(:-!.) The countrj' is divided into parishes, and many of these have been of late j'ears subdivided. See Parish. The propertj' of the Church of England is obtained through many different channels, and is very valuable : the total revenues are estimated as being not under five millions a year ; and yet so unequal is the distribution, that there are, out of 10,500 benefices, not less than GSOO with incomes under £300 a 3'ear; and of these there are 34G0 livings whose annual value is imder £150. The curates have a very inadequate compensation, the ordinary pay ranging, in large towns, from £70 to £150.
The total number of benefices in 18G7 was 12,888. Of late some reforms have been effected by the Par- liament. There is a special board of " ecclesiastical commissioners for England to administer the state patronage of ecclesiastical benefices. In their twenti- eth report, issued in 1868, they state that in the cur- rent year they expect to complete the sclieme which, in their report of 1861, they proposed to accomplish within five years. Every living with less income than £300 a j'ear which then existed, and contained, ac- cording to the census of 1861, a popnlation of 4000 persons, will, on the 1st of March, 1869, have had its income raised to £300 a }'ear, except those cases in private patronage where the one half of the augmen- tation which the patrons were required to provide from non-ecclesiastical sources has not been forthcoming.
In their report of 1853 the commissioners referred to an arrangement which had been entered into with the dean and chapter of York, whereby the capitulat es- tates (subject to subsisting leases) had become vested in the commissioners, and in lieu thereof the dean and chapter were to receive an annuity until the commis- sioners should restore to them real estates in posses- sion calculated to produce an income equal to such annuity ; and it was estimated that the arrangement would at a future date yield a considerable surplus for the augmentation of small livings. At the close of 1852 the chapter of Carlisle effected a similar commu- tation. In 1855 the Cathedral Commission advised that all the improved revenue derived from the better management of capitular property should be appropri- ated to the augmentation of capitular incomes, and to the improvement of cathedral institutions. In 1856 a committee of the House of Commons sat to consider the proceedings of the ecclesiastical commissioners, and in their third report set out the details of the York chapter commutation, and observe, ' Such agreements tend to facilitate enfranchisement, and to provide funds for the endowment of poor livings, as well as to afford a ready means of providing estates in posses- sion for the ecclesiastical corporations.' In the year 1854 the chapters of Peterborough and Chester; in 1855, the chapter of Gloucester; in 1856, St. Asaph : in 1857, Worcester ; in 1860, Chichester ; in 1861, Win- chester and Salisbury; in 1862, Bristol, Canterburj', and Exeter ; in 18(;G, Wells, Rochester, and St. Da- vid's ; and in 1867, the chapters of LlandafF and Wind- sor, effected similar commutations of their capitular estates. All these arrangements have been success- ively sanctioned by orders in council. Commutations have thus been eflected w'ith no fewer than eighteen chapters. Under these commutations the chapters gave up their ancient estates in consideration of an- nual money payments to be received by them, pend- ing their re-endowment with real estates in possession ; and in 1862 the permanent estate of the chapter of York; in 1863, that of Peterborough; in 1865, those of Carlisle and Chichester; in 1866, those of Chester, Cloucester, and Canterbury ; and in 1867, that of Win- chester, were reassigned. As a consequence, the com- missioners, in the period between 1864 and 1868, con- sidered the local claims of the parochial cures upon the estates of the chapters of York, Peterborough, Carlisle, and Chichester, and, so far as the value of the property would permit, tlic requisite grants were made to such parochial cures." See helow, Patron ctr/e and Statistics. (4.) The only ecclesiastical assembly of the English Church is Convocation (q. v.), which is a convention of the clergy to discuss Church afiairs in time of Parlia- ment. As the Parliament consists of two distinct houses, so does this Convocation ; the one called the upper house, where the archbishops and bishops sit sev- erally b}' themselves ; the other the lower house, where the rest of the clergy are represented by their deputies. The power of the Convocation is limited by a statute of Henry VIII. They are not to make any canons or ecclesiastical laws without the royal license ; nor, when permitted to make any, can they put them in execution but under severe restrictions. In the year 1661 the English Convocation granted a subsidy to king Charles II, which was the last tax of this nature paid l)y the English clergy ; for, by an arrangement made between archbishop Sheldon and lord chancellor Clarendon in 1664, the Convocation of the clergy thenceforward gave up the privilege of taxing them- selves to the House of Commons, in consideration of being allowed to vote at the election of memliers of that house (Eden). Of late, the Convocations, both of Canterl)ur}^ and York, have asain been permitted to meet, talk, vote addresses to the crown, etc., but they have no real power. See Convocation.