In the Church of England, notwithstanding the aboli- tion of the mass, the term priest was retained, and with it various customs which have ever since been avail- able to Romanizing reactionists. Hence, although the preponderating theory of that Church in reference to the ministry has been stnongly Protestant, yet there have often, if not always, been those among its clergy who were not far remo\'ed from the spirit and practice of Romanism.
In all Protestant churches connected with state gov- ernments the duties and relations of pastors are modi- fied, to a greater or less extent, by the prescriptions of civil law, Avhereas in voluntary churches laws and regulations are made and modified with exclusive ref- erence to spiritual ends. As the Church of England, for example, appropriated to itself not only the colleges and churches which had previously been built, but also the foundations and benefices by which they wore sup- ported, so it received with them an entailment of modes of appointment to ecclesiastical offices quite unknown to voluntary churches. Statutes passed during the reign of Henry VIII, and ostensibly enacted to prevent persons from having pluralities of livings, provided, "That all spiritual men now being, or which hereafter shall be, of the king's council, may purchase license or dispensation, and take, receive, and keep three parson- ages or benefices, with cure of souls." The same act proceeds to specify a numerous list of dignitaries whose chaplains, to the number specified, may every one in like manner purchase, " retain, and keep two benefices, with cure of souls." The following are specimens of the parties who may each buy and hold two of the benefices in question : " King's chaplains not sworn of his council; chaplains of queen, prince, or princess, or of any of the king's children, brethren, sisters, uncles, or aunts; six chaplains of every archbishop and duke; five of every marquis and earl ; four of every viscount and other bishop; three of every chancellor, baron, and knight of the Garter; two of every duchess, mar- chioness, countess, and baroness, being widows ; also all doctors and bachelors of divinitj', doctors of law, and bachelors of the law canon, and every of them which shall be admitted to any of the said degrees by any of the universities of this realm, may purchase license, and take, have, and keep two parsonages or benefices, with cure of souls." Thus, for the convenience and profit of the royal court, the aristocracy of the nation, and the scholars of the universities, a large number of benefices for the cure of souls were placed in the market like secular property, and thus subjected to a trafhc that has existed ever since. Not only so, but by long cus- tom, sustained by legal decisions, it has been settled that the owners of estates charged with the payment of the salaries of incumbents in churches have the nom- ination of persons who arc to receive the livings. Ac- cording to a recent autliority, there are now in the Church of England about 11,000 parishes. For these 952 of the pastors are chosen by the crown, 12'48 by bishops and archbishops, 787 by deans and chapters, 1851 by other dignitaries, 721 by colleges, and 5996 by private patrons. When a patron presents a minister to a bishop to be settled as the pastor of a Church, the
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Church has no voice in the transaction, and the bishop is ahnost as powerless. That the nominee is offensive to the people, either from incompetence or objectionable habits, is not a lej^al disqualitication. Unless the bishop can prove him to be heretical or immoral, he must ad- mit him to be the pastor, or the patron may obtain damages in a temporal court, and the rejected nominee in an ecclesiastical court. It is obvious that luider such laws the chances of a true pastoral relation sub- sisting between pastors and their flocks are greatly diminished, if not wholly ignored.- That the preva- lence of this custom of patronage in England, and in other countries where Church and State are united, to- gether with the subjection of the clergy in many spirit- ual matters to the mandates of civil law, has greatly anil unfavorably affected the spirituality of pastoral in- fluence, is beyond question. Nevertheless, some ex- cellent works setting forth the nature and duties of the pastoral office have been written, and many superior examples of pastoral zeal and success have been fur- nished, by clergymen of state churches.
In churches formed and governed on the voluntary principle, pastors can only assume spiritual relations to the members of their flock by consent of the latter, and when their duties are unworthily administered the pas- toral relation can usually be severed without much de- lay, and better services secured. Thus the principle enunciated by the apostle Paul that they who preach the Gospel should live of the Gospel is brought to bear in securing a higher grade of pastoral service than as a rule can be expected where pastors live on independent endowments. In free churches, the modes of pastoral appointment differ widely. In some, settlements, the- oretically, for life prevail. In others contracts are made to last during mutual satisfaction, while still others have a system of regulated and periodical exchanges. See Itinerancy. These variations of the mode of minis- terial appointment, and consequently of the tenure of the pastoral office, are not without their influence upon minor customs connected with pastoral duty. It can hardly be questioned that the most favorable circum- stances for the free and full development of pastoral character after the scriptural model are not only in vol- untary churches, but in countries free from any intimate connection between Church and State. Hence it has been claimed, and not without reason, that in the United States of America, where the Christian faith has its freest and fullest development, and where the separa- tion of Church and State is real, the Christian ministry has secured a fairer and more general development than it has ever assumed or can assume amid the repressive influences of the Old- World civilization. Certain it is that in this country whoever would cultivate and ex- emplify a truly apostolic character has every advantage for so doing, and open fields of effort are before him. It is equally certain that the standard of pastoral character as demanded by universal public sentiment is higher in tliis than in any other country.