of the English Church, nor can any justification of his offence be de rived from the ambition and pride and ostentation of such ecclesiastics as the Cardinals Becket, Beaufort, and Wolsey, whose characters are justly and impartially drawn by Mr. Shuttleworth. "The yoke of such men as Becket, Beaufort, and Wolsey, so armed and ambitiously disposed, is doubtless to be deprecated; but it would be well if modern cavillers at the possessions of the Clergy would revert occasionally to preceding ages, and consider whether the spoliations committed upon the Church have not been commensurate with her errors; and whether if they mean to spare her one ray of lustre, one feature of dignity, any characteristic to remind us what she was, what she remains, and what she ought to be preserved, they will persevere in their loud, indecorous, and unreasonable objections to her tythes, the inconsiderable remnant she rescued from the wreck which scattered all her endowments, and mutilated all her beauties." P. 44. The vain ambition of these men is amply compensated by the noble generosity and munificence of the Prelates and Clergy, by whom our several cathedrals from their first foundation to the present day have been erected, repaired, adorned, and endowed with various benefae. tions. As it is sometimes supposed, that the cathedrals are the most useless part of the English Church, absorbing a large portion of the ecclesiastical revenues, without the performance of corresponding duties, it is the more important to observe the splendid monuments of ecclesiastical munificence which they severally contain, and to which Mr. Shuttleworth directs the attention of his readers in the cathedrals of Ely, Bath and Wells, Chester, Chichester, Salisbury, Worcester, Lincoln, Winchester, Hereford, Norwich, Canterbury, Durham, Glocester, Exeter, Rochester, Peterborough, Bristol, Carlisle, Litchfield, York, and London. The history of the cathedrals of Ely and Hereford are succinctly drawn up and exhibit sufficient proof that the streams of clerical bounty have not been dried up by the Reformation. "Ely cathedral owes much of its present and former magnificence to a succession of generous individuals who have filled the bishops' throne. The great west tower, a building at once curious, beautiful, and highly decorated, was erected in the twelfth century by Bishop Rydel; the handsome vestibule at the entrance, formerly called the Gallilee, was built about the year 1200, by Bishop Eustachius. The foundation of the elegant structure which now forms the choir, but was originally the presbytery, was laid by Hugh Northwold, the eighth bishop, in the year 1234, and finished in 1250. Alan de Walsingham, the sub-prior of the convent, and sacrist of the Church, a person eminently versed in architecture, designed and erected the present magnificent octagon, probably unequalled by any other of the kind. The three arches eastward of the octagon were rebuilt about the same period, by Bishop Hotham, and are very highly embellished; at the east end of the north aisle, is a sumptuous chapel, the work of Bishop Alcock, in 1500. In the south aisle, and in some respects corresponding with the former, but much superior in its decorations, is another chapel, erected by Bishop West, about the year 1530. The font, of very elegant worked marble, adorned with several small statues, was given to the church by Dean Spencer. Near the east end of the cathedral, on the north side, is Saint Mary's Chapel, now Trinity Church. This beautiful structure was commenced in the reign of Edward the Second, and is one of the most perfect buildings of that age; it was designed and completed at the charge of the convent, by John de Wisbech, one of the monks, and Alan de Walsingham, whe erected the octagon. A charming little chapel, adjoining the deanery, was the work of Prior Crauden. The episcopal palace is indebted for its existence to Bishops Alcock and Gooderich, but was much improved by the late Bishop Mawson, to whose philanthropy and publie spirit the inhabitants of Ely are indebt for many advantages. When his Lordshi was promoted to this see, in 1754, th city and its neighbourhood were greatly on the decline, from the adjoining low lands having been under water severa years, and the wretched situation of the public roads, which were in so bad a state that they could not be travelled with safety: under these circumstances,' ob serves Mr. Bentham, it was obvious that the only effectual mean of restoring the country to a flourishing state, was to embank the river, to erect mills for draining the land, and to open a free and safe communication throughout the large and almost impassable levels, with which the city of Ely was environed; all of them works of great difficulty and formidable in point of expence.' The patronage and support of Bishop Mawson gave efficacy to the schemes proposed to remedy these inconveniences; by the aid of several Acts of Parliament the necessary improvements were made, and both the commerce and health of the inhabitants considerably benefited. Among other alterations the road from Ely to Cambridge was made toropike, at the expence, in some places, of 3001, a mile. The public gaol was also repaired and strengthened at the charge of the Bishop, who likewise contributed a considerable sum towards many judicious alterations in the ecclesiastical buildings. "When mentioning the cathedral of Ely, the name of the Rev. James Bentham, cannot with propriety be omitted. He was born in 