CHURCHES. 551 



At first a board of lay commissioners were invested with temporal and 

 ecclesiastical jurisdiction over the affairs of this church. In 172G, the 

 Bishop of London, who had immediate care of these churches, appointed 

 the Rev. Mr. Garden his commissary, and the spiritual and ecclesiastical 

 jurisdiction of the lay commissioners was transferred to him. In 1740, 

 the percentages of the different religious denominations in Carolina is 

 given as follows : 



Episcopalians " 45. 



Presbyterians, French and other Protestants^ . . .42. 



Baptists 10. 



Quakers 3. 



100 



Between 1731 and 1775, as many as one hundred and two Episcopal 

 clergymen arrived from England, the average number officiating at one 

 time for some years prior to the revolution, varying from twelve to twen- 

 ty ; of the whole there was not a single native of Carolina. 



The Church Act encauntered violent and continued opposition. It 

 was passed originally by a vote of only one majority in the Lower House. 

 Appeals were made to Parliament, and the English House of Lords pe- 

 titioned Queen Anne, beseeching her to deliver the province from this 

 oppression. In spite of this, however, and in spite of the steady growth 

 of other religious denominations in numbers and in wealth, the Church 

 of England remained the established church, and sustained its supremacy 

 for seventy years, until the war of the Revolution. Nor was this without 

 advantage to the colony. Through this instrumentality a large number 

 of highly educated and cultivated clergymen were brought into the pro- 

 vince. The interest of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in 

 Foreign Parts was aroused, and valuable donations, not only of money, 

 but also of books for the parochial libraries, were sent from England. 

 Parishes were laid out, churches, rectories, and schools established, and 

 the poor and the ignorant cared for and taught. The parochial rule was 

 administered with moderation and toleration, the watchful opposition of 

 the other denominations operating as a continual check to any undue or 

 arbitrary exercise of authority. Those in authority were persons of cul- 

 ture, liberal in their views, and while their livelihood and position was 

 assured, this never served as a stepping stone to any higher offices. Their 

 very authority was a mere incident to occupations of more transcendent 

 importance. It was a sort of impersonal rule that taught self govern- 

 ment as government of self, and the fierce, and often unworthy, struggles 



