•ri9LWA\'^vif\ ^:t?. 
 
 I B RA R.Y 
 OF THE 
 U N I VLRSITY 
 or ILLINOIS
 
 DO AWAY WITH DEANS 
 
 CATHEDRAL REFORM, 
 
 BY THE 
 
 REV. EDWARD STUART, M.A., 
 
 INCUMBENT OF S. MARY MAGDALENe's CHURCH, MUNSTER SQUARE, 
 
 regent's park. 
 
 SECOND EDITION. 
 
 LONDON : 
 J. MASTERS, 78, NEW BOND STREET. 
 
 Price One Penny.
 
 No disrespect is intended by the following remarks 
 to those who fill the office of Cathedral Deans ; it is 
 the office itself, not the persons who fill it, that the Tract 
 is aimed at. 
 
 E. S.
 
 DO AWAY WITH DEANS 
 
 The "speciality" of a Cathedral is that it is the 
 Bishop's seat, Cathedra Episcopi^ hence its name j any 
 Cathedral reform, therefore, which does not take this 
 as its leading idea must fail. 
 
 As retreats for learned leisure, as schools for 
 Church music, as nests of sinecure preferment, to 
 attract to the Church those who wish for such prefer- 
 ment, (is that desirable ?) as dreamy monuments of 
 the past, to be visited by tourists and sentimental 
 ladies, as anything but the home of the Bishop, and 
 the head-quarters of the diocese, our Cathedrals must 
 fail to commend themselves to the common sense 
 of a practical age; how is it then that they have 
 hitherto so little fulfilled their own special office ? 
 
 I think the answer to this is obvious ; it is because 
 the Dean has got into the Bishop's chair, and when 
 the Bishop goes to sit down in it he finds it already
 
 occupied : he has no wish to sit upon the Dean's 
 knees, and occupy his own Cathedral by sufferance, 
 so he withdraws from it, and solaces himself for 
 the loss of his own true home and ecclesiastical dig- 
 nity, by the mere worldly dignity of a park and 
 palace. 
 
 Do away with Deans by the simple expedient of 
 uniting their office with that of the Bishop. As each 
 Deanery becomes vacant let the Bishop of the Diocese 
 become ipso facto Dean ; let the Deanery become 
 his residence, and let the surplus income thus arising 
 (from the suppression of the Dean's income and the 
 sale of the Bishop's palace) be given as endowment 
 towards new bishoprics, until we have one Bishop for 
 every county in England. 
 
 And when the Cathedral is thus restored to its true 
 use, the Chapter must become a Diocesan Chapter, 
 instead of a mere Cathedral Chapter as hitherto : 
 every beneficed clergyman of the Diocese should be 
 a member of the Diocesan Chapter, and " the Bishop 
 and Chapter" of the Diocese would then be a living 
 reality. 
 
 With the patronage of the Bishop and that of the 
 Dean and Chapter thrown into one, and exercised 
 by "the Bishop and Chapter" of the Diocese in 
 
 /">
 
 5 
 
 common, licensed curates would have a fair chance 
 of preferment, with a large amount of public pa- 
 tronage to look to, administered in a more respon- 
 sible manner than at present. The patronage of 
 new churches would probably be added to this, and 
 patrons of old churches would not be unwilling per- 
 haps to transfer to it their patronage, for a reasonable 
 sum, to be raised by common subscription through 
 the Diocese, which would then have a common in- 
 terest in the matter. Should some election or veto 
 be thought desirable for the parishioners, it would 
 be more easily claimed and granted from such a 
 board of patronage, than when, as now, the Bishop's 
 patronage, and that of the Dean and Chapter, are 
 looked on almost as the private perquisites of their 
 office. 
 
 The four Minor Canons remaining at most Cathe- 
 drals might be superseded, as vacancies arise, by four 
 Bishops' Chaplains, with incomes, provided out of 
 the Cathedral funds, not exceeding three hundred a 
 year each ; their work being to conduct the Cathedral 
 service under the Bishop's direction, and do the work 
 now done by Bishops' Chaplains as well ; appointed 
 by the Bishop and removable by him, the Bishop 
 would then be really master, as he ought to be, in
 
 his Cathedral; and as the Chaplain's office would 
 usually lead to fair preferment, it would not be an 
 unwelcome one, I suppose, to young clergymen. 
 
 Bishops might surely be required to reside six 
 months in the year at their Cathedrals, as justly as 
 parochial clergymen are required to reside nine 
 months at their several parishes ; and if the bench 
 of Bishops were happily relieved from their attend- 
 ance in the House of Lords, there would be no rea- 
 son why they should not do this. There is a growing 
 feeling throughout the country that we want more 
 Bishops, (one to each county,) and Bishops less richly 
 endowed. " Double their number, halve their in- 
 comes, and reheve them from their duties in the 
 House of Lords ;" this would probably express the 
 wish of the vast majority of Churchmen of the present 
 day and of other Englishmen as well. 
 
 But one thing seems clear, either that a Cathe- 
 dral must be looked on as a mere monument of the 
 past, or that it must be the home of the Bishop and 
 the head-quarters of the Diocese. A Bishop resident 
 at his Cathedral, with four Chaplains provided for 
 him, and nominated by himself, to aid him in his 
 work ; a " Bishop and Chapter" of the Diocese admi- 
 nistering diocesan patronage; a Cathedral, the bona
 
 fide head-quarters of the Diocese, these are reforms 
 which would find a very general welcome among us. 
 Sydney Smith's joke about the duties of Deans and 
 Chapters does but express, rather broadly, the com- 
 mon conviction on the subject : when asked (as being 
 himself a Canon of S. Paul's) " What are the duties of 
 a Dean and Chapter ?" he is said to have answered, 
 " 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 dine with the Dean !" But if the 
 Bishop of the Diocese were also Dean of the Cathe- 
 dral, and the Chapter were a Diocesan Chapter, the 
 duties of each would be obvious enough.
 
 ALSO BY THE SAME AUTHOR. 
 
 The Pew Systetn, the Chief Hindrance to the 
 Church's Work in Towns. A Sennon and Appendix. Fourth 
 Edition. Price 3d. 
 
 Sacranwital Worship. A Sermon for Easter Day. 
 With an Appendix on the Use of Music, Painting, Architec- 
 ture, Lights, Incense, Vestments, &c., in Christian Worship. 
 Fourth Edition. Price 6d, 
 
 Some Thoughts on Low Masses. Addressed to 
 Members of Convocation. Fourth Edition. Price 6d. 
 
 The Mediation of the Church. A Sermon with an 
 Appendix. Second Edition. Price 6d. 
 
 Catholic Unity. A Sermon and Appendix. Price 6d. 
 
 Three Rules a Christian Life. Fifth Edition. 
 
 Price 3d. 
 
 London : G. J. Palmer, 32, Little Queen Street, Lincoln's 
 Inn Fields.
 
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