ENGLISH PARISHES | AdventAI

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jul 14, 1887

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 13, No. 27.

ENGLISH PARISHES.

The Congregationalist quotes the following from Adam Badeau's "Aristocracy in England," as showing how it is that some of the parish churches where the attendance is exceedingly small, perhaps not a dozen, nevertheless go straight on, year after year, because there is "money in it:"—

England is divided into 12,000 parishes, in every one of which there is a resident clergyman who receives one-tenth of the income of the land. The ancient tithe in kind is commuted, but the clergy still obtain their tenth in residence, glebe, and commuted tithe. This is in addition to the revenues of the bishops and to the expenditure for the care of the church edifices. These 12,000 clergymen constitute one-fourth of the resident land owners of the kingdom. Their incomes average more than $1,500 a year. They are land owners as absolutely as the peers; for they also are tenants for life, and cannot be dispossessed short of a revolution—unless in case of crime or gross immorality. They cannot, it is true, dispose of their estates by will; but neither can one in ten of the larger land holders. For the Archbishop of Canterbury, with his $75,000 a year, down to the humblest incumbent of a parish, they are emphatically part of the landed interest.