1709, and being a man of very liberal talents, he devoted much attention to projects of general utility, as inclosing waste lands, repairing roads, and draining fens. In 1771, he published his valuable work on the History and Antiquities of Ely; and in 1771, he exchanged the rectory of Northwold, for a prebendary (prebend) in the cathedral, whose antiquity and beauty he had illustrated with great judgment and ability. This publication obtained him so much credit, conjointly with his known skill in ancient architecture, that when the Dean and Chapter resolved some years since, on a general repair of the cathedral, he was appointed to superintend the improvements, but was prevented completing his designs by the indiscriminating hand of death, in the eighty-sixth year of his age." P. 45. "The assassination of Ethelbert, kiug of the East Angles, by Offa, king of Mercia, of which Hereford was the capital, placed the former on the calender of saints and martyrs; caravans of pilgrims daily enriched his shrine; the pomps and ceremonies of the Church augmented his fame, and the contributions of penitents and deattees, arriving in seasonable abundance, nder the auspices of the Bishop and his Clergy, the towers and pinnacles of a maeric cathedral, gratified the pious and onished the profane, th Tow the ate with ob The original structure becoming diidated, Bishop Athelstan rebuilt it; being destroyed by fire, almost as soon as finished, Robert de Lozing, nominated to the see by William the Conqueror, commenced a new one, which was completed by Bishop Reynelm; Engibuis de Brarsa added a tower; William Lochard, a canon of the church, gave the great west window; Bishop Booth, a beautiful porch; Dean Tytler fitted up and decorated the choir in 1720. In 1786, the tower over the west front gave way, and destroyed every thing beneath and near it; the expence of rebuilding this portion of the cathedral amounted to nearly eighteen thousand pounds, and about two thousand more were appropriated to the general repair of the central tower and other parts of the fabric: of these sums, seven thousand pounds were subscribed by the clergy and laity, and the remaining thirteen thousand charged on the estates of the church. "The grammar-school adjoining the cathedral, and endowed with no less than thirty scholarships to Oxford and Cambridge, was founded under the fostering hand of Bishop Gilbert. The college for the vicars choral, a spacious commonhall, chapel, and library adjoining, were erected principally from the benefactions of Bishop Stanbury; every object which meets the eye is a monument of priestly munificence." P. 70. The charity of the Archbishops of Canterbury is worthy to be had in perpetual remembrance, and is a field on which Mr. Shuttleworth could hardly fail to expatiate. We extract his account of those who have flourished since the Reformation, with the remark, that Secker and other names noticed in other parts of the work, should have been added to this list of metropolitan worthies. "George Abbott founded an hospital at Guildford for twenty-one persons, and built a stone conduit at Canterbury, for the use of the inhabitants; Juxon, the faithful servant of Charles the First, whom he attended in his last moments on the scaffold, took down the old hall of Lambeth Palace, for which he substituted one of fiuer proportions and of more elegant design; he considerably improved the residence at Croydon, bequeathed seven thousand pounds to Saint John's College, Cambridge, two thousand pounds towards the repairs of St. Paul's Cathedral, and many other legacies. Sheldon's grand work, the theatre at Oxford, will be here after noticed; independent of it, his charities were very extensive, and he expended large sums in building; the whole amount of his disbursements for pious and charitable uses in the seventeen years pre ceding his decease, was sixty-six thousand pounds. The sums which his successor Sancroft distributed in charitable donations, are estimated at nearly eighteen thousand pounds. Tennison was a prelate of great piety and exalted goodness, and the legacies he bequeathed at his death, which took place in 1715, were uncom monly numerous. Wake who followed him, expended eleven thousand pounds upon the palaces of Lambeth and Croydon, and the distressed and indigent never turned from his door unassisted. We shall record more of this prelate's liberal works in our remarks upon Christ Church, Oxford. In short, from the age of St. Augustine to the present period, which in cludes a list of ninety archbishops, few can be named, who besides being conspicuous for talents, knowledge, and virtue, are not likewise deserving honour for munificence, benevolence, and charity." P. 88, In contemplating the acts of ancient munificence without overlooking modern excellence, it is but natural that the author should feel an enthusiasm for the virtue which he records; but while he registers the good deeds of the Protestant not less than of the Papal, of the married not less than of the celibate priesthood, we were not prepared for the assertion, that it is" out of the power of argument to persuade" the author," that the cares and anxieties of domestic life are consistent with the duties of a minister of the word of God," or for the renewal and recitation of the offensive insinuations of Doctor King in his Political and Literary Anecdotes in depreciation of the liberality of the Hierarchy since the Reformation, It should not have escaped the notice of these writers, that