Encyclopaedia Britannica Volume 2, Part 1 Part 6
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The unfavourable character drawn of him by Burnet is certainly unjust and not supported by any evidence. Pepys, a far more trustworthy judge, speaks of him invariably in terms of respect and approval as a "grave, serious man," and commends his appointment as treasurer of the navy as that of "a very notable man and understanding and will do things regular and understand them himself."[6] He was a learned and cultivated man and collected a celebrated library, which was dispersed at his death. Besides the pamphlets already mentioned, he wrote:--_A True Account of the Whole Proceedings betwixt ... the Duke of Ormond and ... the Earl of Anglesey_ (1682); _A Letter of Remarks upon Jovian_ (1683); other works ascribed to him being _The King's Right of Indulgence in Matters Spiritual ... a.s.serted_ (1688); _Truth Unveiled, to which is added a short Treatise on ... Transubstantiation_ (1676); _The Obligation resulting from the Oath of Supremacy_ (1688); and _England's Confusion_ (1659). _Memoirs_ of Lord Anglesey were published by Sir P. Pett in 1693, but contain little biographical information and were repudiated as a mere imposture by Sir John Thompson (Lord Haversham), his son-in-law, in his preface to Lord Anglesey's _State of the Government_ in 1694. The author however of the preface to _The Rights of the Lords a.s.serted_ (1702), while blaming their publication as "scattered and unfinished papers," admits their genuineness.
Lord Anglesey married Elizabeth, daughter and co-heiress of Sir James Altham of Oxey, Hertfords.h.i.+re, by whom, besides other children, he had James, who succeeded him, Altham, created Baron Altham, and Richard, afterwards 3rd Baron Altham. His descendant Richard, the 6th earl (d. 1761), left a son Arthur, whose legitimacy was doubted, and the peerage became extinct. He was summoned to the Irish House of Peers as Viscount Valentia, but was denied his writ to the parliament of Great Britain by a majority of one vote. He was created in 1793 earl of Mountnorris in the peerage of Ireland. All the male descendants of the 1st earl of Anglesey became extinct in the person of George, 2nd earl of Mountnorris, in 1844, when the t.i.tles of Viscount Valentia and Baron Mountnorris pa.s.sed to his cousin Arthur Annesley (1785-1863), who thus became 10th Viscount Valentia, being descended from the 1st Viscount Valentia the father of the 1st earl of Anglesey in the Annesley family. The 1st viscount was also the ancestor of the Earls Annesley in the Irish peerage.
[Footnote 1: _Protests of the Lords_, by J.E. Thorold Rogers (1875), i. 27: Carti's _Life of Ormonde_ (1851), iv. 234; _Parl. Hist._ iv.
284.]
[Footnote 2: Carti's _Ormonde_, iv. 330, 340.]
[Footnote 3: _Cal. of State Pap. Dom._ (1673-1675), p. 152.]
[Footnote 4: _Memoirs_, 8, 9.]
[Footnote 5: By Sir J. Thompson, his son-in-law. Reprinted in _Somers Tracts_ (Scott, 1812), viii. 344, and in _Parl. Hist._ iv. app. xvi.]
[Footnote 6: _Diary_ (ed. Wheatley, 1904), iv. 298, vii. 14.]
AUTHORITIES.--_Dict. of Nat. Biography_, with authorities there collected; lives in Wood's _Athenae Oxonienses_ (Bliss), iv. 181, _Biographia Britannica_, and H. Walpole's _Royal and n.o.ble Authors_ (1806), iii. 288 (the latter a very inadequate review of Anglesey's character and career); also _Bibliotheca Anglesiana_ ... per Thomam Philippum (1686); _The Happy Future State of England_, by Sir Peter Pett (1688); _Great News from Poland_ (1683), where his religious tolerance is ridiculed; _Somers Tracts_ (Scott, 1812), viii. 344; _Notes of the Privy Council_ (Roxburghe Club, 1896); _Cal. of State Papers, Dom._; _State Trials_, viii. and ix. 619.
(P.C.Y.)
