A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



building and parochial subdivision, but also in the revision which it has 

 necessitated in the ecclesiastical organization (see Appendix II). 



With this revision of ecclesiastical organization a new life began for the 

 Established Church in the county. The creation of the diocese of Manchester 

 in 1847 meant that possibilities of influence possessed by the Church, hitherto 

 scattered and wasted in a diocese so vast as that of Chester, were now to be 

 localized, concentrated, and organized. It was in this way that the Estab- 

 lished Church, as well as the Nonconformist, could become a real factor in 

 the life of the people. In the first few years under Dr. Prince Lee (i 847-69) 

 little progress was made, but in 1870 Dr. Eraser (1870-85) came to the 

 diocese, and by his steady efForts and untiring energy, gave a new life to the 

 Church both in active spirit and in organization. With later years under his 

 successors, Dr. Moorhouse (i 886-1 903) and the present bishop, Dr. Arbuth- 

 not Knox, the work of administration has so greatly increased, that two 

 suffragan bishops have been appointed, one of them taking his title from 

 Burnley. The beneficed clergy number 564, and the curates about 360. 



The latest phase of the ecclesiastical reorganization of the county was the 

 creation of the new bishopric of Liverpool in 1880. Bishop Ryle (1880- 

 1900) representing the Evangelical movement of the earlier years of the 

 century found himself at the head of a comparatively homogeneous diocese. 

 Dr. Chavasse succeeded to the bishopric on the death of Bishop Ryle, and 

 within three years had set on foot the plan for a new cathedral to take the 

 place of the parish church of St. Peter Liverpool, which had served as the 

 pro-cathedral and episcopal seat since the foundation of the diocese. 



APPENDIX I 



14 February, 1547-8 ; Pat. 2 Edw. VI, pt. 7, m. 13. — 'Commission to Sir Hugh Cholmeley, 

 Sir William Brereton, John Arscott, James Sterkye, George Browne, Thomas Carewes, John Kechyn> 

 Thomas Fleetwood, and William Leyton to survey what chantries, freechapels, brotherhoods, frater- 

 nities and guilds, manors, lands, tenements and hereditaments in co. Chester, Lancashire and 

 city of Chester ought to come to us by virtue of the Act I Edw. VI, and also the foundations, etc. of 

 the same. . . Proceedings herein to be certified before the first of May next.' The general returns for 

 the country at large to be made into the Court of Augmentations at Westminster, but all returns 

 relating to the Duchy to be certified into the Court of the Duchy of Lancaster at Westminster. 



17 April, 1548; Acts of the P.C. ii, 184-6. — Sir Walter Myldmay and Robert Calway 

 appointed Commissioners for the purpose of sale of ^^5,000 per annum of Chantry rents. Proclama- 

 tion by the King, 14 May (Strype, EccJ. Mem. iii, 154) ; to prevent the] daily resort of chantry 

 priests to London to the Court of Augmentations concerning their pensions commissioners shall 

 repair shortly to every county to declare said pensions. 



20 June, 1548; Pat. 2 Edw. VI, pt. 4, m. 33. — Commission to Sir Walter Mildmay and 

 Robert Keylway to assign out of chantry lands to come to us pensions to Deans, etc., of colleges, 

 incumbents, etc. of free chapels, etc. and stipendiary priests, etc., which shall be dissolved ; to assign 

 lands, rents, etc. for the support of such grammar schools, preachers, vicars perpetual and hospitals as 

 shall be appointed and finally for the maintenance of piers, jetties, walls or banks against the rage of 

 the sea. In Strype, Ecd. Mem. ii (2), 402, is an account of the king's sale of chantry lands in 1 548 

 from King Edward's book of sales ; it contains inter alia a chantry in the parochial church of Kirkby, 

 CO. Lancaster; yearly value £6 15^. ; purchase price ^148 10;. ; purchaser, Thomas Stanley. 



15 October, 1552 ; Acts of the P.C. iv, 143. — Commissioners for sale of chantry lands to sell 

 another £1,000 per annum worth thereof. 



20 November, 1550 ; Duchy Commission Book, vol. 96, pp. 36-7.— Commission to enquire 

 of chantry lands within the co. of Lancaster concealed from the king ; also of chalices vest- 

 ments and other ornaments. Commissioners' names: Thomas Carus, George Browne 'Rauf 



96 