the Reformation not only restored the liberty of marriage to the Clergy, but took from them a large portion of the means possessed by their predecessors; and they should have remembered, that with diminished revenues the Clergy have been forward in meeting every call of public and of private charity; and that it is to their liberal patronage, that many institutions are almost exclusively indebted for their existence and support. That the Protestant Clergy are not wanting in public spirit is exhibited in many instances recorded in this volume, in which honourable mention is made of the names of Bishop Buchner and the Archbishop of York; to which might be added, the improvements now in progress at St. Paul's Cathedral, under the Bishop of Llandaff, of which such worthy notice was taken in Parliament; the recent renovations of Fulham Palace, and of London House, by the present Bishop of London, and the arrangements in the interior of Lambeth Palace by the Archbishop of Canterbury. The modern foundations of Bell, Porteus, and Hulse at Cambridge, are among the good works of Protestantism; and the great cause of national education is for ever associated with the name of Barrington, whose charities on all occasions have never been exceeded. But these acts of public spirit are not the chief praise of the Protestant Clergy; whose marriage renders them better judges of the cares of domestic life, and more capable of entering into the wants of their parishioners: and the advocates of clerical celibacy would do well to reflect on the Apostolic rules, in which the elders and deacons are described as married men, and fathers of families, on the Apostolic precedent, which is found in the marriage of St. Peter, and on the Apostolic prediction of the character of the age, in which men shall be forbidden to marry. The munificence of the ancient Clergy, which has been seen in the Cathedrals is again visible in the Universities; and in these also according to their means, the modern Clergy, are the successful rivals of their predecessors. The author exhibits instances in the several colleges at Oxford, and the History of Wadham College, if not the most attractive, has the merit of brevity, and illustrates the subject in the times subsequent to the Reformation. "Wadham College, although not founded by a divine, is greatly indebted to the Church. John Goodridge, M. A. gave an estate in money to be divided between four exhibitioners, three scholars, the moderator, the catechist, &c. Humphrey Hody, Archdeacon of Oxford, founded ten exhibitions of ten pounds each, which have since been increased to fifteen pounds. Lisk, Bishop of St. Asaph, founded an exhibition of twelve pounds. The Rev. Henry Pigot, and Dr. Gerard, also founded exhibitions. Dr. John Wills, the Warden, who died in 1806, stands unrivalled by any of his predecessors; he bequeathed four hundred pounds per annum, in addition to the Wardenship; one thousand pounds to improve his lodgings; two exhibitions of one hundred pounds each for two fellows, students in law or medicine; two exhibitions of twenty pounds each for two scholars, students in the same faculties; twenty pounds per annum for a divinity lecturer; for a superannuated fellow, not having property of his own, to the amount of seventy-five pounds per annum, a yearly exhibition of seventy-five pounds; to a second, not having property of his own, to the amount of one hundred pounds per anaum, an exhibition of fifty pounds yearly; eleven pounds ten shillings to a preacher for four sermons; five or six pounds yearly in books to the best reader of lessons in the chapel; interest of money arising from the sale of an estate in Lincolnshire to the Vice Chancellor for the time being; two thousand pounds to the Bodleian librarian; two thousand pounds to be divided between the theatre and the Clarendon press; and one thousand pounds, three per cents, to the Infirmary. The residue of his fortune, after some legacies to very distant relations, he bequeathed as a fund to accumulate for the purchase of livings for the College. Philip Bisse, Archdeacon of Taunton, contributed his private collection of books to the library, valued at seven hundred pounds; and Samuel Bush, Vicar of Wadhurst in Sussex, left a similar donation." P. 179. It would be tedious to pursue the same course through the colleges at Cambridge, of which the Author therefore takes but a distant view, and proceeds to the minor seminaries and to the duties of ecclesiastics in the instruction of youth, an office almost exclusively appropriated to the Clergy, requiring the most unremitted labour, and frequently receiving the most inadequate remu neration. "If to the preceding examples we add the unendowed schools under the superintendence of the Clergy, we shall find, that three-fourths of the care, auxiety, labour, and responsibility of education fall to their share. And is this either a profligate or an idle path in life? Are these the drones which revel in the hive, whilst the more industrious inhabitants are abroad collecting sweets for the society? Surely we have said enough, and shown enough to controvert such insidious reasoning, such vulgar and groundless prejudice. Alas! if we look around this great and wondrous nation, observe its baronial palaces, its splendid mansions, its groves, its gardens, and its golden fields; in which region, or in what vicinity of this rich and favoured land shall we recognize the envied treasures, the luxurious scenes, the enervating