THE SCOTTISH GUARDIAN. FEBRUARY 1864. THE FINANCE OF THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH ON commencing our labours in connection with the interests of the SCOTTISH EPISCOPAL CHURCH, we cannot, perhaps, select a more suitable subject to bring before our readers than a brief history of its finance; and we are the more inclined to this opinion from the circumstance of the friends of the Church being at this moment engaged in a struggle for her pecuniary independence. The poverty of the Scottish Church. is greater than the poverty of any religious community in Scotland. We may take the condition of the poorer incumbents of the Church as it must have been thirty years ago. By a return made to the Church Society, it appears that about that time there were pastors receiving incomes from their flocks, in some cases under £30, in others under £20, and in some as low as £10. The income of the bishops, as derived from the old Episcopal Fund, instituted 1792, and from a small Government grant (since withdrawn), never has exceeded £187. About the year 1830 the state of the Church in the Highland districts had attracted so much attention, that an association was formed, called the Gaelic Episcopal Church Society, the object of which was to make a better provision for the Gaelic clergy. This went on for a few years without meeting general support from the Church, and but little was accomplished by it. In 1838 the CHURCH SOCIETY was instituted under canonical authority; and during the time it was in operation, the objects kept in view were to raise the minimum of clerical income, to aid in the support of schools, and in building churches and parsonages. This Society had no reference to episcopal incomes whatever, and the utmost that was accomplished for its appointed purposes fell far short of what might fairly have been ex VOL. I.-NO. I. A pected. After making grants on this very moderate scale for clerical income and for educational purposes in general, a very small surplus was left for meeting building claims, and frequently no grants could be made for such purposes at all. In one word, it had become apparent that, after twenty-five years' experience, the improvements effected upon our Church's finance had fallen far short of what might have been expected; and not only had the results of the Society's operations been unsatisfactory, but the Society itself was losing ground, and the funds were fast declining. Under these circumstances, it was the general opinion throughout the Church that the termination of a quarter of a century since the institution of the Church Society formed a very suitable point for reconsidering the whole question of finance, and for reorganising the plan of its operations. The Church Society, as a canonically authorised institution of the Church, was, of course, preserved in its integrity, and taken as the basis or framework of all future financial agency. All that was required was to make it more comprehensive in its objects. One defect in its original constitution, it was felt, must be supplied. No mention whatever had been made of any provision for the bishops; and the opinion had now become prevalent that, in an Episcopal Church, the bishops ought to have a provision which would raise them above the humiliation of such incomes as had hitherto been attached to the sees of our own Church. In short, it was felt that provision for the bishops and provision for the poorer incumbencies should be promoted pari passu, and that on this ground an appeal should be made to the lay members of the Church throughout the country. For carrying out this resolution, an amended code of laws and regulations of the Church Society was agreed upon at a meeting of the Society, held in Edinburgh, January 13, 1864. It is the great object now before the Church that there be secured an independent annual income for each see of £500; that every pastoral charge shall have a fixed income of not less than £100 a-year, independent of what may be annually contributed by the congregation in form of seat-rents or offertories; and that, as objects subordinate to these, grants at the discretion of the Committee shall be made for educational and building purposes, whether in case of churches, parsonages, or schools. These do not seem to be unreasonable expectations, and we are convinced that, by a little more energy and unity of action, they would soon be attained. It should be remembered, further, that one of these objects is limited and defined. It is not proposed to increase the episcopal income indefinitely, but when once £500 a-year have been secured for each, to close the accounts and to make no further claims upon the Church in their behalf. A strong motive is thus offered * The point at which it aimed was to raise the clerical incomes to a minimum of £90 with a house, and to £100 when there was none. But as the Society could in no case give beyond £45, where the congregation could raise this sum, the income became in such cases under £90. for making a vigorous effort to secure, once for all, the independence of the Society. From what we have already experienced of the spirit in which these financial proposals have been received, we have good hope of seeing in a few years a vast change upon the present rate of clerical incomes. The sources from whence the means must be obtained for promoting the present Church movement are the contributions now in progress, and which are intended to secure a handsome sum, to be considered permanent capital, and to be divided for endowment according to rules laid down between the Episcopal and the Congregational Schemes. This fund is going on. Private applications have only been made hitherto, and the amount is about £13,000. This fund, in the form of donations, will go on indefinitely; and when fairly placed before the Church at large, we cannot anticipate a less result than £50,000. The second source of revenue will be from the annual offertory required by the Church Society; and the third from annual subscriptions of any amount from one shilling upwards. To secure a due attention to the second and third means of raising funds, the laws of the Society have provided for the appointment of a Lay Committee within every congregation, whose duty it is to make arrangements for carrying out efficiently both the annual offertory and the annual subscriptions of the flock. It is the office of this committee to remind the members of the congregation of their obligations, and to see that collections are something more than nominal, and that the cause of Church finance shall not be neglected or forgotten amongst them. We are persuaded that these congregational committees will form the future strength of Church offerings, and