others taking
their seats in order of seniority of consecration. Under the bishops the
affairs of the dioceses are managed by archdeacons (q.v.) and rural
deans (see ARCHPRIEST and DEAN). The cathedral churches are governed by
chapters consisting of a dean, canons and prebendaries (see CATHEDRAL).
The deaneries are in the gift of the crown, canonries and prebends
sometimes in that of the crown, sometimes in that of the bishops. The
parish clergy, with a few rare exceptions (when they are elected by the
ratepayers), are appointed by patronage. The right of presentation to
some 8500 benefices or "livings" is in the hands of private persons; the
right is regarded in law as property and is, under certain restrictions
for the avoidance of gross simony, saleable (see ADVOWSON). The
patronage of the remaining benefices belongs in the main to the crown,
the bishops and cathedral chapters, the lord chancellor, and the
universities of Oxford and Cambridge.

In spite of the fact that the Church of England is collectively one of
the wealthiest in Christendom, a large proportion of the "livings" are
extremely poor. To understand this and other anomalies it is necessary to
bear in mind that the church is not, like the established Protestant
churches of Germany, an elaborately organized state department, nor is it
a single corporation with power to regulate its internal polity. It is a
conglomeration of corporations. Even the incumbent of a parish is in law
a "corporation sole," his benefice a freehold; and until the
establishment in 1836, by act of parliament, of the Ecclesiastical
Commissioners (q.v.) nothing could be done to adjust the inequalities in
the emoluments of the clergy resulting from the natural rise and fall of
the value of property in various parts of the country. Even more
extraordinary is the effect of the singular constitution of the church on
its discipline. An incumbent, once inducted, can only be disturbed by
complicated and extremely costly processes of law; in effect, except in
cases of gross misconduct, he is only checked--so far as ecclesiastical
order is concerned--by his oath of canonical obedience to the "godly"
monitions of his bishop; and, since these monitions are difficult and
costly to enforce, while their "godliness" may be a matter of opinion, an
incumbent is practically himself the interpreter of the law as applied to
the doctrine and ritual of his particular church. The result has been the
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