Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 8.djvu/512

Rh 492 EPISCOPACY Zinzendorf as the second bishop of the Moravian church. From these two the existing Moravian episcopate is derived. A remarkable instance of a Roman Catholic episcopal church not in communion with the papal see is to be found in the so-called Jansenist Church of Holland. Pre served with difficulty through the tempestuous period of the Dutch Reformation, when after fierce struggle the Protestant faith obtained the ascendency it has ever since maintained in Holland, the episcopate was in danger of dying out at the beginning of the 18th century, through the refusal of the papal authorities to allow consecrations to the vacant sees, in revenge for the resolute adherence of the church to Jansenist doctrines. The episcopate was indeed only saved from extinction by the singularly opportune presence of a duly consecrated bishop of Bibylon (Dominique Marie Varlet, previously vicar-general of Louisiana), who, having been suspended unheard by a notoriously uncanonical sentence, in consequence of his having manifested sympathy with the oppressed Church of Holland, by administering the rite of confirmation during his sojourn at Amsterdam on his outward journey, had made that city his home, on his return to Europe in 1721, while waiting the result of his appeal. Convinced that they had no hope of obtaining a prelate from the papal court, the chapter of Utrecht met and elected Cornelius Steenoven archbishop, April 27, 1723. More than a year having been spent in vain applications to neighbouring diocesan bishops to perform the ceremony, the newly-elected prelate was consecrated by the bishop of Bibylori at Amsterdam, October 15, 1724. The act was declared unlawful and execrable by Pope Benedict XI El., and all who had taken part in it were excommunicated. The national church maintained a firm attitude, and on the death of the new archbishop, within half a year of his consecration, the chapter proceeded to the immediateelection of a successor, Barchman Waytiers, who was also consecrated by the bishop of Babylon, September 30, 1 725. On the death of Waytiers, May 13, 1733, before he could succeed in securing the consecration of any suffragan, Theodore van Croon was elected by the chapter, and received consecration from the same hands, October 28 of that year. Once again, and for the last time, on the death of this archbishop, June 9, 1 739, the bishop of Babylon was called upon to save the Dutch episcopate from extinction by the consecration of Peter John Meindaerts, October 18, 1739. The chapter of Haarlem, whose unwillingness to offend the papal authori ties by electing a bishop had hitherto prevented the increase of the episcopate, still refusing to act, the new archbishop took the matter into his own hands, nominated and con secrated a bishop to that see in 1742, and added a third member to the episcopal college in the person of the bishop of Deventer, consecrated in 1758. The succession has con tinued unbroken from that time to the present day, though in more than one instance its existence has hung precari ously on a single life. Each consecration has been followed by a formal excommunication by the pope, and, all the attempts to obtain reconciliation being repelled with insult, the church has at length settled down into the true Galli- cau position of protest against ultramontanism whether of doctrine or of discipline. (A. W. Haddan s Remains, p. 413; Neale s Jansenist Church of Holland.} The national Church of Holland has been the instrument of conferring the episcopate on the community known as &quot; Old Catholics,&quot; whose separation from the Church of Rome, under the leadership of Dr Dbllinger, was occasioned by the publication of the Vatican decrees relating to papal supremacy and infallibility, passed at the so-called oecumeni cal council of 1870. Dr J. H. Reinkens, the individual chosen to be the first bishop of the new church at the synod, consisting of priests and hy delegates, held at Cologne, June 4, 1873, was consecrated on August IT by Mgr. Heykamp, the bishop of Deventer, Archbishop Loos of Utrecht, who had promised to administer the rite, having died on the very day of the new bishop s election. A second bishop, Edward Herzog, was consecrated for the members of the Old Catholic body in Switzerland by Bishop Reinkens at Rheinfelden in Aargau, September 18, 187G, having been previously elected by a synod assembled at Olten. The episcopate in the colonies and dependencies of the English crown commenced with the consecration of Dr Charles Inglis to the diocese of Nova Scotia, which took place at Lambeth, August 12, 1787, the same year which had witnessed the foundation of the episcopate of the American Church. Quebec was formed into a separate diocese in 1793, and Nova Scotia was again subdivided by the foundation of the sees of Newfoundland in 1839, and Fredericton (New Brunswick) in 1845. The original diocese of Quebec has also been broken up by the establish ment of the sees of Toronto (1839), Montreal (1850), Huron (1857), Ontario (1861), and Niagara (1875). These are all suffragans to Montreal, the metropolitical see of the Dominion of Canada. In 1849 the diocese of Rupert s Land was formed out of the vast territories of the Hudson s Bay Company. This has subsequently been constituted metropolitical, having as its suffragans the bishops of Moosonee (1S72), Athabasca (1874), Saskatchewan (1874), and the missionary bishop of Algoma (1873). The next part of the Britis h dependencies to receive the episcopate was the East Indies. The see of Calcutta was formed, to which DrMiddleton was consecrated at Lambeth in 1814. The unwieldy diocese intrusted to his supervision, including eventually all British subjects in India, Ceylon, Mauritius, Australia, New Zealand, and Tasmania, has been gradually broken up into more than twenty separate dio ceses, and the process of subdivision is continually going on. India alone now remains under the metropolitan of Calcutta, who has as his suffragans the bishops of Madras (1835), Bombay (1837), Colombo (Ceylon) (1845), Labuan (1855), Lahore (1878), and Rangoon (1878). The diocese of Victoria (Hong Kong) was established in 1849, that of the Mauritius 111 1854, and of North China in 1872. The West India islands came first under episcopal super vision in 1S24, when the dioceses of Barbados and Jamaica (now Kingston) were founded. In 1842 the diocese of Barbados was divided into three by the formation of the separate sees of Antigua and Guiana, and in 1861 the Bahamas were severed from Jamaica and became the see of Nassau. The bishopric of Trinidad was founded in 1872. In 1836 Australia and the adjacent English dependencies were withdrawn from the nominal supervision of the bishops of Calcutta by the consecration of Dr W. G. Broughton as first bishop of Australia (now Sydney). New Zealand was erected into a separate see (now Auck land) in 1841, and Tasmania in 1842. The see of Sydney has since become metropolitical, containing the dioceses of Adelaide, Melbourne, Newcastle (all three founded in 1817), Perth (1857), Brisbane (1859), Goulburn (1863), Graf ton and Armidale (1867), Bathurst (1869), and Ballarat (1875). The original diocese of New Zealand is now divided into six under its own metropolitan, the primacy being elective and not attached to any specified see. Tuese dioceses are Auckland (1869), Christchurch (1856), Wellington, Nelson, and Waiapu (all three founded in 1858), and Dunedin (1866). To these should be added the missionary bishopric of Melanesia (1861). The Poly nesian island of Hawaii became the seat of the bishop of Honolulu in 1861, the Falkland Islands were constituted a see in 1870, and after many difficulties Madagascar received the episcopate in 1874