mi-urn r.rii.i'ixc. ((MMISSH>M.-.I:>. 



I:ATI-:S. 



Ituchester hw a nave and side-aisles of Norman date, a dntiMe tran- 

 sept, but on the north side of the choir only, a choir, and a chancel at 

 the end of it. The chapter-home is at the south-east, and in form ii a 

 long parallelogram. A low tower rise* from the intersection of the 

 transept and nave, and on the weft U a chapel. It still retains iU 

 original Norman doorway, one of the richest examples of its kind 

 njting in this country. The crypt is one of the finest remaining. 



Bangor cathedral consist* of a choir, nave, transept, aisles, and a 

 quadrangular tower at the west end. The clerestory windows are 

 circular : those below are pointed. Neither externally nor in the in- 

 terior does it lay much claim to admiration. 



Bath abbey, now a cathedral church, is in the form of a cross, making 

 two small transepts without aisles ; a small vestry is attached to the 

 south transept, and a great tower rises at the intersection of the tran- 

 sept The choir is the same width as the nave. 



The cathedral of St. David's is partly Norman and ]>artly of the 

 pointed style. It consist* of a nave, choir, transepts, side aisles, and a 

 western tower. 



St. Asaph's is small and plain, but not inelegant. It was built in 

 128 4, but many alterations and additions were subsequently made. It 

 is cruciform, with a central square embattled tower. 



The numerous cathedrals of France, Italy, and Germany present 

 beautiful specimens of architecture, not only in the Gothic, but 

 also in the Italian style. The cathedrals of Amiens, Beauvais, Notre 

 Dame de Paris, as well as many others, are noble examples of Gothic. 

 Cologne, and Freiburg, in the Breisgau, are equal if not superior to 

 any cathedral in England. St. Peter's is the largest cathedral in 

 Kurope. Vienna and Strasburg have the highest spires ; the former is 

 465 feet, the latter 456 feet high. 



CHURCH-BUILDING COMMISSIONERS were first appointed by 

 the statute 58 Geo. III. c. 45 (which has, however, been amended by 

 upwards of thirty subsequent acts), for building new churches in popu- 

 lous districts, and for dividing existing parishes, and assigning new 

 ecclesiastical districts and determining their endowment and patronage, 

 their recommendations beiug notified and carried into effect by orders 

 in council. In this way, not only have new districts been carved out 

 of existing parishes, and themselves considered as original parishes, but 

 churches and chapels have in some cases been constituted the parish 

 church, and the original parish church has become a district church or 

 chapel of ease. The ministers of these districts are usually denomi- 

 nated incumbent*, not being partont and vieart, properly so allied. The 

 Church-Building Commission, although by the original Act limited to 

 ten years, was from time to time extended ; and the powers of the 

 commissioners have been recently transferred to the Ecclesiastical 

 Commissioners. (Blacltt. Comm., Mr. Kerr's cd., v. i. p. 398.) 



CHURCH-RATES are rates raised, by resolutions of a majority of 

 the parishioners in vestry assembled, from the parishioners and occu- 

 piers of land within a jwirish, for the purpose of repairing, maintaining, 

 and restoring the body of the church and the belfry, the churchyard 

 fence, the bells, seats, and ornaments, and of defraying the expenses 

 attending the service of the church. The spire or tower is considered 

 part of the church. The duty of repairing and rebuilding the chancel 

 lie* on the rector or vicar, or both together, in proportion to their 

 benefices, where there are both in the same church. But by custom it 

 may be left to the parishioners to repair the chancel, and in London 

 there is a general custom to that effect. 



The burden of repairing the church was anciently charged upon 

 tithes, which were divided into three portions, one for the repair of 

 the church, one for the poor, and one for the ministers of the church. 

 Pope Gregory had enjoined on St. Augustine such a distribution of 

 the voluntary offerings made to his missionary church in England ; 

 and when Christianity came to be established through the laud, and 

 parish churches generally erected, and when the payment of tithes was 

 exacted, the tithes were ordered to be distributed on Pope Gregory's 

 plan. Thus, one of Archbishop ./Elfric's canons, made in the year 970, 

 is as follows : " The holy fathers have also appointed that men should 

 give their tithes to the church of God, and the priests should come 

 and divide them into three parts, one for the repair of the church, and 

 the second for the poor, but the third for the ministers of God, who 

 bear the care of that church." (Wilkins, ' Concilia,' i. 253.) The same 

 division of tithes was enacted by King . thelred and his councillors in 

 witenagcmot assembled, in the year 1014. A portion of the fines paid 

 to churches in the Anglo-Saxon time for offences committed within 

 their jurisdictions, was also devoted to church repairs. The bishop* 

 were likewise required to contribute from their own possessions to the 

 repair of their own churches. A decree of King Edmund and his 

 councillors, in 940, headed " Of the repairing of churches," says that 

 " Each bishop shall repair God's house out of what belongs to him, and 

 shall also admonish the king to see that all God's churches be well 

 provided, as is necessary for us all." (Schmid, ' Gesetre der Angel- 

 Sachsen,' i. 94.) One of King Canute's laws says, "All people shall 

 rightly assist in repairing the church ; " but in what way it is not said. 

 There is no pretence, however, for interpreting this law of Canute's aa 

 referring to anything like church-rate. A payment to the Anglo- 

 Saxon church, called cyric-sceat (church scot), has been erroneously 

 identified with church-rate by some writers. This was a payment of 

 tin- firct-fruiU of corn-send every St. Martin's, day (November 11), so 

 much for every hide of land, to the church, and the laws of King 



Edgar and King Canute <lir<vt nil cyric-sceat to be paid to the old 

 minister. (Schmid, i. 99, 165.) Cyric-sceat was otherwise called cyric- 

 amber, amber being the measure of payment. (See further Ancient 

 Laws and Institutions of England,' printed under the direction 

 Commissioners of Public Records, 1840.) 