ANGLESEY, HENRY WILLIAM PAGET, 1st MARQUESS OF (1768-1854), British field-marshal, was born on the 17th of May 1768. He was the eldest son of Henry Paget, 1st earl of Uxbridge (d. 1812), and was educated at Westminster School and Christ Church, Oxford, afterwards entering parliament in 1790 as member for Carnarvon, for which he sat for six years. At the outbreak of the French Revolutionary wars Lord Paget (as he was then styled), who had already served in the militia, raised on his father's estate the regiment of Staffords.h.i.+re volunteers, in which he was given the temporary rank of lieutenant-colonel (1793). The corps soon became part of the regular army as the 80th Foot, and it took part, under Lord Paget's command, in the Flanders campaign of 1794. In spite of his youth he held a brigade command for a time, and gained also, during the campaign, his first experience of the cavalry arm, with which he was thenceforward a.s.sociated. His substantive commission as lieutenant-colonel of the 16th Light Dragoons bore the date of the 15th of June 1795, and in 1796 he was made a colonel in the army. In 1795 he married Lady Caroline Elizabeth Villiers, daughter of the earl of Jersey. In April 1797 Lord Paget was transferred to a lieut.-colonelcy in the 7th Light Dragoons, of which regiment he became colonel in 1801. From the first he applied himself strenuously to the improvement of discipline, and to the perfection of a new system of cavalry evolutions. In the short campaign of 1799 in Holland, Paget commanded the cavalry brigade, and in spite of the unsuitable character of the ground, he made, on several occasions, brilliant and successful charges. After the return of the expedition, he devoted himself zealously to his regiment, which under his command became one of the best corps in the service. In 1802 he was promoted major-general, and six years later lieutenant-general. In command of the cavalry of Sir John Moore's army during the Corunna campaign, Lord Paget won the greatest distinction. At Sahagun, Mayorga and Benavente, the British cavalry behaved so well under his leaders.h.i.+p that Moore wrote:--"It is impossible for me to say too much in its praise.... Our cavalry is very superior in quality to any the French have, and the right spirit has been infused into them by the example and instruction of their ... leaders...." At Benavente one of Napoleon's best cavalry leaders, General Lefebvre Desnoettes, was taken prisoner. Corunna was Paget's last service in the Peninsula. His _liaison_ with the wife of Henry Wellesley, afterwards Lord Cowley, made it impossible at that time for him to serve with Wellington, whose cavalry, on many occasions during the succeeding campaigns, felt the want of the true cavalry leader to direct them. His only war service from 1809 to 1815 was in the disastrous Walcheren expedition (1809) in which he commanded a division. During these years he occupied himself with his parliamentary duties as member for Milborne Port, which he represented almost continuously up to his father's death in 1812, when he took his seat in the House of Lords as earl of Uxbridge. In 1810 he was divorced and married Mrs Wellesley, who had about the same time been divorced from her husband. Lady Paget was soon afterwards married to the duke of Argyll. In 1815 Lord Uxbridge received command of the British cavalry in Flanders. At a moment of danger such as that of Napoleon's return from Elba, the services of the best cavalry general in the British army could not be neglected. Wellington placed the greatest confidence in him, and on the eve of Waterloo extended his command so as to include the whole of the allied cavalry and horse artillery. He covered the retirement of the allies from Quatre Bras to Waterloo on the 17th of June, and on the 18th gained the crowning distinction of his military career in leading the great cavalry charge of the British centre, which checked and in part routed D'Erlon's _corps d'armee_ (see WATERLOO CAMPAIGN). Freely exposing his own life throughout, the earl received, by one of the last cannon shots fired, a severe wound in the leg, necessitating amputation. Five days later the prince regent created him marquess of Anglesey in recognition of his brilliant services, which were regarded universally as second only to those of the duke himself. He was made a G.C.B. and he was also decorated by many of the allied sovereigns.
