farms, and all necessary conveniences for his clerical colony. Here he gathered about him his Priests and Deacons in considerable numbers, giving them homes in his own houses, and supporting them from his revenues. The life was not necessarily celibate, nor under one roof, nor at one table; but it was in community. He was the head of the family, and he ruled it as a father his household. He apportioned the work among his clergy, giving to each his place, office, and task. To this one he gave this circuit to travel in the country of the tribe, and to another that; to one he appointed this station or mission, and to another that; and so on through all the work of the Diocese. The sphere of duty whose centre was here embraced all ministrations, charities, instructions, and interests; and the service which went forth hence was circumscribed only by the boundaries of the whole Diocese. This centre of work was the Cathedral. For four centuries this was the polity of the Church, as well among rude and rural tribes of England as in the intense life of the great cities. Everywhere the polity of the primitive Church was the Diocesan system, just as everywhere the administration was Episcopal. The centre of the Diocese was the Cathedral, and from thence the work was conducted.

Throughout all the course of history, in all parts of the world, the polity of the primitive times has controlled the whole of the development of the constitution of the Christian Church. Its principles, modes, and administration have at all times been founded on what the Apostles and their immediate successors adopted and established. Under the pressure of circumstances there have been modifications in incidents and details, but never in what was essential and organic. When Christianity became the religion of the people, and the Cathedral could not contain them, nor be served directly from it, parishes sprang up as separate independent points of work. But the Bishop exercised his jurisdiction from his own Church as from the capitol of his Diocese. Thence proceeded the authority, the administration, the service by which the Diocese in city and country alike, and all the people, urban and rural, were ruled and served. The body of the clergy who hitherto had held a direct, personal, and constant relation to the Bishop, became now divided into two classes, one the Parochial, the other the Cathedral, clergy. The active work among the people was assumed by the former; the powers which all the Presbyters had exercised in assisting the Bishop in the administration of his office devolved upon the latter. The Diocesan system became accordingly separated into the Parochial and the Cathedral system; each of which was the complement of the other, and the whole still having a perfect union in the Episcopal function.

The Clergy of the Cathedral were now consolidated into a compact and highly-or

ganized body. We shall define their duties and powers hereafter. We have now to direct our attention to their organization. They were first called Canons in the eighth century. Their corporation was called the Chapter. Their number differed at different Cathedrals and at different times. At Wells there were in the tenth century four or five; in the twelfth at first ten, then twenty-two; afterwards the number was raised to fifty. At St. Paul's, London, there were thirty, and at Lincoln fifty-two. It was necessary that these great societies should have officers charged with special duties. The principal officer of the Cathedral body after the Bishop was called the Dean. Dean Milman in his Annals of St. Paul's, London (p. 132), thus defines his duties and office: "The Dean had supreme authority; was bound to defend the liberties of the Church; was bound by his oath to observe and to compel others, from the Canons down to the lowest officer and servants, to observe the laudable customs of the Church, to watch over all the possessions of the Church, and to recover what might have been lost or alienated. He had authority also over all who inhabited the manors and estates; an authority which singularly combined the seignorial and spiritual jurisdictions. He was the guardian at once of the rights and interests of the poorer tenants, and, it may also be said, vassals, as well as of their morals and religion. The Dean presided in all causes brought before the Chapter and determined them, with the advice of the Chapter. He corrected, with the advice of the Chapter, all excesses and contumacies. Lighter offenses of inferior persons were punished by the Chancellor. The Bishop had no authority in capitular affairs, except on appeal. The Dean, for more heinous offenses, could expel from the choir, and cut off all stipends and emoluments, with discretion, to the edification, not the destruction, of the Church. These words are in Colet's unaccepted code; but the same spirit prevails throughout the older statutes, only in different forms. The Dean had a Subdean to perform his functions when abroad or incapacitated from duty, with authority over all the inferior members of the Church except the Canons."

Next in rank to the Dean was the Precentor, who had charge of the choir of the Cathedral, and all the services which were performed in it, and the schools of music. He directed the music and had the discipline of all the choristers and singers. His deputy, where he had one, was called the Succentor.

Next after the Precentor came the Chancellor, who was charged with the care of the library, and the grammar and divinity schools. It was also his duty to lecture to the Cathedral clergy on divinity, and to organize_theological instruction given by others. In some places, as at St. Paul's, he had " charge of education, not only for the Church, but for the whole city; all teachers

of grammar are subject to him.” His deputy was the Vice-Chancellor.

