LI B RARY OF THE UN IVLRSITY Of ILLI NOIS PREPARATION FOR DEACONS' AND PRIESTS' ORDERS. H (Paper CHIEFLY ON THE TRAINING OF NON-GRADUATE CANDIDATES, READ AT THE CHURCH CONGRESS, FOLKESTONE, THURSDAY, OCTOBER 6th, 1892. BY THE REV. A. J. WORLLEDGE, M.A., Canon Residentiary and Chancellor of Truro Cathedral. PRINTED BY BEMROSE & SONS, LIMITED, DERBY; AND 23, OLD BAILEY, LONDON. PREFATORY NOTE. From the introduction to this paper, it will be apparent that it is limited to one branch of the whole subject, and, if no allusion is made to many aspects of preparation for Ordination, it is because the occa- sion, on which the paper was read, did not seem to the writer a suit- able opportunity for doing so, and it had, moreover, been arranged that the Bishop of Salisbury, Prebendary Gibson, and Mr. G, A. Spottiswoode, would deal with departments of the work, to which only slight allusion is made in the following pages. To this reprint for private circulation a series of notes has been added, containing much of the information on which the statements in the paper were based, and including a few more suggestions. ^ The writer has to thank many correspondents among the clergy of the Church of England, in the Roman Catholic communion, and among ministers of the principal Nonconformist bodies for letters and reports most kindly and courteously sent to him; Truro, December, 1892. PREPARATION FOR DEACONS' AND PRIESTS' ORDERS. The Rev. A. J. WoRLLEDGE, Canon Residentiary and Chancellor of Truro Cathedral. Some ten years ago, in the preface to the translation of a remarkable treatise, the "Five Wounds of the Holy Church", by that distinguished priest and philosopher, Antonio Rosmini-Serbati, the founder of the Institute of Charity, Dr. Liddon put the following question : " Is the effort to establish, and raise the standard of theological colleges sufficiently general and hearty to secure to the Church of England a highly-educated and devoted clergy in the troublous days which are probably before us ? " To such a question the discussion of this afternoon may do something towards forming an adequate reply. This paper, however, is necessarily concerned with but one department of a very wide subject. It has been arranged that I should say something on the preparation of non-graduates for Holy Orders. In this depart- ment it will be convenient to include a reference to another and distinct group of candidates for Ordination, in number at present small, but likely to become important — the students and the graduates of the new University Colleges in England and Wales, of whom Principal Rendall, the Vice-Chancellor of the Victoria University, spoke in a paper, which deserves very serious attention, at the Church Congress of 1891. (1) Statistics of Ordination — It will be convenient, first of all, to gain a clear view of the proportion borne by these candidates to the j total number admitted into the sacred ministry in the Church of England year by year. Limiting our view to England alone, one feature of the statistics of Ordination is remarkable, and not altogether satisfactory. Between 1881 and 1891 the population of England in- creased by 3,026,579, but there has been no commensurate increase of the clergy for home work. The total number of priests and deacons ordained in 1881 was 1,435, an d in 1891, 1,468. The increase was, therefore, only thirty-three, and the fact must be faced that in some of the intervening years the numbers have been larger. Moreover, it is clear that we cannot expect the universities of Oxford and Cambridge ever again to meet the full demands of the Church for her ministry. In the last decade the proportion of Oxford and Cambridge graduates never rose beyond sixty-one per cent, of the whole. In 1891 it fell to fifty-nine. A contingent of 196 graduates from other universities brought up the percentage of graduate candidates to seventy-two per cent., a figure, it may be well to observe, exactly double the number stated in a certain newspaper, anxious, no doubt, to represent the clergy in a condition of intellectual decrepitude. Nevertheless, had it not been for 383 non-graduates (among whom thirty-seven " Literates," who had been to no college or institution of any kind, are included), 383 curacies would have remained unfilled, with serious results to the work and interests of the Church. To these must be added a body of about 100 men drawn from the University of London and other university colleges, which, unlike Dublin and Durham, are unprovided ^ with instruction in Divinity. For such candidates some special preparation at a theological college would seem imperative, and the Church has, therefore, to consider annually the needs of some 500 men, without whose ministry her work in England alone could not be main- tained, besides providing for the education of the students, about 120 in number, at the missionary colleges. If, then, the supply of the clergy is to meet the demand, it