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In 1818 the marquess was made a knight of the Garter, in 1819 he became full general, and at the coronation of George IV. he acted as lord high steward of England. His support of the proceedings against Queen Caroline made him for a time unpopular, and when he was on one occasion beset by a crowd, who compelled him to shout "The Queen,"
he added the wish, "May all your wives be like her." At the close of April 1827 he became a member of the Canning administration, taking the post of master-general of the ordnance, previously held by Wellington. He was at the same time sworn a member of the privy council. Under the Wellington administration he accepted the appointment of lord-lieutenant of Ireland (March 1828), and in the discharge of his important duties he greatly endeared himself to the Irish people. The spirit in which he acted and the aims which he steadily set before himself contributed to the allaying of party animosities, to the promotion of a willing submission to the laws, to the prosperity of trade and to the extension and improvement of education. On the great question of the time his views were opposed to those of the government. He saw clearly that the time was come when the relief of the Catholics from the penal legislation of the past was an indispensable measure, and in December 1828 he addressed a letter to the Roman Catholic primate of Ireland distinctly announcing his view. This led to his recall by the government, a step sincerely lamented by the Irish. He pleaded for Catholic emanc.i.p.ation in parliament, and on the formation of Earl Grey's administration in November 1830, he again became lord-lieutenant of Ireland. The times were changed; the act of emanc.i.p.ation had been pa.s.sed, and the task of viceroy in his second tenure of office was to resist the agitation for repeal of the union carried on by O'Connell. He felt it his duty now to demand Coercion Acts for the security of the public peace; his popularity was diminished, differences appeared in the cabinet on the difficult subject, and in July 1833 the ministry resigned. To the marquess of Anglesey Ireland is indebted for the board of education, the origination of which may perhaps be reckoned as the most memorable act of his viceroyalty. For thirteen years after his retirement he remained out of office, and took little part in the affairs of government. He joined the Russell administration in July 1846 as master-general of the ordnance, finally retiring with his chief in March 1852. His promotion in the army was completed by his advancement to the rank of field-marshal in 1846. Four years before, he exchanged his colonelcy of the 7th Light Dragoons which he had held over forty years, for that of the Royal Horse Guards. He died on the 29th of April 1854.
The marquess had a large family by each of his two wives, two sons and six daughters by the first and six sons and four daughters by the second. His eldest son, Henry, succeeded him in the marquessate; but the t.i.tle pa.s.sed rapidly in succession to the 3rd, 4th and 5th marquesses. The latter, whose extravagances were notorious, died in 1905, when the t.i.tle pa.s.sed to his cousin.
Other members of the Paget family distinguished themselves in the army and the navy. Of the first marquess's brothers one, SIR CHARLES PAGET (1778-1839), rose to the rank of vice-admiral in the Royal Navy; another, General SIR EDWARD PAGET (1775-1849), won great distinction by his skilful and resolute handling of a division at Corunna, and from 1822 to 1825 was commander-in-chief in India. One of the marquess's sons by his second marriage, LORD CLARENCE EDWARD PAGET (1811-1895), became an admiral; another, LORD GEORGE AUGUSTUS FREDERICK PAGET (1818-1880), led the 4th Light Dragoons in the charge of the Light Brigade at Balaklava, and subsequently commanded the brigade, and, for a short time, the cavalry division in the Crimea.
In 1865 he was made inspector-general of cavalry, in 1871 lieutenant-general and K.C.B., and in 1877 full general. His Crimean journals were published in 1881.
ANGLESEY, or ANGLESEA, an insular northern county of Wales. Its area is 176,630 acres or about 276 sq. m. Anglesey, in the see of Bangor, is separated from the mainland by the Menai Straits (Afon Menai), over which were thrown Telford's suspension bridge, in 1826, and the Stephenson tubular railway bridge in 1850. The county is flat, with slight risings such as Parys, Cadair Mynachdy (or Monachdy, _i.e._.
"chair of the monastery"; there is a Nanner, "convent," not far away) and Holyhead Mountain. There are a few lakes, such as Cors cerrig y daran, but rising water is generally scarce. The climate is humid, the land poor for the most part compared with its old state of fertility, and there are few industries.