Churches continued to be repaired with a third of the 

 the Norman conquest, and to as late as the middle of the I'ith 

 reiitury. How the burden came to be shifted from the tithes to the 

 parishioners is involved in much obscurity. The following conjec- 

 tural sketch of the rise of church-rates is from a pamphlet l>\ 

 Campbell : " Probably the burden was very gradually shifted to the 

 parishioners, and their contributions to the expense were purely volun- 

 tary. The custom growing, it was treated as an obligation, and en- 

 forced by ecclesiastical censures. The courts of common law seem to 

 have interposed for the protection of refractory parishioners till the 

 statute of Circumspecte Agatis, 13 Ed. I., which is in the form of a 

 letter from the king to his common law judges, desiring them to use 

 themselves circumspectly in all matters concerning the bishop of 



Ii and his clergy, not punishing them if they lnl.1 : 

 court Christian of such things as are merely spiritual, as ' M pi 

 puniat pro cimeterio non clause, ecclesia diicooperta vel n<>n <1< 

 ornata.' Lord Coke observes, ' that some have said that thin w.-t- not a 

 statute, but made by the prelates themselves, yet that it is an act of 

 parliament.' In the printed rolls of parliament, 25 Ed. III., No. HJ. it 

 is called an ordinance ; but in the statute 2 & 8 Ed. VI. c. 13, , r >l . it 

 is expressly styled a statute, and it must now clearly be taken to be the 

 act of the whole legislature. From the year 1285, therefore, the 

 bishops were authorised to compel the parishioners by ecclesiastical 

 censures to repair and provide ornaments for the church." (Sir John 

 (now Lord) Campbell's ' Letter to Lord Stanley on the Law of Church- 

 Rates,' 1837.) But for long after the existence of the custom of 

 nuking the parishioners contribute to the repairs of the church, and 

 after the statute Circumspecte Agatis, the original obligation on tin- 

 clergyman to repair out of the tithes was remembered. Lord (':uiip 

 bell quotes in the same pamphlet a passage from a MS. treatise in the 

 Harleiau collection, written in the reign of Henry VII. by Edward 

 Dudley, a privy councillor of that king, which thus lays down the law 

 for appropriation of the incomes of the clergy : " One part thereof for 

 their own living in good household hospitality ; the second in deeds of 

 charity and alms to the poor folk, and specially within their dioceses 

 and cures, where they have their living; and the third part tlmi-.t 

 for the repairing and building of their churches and mansions." 

 Lyndwode. who wrote in the 15th century, says, that by the common 

 law the burden of repairing the church is on the rector, and not on the 

 laity. " But certainly," he adds, " by custom even the lay parishioner 

 are compelled to this sort of repair; so that the lay people is c,.m 

 pelled to observe this laudable custom." (' Const. Legatin.' 113.) 



It may now be assumed as undoubted, that by the common law of 

 this country the inhabitants of a parish are bound to bear the < - 

 of keeping the parish church in repair; and the mode in which this 

 obligation is performed is, in practice, by church-rates imposed by the 

 parishioners themselves, at a meeting summoned by the chm.-li 

 wardens for that purpose. Upon the churchwardens, conjointly with 

 the minister, devolve the care of the fabric of the church, and the due 

 administration of its offices. With a view to provide a fund for such 

 expenses, it is the duty of the churchwardens to summon parish 

 meetings for the purpose of levying rates ; and if they neglect to '! n 

 they may be proceeded against criminally in the ecclesiastical courts. 

 A mandamus also is grantable to compel the churchwardens to call a 

 meeting. They may also be punished by the ecclesiastical courts for 

 neglecting to make repairs for which money has been provided by the 

 parish ; but if they have no hinds in liand, and if they have not failed 

 to call the parishioners together, they cannot be punished. If the 

 parish fail to meet, the churchwardens then constitute the meeting, and 

 may alone impose a rate ; but if the parish should assemble, it rests 

 with the parishioners themselves to determine whether they will make 

 a rate ; for a valid rate can only be made by an actual or constructive 

 majority of the parishioners in vestry assembled, and if the majority 

 should refuse to make a rate, the minority cannot moke it. (Gosling r. 

 Veley, 4 House of Lords Cases, p. 679.) 



The repair of the parish church, and the provision of the necessaries 

 for divine sen-ice, are thus, to a great extent, at the option of the 

 majority of the parishioners assembled. Before the Reformation. th>- 

 parishioners could be punished in the ecclesiastical court for failing to 

 repair the parish church ; and the punishment was, to place the \m i-h 

 under an interdict, or sentence of excommunication, by which the 

 church was shut up, the administration of the sacraments suspended, 

 and any parishioner who died was buried without bell, book, or candle, 

 and the sentence of excommunication and interdict may still be 

 obtained in the ecclesiastical courts. But there are now no means of 

 compelling the parishioners to provide church-rates. There is no 

 remedy by mandamus : the Court of Queen's Bench will grant a man- 

 damus, as has been already said, directing churchwardens to call a 

 parish meeting, but not to 'compel parishioners to make a rate. The 

 ecclesiastical courts cannot make a rate, nor appoint commissioners to 

 make one. 



The existing poor-rate of the parish is generally taken as the crite- 

 rion for the imposition of the church-rate; but decisions as to poor- 



