XLIII. And be it enacted, that nothing in this Act contained shall be construed to take away or abridge any au thority over the clergy of their respective provinces or dioceses, which the Archbishops and Bishops may now, according to law, exercise personally and without process in Court.

XLIV. And be it enacted, that this Act may be amended or repealed by any Act to be passed in this Session of Parliament.

THE END.

TO THE CLERGY OF THE EAST RIDING,

DELIVERED

AT THE ORDINARY VISITATION,

A. D. 1847.

BY

ROBERT ISAAC WILBERFORCE, M.A.

ARCHDEACON OF THE EAST RIDING.

JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET;

ROBERT SUNTER, YORK.

[PRICE ONE SHILLING.]

TO THE CLERGY

OF THE

EAST RIDING,

THIS CHARGE,

PUBLISHED AT THEIR REQUEST,

IS RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED.

Henry Mozley and Sons, Printers, Derby.

A CHARGE.

My Reverend Brethren,

We meet this year under somewhat novel circumstances, having to hail the addition of nearly a fourth to our numbers, through the extinction of those peculiar jurisdictions, which have hitherto divided us. So simple and easy has been the process of union, that we might naturally be surprised that the evil, which it remedied, should have been left unredressed for centuries. Such could never have been the case surely, if the Church of England had not been so long restricted from legislating for herself by the jealousy of the civil power, and compelled therefore to adapt herself as she may to what was enacted in the reign of the first of the Stewart princes. And yet these peculiar jurisdictions were an evil which the State might have been supposed most willing to remedy, since they owe their existence to that theory of the middle ages, which it was an especial object of our Reformation to correct. The supremacy of the Pope, as it was asserted by his own partizans, was not any bare precedency, but the devolution on the Bishop of Rome of all that authority, which at the Council of Jerusalem we see to have been exercised by the College of Apostles. The Church in this land on the contrary, along with the four Eastern Patriarchates, has retained the primitive opinion, that the gift of government having been exercised conjointly by all the Apostles, was left to their successors, the

Bishops, in common.

That "new Jerusalem," the Church of Christ "had twelve foundations, and in them the names of the twelve Apostles of the Lamb." Now it was part of the centralizing policy of Rome to grant such exemptions as might weaken all local jurisdiction. Those who were opposed then to Papal usurpations, might have been expected to vindicate for every individual inheritor of the Apostolic office that power over his own Diocese, which he had by the Word of GOD, and by the custom of the Primitive Church. The gradual extinction of such anomalies was one of the great reforms introduced by the celebrated Bossuet into the Church of France, through his well known contest with Henrietta of Lorraine, and the Abbey of Jovarre. Yet more than three centuries have past since our Reformation, before the work has been effected. So great the difficulty of calling public attention to what does not affect worldly interests, and so serious the evils suffered by our Church for want of some power of accommodating her position to present requirements.

It is to be hoped that the increased facilities which are now afforded us for united action will be heartily responded to. Nothing is more essential than that we should cultivate peace among ourselves, that we should eschew suspicion and party spirit, and co-operate gladly in that great work of national improvement, to which we are called by public opinion, as well as by the voice of GOD. To this end, concert and mutual advice will greatly contribute. Perhaps it were well if this public gathering could abate somewhat of its purely official character, and afford more opportunity for united deliberation. Such at all events may be hoped to be the result of the Rural Chapters, held yearly in most of our deaneries, by which the Clergy have opportunity to co-operate together for their mutual advantage, and at which we shall now have the assistance of those who have been recently united to us.

And this help comes in at a moment of especial need, when the increased facilities just offered for the furtherance of education, call on our part for corresponding exertions.