Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 8.djvu/510

Rh 490 EPISCOPACY standing that their emoluments, with the exception of a small pension, should be transferred to the lay patron, it became virtually extinct. On the accession of James VI. to the English throne, Episcopacy was again for a short time revived in Scotland. The succession was obtained from England, and the archbishop of Glasgow, and the bishops of Brechin and Galloway, were con secrated in the chapel of London House, October 21, 1610. The renewed overthrow of Episcopacy, and the establishment of Presbyterianism during the Great Re bellion of the 17th century, belong to general history, arid need not be entered on here. On the restoration of Charles II. an unsuccessful attempt was made to re establish the episcopal form of government. By this time all the bishops who derived their succession from those consecrated in 1610 had passed away, with two exceptions , and it was resolved to obtain, a second time, the canonical succession from the English Church. On the 15th of December 1661, Sharp, Fairfoul, Hamilton, and Leigliton were consecrated in Westminster Abbey to the archiepisco- pal sees of St Andrews and Glasgow, and the bishoprics of Galloway and Dunblane, respectively. On the return of these prelates to Scotland, they lost no time in consecrating bishops for the other vacant sees. Thus the Scottish episcopate was restored to its full complement of two arch bishoprics, and twelve bishoprics Aberdeen, Argyll, Brechin, Caithness, Dunblane, Dunkeld, Edinburgh, Gallo way, the Isles, Moray, Orkney, and Ross. It would be beside the purpose ot this article to enter into the causes of the failure of this fresh attempt to establish prelacy in Scotland, or to narrate the political events which led to the renewed abolition of this form of church government and the establishment of Presbyterianism as the national religion of Scotland, or to speak of the civil disabilities under which the Episcopal Church laboured till the passing of the Act of Toleration in 1711, and, after the fresh calamities resulting from the part taken by the bishops and episcopal clergy in the rebellion of 1745, by the Relief Bill of 1792. The condition of the Episcopal Church was for a long time so depressed that no attempt was made to keep up a regular system of diocesan government. Two bishops without diocesan jurisdiction, Sage and Fullarton, were privately consecrated in 1705 at Edinburgh; and two more, Falconer and Christie, in 1709 at Dundee. Other similar consecrations followed, but after a period of considerable controversy between the advocates of diocesan Episcopacy and the government of the church by a college of bishops &quot; at large, the former system was accepted by the members of their communion, and is that under which the Episcopal Church in Scotland is now administered. The existing territorial divisions, -each with its bishop, are (1) Aberdeen, (2) Argyll and the Isles, (3) Brechin, (4) Edinburgh, (5) Glasgow and Galloway, (6) Moray, Ross, and Caithness, (7) St Andrews, Dunkeld, and Dunblane. The bishops are appointed by the votes of their presbyters, and are all equal in jurisdiction, one of their body being chosen by themselves as &quot;primus,&quot; for the purpose of convoking and presiding over the meetings of the episcopal college. This system is about to give place to that prevailing in the Episcopal Church from primitive times, by the appointment of a metropolitan. The most remarkable event in the history of the Scotch Episcopal Church in modern times has been the gift of the episcopal succession to the Church of America, by the consecration of Dr Samuel Seabury as bishop of Connecticut by the Scotch bishops at Aberdeen, August 3 1 , 1784. In Ireland, Episcopacy appears to have been coeval with the introduction of the Christian faith. Before the apostolic labours of St Patrick, 430-491 A.D., and the brief mission of St Palladius by Pope Celestinus, c. 431, there were bishops in Ireland whose names are recorded by Ussher, The church planted by St Patrick, though episco pal, had no diocesan organization. As in the daughter Church of Scotland, the ecclesiastical system was monastic and collegiate, not diocesan or parochial. The bishops had neither local jurisdiction nor regulative authority, and seem to have existed simply for the purpose of ordination, which was held to be their exclusive right. As at lona, the Irish bishops were subordinate to the heads of the monastic establishments to which they belonged, and that even when that position was held by a female. At Kilclare the bishop was the nominee and functionary of the abbess St Bridget and her successors. There being no limitation to the num ber of bishops, the order became multiplied far beyond the utmost needs of the Irish Church, until there were almost as many bishops as congregations. Having no sufficient employment at home, they wandered into other countries, where by their irregular performance of their episcopal functions great disorders were introduced, against which several of the canons of the church councils of the 9th century were directed. Their ordinations were declared null and void at the Council of Chalons in 813, and a still more stringent rule was passed at that of Calcuith, 816, forbidding any of the race of the &quot; Scoti &quot; to celebrate the sacraments or minister in any of the offices of the church. The Church of Ireland retained its complete independence as a national church, free from the jurisdiction or authority of Rome, till the early part of the 12th century The archbishop of Armagh was the sole primate, and by him all the bishops were consecrated. The first introduction of Roman influence was due to the predatory- Danes, or u Ostmen, &quot; who had established themselves on various spots of the seaboard. On their conversion to Christianity they were naturally led to seek their chief pastors, not from the native church of the country they had invaded, but from their own Norman kindred in England. &quot;It was to the archbishops of Canterbury, Lanfranc and Anselm, that the bishops of the Danish cities Limerick, Waterford, and Dublin repaired for consecration, and made profession of canonical obedience ; and these bishops } though sometimes of Irish birth, were generally persons who had been trained in English monas teries (Robertson, Hist, of Christian Church, v. 264). This connexion with the Roman see through the English Church, though at first limited to the Danish settlers, was gradually extended and strengthened, until in 1118 we find Gilbert bishop of Limerick presiding over a synod as papal legate, and using his influence to bring the Irish Church into conformity with Roman customs. One beneficial result of this intercourse with Rome was that Ireland was partitioned out into territorial dioceses, with bishops possessing local jurisdiction. A second primatial see was also established at Cashel, to which those of Dublin and Tuam were afterwards added. The loss of the ancient independence of the Irish Church was sealed Avhen the grant of the palls for which St Malachy, the strenuous advocate for complete conformity to the Latin Church, had so earnestly pleaded in his visits to Rome, 1137-1140, was unanimously solicited of the pope by the national synod held at Holmepatrick in 1148, and accepted at the hands of the cardinal legate by the Irish metropolitan at the synod of Kells in 1152. The conquest of Ireland by Henry II. of England, to whom it had been granted by Pope Hadrian IV., as &quot; the head owner of all Christian islands,&quot; completed the subjection. A council convened by him at Cashel in 1172 decreed that the Church of Ireland should be reduced to the form of that of England ; and Ireland was, chiefly through the influence of English ecclesiastics who were put into the highest dignities of the church, gradually brought into the same conformity to