CHAPTER XXII. No indulgence allowed to poor vicars-The unreasonableness of their treatment-The hardship of making poor vicars pay as much money as rich ones to Bishops' officers-The danger of killing religion in the soul of the poor vicar-Church Dignitaries and Dissenting hearers proved to be utterly ignorant of the Bible in treating poor ministers-Dissenters depriving a poor vicar of Holy Orders, and his shifts in consequence-The character and powers of Churchmen and Dissenters compared-Fat and lean men, or the dissatisfaction a starved minister must necessarily give-The mere form of religion different from real goodness—Protestantism explained. NE morning, as I was troubled about helping the poor of my parish upon the £80 a year, my food stood in my throat when the postman handed me a letter from my Bishop's lay-officer, to the effect that I must pay this worthy man a big sum of money for looking at my house, under the Ecclesiastical Dilapidation Act of 1871. "O! God," cried I, " take me to heaven, at once, to the mansions which will cost me nothing either for inspection or repair." After this I thought that our Reformed Church was harder than unreformed Popery, as half-a-crown would satisfy the Pope for a poor man's indulgence. It appears that the Bishops, when making this law, took care to exempt themselves from its lay-searching scourge. Surely it is to poor vicars that this indulgence should be granted. Impossibilities expected of poor ministers. 153 Poor clergymen are treated as if they had the money of rich ones, and as much, in every way, is expected of them. Now this shews me that even Englishmen, by taking the world and not the Bible for their guide, are as great blunderers and as unreasonable in managing poor clergymen, as Irish Home Rulers are in managing the starved wild Irish. Englishmen make out that any stipend a vicar has, even £80 a year, can pay Government lay-clergymen-officers under Bishops, and that it can provide every thing to perfection. Englishmen so act as if they believed that the charm of Ordination without pay, or £80 a year, can provide good clothes, good food, well and neatly furnished houses; and that it can secure every thing perfectly clean and tidy in them. All think that £80 a year can provide good church services, good sermons, good visiting, good liberality, good books, good knowledge, good sense and sound judgment, good piety, and good power to resist temptation of all sorts. The Church Authorities tell a vicar, by their treatment, that his ordination ought to give him sufficient power not to be hungry, as well as good power to resist the temptation of coveting the money or goods of the wellpaid Bishops, Church Dignitaries, rich Rectors, and the mean, miserable, and close-fisted parishioners. If ordination without pay, or a small stipend, can procure these and every other good thing, a larger church income than this must do harm: and the Queen ought to ordain all bad men and women to make them perfect, without the torture of prison punishment. Poor clergymen are treated as if they were ghosts without a body enclosing their soul. Unlike all 154 Having to pay for attacking the Devil. other men, clergymen are not looked upon according to what they are forced to be by hunger, degradation, and persecution; but they are treated according to whatever standard people set up by which to judge them. The work of clergymen both in quality and quantity cannot excel in value the amount of money allowed to them to do it. Hunger and bad treatment are the devil's weapons, which must of necessity expose ministers to his attacks. I had to pay a big sum of money to the Bishop's layclergymen-officers for leave to attack the devil in my church. But as I could not attack the old black gentleman without food, reducing my £80 was causing me to leave him alone, and, indeed, the effects of hunger and bad treatment made me, by fits and starts, the minister of God and an easy prey to the devil's attacks.. Copy of expenses for license to preach against the devil in my church : "18th September, 1872, V.O. P.C. Flitcham, The Rev. Bryan O'Malley. £ s. d. To Proctor's Fee, Act, and Letter of Institution When I was ordained I paid for licence to attack. the devil while I live. I suppose when a church is vacant all the devils enter it, and preaching without paying money is not enough to turn them out. The fees a poor Vicar has to pay. 155 Copy of expenses for my house not being as good as heaven; and for being merely examined by the bishop's good man. London, Oct. 15th, 1873, Flitcham Benefice. Received of the Rev. B. O'Malley, the sum of seven pounds five shillings and seven pence; being the amount of my fees for survey of dilapidations on the above named benefice, under the Ecclesiastical Dilapidations Act, 1871. £7 5s. 7d. Signed In addition to the above £7 5s. 7d. I was charged £3 14s. 6d. for having my house inspected again, although it stood within twelve yards of the public road for any one to see it, without being paid for doing So. (COPY). London, August, 20, 1874. fees, &c., in the Eccl. Dilap. Act, Received of Rev. B. O'Malley, the sum of £3 14s. 6d. ; being the amount of account delivered for inspection matter of the Dilapidations at Flitcham Vicarage. 1871. Sect. 46. £3 14s. 6d. Signed In addition to both these charges I had to pay £1 14s. 4d. to other worthy officers under the bishop, making in all £12 4s. 5d., merely for looking at my house, and writing about it in a book. Copy of further charges: Diocesan Registry, Norwich, Dear Sir, I beg to acknowledge the receipt of the £1 148. 4d. fees due to the secretary and registrar for dilapidations, for which I am much obliged. 156 No goodness in a starved minister. So small was the house that the estimate for repairs did not exceed £18 13s. Putting this process in motion caused the good out-going vicar, who became a curate, to pay the £18 13s.; and putting it in motion against me also, caused me to pay £12 14s. 5d. to lay-officers. It was not I who proposed it, for I did not seek to recover any thing for dilapidations. Thus I paid the bishop's laymen one-fourth of the £80; for the license to attack the devil, or being allowed to preach in my church, cost £7 6s. 6d., and the license authorizing the bishop's man to look at my house, cost £12 14s. 5d., or £20 os. Id. in all. This was another disendowment, for the £20 would yield over £1 a year for ever. My soul and mind were now like a pair of balances, sinking and rising to hell and to heaven, from having paid £20 of the £80 to the bishop's laymen, who were well-off already; whereas I, his brother fellow-labourer, was left starving upon £60 for a whole year. There is no religion in the soul of that minister whose stomach is empty without food, and whose mind is worried from persecution. As the devil is the prince of the power of the air, the minister thinks that this bad spirit is master over money matters; and he is forced to play into this chief devil's hands to keep air in his body. An Irishman was once crossing a deep river by a rotten plank, but when he reached its centre, he trembled lest it should break. He set out by saying continually, "God is a good man, God is a good man." But when he reached the centre of the rotten plank, thinking the devil was strongest in the bad and dangerous part, he changed his tune to please him, |