is clear that the Church must seek for nearly two-fifths of her ministers from sources other than the ancient universities. And, if the Church, through her Episcopate, invites these men to offer themselves for Ordination, she is in honour bound generally and heartily to educate them for the work, and unreservedly in every diocese to welcome them to it. No one valued more highly than* the father of the bishop who has just addressed us, " the benefits of training in classical and mathe- matical discipline and learning, and in other pursuits which," he said, in language as true as it is eloquent, "give a dignity and strength, a breadth and depth, a refinement and tact, a frankness and generosity to the character of many an English clergyman nurtured in our English universities." No one felt more keenly the necessity of the majority of our future clergy being educated in them ; no one was more sensitive " to the want . . . of comprehensiveness in reading, and of largeness of views, in many " who had not these advantages ; but no one believed more strongly, and in deed as well as in word gave effect to the con- viction, "That the diaconate and priesthood are vocations ; and that if a man is in God's counsel and providence called to these, we have no right to shut him out because of social position, or inability to spend three years at a university. r f But Bishop Wordsworth, while a real father in God to the numerous non-graduate students who were trained at Lincoln during his Episcopate, saw the absolute necessity of enlarging and deepening the studies of men trained in theological colleges. " To ordain men who are excellent but uninstructed is no kindness either to the ordained or to the Church. "J (2) Training of non-graduate candidates for Ordination in the Church of England. — What, then, is the Church of England doing to train those candidates for Ordination who do not pass through the university course at Oxford and Cambridge, Dublin and Durham ? There are twenty-one institutions in which such candidates can be received. The Theological Department of King's College, London, S. David's College, Lampeter, and the Licentiates in Theology at Durham form one group, thirteen theological colleges are included in the second, and five mis- sionary colleges in the third. In'the instruction of the students and the general organization of the colleges about eighty-three clergymen and fourteen laymen are more or less actively employed. Bursaries and scholarships amounting, perhaps, in all to about ^500, or at most * Bp. Chr. Wordsworth of Lincoln. f Diocesan Addresses, 1879 and 1882. J Dr. Liddon, Guardian, 12th July, 1876. ) The importance of providing funds sufficient to meet the Church's obligation of giving a training as complete as may Be to the future clergy can, if pains are taken, be brought home to the laity. It is, indeed, difficult to see how anything can be more important than the supply in increased numbers of a fully trained and instructed ministry, or how any duty can be more binding than that of endeavouring to remove any merely pecuniary difficulties which stand in the way of this. A direction is sometimes needed for almsgiving and offerings. It is, indeed, a duty to surround the worship of Almighty God and the lives of the people with all that is beautiful and inspiring, but the living, educated priest is more important than the stained glass, or the organ, or the reredos, or the frontal which cost ^200, or the chalice which, perhaps, cost ;£i,ooo. He is also more important than the People's Hall, or the Model Coffee Tavern, or the Workmen's Club. And without the withdrawal of a single contribution from any special or local fund, a large central fund, thoroughly impartial in its treatment of all applicants for its aid, administered by clergymen and laymen of all schools of thought, is needed. But there is no need for anyone to wait for the development of such a fund, for which the Ordination Candidates' Exhibition Fund would seem to offer a nucleus. Every existing fund is most inadequately supported. There is not a diocese in which the bishop could not make immediate use of special gifts for special candidates. (c) If the colleges for non-graduates cannot, as things are, be amal- gamated into larger institutions, it is possible to stop the weakness of further multiplication ; and it is possible also to provide for the more adequate instruction of the best of their students, and of the able men who occasionally come to them from the new University Colleges. IO Alike in the Roman Church, in the Russo-Greek Church, in the General Theological Seminary at New York, and among the largest Nonconformist bodies, provision is made for the further training of the best men. The plan is one which is well worthy of imitation among ourselves. To take from a man of real power "who gives promise of being a great preacher, or theologian, or pastor of souls, opportunities of a thorough