if there be any man, who is not or has not been a dean himself, who can distinctly define the duties of a dean of the church of england, he must be one who has studied ecclesiastical subjects very deeply. when cathedral services were kept up for the honour of god rather than for the welfare of the worshippers, with an understanding faintly felt by the indifferent, but strongly realized by the pious, that recompence would be given by the almighty for the honour done to him,—as cathedrals were originally built and adorned with that object,—it was natural enough that there should be placed at the head of those who served in the choir a high dignitary who, by the weight of his presence and the grace of his{32} rank, should give an increased flavour of ecclesiastical excellence to those services. the dean then was the head, as it were, of a college, and he fitly did his work if he looked after the ceremonies of his cathedral, saw that canons, precentor, minor canons and choristers, did their ministrations with creditable grace, took care that the building was, if possible, kept in good repair,—and thus properly took the lead in the chapter over which he presided. but the idea of honouring our creator by the excellence of our church services,—though it remains firmly fixed enough in the minds of some of us,—is no longer a national idea; and we may say that deans are not selected by those who have the appointment of deans with any such view. we use our cathedrals in these days as big churches, in which multitudes may worship, so that, if possible, they may learn to live christian lives. they are made beautiful that this worship may be attractive to men, and not for the glory of god. what architect would now think it necessary to spend time and money in the adornment of parts of his edifice which no mortal eye can reach? but such was done in the old days when deans were{33} first instituted. multitudes, no doubt, crowded our cathedrals in those times,—when bishops and deans were subject to the pope—but they were there for the honour of god, testifying their faith by the fact of their presence. that all this has been changed need hardly be explained here; but in the change it would seem that the real work of the dean has gone,—except so far as it may please him to take some part in those offices of the church service which it is necessary that a clergyman should perform. it is now ordinarily believed that to the dean is especially entrusted the care of the structure itself; and luckily for us, who love our old cathedrals, we have had some deans of late who, as architectural ecclesiastics, have been very serviceable; but should a dean have no such tendencies,—as many deans have had none,—no penalty for neglect of prescribed duty would fall upon him. a certain amount of yearly residence is enjoined; and it is expected, of course, that a dean should show himself in his own cathedral. let him reside and show himself, and the city which he graces by his presence will hardly demand from him other services.{34}
in truth, the lines of deans have fallen in pleasant places. man, being by nature restless and ambitious, desires to rise; and the dean will desire to become a bishop, though he would lose by the change his easy comfort, his sufficient modest home, and the grace of his close in which no one overtops him. to be a peer of parliament, to rule the clergy of a diocese, and wear the highest order of clerical vestment, is sweet to the clerical aspirant. a man feels that he is shelved when he ceases to sing excelsior to himself in his closet. but the change from a deanery of the present day to a palace is a change from ease to work, from leisure to turmoil, from peace to war, from books which are ever good-humoured to men who are too often ill-humoured. the dean’s modest thousand a year sounds small in comparison with the bishop’s more generous stipend:—but look at a dean, and you will always see that he is sleeker than a bishop. the dean to whom fortune has given a quaint old house with pleasant garden in a quaint old close, with resident prebendaries and minor canons around him who just acknowledge, and no more than acknowledge, his superiority,—who takes the lead, as mr. dean, in the{35} society of his clerical city,—who is never called upon to discharge expensive duties in london, though he may revisit the glimpses of the metropolitan moon for a month, perhaps, in the early summer, showing his new rosette at his club,—seems indeed to have had his lines given to him in very pleasant places.
there is something charming to the english ear in the name of the dean and chapter. none of us quite know what it means, and yet we love it. when we visit our ancient cathedrals, and are taken into a handsome but manifestly useless octagonal stone outhouse, we are delighted to find that the chapter-house is being repaired at an expense of, say, four thousand pounds, subscribed by the maiden ladies of the diocese; or if we find the said outhouse to be in ruins,—in which case the afflicted verger will not show it if we allow him to pass easily through our hands,—we feel a keen regret as though all things good were going from us. that there should be a chapter-house attached to the cathedral, simply because a chapter-house was needed in former days, is all the reason that we can give for our affection; and we think that the old ladies have spent their money{36} well in preserving the relic. we also think that the ecclesiastical commission spends its money well in preserving the chapter, and should feel infinite regret in finding that any diocese had none belonging to it. we are often told that ours is a utilitarian age, but this utilitarian spirit is so closely mingled with a veneration for things old and beautiful from age that we love our old follies infinitely better than our new virtues.
