respectively distribute the money collected in given proportions, there is no objection to their doing so. Strict accounts of the disbursements should be kept (e). The deacons, churchwardens and other fit persons appointed for the purpose are to receive the alms and other devotions of the people in a decent basin (not in a bag (ƒ)), and reverently bring it to the priest, who is to place it upon the Holy Table, not upon a credence table, stool, or elsewhere than on the Holy Table (g). The rubric does not authorize a priest or bishop to make the collection, but if he does so (and there is nothing improper in his so doing), he is not at the time "ministering or celebrating any sacrament or any Divine service, rite or office," and he cannot proceed, under 23 & 24 Vict. c. 32, against a person molesting him (h). It would seem that a deacon is "ministering" (for the purposes of the Act) when collecting alms at the Communion. A chest or alms-box is to be placed in every church for the benefit of poor and needy neighbours (i). As a general rule, the rubric intends that the alms received at the Communion, as well in private chapels as in the parish church, should be at the disposal of the minister of the parish, and of the churchwardens, and should not belong to the officiating minister, nor to the proprietors of the chapel (j).

AMERICAN CHURCH, by which name is meant the Protestant Episcopal Church of the United States of America. It is one of the daughter churches of the Church of England, and a member of the Anglican Communion (q.v.). It has revised the Prayer Book, and rejected the Athanasian Creed (k). It has 72 bishops in 64 dioceses, and 16 missionary jurisdictions, 4,163 clergy, and 500,000 com

(e) Lond. Diocese Book, 1890, p. 280.

(f) See The Times, May 9th, 1857, cited in Prideaux on Churchwardens, p. 65.

(g) Rubric Com. Office; Flamank v. Simpson (1868), L. R. 2 A. & E.

116, 218.

(h) Cope v. Barber (1872), L. R. 7 C. P. 393. And see BRAWLING. (i) Can. 84.

(j) Hillcoat v. Moysey (1828), 2 Hagg. 57.

(k) Daniel, P. B. 132.

municants.

necticut (1).

The presiding bishop is the Bishop of Con

ANGLICAN COMMUNION. By the Anglican Communion or Anglican Church is meant the Church of England, and the group of Protestant Episcopal churches which take it for a model, viz., the Church of Ireland, the Protestant Episcopal churches of Scotland (q.v.), United States, Canada, India (q. v.), South Africa, Australia, and other colonies. The relation of these churches to the Church of England was discussed at the Pan-Anglican Conference at Lambeth in 1888, and an Encyclical letter was issued (m). These churches are really voluntary institutions, and (except the Indian Church (q. v.)) are not subject to the English Ecclesiastical Courts. Their position has been laid down by Lord Kingsdown as follows: "The Church of England, in places where there is no church established by law, is in the same situation with any other religious body-in no better but in no worse position; and the members may adopt, as the members of any other communion may adopt, rules for enforcing discipline within their body which will be binding on those who expressly or by implication have assented to them." The organization is simply on the footing of contract (n). The only churches which now have any exceptional privileges as being established churches are the Church of England (Episcopal) and the Church of Scotland (Presbyterian). In India (q. v.) and Canada there is, however, a partial establishment of both episcopalianism and presbyterianism.

In addition to these autonomous churches, there are several English and American missionary bishops in foreign countries (o). Most of the Anglican Churches are "lower" than the Church of England, but in the main the doctrine and

(1) Hazell's Cyclopædia; Official Year Book of the Church of England (1891), p. 355.

(m) Published by S. P. C. K. (n) Merriman v. Williams (1882), L. R. 7 App. Cas. 502, 503; and see

cases there cited.

(0) Hazell's Cyc. See list of bishops and other statistics in Whitaker's Almanack, and the Diocesan Calendars and Church of England Year Book.

discipline is the same, and the same church parties co-exist. The bishops of the Anglican Communion now number about 250, and its nominal adherents about 25,000,000 (p).

By the Colonial Clergy Act, 1874, clergymen ordained in colonial churches cannot officiate in England or Wales (2) without the written permission of the archbishop of the province, and without also making and subscribing the "declaration of assent" (q); and, also, a colonial clergyman cannot hold any preferment or curacy without the consent in writing of the bishop of the diocese (r). After an aggregate service of two years in a preferment or curacy, the archbishop may give him a licence (which must be registered in the provincial registry), placing him in the same position as if he had been ordained by the bishop of a diocese in England. The penalty for officiating contrary to this Act is 107. for every offence, and an incumbent or curate knowingly allowing it in his church or chapel is subject to a like penalty (s). Aliens (q. v.) ordained by the Bishop of London, under 24 Geo. 3, sess. 2, c. 35, are subject to the Act (t). Persons ordained under 15 & 16 Vict. c. 52, which is an Act to enable Colonial and Indian Bishops to ordain under commission from bishops in England or Ireland, are exempt (u).