training, is," in the words of the late Dr. Henry Allon, " a short-sighted selfishness to be paralleled only by that of sordid parents, who for a few pence of wages will deprive a child of all education. It is to condemn our ministry to hopeless mediocrity, and to rob the Church of Christ of services which only a few men in a generation are capable of rendering." If a Nonconformist could thus speak, what efforts ought not Churchmen to be willing to make to promote the efficiency of the priesthood? It would be well worth while, pending the adoption of more organized methods, to send such men, when thoroughly tested, to one of the Universities for one or two years, not to pass examinations, but to be brought into active, living contact with recognized authorities and great traditions. (d) The key to this question is really to be found in an enlarged idea of the office of the Church in the education of the whole man. It is only in the truth of religion, taught by those in whom a clear belief rests on a moral and spiritual basis, that all knowledge is brought into its right relation to the will and conscience of men, and every study is completed and perfected. Therefore it is that, in every department and every sphere of ministerial work, the enlarged sympathy and keen apprehension of special needs produced by a real training are of the highest value. We have, indeed, to win the heart, but, as an eminent and practical layman once said, " There is a head also which requires a reason for its faith, and requires that reason to be based upon know- ledge." If the Church of England is to draw into her ministry the flower of our English youth in every rank of life, the standard must be high, and the claims must be large ; the high-toned culture demanded from an English clergyman must be upheld even amid the shadows of deepening poverty, and the varied gifts of the Holy Spirit must be evidently required and generously welcomed. The non graduate as well as the graduate has a moral claim upon the best training which the Church can provide, and the most sympathetic welcome which the Episcopate can offer. And it is a circumstance of happy omen that the President of a Congress at which this subject has been more promi- nently considered than at any other, should have written words well fitted to assure every man who trusts that "he is inwardly moved by the Holy Ghost," to take upon himself the responsibilities of the sacred ministry, that neither training nor welcome shall be withheld.* "The question is not, ' Will we create a new class of clergy?' but 'Will we cultivate by mutual association, will we ennoble by familiarizing with our oldest, grandest, most beautiful seats of religion, will we train in letters will we exercise in theology, will we form ... by penetrating study of the Apostles, the Prophets, the Psalmists, the words and acts of the Son of God, those men who will form an inevitable, large, and a most influential class of the clergy, whether we will or no? What is our choice? If we will not form them in the great way, they will form themselves in their little way." * In a Paper at the Lincoln Diocesan Conference, 1876. 1 1 NOTES. Section I. — (a) Statistics of Ordination. In 1874 (the first year of which statistics have been published in the Guardian, by the Rev. H. T. Armfield) the total number of candidates ordained to the Diaconate and the Priesthood was 1,268 ; in 1891 it was 1,468 (Deacons 75 2 )- 1° 1881 the number was, as stated in the paper, 1,435 (Deacons 729). The number in 1891 was less than it had been since 1882. The tendency in the statistics of the last decade is described by Mr. Armfield {Gtiardian, April 13th, 1892) as "sometimes downward, sometimes stationary, but never with a proper elasticity upward." The year 1892 will not be marked by any increase.-^ Meantime, the population of England and Wales, which in 1881 had been 25,974,439, has risen to 29,001,018. The increase in the urban population amounted to 15*3 per cent., while the increase among the inhabitants of the rest of the country was only 3 "4 per cent. Figures like these show that " the simple statement of the growth of population fails to tell the difficulties of the task before the Church,"* and of the need of a larger number of efficient clergymen. (&) Proportion of Graduates of Oxford and Cambridge. From 1 881 -189 1 the highest number reached in a single year (1886) was 958; in 1891 it was 889. The number of graduates of Dublin and Durham in 1891 was 114 ; of London and other Universities, including the College at Lampeter, affiliated to the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, 82. Section II. — The colleges in which non-graduates are received, according to the dates of their foundation, are as follows : — S. Bees, 1816 ; Chichester, 1839 ; S. Aidan's, 1846; Queen's College, Birmingham (Theological Department), 1851 ; Lichfield, 1857 ; Salisbury, i860; the London College of Divinity, 