if it were said that the difference between bishops of the old school and of the new consists chiefly in the fact that the former wore wigs and that the latter have ceased to do so, the definition would be true enough if it were followed out, not literally, but with a liberal construction. in former days the wig and apron, of themselves, almost sufficed; but now, these outer things having been, to so great an extent, laid aside, other things, much more difficult of acquirement, are needed. there was, however, such an odour of pious decorum round the episcopal wig, that we cannot but regret its departure; and then, again, so much of awe has gone, now that the wig is abandoned! we who can remember the bishops in their full panoply{17} can hardly understand how a bishop of these times can be a bishop at all to his subject parsons. and that veneration which arose from outer circumstances used to be so peculiarly the perquisite of the bench of bishops, that men of the laity, thinking over it all, are at a loss to conceive why appendages so valuable should have been abandoned thus recklessly. even aprons are not worn as aprons were worn of yore,—but in a shorn degree, showing too plainly that the reverend wearer is half ashamed of the tranquil decoration; and lawn sleeves themselves do not seem to envelop the occupant in so extensive a cloud of sacred millinery as they did in the more reverent days of george the fourth. have the bishops themselves made this suicidal change; or have they only succumbed to the invincible force of public opinion in thus abandoning those awful symbols which were so valuable to them?
a full and true answer to this question would go far towards giving a history of the church of england during the last sixty or seventy years,—from the days in which lord eldon was first consulted as to the making of a bishop, down to the last{18} decade of years in which bishops are popularly supposed to have been selected in accordance with the advice of a religious whig nobleman. such a history cannot be given here, but the peculiarities of the old and new bishop may perhaps be so described as to show something of the result of the changes that have taken place.
the bishop of george the third and george the fourth was never a prince, as was the archbishop,—but he was a wealthy ecclesiastical baron, having the prestige of a peer of parliament, even when he did not use the power, living like a great lord in his palace, drawing his income from territorial domains,—an income which was often so much greater than his needs as to afford him the means of amassing a colossal fortune. and as he generally entered upon the possession of this income without any of the encumbrances which are incidental to the hereditary possessors of great properties, and usually considered himself to be precluded by the nature of his profession from many of those wealth-consuming pursuits to which his lay brother nobles are prone, it came to pass that the bishop was ordinarily a rich man. he{19} kept no race-horses; he was not usually a gambler; he could provide for clerical sons and clerical sons-in-law out of the diocesan pocket: and was preserved by the necessary quiescence of clerical life from that broadcast magnificence which is so costly to our great nobles, because it admits of no check upon its expenditure. the bishop, let him live as handsomely as he might, was not called upon to live beyond the scope of accounts;—and many of our bishops were good accountants.
but in those halcyon days, there was this drawback to being a bishop, that the good things did not all come at once. what was a bishopric with three thousand a year, when there were others of equal rank with seven, or eight, or occasionally with ten thousand,—not to speak of the sublimity of canterbury, or the magnificence of york, or the golden opulence of durham, or the ancient splendour of winchester, or the metropolitan glory of london? the interest which made a bishop could translate a bishop, and, therefore, no bishop in those days could rest in comfortable content in the comparatively poor houses of exeter or gloucester, while ely might be{20} reached, or at least worcester. thus it came to pass that men, who in those days were never young when they were first chosen, were still living always in hope of some rich change; and that when the rich change came at last, the few remaining years, the wished-for opportunities of wealth, were used with a tenacity of purpose which might almost put a usurer to the blush.
but it would be unreasonable to feel strong abhorrence against the old bishops on this account. men in all walks of life do as others do around them, and bishops are but men. it was thought to be the proper thing that a bishop should exercise his power over the domains of the see to the utmost extent rendered possible by the existing law. he would run his life against a lease on the ecclesiastical property. if he died before the lease expired the benefit would be to his successor. if he survived he could lease the property for a term of years to his son at a peppercorn rent, and the see would be so far robbed. it was an interesting, exciting mode of life, and as the ecclesiastical lands grew in value as all lands grew,—town lands, for{21} instance, which gradually covered themselves with houses,—the game became so delightful that it is almost a pity that it should have been brought to an end. let no man say to himself that had he been a bishop in those days he would have done otherwise,—unless he is quite sure that he is better than those around him, even in these days.
