CONSTITUTION AND RESOURCES OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE. 



is not a rector, but a vicar, whose functions are 

 the same as those of a rector in a ' non-appropri- 

 ated ; benefice. Patronage of livings, or advowson, 

 is a species of real property, and it is appendant, as 

 when it is a manorial possession and right, passing 

 by grant of the manor only, without any other 

 authority ; or it is an advowson in gross, as when 

 it has been severed from the property of the 

 manor, and ceased to be an advowson appendant. 

 An advowson may be bought like any other prop- 

 erty ; but if an alien purchases, the crown has to 

 exercise the right of presentation to the living ; if 

 a Roman Catholic, the right is exercised by either 

 Oxford or Cambridge alternately. In 1835, the 

 right of corporate towns to present was abolished. 

 Besides the Queen, Lord Chancellor, Prince of 

 Wales, higher clergy, the chapters and univer- 

 sities, there are about 3850 lords, gentlemen, and 

 ladies who hold advowsons. There are two arch- 

 bishops, 30 bishops, with incomes ranging from 

 ,15,000 a year, the emoluments of the arch- 

 bishop of Canterbury, to ,2000, the income of 

 the bishop of Sodor and Man. There are 30 

 deans, with salaries of from .3000 to ,700. As 

 assistants to the bishops, there are 82 archdeacons, 

 who hold other preferments, their archdiaconal 

 salaries being small Under them are 613 rural 

 deans, or unpaid supervisors of local clergy. The 

 total number of clergy of all classes is about 

 23,000. It is difficult to fix what the total revenue 

 of the church from all sources is a probable 

 estimate is about .8,000,000 a year. There are 

 about 13,271 benefices, of which 1217 are under 

 the value of ;ioo a year (many being under ^50) ; 

 3231 range from .100 to .200; 6407 from ,200 

 to ^500; 1902 from .500 upwards; and there are 

 494, the incomes of which are not given in the 

 Clergy List. A large part of the church property 

 is managed by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, 

 who pay fixed salaries to the prelates. 



The official census does not collect church 

 statistics. However, the approximate member- 

 ship of the Established Church of England and 

 other denominations may be taken as 13,500,000, 

 leaving about 12,500,000 to the nonconformist 

 denominations. Next to the Church of England, 

 the Roman Catholic Church is the most power- 

 ful, their numbers in Great Britain being about 

 2,000,000, and in Ireland 3,960,891. Of the 

 Protestant Dissenters, the most prominent are 

 the so-called Methodists or Wesleyans including 

 ' the Old and New Connection,' ' Primitive and 

 Free Church Methodists,' 'Bible Christians' and 

 they may possess about 9000 places of worship, 

 and about 3,500,000 adherents. In Wales, where 

 Calvinistic Methodists form the dominant church, 

 this denomination has 250,365 adherents. The 

 Congregationalists or Independents have 3500 

 places of worship, and about 1,250,000 adherents 

 in the British dominions. The Baptists have 

 in England and Wales 2000 ministers, 241,764 

 members, and 325,691 scholars. Of the minor 

 religious bodies, the Unitarians have 355 min- 

 isters, 352 chapels, and about 80 mission stations. 

 The Quakers have about 17,000 members. The 

 Moravians have 5550 members, and 6200 scholars. 

 The Catholic Apostolic Churches (Irvingites) have 

 19 churches. The New Jerusalem Church (Sweden- 

 borgians) have 58 societies, with 4207 registered 

 members. The Mormons have 82 churches. The 

 Jews, 50,000 members, and 100 ministers and 



readers. In 1873, the entire number of sects with 

 registered places of public worship was 131, the 

 number of their places of worship being 19,483 ; 

 in 1882, 186 and 21,864 respectively. 



In Scotland, the Presbyterian Church is estab- 

 lished. Its standard of doctrines is the West- 

 minster Confession of Faith. It is a pure democ- 

 racyall members being of equal rank and 

 power in the body politic of the church except 

 when elected to presiding offices, the tenure of 

 which, however, is usually temporary. The church 

 is governed by three inferior church courts, and 

 one supreme ecclesiastical court, in which laity 

 as well as clergy are fairly represented, and have 

 equal deliberative and executive power. In every 

 parish there is the Kirk Session composed of 

 the parish minister, who is chairman, or ' moder- 

 ator ' and a variable number of ' elders/ who may 

 be laymen or non-beneficed clergymen, but are 

 usually laymen. They are elected by the male 

 communicants of the church. The session super- 

 intends the affairs of the visitation of the sick and 

 poor connected with the church, and keeps up the 

 discipline of the church and parish, interfering in 

 glaring scandals, and inflicting church penalties 

 on offenders. Findings of the session may be 

 appealed against to the court immediately above, 

 called the Presbytery, consisting of the parish 

 ministers and representative lay elders from kirk 

 sessions in the district under jurisdiction of the 

 presbytery. The functions of a presbytery, as 

 regards church government, are not unlike those 

 of a bishop. The next court of appeal from the 

 presbytery is the Synod, composed of a collection 

 of presbyteries in a particular ecclesiastical prov- 

 ince ; and over the synod there is the supreme 

 church authority in Scotland, the General As- 

 sembly, composed of clerical and lay representa- 

 tives from the various presbyteries, whose authority 

 extends to all questions interesting the church ; 

 whose decisions in matters of doctrine, morals, 

 discipline, &c. in everything, in fact, that does not 

 affect civil rights, are not subject to review even 

 by the Queen in council. It is presided over by 

 a moderator, invariably a clergyman ; and the 

 civil head of the church the Sovereign is re- 

 presented at its meetings by a Lord High Com- 

 missioner. The church is divided into 16 synods 

 and 84 presbyteries. There are 1300 ministers, 1250 

 churches, and 1800 of what, prior to the Educa- 

 tion Act, were known as parish or Established 

 Church schools, with 140,000 scholars. The mem- 

 bership of the church is usually estimated at 

 about half the population of Scotland. 



Of nonconformist bodies in Scotland, the Free 

 Church is the most important. Except in two 

 questions of church polity, it differs in no material 

 respect from the Established Church. It consists 

 of 16 synods and 73 presbyteries, ruled by a 

 General Assembly. It has 1084 ministers, 1055 

 congregations ; it pays an equal dividend annually, 

 from a voluntarily subscribed Sustentation Fund, of 

 1 60 to each minister ; and for the various pur- 

 poses of the Church it raised, in 1882, 607,680. 

 The United Presbyterian body, between which 

 and the Free Church there exists a treaty of 

 mutual eligibility as regards membership, has 31 

 presbyteries, 551 churches, 587 ministers, and 

 probably about 174,000 members in Scotland 

 and Ireland, who raise ^383,730 for church pur- 

 poses. The Presbyterian Church has offshoots 