As regards geology, the younger strata in Anglesey rest upon a foundation of very old pre-Cambrian rocks which appear at the surface in three areas:--(1) a western region including Holyhead and Llanfaethlu, (2) a central area about Aberffraw and Trefdraeth, and (3) an eastern region which includes Newborough, Caerwen and Pentraeth. These pre-Cambrian rocks are schists and slates, often much contorted and disturbed. The general line of strike of the formations in the island is from N.E. to S.W. A belt of granitic rocks lies immediately north-west of the central pre-Cambrian ma.s.s, reaching from Llanfaelog near the coast to the vicinity of Llanerchymedd. Between this granite and the pre-Cambrian of Holyhead is a narrow tract of Ordovician slates and grits with Llandovery beds in places; this tract spreads out in the N. of the island between Dulas Bay and Carmel Point. A small patch of Ordovician strata lies on the northern side of Beaumaris. In parts, these Ordovician rocks are much folded, crushed and metamorphosed, and they are a.s.sociated with schists and altered volcanic rocks which are probably pre-Cambrian. Between the eastern and central pre-Cambrian ma.s.ses carboniferous rocks are found. The carboniferous limestone occupies a broad area S. of Ligwy Bay and Pentraeth, and sends a narrow spur in a south-westerly direction by Llangefni to Malldraeth sands. The limestone is underlain on the N.W. by a red bas.e.m.e.nt conglomerate and yellow sandstone (sometimes considered to be of Old Red Sandstone age). Limestone occurs again on the N. coast about Llanfihangel and Llangoed; and in the S.W. round Llanidan on the border of the Menai Strait. Puffin Island is made of carboniferous limestone. Malldraeth Marsh is occupied by coal measures, and a small patch of the same formation appears near Tall-y-foel Ferry on the Menai Straits. A patch of granitic and felsitic rocks form Parys Mountain, where copper and iron ochre have been worked. Serpentine (Mona Marble) is found near Llanfaerynneubwll and upon the opposite sh.o.r.e in Holyhead. There are abundant evidences of glaciation, and much boulder clay and drift sand covers the older rocks. Patches of blown sand occur on the S.W. coast.
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The London & North-Western railway (Chester and Holyhead branch) crosses Anglesey from Llanfairpwllgwyngyll to Gaerwen and Holyhead (Caer Gybi), also from Gaerwen to Amlwch. The staple of the island is farming, the chief crops being turnips, oats, potatoes, with flax in the centre. Copper (near Amlwch), lead, silver, marble, asbestos, lime and sandstone, marl, zinc and coal have all been worked in Anglesey, coal especially at Malldraeth and Trefdraeth. The population of the county in 1901 was 50,606. There is no parliamentary borough, but one member is returned for the county. It is in the north-western circuit, and a.s.sizes are held at Beaumaris, the only munic.i.p.al borough (pop.
2326). Amlwch (2994), Holyhead (10,079), Llangefni (1751) and Menai Bridge (Pont y Borth, 1700) are urban districts. There are six hundreds and seventy-eight parishes.
Mon (a cow) is the Welsh name of Anglesey, itself a corrupted form of O.E., meaning the Isle of the Angles. Old Welsh names are Ynys Dywyll ("Dark Isle") and Ynys y cedairn (cedyrn or kedyrn; "Isle of brave folk"). It is the Mona of Tacitus (_Ann._ xiv. 29, _Agr._ xiv. 18), Pliny the Elder (iv. 16) and Dio Ca.s.sius (62). It is called Mam Cymru by Giraldus Cambrensis. Clas Merddin, Y vel Ynys (honey isle), Ynys Prydein, Ynys Brut are other names. According to the Triads (67), Anglesey was once part of the mainland, as geology proves. The island was the seat of the Druids, of whom 28 cromlechs remain, on uplands overlooking the sea, _e.g._ at Plas Newydd. The Druids were attacked in A.D. 61 by Suetonius Paulinus, and by Agricola in A.D. 78. In the 5th century Caswallon lived here, and here, at Aberffraw, the princes of Gwynedd lived till 1277. The present road from Holyhead to Llanfairpwllgwyngyll is originally Roman. British and Roman camps, coins and ornaments have been dug up and discussed, especially by the Hon. Mr. Stanley of Penrhos. Pen Caer Gybi is Roman. The island was devastated by the Danes (_Dub Gint_ or black nations, _gentes_), especially in A.D. 853.
See Edw. Breese, _Kalendar of Gwynedd_ (Venedocia), on Anglesey, Carnarvon and Merioneth (London, 1873); and _The History of Powys Fadog_.
ANGLESITE, a mineral consisting of lead sulphate, PbSO_{4}, crystallizing in the orthorhombic system, and isomorphous with barytes and celest.i.te. It was first recognized as a mineral species by Dr. Withering in 1783, who discovered it in the Parys copper-mine in Anglesey; the name anglesite, from this locality, was given by F.S.
