LAST week, we reported the Bishop of Truro’s protest at the institution of an incumbent presented to him by the Church Association, which had purchased the advowson. The transaction was, said his lordship [Guy Warman], a specially reprehensible one, since the former patron had not been informed of the identity of the real purchasers. He discovered the facts too late, and tried without success to buy back the advowson. On Tuesday, the Bishop of Exeter [William Cecil], at his Diocesan Conference, declared the sale of livings to be the greatest scandal of our Church life, and spoke of the party trusts “controlled by a secretary in whom fanaticism had destroyed all sense of justice”. Several other of the bishops have spoken recently in similar terms, and it is greatly to be hoped that the National Assembly will turn its attention to the matter at the earliest possible moment. A measure for the reform of the present system would presumably have the support of the Archbishop of Canterbury [Randall Davidson], since a year or two ago he protested strongly against a monetary value being attached to the presentation to a cure of souls. It would perhaps be an exaggeration to say that the traffic has become more open lately, it is rather that public opinion has hardened. We noticed recently two advowsons advertised for sale on the front page of the Times, advertisements to which attention was drawn in the editorial column headed “News in Advertisements.” One was in Herefordshire, and worth £750 a year net, and another, last week, in Gloucestershire, worth £1,100 a year net, was described as “a profitable investment”. Both, no doubt, have pleasant parsonage houses and grounds, and one of the incumbents is stated to be over sixty. The Bishops of Hereford and Gloucester should not have much difficulty in identifying these benefices, though we fear that, unless they are prepared, like one of their brethren, to refuse institution at the risk of being put in gaol, they will have no option but to accept the presentations of the purchasers.

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