Rel

The last of the officers of the Chapter was the Treasurer. "The Treasurer was the responsible guardian of the treasures of the Church, and ample indeed they were. iques, first in value and importance; books, of which there is a curious catalogue; vessels of gold and silver, vestments, chalices, crosses, curtains, cushions, and palls. He was answerable to the Dean and Chapter for the safe custody of all these precious things, and could not lend any of them without the consent of the Dean and Chapter. Under the Treasurer was the Sacrist. His office was to superintend the tolling of the bells, to open the doors of the Church at the appointed times, to dress the altars, and take care that the vessels and vestments were clean and in good order. The Sacrist was to take care that there was in the Church, even on the festivals, no crowd, noise or singing, neither talking, quarreling, nor jesting, neither business nor sleeping. He was to maintain order and conduct every one to his proper place."

There was another body of the Cathedral clergy who cannot be passed over, namely, the Vicars. When non-residence became common it was required of each Canon that be provide a clergyman who should take his place in his absence; and the rule sprang up making it his duty to always have a deputy. Just as the Dean had his Subdean, the Precentor his Succentor, and so on, each Canon had his deputy, who was called his Vicar. There were therefore as many Vicars as there were Canons. When the Canons forsook the Cathedral for their prebends, the Vicars carried on the services and work perhaps as efficiently and decorously as those whom they represented. An old writer of those times, seeking to show the superiority of the monks over the secular Canons, says that the former praise GOD with their mouths, the latter through their Vicars. There is a story of Thomas à Becket, when Archbishop of Canterbury, sending a man with a bull of excommunication against the Bishop of London, who went to St. Paul's Cathedral on Ascension-day, and on that great festival found the officiating priest neither Bishop, Dean, nor Canon, but only a Vicar. The Vicars of each Cathedral having common employment, interests, and life, were naturally drawn together. First, they acquired estates separate from those of the Canons; then they had houses of their own, dormitories, refectories, and chapels; at last, unmarried and living a purely collegiate life, they were formed into a corporation, so that, as there was the corporation of the Dean and Canons, so there was a corporation of the Vicars. They were now no longer each the deputy of a Canon, but were the assistants of the residentiaries in the service and work of the Cathedral. Then a distinction came in,-there were priest Vicars and lay Vicars. But the latter were

not merely singing men paid each as stipendiaries, but members of the college, with equal rights with their clerical brethren.

For many centuries all the Canons resided continuously at the Cathedral, and found their sole occupation in service there and in service proceeding therefrom. But after a time the Chapters acquired the right to appoint the Priests of certain Parishes, who received its tithes and other revenues, and naturally they appointed their own members to those places. Clergy holding such beneficiaries had thus two offices,-one, that of Canon; the other, that of Parish Priest, his title in the latter capacity being that of Prebend. The two functions were united in one person, but were distinct. By and by some of the Canons lived most of their time in their Parishes, leaving their duties at the Cathedral to their Vicars. Others lived most of the time at the Cathedrals, leaving their parochial duties to Priests whom they enployed. At length the separation between the two classes became so fixed that the name of Canon was borne only by the Cathedral clergy, while that of Prebend was applied to those who remained on the beneficiaries. The distinction was further marked by the names residentiary Canons, that is, those who retained duties at the Cathedral, and non-residentiary Canons, that is, those who had only incidental or slight or no duties there.

The Chapters were composed only of the residentiaries. But there was also a general Chapter to which the non-residentiaries of most Cathedrals were summoned. The duties of this larger body were those of electing Bishops and representatives in Convocations.

This highly-organized system existed in its perfection in the twelfth, thirteenth, and fourteenth centuries throughout Europe and in Great Britain without material differences between them. But some of the Cathedrals were Monasteries, the Abbot holding the place of Dean, and the monks the places of the Canons.

When Henry VIII. suppressed the Monasteries in England he made no exceptions of the Cathedrals which were served by monks. These were Canterbury, Winchester, Worchester, Durham, Norwich, Rochester, Ely, and Carlisle. He found himself compelled to re-establish Chapters at these Cathedrals. The organization which he provided for them was much simpler than that which we have described. Each had a Dean and from four to twelve resident Canons, who formed the Chapter. Each also had honorary Canons, but this was only an empty title. Instead of Vicars there were Minor Canons, who performed the same duties. There were no Precentors, Chancellors, or Treasurers, but their duties were imposed on the Minor Canons. These Cathedrals are called Cathedrals of the new foundation. The others are called Cathedrals of the old foundation. The latter are London,

York, Exeter, Salisbury, Wells, Lincoln, Lichfield, Hereford, and Chichester.