though it is difficult to define the duties of a modern dean, we all of us know what are the qualities and what the acquirements which lead to deaneries in these days; and most of us respect them. as it is now necessary that a man shall have been an active parish parson before he is thought fit to be a bishop, so it is required that a clergyman shall have shown a taste for literature in some one of its branches before he can be regarded among the candidates proper for a deanery. the normal dean of this age is a gentleman who would probably not have taken orders unless the circumstances of his life had placed orders very clearly in his path. he is not a man who has been urged strongly in early youth by a vocation for{37} clerical duties, or who has subsequently devoted himself to what may be called clerical administrations proper. he has taken kindly to literature, having been biassed in his choice of the branch which he has assumed by the fact of the word “reverend” which has attached itself to his name. he has done well at the university, and has been a fellow, and perhaps a tutor, of his college. he has written a book or two, and has not impossibly shown himself to be too liberal for the bench; for it is given to deans to speak their thoughts more openly than bishops are allowed to do. indeed, this is so well acknowledged a principle in the arrangement of church patronage, that it has struck many of us with wonder that the government has not escaped from its difficulty in regard to the bishop of natal by making him a dean in england.
and, when once a dean, the happy beneficed lover of letters need make no change in the mode of his life, as a bishop must do. he is not driven to feel that now and from henceforth he must have his neck in a collar to which he has hitherto been unused, and that he must be drawing ever and always against the{38} hill. a bishop must do so, or else he is a bad bishop; but a dean has got no hill before him, unless he makes one for himself.
who that knows any of our dear old closes,—that of winchester, for instance, or of norwich, or hereford, or salisbury,—has not wandered among the modest, comfortable clerical residences which they contain, envying the lot of those to whom such good things have been given? the half-sequestered nook has a double delight, because it is only half sequestered. on one side there is an arched gate,—a gate that may possibly be capable of being locked, which gives to the spot a sweet savour of monastic privacy and ecclesiastical reserve; while on the other side the close opens itself freely to the city by paths leading, probably, under the dear old towers of the cathedral, by the graves of those who have been thought worthy of a resting-place so near the shrine. it opens itself freely to the city, and courts the steps of church matrons, who are almost as clerical as their lords. it is true, indeed, that much of their glory has now departed from these hallowed places. the dean still keeps his deanery, but the number of resident canons{39} has been terribly diminished. houses intended for church dignitaries are let to prosperous tallow-chandlers, and in the window of a mansion in a close can, at this moment in which i am writing, be seen a notice that lodgings can be had there by a private gentleman—with a reference. but still it is the close. there is still an odour there to the acutely percipient nostrils as of shovel hats and black vestments. you still talk gently as you walk over its well-kept gravel, and would refrain within its precincts from that strength of language which may perhaps be common to you out in the crowded marts of the city. the cathedral, at any rate, is there, more beautiful than ever,—thanks to the old ladies and the architectural dean. the musical rooks fly above your head. the tower bells delight your ear with those deep-tolling, silence-producing sounds which seem to come from past ages in which men were not so hurried as they are now; and you feel that the resident tallow-chandler and the single gentleman with a reference have not as yet destroyed the ancient piety of the place.
the dean and chapter! how pleasantly the{40} words sound on the tongue of a reverent verger! the chapters, i fear, are terribly shorn of their old glory, and each chapter must look at itself, when it meets, with something of wistful woe in its half-extinguished old eyes. and why does a chapter meet? its highest duty is a congé d’élire,—permission to choose its own bishop. permission is sent down from the prime minister to the chapter to choose dr. smith,—a very worthy evangelical gentleman, whose name stinks in the nostrils of the old high and dry canons and prebendaries who still hang round the towers of the cathedral; and,—under certain terrible penalties,—they exercise their functions, and unanimously elect dr. smith as the bishop of that diocese. there must be something melancholy in such moments to a reflective dean and chapter. we may suppose that the number of clerical gentlemen who really meet together to carry on the business of the election is not great. it is as small, probably, as may be; but something of a chapter must be held. the ignorant layman, as he thinks of it, wonders whether the work is really done in that cold unfurnished octagonal stone building,{41} which has just been so beautifully repaired at the expense of the devout maiden ladies.
how english, how absurd, how picturesque it all is!—and, we may add, how traditionally useful! the queen is the head of the church, and therefore sends down word to a chapter, which in truth as a chapter no longer exists, that it has permission to choose its bishop, the bishop having been already appointed by the prime minister, who is the nominee of the house of commons! the chapter makes its choice accordingly, and the whole thing goes on as though the machine were kept in motion by forces as obedient to reason and the laws of nature as those operating on a steam engine. we are often led to express our dismay, and sometimes our scorn, at the ignorance shown by foreigners as to our institutions; but when we ourselves consider their complications and irrationalistic modes of procedure, the wonder is that any one not to the manner born should be able to fathom aught of their significance.
deans and chapters, though they exist with a mutilated grandeur, for the present are safe; and long may they remain so!
