The English Dioceses. By the Rev. Geoffry Hill. (Elliot Stock.)—Mr.
Hill has investigated with much labour and to good purpose the somewhat intricate question of English diocesan divisions. Pope Gregory started his mission with a curiously formal scheme. There were to be two Provinces ; each Archbishop was to have twelve suffragans. This never came near accomplishment, partly from the nature of things, partly from the check which Augustine's w3rk received, a check which in the North almost amounted to destruction. As the rivalries of the English. kingdoms were accentuated, politics affected more and more the ecclesiastical arrangements. The most conspicuous example of this occurred in the eighth century when Offa of Marcia, conceiving that Mercian Bishops should be subject to a Mercian Primate, induced Pope Adrian I. to give the pall to Adolf, Bishop of Lichfield. Offa acted after the manner of Jeroboam, to whom he was doubtless compared by the favourers of Canterbury, but his scheme was short-lived. There was but one Archbishop of Lichfield, and probably the net result of the affair was to strengthen the position of Canterbury. The next century saw other changes, but these were due to the growth of Danish power rather than to English rivalriee. This was widely felt, and, as might be
supposed, especially in East Anglia. Mr. Hill calls this time "The Period of Suppression." A more prosperous age followed, when old Sees were revived and new Sees founded. From the Conquest to the Reformation there was very little change as far as boundaries were concerned, though in the way of concentration and organisation much was done. The Reformation brought about an addition to the English dioceses, though it was made on a very scanty and grudging scale. The opportunity was great, but only a small use was made of it. In our own day there have been two distinct movemente, one towards diminution —the proposed union of Welsh bishoprics is within the memory of many living—and the ether, quite recent, towards inerease. Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle, St. Albans, Southwell, Truro, Wakefield have all come into existence within the last fifty years (Ripon is some twenty years older) ; Bristol has been separated from Gloucester, and we are shortly to have a See of Southwark. Mr. Hill's book is a timely and valuable contribution to ecclesiastical history.
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