1863; Gloucester, 1868; Lincoln, 1874; Truro, 1877; Bi>hop Wilson's Theological School, Isle of Man, re-established 1889; Scholre Episcopi, Manchester, 1891 ; Aberdare, 1891. At Edinburgh Theological College (1810) students are prepared for Ofdination in the English, as well as in the Scottish Church. The Missionary Colleges are the Church Missionary Society's College, Islington, 1824; S. Augustine's, 1848; S. Boniface, Warminster, i860; Dorchester, 1878 ; Burgh, 1878. The Statistics of the officers of these colleges, among whom occasional lecturers and a few others only partially employed in the work are included, were taken from the " Handbook of the Theological Colleges for 1892 " (Longmans). Students in Theology have been received at the University of Durham since its foundation in 1831. S. David's College, Lampeter, was founded in 1828, and, at King's College, the Theological Department was opened in 1846. Section III. — The efforts of other religious bodies, (a) The Roman Catholic Church. S. Cuthbert's College, Ushaw, which is, to some extent, the representative of the College at Douai, founded by Cardinal William Allen in 1568, consists of a preparatory school and of the college. A large number of youths, drawn from all classes of society, are there educated for the priesthood, f but the institution is not a seminary, and in the senior, as in the junior department, the students, numbering in all nearly 300, are in close touch with one another. The buildings are singularly complete. The library is valuable, and in the chief departments of literature is kepi up to date, and there is a large and enlightened body of professors. Stonyhurst, which represents the College of S. Omer, founded by Robert Parsons in 1593, and * Report of the Additional Curates' Society for 1891, p. 20. t In the Roman Catholic Church it is well understood that a strong ministry must be recruited from every social grade, but not without prolonged education. Thus it is that offices of great dignity can be prudently given in that communion to nun who have, indeed, risen from the ranks. It is also understood that freshness of intellect and vigour of character needed, especially at the present time, arc sometimes found among the artisan and lower middle class, " whose mental powers have not been exhausted by the over-efforts of successive generations." _ ^ sj? , ^ A*, fa /-T^Zf^ rZZ, ?%£#?'. I 2 S. Beuno's are Jesuit foundations. Belmont is a Benedictine House of Studies, with a very fine library. The preparatory school is a large one at Downside. Interesting particulars of the course of instruction through which the Roman Catholic clergy pass will be found in a Report .of a Committee of the Conference on the Training of Candidates for Holy Orders, upon " Methods pursued by the Church of England and other Christian bodies in training men for the ministry." The report may be obtained from the secretaries of the Conference — Canon Worlledge, Truro, and the Rev. R. J. Knowling, King's College > W.C. The training is continued for many years, and it is by no means exclusively theological. Attention is drawn to these facts, because if they were better known and other circumstances really understood, it would be seen that parallels sometimes drawn between the admission into Roman Orders of men originally of no social culture or education, and of men similarly circumstanced into Anglican Orders, are altogether misleading. The selection of the ablest men in the Roman Catholic Colleges and Seminaries for further training at Rome itself, Valladolid, or elsewhere, is noteworthy. It is made possible by " Burses" and the subscriptions of the wealthier laity, and is under the direction of. the Roman Catholic Bishops. The details of the Wesleyan Theological Institution, with its four branches at Richmond, Didsbury, Headingley, and Birmingham, are taken from the 57th Annual Report, and from the " Minutes of Conference," 1892. The report indicates the widespread interest evidently felt throughout the "Connexion" in the training of its ministers, and also the careful and earnest work done in the colleges, in which " every student is required to be in his study at 6 a.m." Much valuable information about the Congregationalist Colleges was privately supplied, and also derived from the "Congregational Almanack and Directory for 1891," and an interesting series of papers, and the 28th Annual Report of the Congregational Institute, Nottingham. The Statistics of the Baptist Colleges were drawn from the "Baptist Almanack and Directory ; " the series of " Annual Papers concerning the Lord's work in connection with the Pastors' College, Newington," by Mr. Spurgeon, are characteristic and suggestive. Few better sketches of a plan of study, and stronger pleas for its necessity, have been penned than a paper by Mr. Spurgeon, entitled, " What we aim at in the Pastors' College," in the Annual Paper for 1886-7. The Paper for 1891-92 is a proof