that on their neglect or due efficiency will depend the failure or success of this movement, which now seems destined to produce a revolution in the Scottish Church. So far as our influence extends, it will be our constant endeavour to advance that movement, and we shall consider it one of the primary objects of the ScOTTISH GUARDIAN to foster by every means in our power the scheme now proposed. Extreme poverty of its ministers has been too long a discredit to our Church and an obstacle in the way of her full usefulness and due weight. A reproach has to be rolled away from the Scottish Episcopal community. Measures are now in hand under which, before many years have passed away, we hope to be able to report a much improved position of our financial affairs, and to write of present difficulties as amongst the things which have passed away. PARTIES AND PATRONAGE IN THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. Ir is a remarkable circumstance, that from the reign of Queen Elizabeth down almost to the days when the present generation of men were at school and college, the preferments in the English Church which are at the disposal of Government were distributed upon a wholly distinct principle from that which has prevailed more recently. The due magnitude and importance of this change has not, we think, been fully appreciated. During the greater part of the reign of Queen Elizabeth, during the reigns of William, Anne, and the two first Georges, the English Government was dogged at every turn by the shadow of a rival dynasty, and the threats of a hostile creed. Under the four male Stuarts, and under the two last Georges, we had indeed no dynastic controversy; but questions no less dangerous to the public peace were in constant agitation— questions affecting not so much the person of the Sovereign, as the system upon which he governed-questions sometimes striking at the very root of monarchy itself, and continually menacing one or other of our established institutions; and this not in the merely speculative, or at all events peaceful, style in which they are mooted now, but rudely, treasonably, and violently. Under either of these sets of circumstances it was only to be expected that Government should be guided in the exercise of all its prerogatives by the instinct of self-preservation. All its powers would be exerted to this one end; all its rewards would be reserved for men who could influence the public in its favour; all its hostility for those who were suspected of lukewarmness in its cause. This principle would necessarily extend itself through all the departments of State, and be felt in every limb of the constitution. In such an exigency, the Church of course would be one of the first instruments to be employed, and more especially in times when her influence over the people was five or six times as great as it has been for the last fifty years. Thus, under the great Tudor Queen, the ecclesiastical patronage of the Crown was directed to fortify her against the claims of Mary Queen of Scots, and afterwards against the Continental Popish Powers. No doubt the Queen herself had theological opinions of her own, which she strove to gratify as far as was consistent with her safety; but the primary question of all, was, Would a man be a loyal subject? If a very High-Churchman, was he nevertheless an enemy to the usurpations of Rome? If a very Low-Churchman, would he nevertheless refrain from violence, and lend himself to the great work of conciliation, which was the business of Elizabeth's life? Provided these questions could be answered in the affirmative, a man's doctrines were not carefully investigated. Indeed, if they had been, the ecclesiastical restoration of the seventeenth century could never have been accom plished. Under the Stuarts, doctrinal differences came into greater prominence, especially under Charles I. and James II., of whom the latter thought himself too secure to be under any necessity of regarding political qualifications. But still, for ever in the ears of all the Stuarts rang that warning voice, "No bishop, no king." With James I., the exaltation of the royal prerogative was confessedly the first object. Charles I., who had perhaps more clearly defined ideas of what the Anglo-Catholic Church ought to be, was driven, nevertheless, by the growth of a republican sentiment in the country, to fix his eyes exclusively upon the political aspects of his period; and although he did in a measure sacrifice his crown to the Church, it was only when the very existence of the Church was threatened, and men of all shades of opinion within her pale were equally on his side, that he clearly took up that position. He fell in defence of Episcopacy, but not in defence of any one of the various sets of doctrine, which all found room for themselves within its mantle; while it is a matter of history that he did regard the Church of England as the key of his own position, and felt that, if he could not hold that, he might just as well die upon the field. From the murder of this prince to the Revolution of 1688 the Church of England was hardly divided into parties. The Puritan element had been eliminated, much more because it was Republican than because it was Genevan. And it would have been difficult to find a man fit to be a bishop, even had the Government wished it, who was not for baptismal regeneration and the real presence, for divine right and passive obedience. But after the Revolution the Church again became divided into two political parties, as she had been under Queen Elizabeth-into the party which, without going so far as the non-jurors, was still thoroughly Jacobite, and into the supporters of the new regime. With certain modifications and mitigations the same division lasted through Queen Anne's reign, and with the accession of George I. became still more bitter. The Jacobite sympathies of the English High-Churchmen died out only very gradually. As late as 1745, it was necessary to send a regiment of dragoons to Oxford; and not. until the accession of a king who was himself a Tory, was it thought safe to give the slightest encouragement to that party in the Church. But this continued neglect was the punishment not of their theology but their politics. Had a Churchman as high as Doctor Philpotts publicly declared himself on the side of Walpole or the Pelhams, he might have preached the power of the keys and enjoined auricular confession from the Chapel of Lambeth Palace. Under George III. parties in the Church of England underwent another change. The dynastic difference was dead. Men were no longer divided into Jacobites and Georgites. But again, as under the Stuarts, they were divided into Parliament-men and Prerogative-men. |