CHAPTER XVI.

THE CONSECRATION OF WILLIAM BARLOW.

BEFORE considering the facts regarding the con

secration of Bishop William Barlow and others, it may be well to give at length a plain and clear account of the various processes and steps by which an English Bishop is made. The rules that were observed in the reign of Henry VIII., Edward VI., Mary, and Elizabeth are substantially, and to all intents and purposes, the same which are so duly, scrupulously, and carefully observed in the present day.

Now, the order of making a Bishop in the Church of England consists, in the main, of eight separate and distinct acts:-1. Nomination; 2. Congé d'eslire; 3. Election; 4. Royal Assent; 5. Confirmation; 6. Creation; 7. Consecration; 8. Installation.

Mode of making

The following is the mode in which a Bishop is made:-The See being vacant, the Dean a Bishop in and Chapter of the cathedral give notice of England. the same to the King, requesting His Majesty's leave to choose another. The King grants his Congé d'eslire. Thereupon the Dean summons a chapter, which must be held within twenty days after receiving the same, or the members will run the risk of a pramunire (Vide Stat. 25, Hen. viii. cap. 17). They formally and regularly elect the person recommended by His Majesty's letter,* and that election

* Anciently bishoprics in England were simply donative, per traditionem baculi pastoralis et annuli, until King John by his Great

having been accepted by the person elected is certified to the King as well as to the Archbishop of the province.* Thereupon the King grants his royal assent, under the Great Seal, exhibited to the Archbishop, with command to confirm and consecrate the Bishop-elect.

Upon this the Archbishop subscribes his "Fiat confirmatio," giving commission under his archiepiscopal seal to his Vicar-General to perform all the acts needful for completing the confirmation. Hereupon the Vicar-General issues a citation in the Archbishop's name, summoning all the opposers of the election to make their appearance at a certain. time and place, then and there to offer their objections, if they have any. This usually takes place by means of three separate proclamations at Bow Church, London, and is done by an officer of the Court of Arches, who affixes the citation to that church door, and an authentic certificate thereof is by that officer returned to the Archbishop and Vicar-General. At the time and place aforesaid, the Proctor for the Dean and Chapter exhibits the Royal

Charta, granted that they should be eligible: after which came in the Congé d'eslire; so that the patronage of all bishoprics is in the King, he giving leave to the Chapters to choose them. Vide Ayliffe's Parergon Juris, 126. The bishoprics in Ireland are, as the English bishoprics were from the Conquest, donative to the present day. Vide Stat. 2 Eliz. cap. iv. (Hibern.) This fact, apparently not being known to him, has caused a writer in the Union Review for July, 1869, p. 368, to maintain, by a very rash conclusion from a somewhat mistaken premiss, that the Irish Bishops "have no spiritual authority."

* When the election has taken place, and is certified under the hand of the Dean, and by the capitular seal of the Chapter, the person elected is reported and called Bishop-elect. He would so sign himself. But he is not thereby complete Bishop, to all intents and purposes, for as yet he has not potestatem jurisdictionis neque ordinis, nor can he have the same until his confirmation and consecration.

assent and the Commission of the Archbishop to the Vicar-General, who, after the reading thereof, accepts the same. Then the Proctor exhibits the proxy from the Dean and Chapter, presents the Bishop-elect, returns the citation, and asks that the opposers may be thrice publicly called; which done, and their contumacy accused, he desires that in pœnam contumacia the business in hand may proceed, which is ordered by the Vicar-General in a schedule by him read and subscribed. Then the Proctor gives in a necessary petition, therein deducing the whole process of election and consent, and asks that a time may be assigned to him to prove it, which the Vicar-General admits and decrees. After this the Proctor again exhibits the Royal Assent, with the elected Bishop's consent, and the aforesaid certificate to the Archbishop, desiring a time to be presently assigned for final sentence, which the VicarGeneral also decrees. Then the Proctor desires that all opponents may again be called three times, which done, and none appearing nor opposing, they are pronounced contumacious, and a decree is made to proceed to sentence by a schedule read and prescribed by the Vicar-General. Upon this the Bishop takes the Oaths of Supremacy, simony, and of obedience to the Archbishop, in accordance with the Canons of the Church. After this the Dean of the Arches reads and subscribes the sentence, and so this step is completed.

Next after the Confirmation, follows the Consecration of the elected Bishop, in obedience to the King's formal mandate, which is solemnly and publicly done in the face of the Church by the Archbishop, with the assistance of at least two other Bishops of the

Church of England, and in conformity to the manner and form of consecrating Bishops prescribed by the Canon relating to the same, enacted in the Fourth Council of Carthage, generally received throughout the whole Western Church.

A mandate then issues from the Archbishop to the Archdeacon of his province to install the Bishopelected, confirmed and now consecrated, who himself (or his proxy, which is customary and usual, being in the person of a Notary Public) introduced by the Archdeacon into the cathedral church, on any day between the hours of nine and eleven, first declares his assent to the King's supremacy, etc. Then the Archdeacon, with the Canons and other officials, having preceded the Bishop to the choir, and placed him on the Episcopal throne, pronounces as follows:-" Ego auctoritate mihi commissa induco et inthronizo Reverendum in Christo patrem, Dominum N. Episcopum. Et Dominus Deus Omnipotens custodiat tuum introitum et exitum, ex hoc nunc et in sæculum. Amen." Then, after the service proper for the occasion, the Bishop being conducted into the chapter-house, and there placed in a chief seat, the Archdeacon, Canons, Prebendaries, Minor Canons, and other officers of the Church acknowledge canonical obedience to him; and the Notary Public, by the Archdeacon's commands, records the whole matter in an instrument to remain as authentic to posterity.

After which the Bishop is introduced into the presence of the King to do homage for his temporalities* and barony, by kneeling down and putting

In some cases the temporalities of a See have been ex gratiâ granted before consecration, and it seems probable that in the case of Parker,

his hands between the hands of the King, who is sitting in his chair of state, and by taking a solemn oath to be true and faithful to his majesty and that he holds his temporalities from him.

All these various steps are taken duly, regularly, in accordance both with law and custom, by the cooperation of numerous public officials both in Church and State, and in the face of the people. So that the idea of a person occupying the position of a Bishop in the Church of England without having gone through them, may be regarded as in the highest degree improbable, if not actually impossible. But to proceed to the facts of the cases in dispute :

Evidence of Barlow's Consecration.

As Barlow, was the chief consecrator of Parker; as he was the Bishop to whom the Archbishop-elect was presented by John Scory, Suffragan of Bedford, and Bishop Miles Coverdale, it is essential, in the first instance, to prove that the said Barlow had himself been duly consecrated, and was held and regarded to be a Bishop by his fellow Prelates in previous reigns. This is all the more necessary because the actual record of his consecration is not to be found in Cranmer's Register, and the Registers for that period of St. Asaph and St. David's are lost.

The reasons why Barlow may be held to have been a true Bishop shall be set forth seriatim :—

1. He had been actually possessed of three Sees in turn, viz.-St. Asaph, St. David's, and Bath and Wells, prior to the date of Parker's consecration.

permission to occupy the Palace at Lambeth was given even before election. Vide Stephens, On the Laws of the Clergy, Vol. I. p. 145. London: 1848.