of the determination of the "Tabernacle" congregation to maintain this college. It were certainly to be wished that such a spirit as animated that Non- conformist congregation to educate the ministers of a sect, might induce the worshippers at churches such as S. Paul's Cathedral, or Westminster Abbey; All Saints', Margaret Street ; S. Mary Abbotts, Kensington ; or S. Peter's, Pimlico, to support the education of the future clergy of the Church. (d) Funds raised in the Church of England for the Training of the Clergy, (graduate or non-graduate), with the dates of their foundation, and present average annual income. The following details are, it is believed, nearly correct : — (i) Training for Home Work. (a) Four Tancred Studentships in Divinity ( 172 1 ) at Chiist's College, Cambridge . . Thirty Cholmondeley Exhibitions tenable at the Univer- sities of Oxford, Cambridge, and Durham Two Liddon Scholarships (1891) at Oxford Wordsworth, Steel, and Lady Kay Scholarships at Cam- bridge . . . . . . . Cambridge Clerical Education Society (1838) Cambridge Graduates' Ordination Fund- (1892) (&) Bursaries and Exhibitions at Theological Colleges (c) Canterbury Clerical Education Fund (1877) (d) Bangor Diocesan Clerical Education Society (1871) Exeter Theological Students' Fund (1869) Carlisle Clerical Training Fund (1874) (e) Ordination Candidates' Exhibition Fund (1873) (/) Elland Clerical Society (177 1 ) Bristol Clerical Education Society ( 1795) London Clerical Society (1876) .€7,879 4 6 £ s. d. 348 900 200 200 48 330 1,310 5 9 131 6co 2 400 120 1,047 440 800 13 9 1,004 3 13 (2) Training for Foreign Missionary Work. L Two Exhibitions of £60 provided by the Society for the Propagation of "the Gospel at both Universities for Candidates for Missionaiy Work in India and the East 240 o o Missionary Studentship Associations, supporting about eighty students . . 2,463 2 o Bursaries and Exhibitions at Missionary Colleges . .. 320 o o £3,023 2 o The sum total is £10 902 6s. 6d., and to this should be added the income devoted by the Church Missionary Society to the Church Missionary Society College at Islington. A Clerical Training Fund is also being raised for the Diocese of S. Asaph. The endowments of the Theological Professorships at the Universities cannot be really reckoned in the income at the disposal of the Church of England for the training of the Clergy, although, at present, they are largely devoted to that purpose. But the professors are an academical body, and they are "responsible to the Universities, and not to the Bishops." * Nor can the endowments of a few canonries held by principals of certain Theological Colleges be included, for the combination of these offices may, at any time, be dissolved. Section IV. — Colleges for Non-Graduates, {a) Undue multiplication of small Colleges. An experienced correspondent writes : " In one province of the Colonial Church we have twenty-five candidates for Holy Orders in four different buildings, and under four or six different wardens, who are expected not only to instruct them in the six or seven departments of Theology, but to act as tutors in preparing them for their university work, or for such literary examinations as the Bishops may think well." It is true that others, whose opinion is valuable, think that "in order to keep up a kind of ' family ' feeling " these colleges for non-graduates should not exceed twenty men, but all that is implied in this could be secured, and in some of the Roman Catholic and Nonconformist Colleges, containing a far larger number of students, is actually secured by the appointment of tutors entirely devoted to their work, and sufficient in number to meet all its demands. "The Staff of our colleges are not merely professors, but tutors, and the highest results of teaching are won by those who are most in touch with the students, and who exercise over them a constant personal influence. But this is possible only where the classes are comparatively small." — (Minutes of the Wesleyan Methodist Conference, 1892, p. 433.) {b) General Colleges. In an able and discriminating article in the Guardian, October 19th, 1892, entitled " The Church Congress on Preparation for Ordination," it was said that the writer seemed to wish that the non-graduate colleges should be " largely eleemosynary." One aim of the paper was to convey to Churchmen the pressing need of larger pecuniary assistance to the very considerable number of candidates who need it, but not to suggest that they should be educated merely at a nominal expense. Non-graduates were chiefly mentioned because the paper was concerned with them, but there are many graduates who require some help, especially for a period of distinct training, quite as much. But, if Non-Graduate Colleges, on a scale something like the "General Theological Seminary "+ of the American Church at New York, should ever be established, it would probably be the case that endowments and