either on the score of ability, piety, or hard work ; and, lastly, those — happily not belonging to the clerical order — who make it a habit (it is to be feared that there are such) of purchasing and selling presentations, as they would purchase and sell horses, for the sake of gain. No one can regret if these classes Appeal. 21 suffer the loss of base, unmerited, and unjustifiable gains. There is, perhaps, no one thing which creates in the mind of men such a loathing detestation of religion and all connected with it as the belief that there exists a nefarious trafficking in things spiritual or things devoted to the support of spiritual persons. Even the man who has been made infamous for ever by the verse which tells of a *' filia, sponsa, nurus," had yet to be guilty of Simony to make up the full picture of moral depravity of which he has been handed down to us as the embodiment. " Vendit Alexander claves, altaria, Christum, Vendere jure potest ; emerat ille priiis." Men will forgive much. They will condone errors in doctrine and faults in life and eccentricities of manner, because they can believe that, with all this, there may be yet a real love of souls in their erring pastor's heart, and there is a secret sympathy for human frailty which makes them pause before they condemn too severely. But if they are once convinced that he is "making a gain of them," let his doctrine be acceptable, his morals pure, his manners engaging — all goes for nothing. There is a belief in every cottage, hinted or avowed in every ale-house, that the man is a hypocrite who is serving his own belly while he professes to be engaged on his Master's cause. He may be eloquent ; his eloquence will not move : active in 2 2 Appeal. visiting his parishioners ; he might as well not darken their doors : liberal and kind-hearted ; he will receive no gratitude in return. He may have every quality which would otherwise ensure suc- cess ; but if once the idea has crept into the parish that the parson *' bought them," his influence for good is irrecoverably lost ; and the evil spreads far beyond the bounds of the particular parish. We have evidence in the reports of the Upper and Lower Houses of Convocation that both Bishops and Presbyters are anxious to heal this plague-spot in the Church.^ What prevents them ? Is it the selfish interest of private patrons, members of the Houses of Parliament, who do not like to part with the possibility of making a sum of money by the sale of the presentations of livings in their gift, although they have no present purpose of taking advantage of what the law allows them ? If this is so, the Church is hardly dealt by on the part of those who ought specially to be her friends. The Bishops above all are hardly dealt by, to whose consciences violence is done by their being com- pelled to institute men whom they have grave cause for suspecting of Simony, unless they are ^ We have still stronger evidence of the same fact in a noble and outspoken protest against existing evils, just issued by the Lord Bishop of Lincoln, ever ready to urge reformation of what needs reforming as to defend what is unjustly assailed. The title of his pamphlet is, On the Sale of Church Patronage and Simony (Rivingtons, London), I trust that his lordship's indignant and courageous exposure of present evils may lead to that alteration of the law which the Church does well to demand by the mouth of one of her most learned prelates. Appeal. 23 prepared for law-suits admitting appeal after appeal. The clergy in general are hardly dealt by, who have as a body to bear the scandal of a sin and crime against which they vainly struggle, and for the continuance of which they are not responsible. Let it be noted that there is no such thing as sale and purchase in Episcopal, Capitular, Collegiate, or any public patronage. I believe that private patrons are open to the influence of higher motives than base and selfish interest. Are they not in possession of a trust ? And is it really well to reserve the legal right of violating that trust at pleasure ? Have they no care for those for whom they are trustees ? I do not believe it. I believe that the present system is the result more of thoughtlessness than of deliberate purpose on the part of the members of the Legislature. But if there are any private patrons in either House, who can only be acted on by selfish motives, let them ask themselves whether, by retaining this abuse, they are not risking all ? It was popular indignation against abuses in Church patronage (less scandalous than those now tolerated in England) which led to the disruption of the Scotch Establish- ment in 1843.^ It may be that the transference of patronage from one to another, and the con- sequent appointment of ecclesiastical persons to spiritual cures, for money paid and accepted, will do more to undermine the English Establishment ^ See Dr. Buchanan's Ten Years' Conflict, Glasgow, 1849. 24 Appeal. than any external attacks will do to overthrow it. Public opinion in the present day will not bear what public opinion a hundred years ago made light of. We are thankful that it has been en- lightened and elevated, and that its demands have therefore risen. But if its demands are not com- plied with, we know what results to anticipate. tf-