indulgences, which ignorance and antipathy have combined to charge in guilty profusion on the sacred character of the priest. "As far as temporal objects are concerned, the brightest prospects of ecclesiastical life display no extraordinary fascinations; an expensive education is followed by no certain equivalent; a clergyman enters the world with ideas exalted above the vulgar pursuits of men, and encompassed by restrictions and disqualifications which shut every avenue of fortune against him, except here and there a contemptible pittance in return for the arduous exercise of intellectual talent, or the laborious duties of scholastic discipline. "The paths of literature may be flowery, but they are flowers of expensive culture; and expose the hand which cherishes them for pecuniary considerations, to trials painful and mortifying to the lofty sentiments of a scholar, and repellent to every feeling and faculty of a highly po lished mind." P. 199. In selecting the office of the priesthood for themselves or their children, men are often delighted with bright anticipations of the easy life of the country Clergyman, whose time, it is supposed, is uninterrupted and all his own, and many in deprecating his useful labours are prone to renew and propagate the fair de lusion. Little do these men know of the forbearance, mortification and self-denial-of the patience, perseverance and watchfulness-of the anxious apprehensions and painful sympathies, amid evil report and good report, amid rewarded and unrewarded labour, amid neglect on the one hand and opposition on the other, which the common lot of every day demands of the parochial Clergy. It is a common imagination, that the week of the Clergy consists of one day of duty followed by six days of repose: but the experience and observation of clerical life in the country will lead to a very different conclusion, and suggest a doubt, whether in the various occupations which the circumstances of the times impose on the Clergy, the Sabbath is not their chief day of rest, and of leisure for pure, uninterrupted reflection. Still the men of the world, who know and who feel not these occu pations and anxieties of mind, body, and estate, while they are prone to admiré, and excuse the varied and vicious superstitions of heathenism, are ready to take offence at the most simple rites and ordinances which the Clergy administer, and are never more delighted than in listening to the tale of the imputed errors and follies of the Christian priesthood. If these men would study the pages of Mr. Shuttleworth, they might learn to reflect, that whatever may have been the persecuting spirit, the intolerance, the extravagant and absurd devotion, of the earliest ages of corrupted Christianity, they are at least exceeded by the common characteristics of paganism and idolatry. "The early Christians were exposed to all the horrors which bigotry, founded upon sucli superstitions as we have but briefly alluded to, were calculated to inspire, and if we compare the worst period of the monastic age, with all its obnoxious excrescences, its auto da fe's, and the inquisition not excepted, we bid defiance to any thing like a parallel being supported against the intolerance of paganism. We have seen their temples blazing in gems and gold, and groaning beneath the load of incalculable treasures, accumulated but to honour the obsequies of irrational beings, or to become the spoil of invaders whose intrepidity or whose avarice were superior to their credulity. The arts contributed to their splendour and aggrandizement, but received from the priesthood neither patronage nor reward, and their progress in science was preserved profoundly secret, their degenerate and selfish prejudices. If that it might be rendered subservient to the monks were prone to idolatry, their worship at least was directed, generally speaking, to the images of virtuous human beings; for although stript of its extravagant legends, all the high colouring of martyrdom, and the marvellous testimonials for canonization, the Roman Calendar can still display enough to claim admiration and command our reverence. Its shrines we may look upon with disdain, its relics with disgust, but, we repeat, the bones of an eminently religious man are an improvement upon the mummy of a brule; the the tomb of an amiable Christian more worthy of pious regard than the brazen effigies of a monster! All is remote from reason, all repugnant to modern intellectual attainments; but still the misconceptions of the heathen were fading away before the Cross and the Gospel; the horizon was becoming gradually auspicious, when with the ostensible motive of cleansing the sanctuary from corruption, injustice and sacrilege went hand in hand; good and evil were mingled together in one promiscuous ruin, and the sun of truth rose only upon desolation." P. 218. Even in the worst of times the learning of the Clergy has been conspicuous, and for a long period their lamps, not useless nor unseen, shone in the midst of surrounding ignorance, and preserved the light of history and truth, for the instruction of succeeding generations. Such was the venerable Bede; such was the patriarch Photius; such was Friar Bacon: such in all since ages their institution have been the Benedictines; and such, in spite of their political intrigues and moral sophisms, have been the Jesuits, whose learning was always unquestionable. The English Reformers shewed themselves equal to the exigencies of the times in which their |