scholarships would gather round them. At the Seminary in which the course is for three years the tuition is free, but an adequate charge is made for rooms in the college and for board. There are, it may be feared, many really able and earnest candidates for Ordination lost to the work, because their parents are too poor to encourage their sons' vocation, and instances are not infrequent in which, for the sake of such parents, high-minded youths will even conceal their wish to be ordained for years, and take up some other work. The subject, from some other points of view, was very suggestively treated by Principal Rendall in his paper at the Rhyl Church Congress (Report, 1891, pp. 233-239). (c) Cathedral Foundations. In his book on "The Cathedral: its necessary place in the life and work of the Church," the Archbishop of Canterbury speaks of " the * Paper by Professor Swete, D.D., in the Report of the Fifth Conference on the Training of Candidates for Holy Orders. f In 1892-3 there are in this Seminary ninety-one graduates and thirty-eight non-graduates. The number of dioceses sending students is thirty-five. V . '4 training of the clergy in such scientific theology as the universities may decline, in doctrine and in pastoral care and in Church discipline," as the work which a cathedral body might undertake. See also the Bishop of Durham's essay on " Cathedrals, in relation to religious thought," in the late Dean Howson's collection, 1872. The bishop suggests the possibility of helping the intellectual progress of young deacons by short courses of lectures and study, for which the prebendaries and honorary canons might be pressed into the service, especially in regard to matters of pastoral duty and parochial experience. "The single year of the diaconate is often a time of exhausting occupation in the routine of a pastoral charge. ... If the deacon were required to attend two short courses (or even one course) of catechetical lectures in the single year (or in each year) of his diaconate, the impulse so gained would give life and purpose to his private study ; at the same time the bishop could easily ascertain if it were desirable that his diaconate should be prolonged. Weak points in his preparation might be strengthened, and a unity and completeness given to the whole period and method of his discipline before admission to the priesthood." Section V. — An institute for special training. There is much that is noteworthy in the methods pursued in the " Congregational Institute for Theological and Missionary Training," at Nottingham. It was founded in 1863 to promote " aggressive mission work amongst the industrial classes of our country and colonies, and specially to provide an able and devoted ministry " for rural congregations, and for " missions " in the populous districts of our towns. The course of study, which is continued over four years, is wholly English, but is very thorough of its kind. Not only is admission very carefully guarded, but every student " engages not to withdraw from the institute without the sanction of the principal, and, on leaving, not to accept any sphere of ministerial or missionary service without the previous consent of the principal." "Students sufficiently young, and who evince aptitude for a classical curriculum, are, after receiving a special course of training at the institute, recom- mended for admission to one of the colleges," such as Airedale, Cheshunt, or New College, London, and no less than 120 have been so transferred. Under conditions at least as strict as those observed in this institute, one similar institution might be founded in the Church of England. The higher education for the ministry would be most effectually safeguarded, if distinct and careful provision were made for certain men of from thirty to forty-five years of age, whose fitness for Ordination has been proved^ who had been successful, not failures, in their trade or profession, and whose character was not only good but vigorous. It is painful to see the futile efforts and wasted time spent by such men to "get up" some elementary Greek and Latin, when they could and would thoroughly enter into an English course of study. It should be observed that, in the American Church, a "Postulant for admission as a candidate for Priests' Orders" may receive from the Bishop "a certificate of dispensation " from a knowledge of Greek and Latin, if the Standing Committee of the Diocese " by a vote of two-thirds of all the members thereof" recommend it, on the strength of "a testimonial, signed by at least two presbyters, certifying that in their opinion the postulant possesses extraordinary strength of natural understanding, a peculiar aptitude to teach, and a large share of prudence, and adding any other reason for dispensation which they may believe to exist." (Title I, canon 2, sec. VI.) Section VI. — Examination and Study. When in his paper on "The Supply and Training of the Clergy," at