The terms upon which clergymen of the Protestant Episcopal Church in Scotland are allowed to officiate in England are regulated by another Act (x). There seems to be no restriction upon clergymen of the Church of Ireland. It is lawful for either of the archbishops, in consecrating a bishop who is to exercise his episcopal functions elsewhere than in England, to dispense, if he think fit, with the oath of due obedience to the archbishop (y).

ANOINTING the sick with oil is now discontinued in the

(p) Cf. Statesman's Year Book. (a) 37 & 38 Vict. c. 77, s. 3. This only applies to a Church of England church.

(r) Sect. 4. (s) Sect. 5.

(t) Sect. 9.

(u) Sect. 8.

(x) See SCOTLAND, PROTESTANT

EPISCOPAL CHURCH OF.

(y) 37 & 38 Vict. c. 77, s. 12.

Church of England. In the Greek Church it is still literally carried out in accordance with the Apostolic practice (s), and cases of faith-healing are still occasionally heard of. In the Roman Church the sick are only anointed when at point of death (called Extreme Unction), and this is considered by them as a sacrament (a).

Anointing forms part of the Coronation Service of the monarchs of England (6).

APOCRYPHA. The name given to a collection of sacred books written in the 400 years preceding Christ. "The Church doth read them for example of life and instruction of manners, but not to establish any doctrine" (c).

APOSTASY, a total renunciation of Christianity by embracing either a false religion or no religion at all (d). It was at one time punishable, at the common law of England, by burning to death (e). There is now no penalty unless it involves blasphemy (q. v.).

APOSTOLIC SUCCESSION.

All Christian ministers may

be said to be successors of the Apostles, inasmuch as they are trying to do the same work; but the question which has been so much debated is, under what circumstances do they receive a valid commission? Extremists on one side say the spiritual call is sufficient; extremists on the other, that a particular form of ordination is absolutely necessary. The Apostolic Succession may therefore be said to be of two kinds: (1) spiritual, (2) ceremonial, or "tactual." Again, this "tactual" succession may be of two kinds: (1) through a succession of bishops, or episcopal, (2) through a succession of priests, or presbyterian.

The argument of the Greek and Roman Churches is, that

(z) St. James, v. 14, 15; St. Mark, vi. 13; and see Stanley's Eastern Church, p. 35.

(a) See Art. 25.

(b) For the full form of service

used on 28th June, 1838, see Phill. E. L. p. 1054.

(c) Art. 6.

(d) 4 Bla. Com. 43.

(e) Bracton, L. 3, c. 9.

Christ founded a Church, and gave his Apostles power to ordain bishops with Apostolic powers in a continuous succession, and that only persons duly and episcopally ordained (i.e., priests of their communions) can effectually celebrate the sacraments, so as to convey grace and forgiveness of sins (ƒ). But assuming that an unbroken episcopate is an essential, it is necessary for these churches, in order to maintain their position, to prove to demonstration the Apostolical pedigree not only of their church, but of every one of their priests: for evidently, in a matter of such alleged importance, nothing can be assumed. This is most difficult, and it is still more difficult to show that there is no "grace" in other churches.

The Church of England teaches that there have been from the Apostles' time three orders of ministers-bishops, priests, and deacons (g); and since 1662 (when about 2,000 nonepiscopal ministers were ejected) it has insisted on episcopal ordination within the limits of its own body (h); but it does not deny that men chosen in other ways are lawfully called to the ministry, and, in fact, from 1559 to 1662, presbyterian ministers often officiated and held dignities in the Church (¿). It has, however, always been laid down that it is not lawful for a man to preach or minister the sacraments before he is "lawfully called" (k). What the Church of England maintains is that episcopacy is necessary to the "well-being," but not to the "being" of a church; in other words, that it is the best form of ecclesiastical polity.

The Apostolical succession of the Church of England is said to be derived through three main sources: (1) the long line of our Welsh bishops, culminating, as tradition says, in Aristobulus, one of the seventy said to have died in 67 A.D.; (2) through the bishops of Rome, ending, as tradition says, in Clemens (); (3) through the Irish Church, which sent its missionaries to Iona, and thence to the north

(f) Yet Roman Catholics admit that lay baptism is valid.

(g) Preface to Ordinal.

(h) 13 & 14 Car. 2, c. 4, ss. 13, 14. D.

(i) See 10 Cl. & Fin. p. 789. (k) Art. 23. Hooker, Ecc. P. (7) See list in Milman's Latin Christianity.

C