In 1840 A.D. Parliament passed an act reducing the number of Canons at each Cathedral to four, except at Canterbury, Durham, and Ely, where there were to be six, and at Winchester, where there were to be five, and the endowments of all other Stalls were diverted to other purposes. The act also diverted the prebendal estates, leaving the Prebends in Cathedrals of the old foundation without compensation. The number of Minor Canons or Vicars was to be not more than six nor less than two. In 1874 A.D. an act was passed permitting the endowment of new Canonries by the munificence of private individuals and the appointment thereto of encumbents. The appointment of Deans is in the Crown, of the Canons, Prebends, and Honorary Canons, as a general rule, in the Bishop, and the Minor Canons in the Dean or the Chapter.

During the last fifteen years the attention of English Churchmen has been drawn to the Cathedrals, and an agitation has been going on with a view of giving them a larger place in the practical activities of the Church. A royal commission is now sitting. Its reports upon the several Cathedrals contain the statutes of their organization and government which are to be adopted by the Queen in Council, and are a vast body of interesting matter. Perhaps the most noticeable feature of the new statutes is the several provisions looking to a more direct and active relation of the Cathedrals with the Diocese and its administration.

In all except those for St. Paul's, London, provision is made for three Chapters; one called simply the Chapter, composed of residentiaries; one called the General Chapter, composed of the non-residentiaries, whether they are called Prependiaries or Honorary Canons, the Archdeacons, and (generally, but not always) of the Proctors in Convocation; and a third called the Diocesan Chapter, composed of the members of the General Chapter and all of the Diocesan officers. This latter body, newly created in these statutes, is a revival of the Chapters of the times when the Cathedrals were the most active and efficient agencies of the Church. It is so in its organization, and more especially in its functions. It is convened by the Bishop, and its duties are to advise and assist him in the administration of his office. In some of the statutes the same duties are enjoined upon the Chapters and the General Chapters; in others they are imposed on the General Chapters alone, but these provisions do not supersede the Diocesan Chapter. Provision is made for that body in all of the statutes except in those for St. Paul's, London, where the General Chapter is charged with the duties and service elsewhere committed to the Diocesan Chapter. The importance of the introduction of these provisions into the statutes of the Cathedrals of England cannot be over-esti

mated. But they are only formulated statements of opinions which have been set forth in many writings of very eminent men, and especially in communications of Cathedral Authorities to the commission, which are appended to its reports. In these writings the contention has been earnest in behalf of the essentially Diocesan character of the Cathedrals.

In the statutes for Truro, provision is made for a force of men called Missioners, whose duty is to go up and down the Diocese assisting the parochial Clergy by preaching, lecturing, holding missions and other similar services. The first Bishop of Truro, now the Archbishop of Canterbury, originated the idea of this body, and speaks of them as the successors of the Prebendaries of the earlier times in the services above mentioned.

We pass now to consider the proper functions of the Cathedral and its Clergy. The first and most obvious of them is the maintenance of the constant, elaborate, and impressive worship of ALMIGHTY GOD. Speaking on this subject, Dean Goulburn, of Norwich,

says,

66

I trust that I have opened a way by these remarks for the discernment of the true character of the Cathedral Church. It is a building specially and prominently dedicated to the glory of ALMIGHTY GOD. I say specially and prominently; and it is by this specialty and prominence that I believe a Cathedral to be distinguished from other Churches. All Churches are, of course, in one aspect of them, offerings to GOD for the honor of His Name. But then this is not the leading, but the subordinate idea in a parochial Church. The primary object there is the dealing with human souls, the converting and softening of human hearts, the stirring and awakening of human consciences, the initiating the worshiper into the knowledge of GOD, and the gradual drawing of him up into communion with GOD. Nor is this end in the least degree foreign to the functions of a Cathedral; rather it is a part of its functions, only not the most prominent part, not the great characterizing idea. The Cathedral is a place rather where GoD is worshiped than where man is impressed, though it is a most blessed thing indeed where the latter end is secured along with the former. The very core of its work is the daily office in the choir, solemn, effective, dignified; rendered as perfect as possible by the accessory of beautiful music, and ever striving and yearning to represent more perfectly upon earth the adoration which ceaselessly goes on in the courts of heaven. The anthem is quite in place in such worship; nor surely should anthems ever be discontinued in Cathedrals, though unsuited (in my judgment) to the worship of parochial Churches. To discard anthems from Cathedrals would be to discard some of the grandest efforts of music to praise the Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier, from

those very houses of prayer which are, in a more especial manner, dedicated to the celebration of the glories of His Name." This is a service which has been always faithfully discharged by the Cathedrals and does not need further remark.

