26 



ANGLICAN CHURCHES. 



of the distinctive principles of the Protestant 

 Episcopal Church, and that under his advice 

 and supervision a society had been organized 

 in Mexico for assisting the reform party. 



The Episcopal Mission to Western Africa, 

 reported seven permanent church buildings, one 

 Hospital, Orphan Asylum, High School, and 

 seven Mission Houses, erected at an expense of 

 over $100,000. There are 21 mission stations, 

 and 316 communicants; 132 boarding scholars, 

 7f>0 day scholars. 



In the Church of England, the case of Bishop 

 Colenso continued to excite a deep interest. 

 On March 29, 1865, his appeal from the decree 

 of the South African Bishops, by which he 

 was, on account of heresy, deposed from his 

 See of Natal, to the Queen's Privy Council, 

 was acted upon. The decision of this court, 

 which is final, was delivered by the 'Lord Chan- 

 cellor. The Court on the part of the counsel 

 of Bishop Colenso, had been requested to admit 

 the appeal, and on the part of the counsel of 

 the Bishop of Capetown to " advise Her Majesty 

 to pronounce for protest and against the said 

 pretended complaint and appeal." On these 

 points the Lord Chancellor decided as follows : 

 " As the question can be decided only by the 

 Sovereign as head of the Established Church 

 and depositary of ultimate appellate jurisdic- 

 tion, their lordships will humbly report to Her 

 Majesty their judgment and opinion that the 

 proceedings taken by the Bishop of Capetown, 

 and the judgment or sentence pronounced by 

 him against the Bishop of Natal, are null and 

 void in law." It was allowed by the Court 

 that the letters patent to Bishop Gray, of Cape- 

 town, gave him the rights of Metropolitan, but 

 it was also denied that the Queen's letters pat- 

 ent had in themselves any authority whatever, 

 not having been authorized by any statute of 

 the Imperial Parliament, nor confirmed by any 

 act of the Legislature of the Cape of Good 

 Hope, or of the Legislative Council of Natal. 

 As in England or Ireland the Queen has no 

 power to create a new diocese, or to appoint a 

 bishop to such, without an act of Parliament, 

 so it was ruled that in a crown colony an act 

 of Parliament is necessary; and in colonies 

 which have their own legislatures, the sanction 

 of those legislatures must be obtained to give 

 validity to the establishment of a diocese. The 

 Queen has the prerogative right to command 

 the consecration of a bishop, but no power to 

 assign him any diocese not constitutionally 

 created. Therefore the colonial bishoprics al- 

 ready founded, with the exception of Calcutta, 

 Bombay, and Madras, sanctioned by acts of Im- 

 perial Parliament, and Jamaica, sanctioned by 

 the local legislation, have no position in the 

 eyes of the English law. The judgment is most 

 sweeping in its consequences, since it renders 

 all jurisdiction in such unsanctioned bishoprics, 

 cot only of metropolitans over bishops, but of 

 bishops over the inferior clergy, invalid. While 

 it, therefore, denied the jurisdiction of the Met- 

 ropolitan of Capetown over Colenso, it also 



denied the jurisdiction of Colenso over the 

 clergy of his diocese. In accordance with this 

 judgment. Colenso resolved to return to his 

 diocese, while on the other hand a large por- 

 tion of the diocesan clergy pledged themselves 

 not to recognize his spiritual authority, and the 

 Bishop of Capetown declared in favor of ap- 

 pointing another bishop in place of Colenso. 

 In the latter part of the year Colenso returned 

 to his diocese, which was greatly agitated at 

 the new aspect of this important controversy. 



The English Order of St. Benedict, in June, 

 1865, was shaken by a revolt of a majority of the 

 monks against their Superior, Father Ignatius. 

 The latter restored his authority, but his health 

 was so completely prostrated in consequence 

 of the excitement, that he was obliged to retire 

 in September from the monastery of Norwich. 

 In December, 1865, he had not yet been able 

 to resume the direction of the order. The 

 "third order" of St. Benedict made a consid- 

 erable progress in England, and was also estab- 

 lished in the Protestant Episcopal Church of 

 the United States. 



The endeavors to bring on a closer union of 

 the Church of England with all those churches 

 which hold to the doctrine of the Apostolical 

 Succession of the Bishops, were eagerly contin- 

 ued during the year, and seemed to call forth a 

 greater attention and a livelier interest than in 

 previous years. An important meeting for the 

 special purpose of establishing a regular and 

 formal intercommunion between the Church of 

 England and the Eussian Church was held in 

 London on November 15th, under the presi- 

 dency of the Bishop of London. Among those 

 present were the Bishop of Lincoln, the Bish- 

 ops-Coadjutor of Edinburgh, Dr. Pusey, Dr. 

 Williams, Canon Wordsworth, and letters of 

 sympathy were read from two archbishops, ten 

 bishops, and a number of eminent men, among 

 whom was Mr. Gladstone. The Bishops of Ox- 

 ford and Edinburgh urged that, in their opin- 

 ion, the churches should not content themselves 

 with preparing the ground, leaving the harvest 

 to be reaped by future generations, but, defer- 

 ring all dogmatical debates, proceed to celebrate 

 the Lord's Supper by intercommunion, if such 

 were the wish of the chiefs of the Riisskm 

 Church. It was stated, and confirmed byjBe 

 bishops present, that orthodox Christians might 

 receive the communion in Anglican churches 

 even now. The representatives of the Russian 

 Church at this meeting expressed full sympathy 

 with the movement, but were unable to say how 

 far the heads of their Church were willing to go, 

 and, in general, advised great caution in taking 

 any decisive steps. The Archbishop of Can- 

 terbury expressed to Prince Orloff, one of the 

 representatives of Russia at the above meeting, 

 a desire to send two bishops to Russia; but 

 hearing what the Prince had to say against the 

 plans, put it off. (See GREEK CHURCH.) As re- 

 gards the union with Rome, a great sensation 

 was produced by the appearance of several let- 

 ters from Dr. Pusey, stating that, in his convic- 



