ENGLISH CHURCH ENDOWMENTS.* Mn. FLOYER has written a small book
on a largo subject, and its smallness should ensure its being read by English Churchmen who have at heart the increased usefulness of their great Church. The conclusion of the war will let loose a horde of would-be reformers, largely consisting of men who have excellent schemes of their own to finance and are looking about for suitable " hen-roosts " to confiscate. Mr. Floyer is himself a reformer but he conceives it to be necessary to understand how anomalies have arisen, before the attempt is made to remove them by letting in the destroyers with their axes and hammers. His plea is not for destruction but for consolidation. After sketching the rise of the parish churches, the history of endowment with tithe, the founding of Prebendal and Collegiate churches, and the consequences of the groat spoliation in the sixteenth century, lie devotes a few pages to some suggestions for reform, especially in regard to Cathedral foundations. To begin with, he would abolish pluralities and insist on continuousresidence • Studies en the nesse/ of English Church Endowments. By J. K. Moyer. London atscualhut ale/ Co. Iss. aet.j
for all the Canons. In order to encourage such residence, lie would restore the Common Fund, and the common table as at the Universities. In some Cathedral Churches which manage their own estates, the Common Fund still exists ; but in the larger number of cases the estates are managed by the Ecclesiastical Commission, and the Dean and Canons receive a fixed stipend. The restoration of the common table is a more feasible suggestion ; it would certainly allow, as Mr. Floyer points out, the exercise of a corporate hospitality which most Cathedral statutes enjoin ; and the habit of dining together would conduce to the restoration of a corporate spirit and the custom of taking common counsel on the work to be done. But before such a consummation could be reached the appointment to canonries would have to be regulated. At present the stipends of two Heads of University Colleges are paid from Cathedral revenues, and in consequence the residence of such Canons is necessarily restricted to a month or two in the Long Vacation. Then Bishops have a way of paying their suffragans by appointing them to canonries; and suffragans have to be about in the diocese. Cathedral reform is consequently full of difficulties ; but it is gratifying to find a reformer who is anxious to improve what exists, instead of sweeping it away. Mr. Floyer has much to urge against the parson's freehold and the present system of patronage ; but there are great advantages in the very anomalies of patronage, and the freehold, if it is responsible for much evil, has also been of much use in allowing new ideas to be held in the diocese of an ultra-conservative Bishop. Neither the Evangelical, nor the Tractarian, nor the modern Liberal movement would have had any chance of growth if the occupants of benefices were liable to removal every five or seven years. A better proposal would seem to be to extend the list of causes for which incumbents may be deprived.
Previous page