Beudant in 1832. The crystals from Anglesey, which were formerly found abundantly on a matrix of dull limonite, are small in size and simple in form, being usually bounded by four faces of a prism and four faces of a dome; they are brownish-yellow in colour owing to a stain of limonite. Crystals from some other localities, notably from Monteponi in Sardinia, are transparent and colourless, possessed of a brilliant adamantine l.u.s.tre, and usually modified by numerous bright faces. The variety of combinations and habits presented by the crystals is very extensive, nearly two hundred distinct forms being figured by V.
von Lang in his monograph of the species; without measurement of the angles the crystals are frequently difficult to decipher. The hardness is 3 and the specific gravity 6.3. There are distinct cleavages parallel to the faces of the prism (110) and the basal plane (001), but these are not so well developed as in the isomorphous minerals barytes and celest.i.te.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Anglesite specimen.]
Anglesite is a mineral of secondary origin, having been formed by the oxidation of galena in the upper parts of mineral lodes where these have been affected by weathering processes. At Monteponi the crystals encrust cavities in glistening granular galena; and from Leadhills, in Scotland, pseudomorphs of anglesite after galena are known. At most localities it is found as isolated crystals in the lead-bearing lodes, but at some places, in Australia and Mexico, it occurs as large ma.s.ses, and is then mined as an ore of lead, of which the pure mineral contains 68%.
ANGLI, ANGLII or ANGLES, a Teutonic people mentioned by Tacitus in his _Germania_ (cap. 40) at the end of the 1st century. He gives no precise indication of their geographical position, but states that, together with six other tribes, including the Varini (the Warni of later times), they wors.h.i.+pped a G.o.ddess named Nerthus, whose sanctuary was situated on "an island in the Ocean." Ptolemy in his _Geography_ (ii. 11. -- 15), half a century later, locates them with more precision between the Rhine, or rather perhaps the Ems, and the Elbe, and speaks of them as one of the chief tribes of the interior. Unfortunately, however, it is clear from a comparison of his map with the evidence furnished by Tacitus and other Roman writers that the indications which he gives cannot be correct. Owing to the uncertainty of these pa.s.sages there has been much speculation regarding the original home of the Angli. One theory, which however has little to recommend it, is that they dwelt in the basin of the Saale (in the neighbourhood of the canton Engilin), from which region the _Lex Angliorum et Werinorum hoc est Thuringorum_ is believed by many to have come. At the present time the majority of scholars believe that the Angli had lived from the beginning on the coasts of the Baltic, probably in the southern part of the Jutish peninsula. The evidence for this view is derived partly from English and Danish traditions dealing with persons and events of the 4th century (see below), and partly from the fact that striking affinities to the cult of Nerthus as described by Tacitus are to be found in Scandinavian, especially Swedish and Danish, religion.
Investigations in this subject have rendered it very probable that the island of Nerthus was Sjaelland (Zealand), and it is further to be observed that the kings of Wess.e.x traced their ancestry ultimately to a certain Scyld, who is clearly to be identified with Skioldr, the mythical founder of the Danish royal family (Skioldungar). In English tradition this person is connected with "Scedeland" (pl.), a name which may have been applied to Sjaelland as well as Skne, while in Scandinavian tradition he is specially a.s.sociated with the ancient royal residence at Leire in Sjaelland.
Bede states that the Angli before they came to Britain dwelt in a land called Angulus, and similar evidence is given by the _Historia Brittonum_. King Alfred and the chronicler aethelweard identified this place with the district which is now called Angel in the province of Schleswig (Slesvig), though it may then have been of greater extent, and this identification agrees very well with the indications given by Bede. Full confirmation is afforded by English and Danish traditions relating to two kings named Wermund (_q.v._) and Offa (_q.v._), from whom the Mercian royal family were descended, and whose exploits are connected with Angel, Schleswig and Rendsburg. Danish tradition has preserved record of two governors of Schleswig, father and son, in their service, Frowinus (Freawine) and Wigo (Wig), from whom the royal family of Wess.e.x claimed descent. During the 5th century the Angli invaded this country (see BRITAIN, _Anglo-Saxon_), after which time their name does not recur on the continent except in the t.i.tle of the code mentioned above.