the Ely Diocesan Conference of 1871, Bishop Westcott referred to the failure to show to candidates for Ordination "the vital connexion" in which theological studies stand to " their pastoral charge," he pointed to the cause of much failure in the ministry. " Ihe priest ceases to be a student, and un- consciously leaves one great part of his office unfulfilled." " The preliminary examina- tion for Holy Orders " has, in many ways, done a good work ; but its effect on study at the Theological Colleges, and, indirectly, on the Episcopal examinations, needs attention. It is, perhaps, inevitable that it should produce small and inaccurate text- books intended for "cram " fly-sheets, tuition by correspondence, and the like, and strenuous efforts on the part of the Council, examiners, and the teaching staff of the colleges are needed to counteract these agencies. At one important college, where men are being prepared for very responsible and special work, instruction of the most careful and interesting kind is, to use the common phrase among the students, regarded as so much "gas " when it does not directly tell upon the "preliminary." The writer of this paper believes that in the case of non-graduates, at any rate, and such graduates as were in a position to avail themselves of it, a series of graduated examinations in certain subjects, certificates of passing which could be presented at the time of Ordination, would lead to better results, and that it would be more satis- factory if the Episcopal examination of candidates for the diaconate were confined in '5 such cases to a general paper in Holy Scripture, in the interpretation of selected bookg of the Greek Testament, the doctrine of the Creeds and Articles, and the contents of the Prayer-Book. A sufficiently large and representative body of examiners might be appointed by the Bishops, out of whom two or three could be told off to each college, and could arrange with each principal the dates and other subordinate details of the examinations. The writer is quite aware that this plan could not pos- sibly be carried out by means of one central, simultaneous examination. In the case of graduates who could not present these certificates, it would be necessary to add the subjects to the Episcopal examination. Such a plan would ensure (i) diligent and careful preparation for the periodical as well as the final examinations ; (2) a well- ordered study of these subjects set in distinct portions duly distributed ; (3) an assimi- lation of them during the course of training, instead of leaving them to be hurriedly got up just before examination.* Section VII. — (/). Many interesting details of the extended training given to the best of the students in the college of other communions will be found in the report of the committee on " Methods of Training," referred to in the note on Section IV. , (fi). The words of Dr. Allon, quoted from "The Congregational Year Book for 1871," were written to show what a damaging influence a shortened course of training had upon the future character of Independent ministers, (d) The Church's duty in regard to education, in the broader sense, has been admirably described by the Bishop of Long Island, U.S,A., in the "Paddock Lectures" for 1884, " The Christian Ministry at the Close of the Nineteenth Century" " It is to bring all knowledge falling within the instructor's taste into moral relations; to develope and insist upon its moral significance and moral uses ; to make it in a practical and vital sense an auxiliary to the will-power and the conscience-power of human nature, and so to lift it where all knowledge in the final sweep of its influence is intended to be lifted, to the plane of the spiritual life." With these words may be compared the weighty sentences of the Pastoral Letter, in which the House of Bishops, at the last General Convention of the American Church, speak of the revised " Ordination Canons." " The door to the priesthood should be even more carefully guarded in the time to come. Devotion, self-consecration, clear intelligence, a learning abreast of the times, secular knowledge as well as thorough training in theology — that queen of all the sciences — are imperatively required in those who are set to teach the people of this age. More than ever must the priest's lips keep knowledge — definite, clear theological know- ledge — and more than ever must the prudence, the meekness, the patience, and the tact of a trained intellect and a devout soul be exhibited in gentle manners by the pastors of the flock." * For some of these thoughts I am indebted to a letter addressed to the Regius Professor of Divinity at Oxford by the Warden of St. Augustine's College, Canterbury, May, 1891, which was privately circulated among Examining Chaplains and others interested in this subject. REPRINTED FROM THE OFFICIAL REPORT OF THE CHURCH CONGRESS BY BEMROSE AND SONS, LIMITED, DERBY J AND 23, OLD BAILEY, LONDON.