but when such good things were going who were the men who got them? and to this may be added a further question, how far did they deserve the good things which were given to them? it used to be said that there were three classes of aspirants to bishoprics, and three ladders by which successful clergymen might place themselves on the bench. there was the editor of the greek play, whose ladder was generally an acquaintance with greek punctuation. there was the tutor of a noble pupil, whose ladder was the political bias of his patron. and there was he who could charm the royal ear, whose ladder was as frequently used in the closet as in the pulpit. to these was afterwards added the political aspirant,—the clergyman who could write a pamphlet or advocate a semi-ecclesiastical cause by his spoken or written words.{22}
that scholarship should be remunerated was very well; that men in power should reward those who had been faithful to themselves and their children was, at any rate, very natural; that the sovereign should occasionally have a voice in making those selections which, as head of the church, it was popularly supposed that he always made, seemed only to be fair;—and who can say that a minister was wrong to recompense ecclesiastical support by ecclesiastical preferment? but it must be admitted that the bench of bishops as it was constituted under the circumstances above described was not conspicuous for its clerical energy, for its theological attainments, or for its impartial use of the great church patronage which it possessed. they who sat upon it ordinarily wore their wigs with decorum and lived the lives of gentlemen; but, looking back for many years, a churchman of the church of england cannot boast of the clerical doings of its bishops. under the great wig system much of awe was engendered, and that amount of good was attained which consists mainly of respect and reverence for the unknown. the mere existence of a llama is good for people{23} who have no more clearly expressed god to worship,—and in this way the old, rich, bewigged bishops were serviceable. but, with a few exceptions, they did but little other clerical service. new churches were not built under their auspices, nor were old churches repaired. dissent in england became strong, and the services of the state church were in many dioceses performed with a laxity and want even of decency which, though it existed so short a time since, now hardly obtains belief. the wigs have gone, but in their places have come,—as we are bound to acknowledge,—many of those qualities, much more difficult of acquirement, which men demand when wigs will no longer satisfy them. let any middle-aged man of the present day think of the bishops of his youth, and remember those who were known to him by report, repute, or perhaps by personal intercourse. although bishops in those days were not common in the market-places as they are now, some of us were allowed to see them and hear them speak, and most of us may have some memory of their characters. there were the old bishops who never stirred out, and the young bishops{24} who went to court; and the bishop who was known to be a cr??sus, and the bishop who had so lived that, in spite of his almost princely income, he was obliged to fly his creditors; and there was the more innocent bishop who played chess, and the bishop who still hankered after greek plays, and the kindly old bishop who delighted to make punch in moderate proportions for young people, and a very wicked bishop or two, whose sins shall not be specially designated. such are the bishops we remember, together with one or two of simple energetic piety. but who remembers bishops of those days who really did the work to which they were set? in how many dioceses was there a boanerges of whom the church can be proud? it is almost miraculous that the church should have stood at all through such guidance as it has had.
this has now been much altered, and the modern bishop is at any rate a working man. and while we congratulate ourselves on the change that has been made, let us give thanks where thanks are due. no doubt the increased industry of the bishops has come, as has the increased industry of public officers,{25} from the demand of the people whom they are called upon to serve. but in no way and by no means has more been done to create this energy than by that movement at oxford which had its beginning hardly more than thirty years since, and of which the two first leaders are still alive. dr. newman has gone to rome, and dr. pusey has perhaps helped to send many thither; but these men, and their brethren of the tracts, stirred up throughout the country so strong a feeling of religion, gave rise by their works to so much thought on a matter which had been allowed for years to go on almost without any thought, that it may be said of them that they made episcopal idleness impossible, and clerical idleness rare. of course, it will be said, in opposition to this, that no school of clergymen has so run after wiggeries and vestments and empty symbols as have the followers of the men whom i have named. but the wiggeries and vestments have been simply the dross which has come from their fused gold. if you will make water really boil, some will commonly boil over. they have built new churches, and cleansed old churches, and opened closed churches.{26} they have put on fuel and poked the fire, till heat does really issue from it. it is not only with the high church,—with their own brethren,—that they have prevailed, but equally with the low church, whose handsome edifices and improved services are due to that energy which has been so hateful to them.