The province of Schleswig has proved exceptionally rich in prehistoric antiquities which date apparently from the 4th and 5th centuries.
Among the places where these have been found, special mention should be made of the large cremation cemetery at Borgstedterfeld, between Rendsburg and Eckernforde, which has yielded many urns and brooches closely resembling those found in heathen graves in England. Of still greater importance are the great deposits at Thorsbjaerg (in Angel) and Nydam, which contained large quant.i.ties of arms, ornaments, articles of clothing, agricultural implements, &c., and in the latter case even s.h.i.+ps. By the help of these discoveries we are able to reconstruct a fairly detailed picture of English civilization in the age preceding the invasion of Britain.
AUTHORITIES.--Bede, _Hist. Ecc._ i. 15: King Alfred's version of _Orosius_, i. 1. ---- 12, 19; aethelweard's _Chronicle_, lib. i. For traditions concerning the kings of Angel, see under OFFA (1). L.
Weiland, _Die Angeln_ (1889); A. Erdmann, _uber die Heimat und den Namen der Angeln_ (Upsala, 1890--cf. H. Moller in the _Anzeiger fur deutsches Altertum und deutsche Litteratur_, xxii. 129 ff.); A. k.o.c.k in the _Historisk Tidskrift_ (Stockholm), 1895, xv. p. 163 ff.; G.
Schutte, _Var Anglerne Tyskere?_ (Flensborg, 1900); R. Munro Chadwick, _The Origin of the English Nation_ (Cambridge, 1907); C. Engelhardt, _Denmark in the Early Iron Age_ (London, 1866); J. Mestorf, _Urnenfriedhofe in Schleswig-Holstein_ (Hamburg, 1886); S. Muller, _Nordische Altertumskunde_ (Ger. trans., Stra.s.sburg, 1898), ii. p. 122 ff.; see further ANGLO-SAXONS and BRITAIN, _Anglo-Saxon_.
(H.M.C.)
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ANGLICAN COMMUNION, the name used to denote that great branch of the Christian Church consisting of the various churches in communion with the Church of England. The necessity for such a phrase as "Anglican Communion," first used in the 19th century, marked at once the immense development of the Anglican Church in modern times and the change which has taken place in the traditional conceptions of its character and sphere. The Church of England itself is the subject of a separate article (see ENGLAND, CHURCH OF); and it is not without significance that for more than two centuries after the Reformation the history of Anglicanism is practically confined to its developments within the limits of the British Isles. Even in Ireland, where it was for over three centuries the established religion, and in Scotland, where it early gave way to the dominant Presbyterianism, its religious was long overshadowed by its political significance. The Church, in fact, while still claiming to be Catholic in its creeds and in its religious practice, had ceased to be Catholic in its inst.i.tutional conception, which was now bound up with a particular state and also with a particular conception of that state. To the native Irishman and the Scotsman, as indeed to most Englishmen, the Anglican Church was one of the main b.u.t.tresses of the supremacy of the English crown and nation.
This conception of the relations of church and state was hardly favourable to missionary zeal; and in the age succeeding the Reformation there was no disposition on the part of the English Church to emulate the wonderful activity of the Jesuits, which, in the 16th and 17th centuries, brought to the Church of Rome in countries beyond the ocean compensation for what she had lost in Europe through the Protestant reformation. Even when English churchmen pa.s.sed beyond the seas, they carried with them their creed, but not their ecclesiastical organization. Prejudice and real or imaginary legal obstacles stood in the way of the erection of episcopal sees in the colonies; and though in the 17th century Archbishop Laud had attempted to obtain a bishop for Virginia, up to the time of the American revolution the churchmen of the colonies had to make the best of the legal fiction that their spiritual needs were looked after by the bishop of London, who occasionally sent commissaries to visit them and ordained candidates for the ministry sent to England for the purpose.