The second function of the Cathedral Chapter is to aid the Bishop by advice and labors in the administration of the Episcopal office. We have already seen how the Christian community was gathered by the Bishop about himself and directed and ruled by him in all their work. By the very circumstances of the situation it was a compact body: its members were all driven from the outside into the society for help and comfort and support. Without, society was unutterably corrupt and vile; sensuality, superstition, atheism, were on every hand. Popular amusements were altogether ungodly; the gravest thought, the noblest aspirations, were of the earth, earthy. The national religion, which multiplied the divinities, deified the emperors, and denied the one only and true GOD, was abhorrent. Against this wickedness it was the mission of the early Christians to protest with their lifeblood. Their Lord of Lords, and King of Kings, was the Eternal TRINITY worshiped through the Incarnate SON; and in proportion as the Roman state was leagued to uphold its adulterate cultus, so the Christian Commonwealth was banded around the universal Church of CHRIST. Their very depths of veneration and passionateness of devotion made these men and women recoil from the touch of the vile world, and drove them to-gether and bound them by the most sacred ties. Their society, isolated in the midst of the multitudes, took a corporate character and had a polity of its own, and was in truth a civitas Dei.

In this sacred family the Bishop was the father, and all were his children. It was

not only love they gave him for his tenderness and wisdom, but veneration also for his high office and his character, which the office sanctified. Now let us ask how this holy man must have carried himself among his brethren. He shared their intensity of devotion; he shrank with them from the sin without; he awaited the same destiny that they foresaw for themselves; and besides, ever in his ear rang the voice of JESUS, "Feed My Sheep"; "By this shall all men know that ye are My disciples, that ye love one another." He was their ruler. Did he lord it over them? Being what he was, and they what they were, all brethren together, he could not help but take them, or at least those who were competent, into his counsels, and listen patiently, respectfully, reverently, gladly, to what each had to say. There, in those first days, under the pressure of the sin without and the love within, this custom grew up, of the Bishop taking counsel of his Clergy.

When afterwards the purely Diocesan system became modified by the parochial

system, the Clergy who were about the Bishop at his Cathedral succeeded to this right to share the Episcopal consultations, as they succeeded to almost all the other corporate rights of the whole clerical body. It became universal Canon Law that the Bishop must on certain subjects consult his Chapter before acting upon them.

Hence the Chapter has been called "the Senate of the Diocese," and the Canons have been called "Brothers of the Bishop." In some statutes the duty of the Chapter is declared to be, "to aid the Bishop when the See is full, to supply his place when it is vacant." One great writer on Ecclesiastical Law concludes from a mass of evidence, that every where "the Clergy of Cathedral Churches formed one body with the Bishop, and entered into their share of the anxiety and into some association with his sacred sway." Another speaking of the Canons says, "their principal duty was to assist the Bishop by their work and their counsels in the government of the Church." Reginald Pole says, "the rationale and ground of instituting Canonries and Prebends in Churches was, that they who are appointed to them, may assist the Bishop and aid him with counsel and work in the discharge of his office and divine things."

A third function of the Cathedral Clergy was to supplement and reinforce the parochial Clergy in their active and practical labors among the people. This includes the strictly missionary work, of which, as done by the Cathedral Clergy in the early days, enough has been already said. And of the assistance they did, and may render to the parochial Clergy, nothing need be added to the explanation of the society of Missioners formed by Archbishop Benson, at Truro, in the Diocesan Kalendar for 1881 A.D.

"Cathedral Missioners. Sanctificatio in veritate. The object of this association is to provide a staff of preachers, who, not being bound by parochial or other ties, may be entirely at the disposal of the Bishop for any work to which he may see fit to send them, at the call of the parochial Clergy. Besides undertaking and arranging for missions (technically so called), where the Bishop and parochial Clergy think desirable, they will endeavor, as far as their numbers may permit, to give courses of sermons or lectures at populous centres, to supply spiritual ministrations during the absence or sickness of encumbents, and to help in the gathering of Candidates for confirmation; in the formation of branches of the Church Society for the advancement of holy living, or other societies approved by the Bishop; in the instruction or supervision of Lay preachers; in the promotion of Mission Chapels, and in other works which aim at the spiritual and moral improvement of the people."

A fourth function of the Cathedral was the establishment and maintenance in close connection with it of institutions of charity