Overview

The early years of Queen Victoria saw the completion of the first phase of ecclesiastical reform. Pluralism and non-residence were severely restricted, if not completely stamped out, and in 1840 stipendiary canonries were discontinued. During these years, the ecclesiastical commissioners also set about abolishing the peculiar jurisdictions, some of which had retained a residual representation in convocation, and reorganizing the diocesan map by switching archdeaconries from one jurisdiction to another. Small dioceses like Rochester and Ely now mushroomed in size, whilst large ones like Lincoln and London became shadows of their former selves. New dioceses gradually began to emerge, the first one (after Ripon) being Manchester, in 1848. No attention was paid to the provincial boundary between Canterbury and York, and the archdeaconry of Nottingham was transferred from the latter to the former without difficulty.

The suppression of the ecclesiastical courts had to wait a little longer, but by 1858 they were all gone and doctors’ commons, the association of canon lawyers in London, was wound up in 1865. Ecclesiastical law was now restricted to matters proper to the internal administration of the church, though the rise of ritualism later in the century was to ensure that the courts which administered it did not disappear altogether.

Changes which affected the fundamental structures of the Church of England inevitably raised the question of representation on the bodies responsible for them, and it became impossible to ignore the growing clamour for self-government in the church. The revival of the convocations was the simplest and most straightforward way of going about this, but there were difficulties to be overcome. The convocations were gatherings of the clergy, but in the nineteenth century the church could not operate without the support of its laity, and some way would have to be found for them to have a voice in decision making as well. The ratio of appointed to elected members of convocation was also unsatisfactory, particularly since a third of the elected proctors were sent by cathedral chapters, which were no longer lucrative sources of income for the holders of their prebends. There was not even a uniform way of electing clergy proctors, and unbeneficed clergy were left out of the process altogether.