The change which has made it possible for Anglican churchmen to claim that their communion ranks with those of Rome and the Orthodox East as one of the three great historical divisions of the Catholic Church, was due, in the first instance, to the American revolution. The severance of the colonies from their allegiance to the crown brought the English bishops for the first time face to face with the idea of an Anglican Church which should have nothing to do either with the royal supremacy or with British nationality. When, on the conclusion of peace, the church-people of Connecticut sent Dr. Samuel Seabury to England, with a request to the archbishop of Canterbury to consecrate him, it is not surprising that Archbishop Moore refused. In the opinion of prelates and lawyers alike, an act of parliament was necessary before a bishop could be consecrated for a see abroad; to consecrate one for a foreign country seemed impossible, since, though the bestowal of the _potestas ordinis_ would be valid, the crown, which, according to the law, was the source of the episcopal _jurisdiction_, could hardly issue the necessary mandate for the consecration of a bishop to a see outside the realm (see BISHOP).
The Scottish bishops, however, being hampered by no such legal restrictions, were more amenable; and on the 11th of November 1784 Seabury was consecrated by them to the see of Connecticut. In 1786, on the initiative of the archbishop, the legal difficulties in England were removed by the act for the consecration of bishops abroad; and, on being satisfied as to the orthodoxy of the church in America and the nature of certain liturgical changes in contemplation, the two English archbishops proceeded, on the 14th of February 1787, to consecrate William White and Samuel Prevoost to the sees of Pennsylvania and New York (see PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH).
This act had a significance beyond the fact that it established in the United States of America a flouris.h.i.+ng church, which, while completely loyal to its own country, is bound by special ties to the religious life of England. It marked the emergence of the Church of England from that insularity to which what may be called the territorial principles of the Reformation had condemned her. The change was slow, and it is not yet by any means complete.
Since the Church of England, whatever her att.i.tude towards the traditional Catholic doctrines, never disputed the validity of Catholic orders whether Roman or Orthodox, nor the jurisdiction of Catholic bishops in foreign countries, the expansion of the Anglican Church has been in no sense conceived as a Protestant aggressive movement against Rome. Occasional exceptions, such as the consecration by Archbishop Plunket of Dublin of a bishop for the reformed church in Spain, raised so strong a protest as to prove the rule. In the main, then, the expansion of the Anglican Church has followed that of the British empire, or, as in America, of its daughter states; its claim, so far as rights of jurisdiction are concerned, is to be the Church of England and the English race, while recognizing its special duties towards the non-Christian populations subject to the empire or brought within the reach of its influence. As against the Church of Rome, with its system of rigid centralization, the Anglican Church represents the principle of local autonomy, which it holds to be once more primitive and more catholic. In this respect the Anglican communion has developed on the lines defined in her articles at the Reformation; but, though in principle there is no great difference between a church defined by national, and a church defined by racial boundaries, there is an immense difference in effect, especially when the race--as in the case of the English--is itself ec.u.menical.
The realization of what may be called this catholic mission of the English church, in the extension of its organization to the colonies, was but a slow process.
_The Church in the Colonies._
On the 12th of August 1787 Dr. Charles Inglis was consecrated bishop of Nova Scotia, with jurisdiction over all the British possessions in North America. In 1793 the see of the Quebec was founded; Jamaica and Barbados followed in 1824, and Toronto and Newfoundland in 1839.
Meanwhile the needs of India has been tardily met, on the urgent representations in parliament of William Wilberforce and others, by the consecration of Dr. T.F. Middleton as bishop of Calcutta, with three archdeacons to a.s.sist him. In 1817 Ceylon was added to his charge; in 1823 all British subjects in the East Indies and the islands of the Indian Ocean; and in 1824 "New South Wales and its dependencies"! Some five years later, on the nomination of the duke of Wellington, William Broughton was sent out to work in this enormous jurisdiction as archdeacon of Australia. Soon afterwards, in 1835 and 1837, the sees of Madras and Bombay were founded; whilst in 1836 Broughton himself was consecrated as first bishop of Australia. Thus down to 1840 there were but ten colonial bishops; and of these several were so hampered by civil regulations that they were little more than government chaplains in episcopal orders. In April of that year, however, Bishop Blomfield of London published his famous letter to the archbishop of Canterbury, declaring that "an episcopal church without a bishop is a contradiction in terms," and strenuously advocating a great effort for the extension of the episcopate. It was not in vain.
Encyclopaedia Britannica Volume 2, Part 1 Part 6
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Encyclopaedia Britannica Volume 2, Part 1 Part 6 summary
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