the modern bishop is a working man, and he is selected in order that he may work. he is generally one who has been conspicuous as a working parish clergyman, and may be and often is as ignorant of greek as his former parish clerk. in discussing archbishops it has been said that the chosen candidate must have no strong church predilections of his own. in choosing a bishop a minister is bound by no such limit. perhaps it would be well if high church, low church, and broad church could be allowed to have their turns in rotation,—as used to be the case with the two universities. for many years past the low church has been in the ascendant, and the chances now are that in meeting a bishop one meets an enemy of the oxford movement. but the bishop’s own predilections matter little, perhaps,{27} if the man will work with a will. there are few, i think, now who remember much of the low church peculiarities of the bishop of london, having forgotten all that in the results of his episcopate.
but, alas, in losing our fainéant bishops we have lost the great priest lords whom we used to venerate. a bishop now has no domain, but is paid his simple salary of 5,000l. a year,—quarterly, we suppose,—and knows not and recks not of leases. he is paid 5,000l. a year if his see was in former days worth as much, or less if the see of old was worth less. london, durham, and winchester are more gorgeous than their brethren, but even london and durham have simple salaries, and winchester, on the next vacancy, will be reduced to the same humble footing. it is a great fall in worldly state, and consequently bishops may be now seen,—as bishops never were seen of yore,—sitting in cabs, trusting themselves to open one-horse chaises, talking in the market-places, and walking home after an ordination. these ears have heard and these eyes have seen a modern bishop hallooing from the top of his provincial high-street to a groom{28} who was at the bottom of it, brandishing his episcopal arms the while with an energy which might have been spared. it is so with all things. in seeking for the useful, we are compelled to abandon the picturesque. our lanes and hedgerows and green commons are all going; and the graceful dignity of the old bishop is a thing of the past.
there still, however, remains to the bench one privilege, which, though shorn of its ancient grandeur of injustice, has in it still much of the sweet medi?val flavour of old english corruption. the patronage of the bishops is as extensive almost as ever; and though its exercise is now hemmed in by certain new stringencies of ecclesiastical law,—as in regard to pluralities, and is also subject to the scrutiny of public opinion, so that decency must at least be respected,—nevertheless patronage remains, as the private property of the bishop. a bishop is not bound, even in theory as the theory at present exists, to bestow his patronage as may be best for the diocese over which he presides. he still gives, and is supposed to give, his best livings to his own friends. a deserving curate has no claim on a{29} bishop for a living as a reward for the work he has done. the peculiarly strong case of a mr. cheese may, here and there, give rise to comment; but unless the nepotism is too glaring, nepotism in bishops is allowed;—nay, it is expected. a bishop’s daughter is supposed to offer one of the fairest steps to promotion which the church of england affords.
is it not singular that it should be so,—that the idea of giving the fitting reward to the most deserving servant should have to reach the church the last of all professions and of all trades? sinecures and the promotion of young favourites used to be common in the civil service; but the public would not endure it, and the civil service has cleansed itself. the army and navy have been subjected to searching reforms. a great law officer has been made to vanish into space because he was too keen in appropriating patronage to family uses. bankers and brewers will no longer have men about their premises who do not work; and yet bankers and brewers may do what they like with their own. but the bishop, in whose hands patronage has been placed, that he might use it in the holiest way for the highest purpose, still{30} exercises it daily with the undeniable and acknowledged view of benefiting private friends! and in doing so he does not even know that he is doing amiss. it may be doubted whether the bishop has yet breathed beneath an apron who has doubted that his patronage was as much his own as the silver in his breeches-pocket. the bishop’s feeling in the matter is not singular, but it is singular that bishops should not before this have been enlightened on the subject of church patronage by the voice of the laity whom they serve.
