CHAP. allied armies; and when those armies were themselves in XXIII. want, and the temptation became too great to help themselves from stores in Chateau-Cambrésis, the Archbishop's principal estate, which lay at their mercy, Marlborough desired Fenelon to send waggons for all the corn that was there, and made his men escort it into Cambray, to the head-quarters of the French army d The two passages taken together form one of those bright and pleasant gleams, too rare, alas! in history, when one age or country makes a signal for good to another far away, and the answer comes promptly and cheerfully. These public transactions have carried us on many years: we must now return to matters personal and professional. CHAPTER XXIV. THE DISCIPLINE UNDER THE ATHOL DOMINION. 1736-1750. It would be an interesting question, but not easy to answer, how the discipline of the island was affected by the change of dynasty and the new enactments. On the one hand, those distressing and unseemly disputes between the Civil and Ecclesiastical Courts disappear altogether from the records. And not only so, but a case occurred in 1741, exactly calculated to elicit any claims of that sort which might be lurking in the mind of any who regretted the old oppressive ways. No less a personage than "John Christian, Christian. Esq., Major-General of His Grace the Duke of Atholl, his Forces and Garrisons within this Isle, and Constable of Peel Castle," makes "a humble remonstrance" to the Bishop, alleging Case of Major "That your remonstrant on Whitsunday, the 17th of this inst. May, 1741, attended Divine Service in St. Peter's Church in order to partake of the Blessed Sacrament then to be administered by the Rev. Mr. Edward Moore of the parish of St. Michael, Vicar-General of this isle. That your remonstrant did there in the most humble and seemly manner approach the altar in order to receive that Divine ordinance so essentially necessary to salvation, and having joined in the general confession, and having received the absolu d Hist. de Fenelon, par De Bausset, t. iii. 204. Paris, 1809. XXIV. tion pronounced by the said Rev. Mr. Moore, did continue in prayer CHAP. till the form appointed for consecration of the elements, when to your remonstrant's great consternation and surprise the said Rev. Mr. Moore told your remonstrant, in the presence of the congregation, that he could not and durst not administer the Sacrament to your remonstrant, and to your remonstrant's unexpressible grief he was thereby deprived of the most valuable blessing in the Christian religion, and exposed in a most melancholy instance to the reproach of well-disposed communicants. That your remonstrant, to prevent any disorder in so religious a worship, did withdraw himself in the most peaceable manner, with a heart oppressed with the deepest sorrow and contrition. That your remonstrant being not conscious of having any way fallen under the displeasure of the Church, since he has frequently partook of that divine ordinance, administered to your remonstrant so lately by the Rev. Mr. Matt". Curghey, is at the greatest loss how to be relieved in an insult of so black a dye; and an insult in that parish where his Grace the Duke of Atholl has done your remonstrant the honour to preside as Constable of his garrison. That your remonstrant cannot yet make himself acquainted with any canon or order of the Church that gives any priest a dispensing power of depriving any well-disposed Christian from partaking of a means of grace so materially essential to his well-being in this world, and to happy futurity through the mediation of our blessed Saviour promised in the life to come. That your remonstrant apprehends that injuries of this kind have in all ages of the Church been punished with the utmost severity, being destructive of the well regulating of Christ's Church here upon earth, derogatory to all laws divine and human, and most hurtful to the common weal of society. "Your remonstrant being fully sensible of your Lordship's great carefulness to promote and keep up the Christian religion in its utmost purity, and of your Lordship's willingness to preserve the people of your diocese in the greatest harmony, your remonstrant will not assume to prescribe in what manner your remonstrant can obtain, or is to receive, adequate satisfaction for an injury so conspicuously flagrant and uncharitable. To this end your remonstrant begs leave to lay before your Lordship this his remonstrance, hoping your Lordship in your usual candour will fall upon such means of punishing so notorious an offender as will save your remonstrant the expense and trouble of finding relief elsewhere, being necessitated to support himself as a true member of the Church of Christ; as he is determined to approve himself a sincere member of the State. CHAP. "[He therefore prays] that your Lordship will be pleased to take this his remonstrance, containing the above-mentioned insult and injury, into your paternal consideration; whereby means may be found of punishing so heinous an offender, and giving your remonstrant due satisfaction; and in the meantime to deprive the said Rev. Edward Moore, agreeable with the express letter of the canon, supported by sundry Acts of Parliament, from exercising his functions in the church, according to your Lordship's usual wisdom. "And your Lordship's remonstrant, as in duty bound, shall for your happiness ever pray." This petition had been answered beforehand, Mr. Moore having sent the matter to the Bishop the very day after it took place : "May it please your Lordship, "Kirk Michael, May 18, 1741. 'Being to administer the Holy Sacrament in St. Peter's Church of Peeltown upon Whitsunday, the 17th of this inst., after I had so ordered the elements as directed in the rubric before the prayer of consecration; and that the congregation, excepting those who were minded to receive the Holy Communion, were withdrawn; observing Major John Christian in the seat next me, I whispered him in a private manner, and not perceived by the people, that I could not give him the Sacrament. And this I did with great uneasiness of mind, looking upon myself to be under a necessity either of doing so, or of falling under censure for a greater crime. And my reasons for this were these: "At a Court of Correction in Feb. 1739, the Wardens of Malew having presented Cath. Clucas as pregnant, the woman, having brought forth an illegitimate child, appeared at a Chapter Court in that parish in May, 1740; where, after she was seriously preadmonished and required to declare the truth, because she would be obliged to father her child upon oath, she declared that Major John Christian was father of her child, and prayed the Court to give her a token to charge the Major before us, which was granted in order to the affiliation. "And that the said Major Christian might be made acquainted with the crime laid to his charge, the Court required the Archdeacon's Register to send a copy of the presentment, with the woman's declaration, to the Rev. Mr. Curghy, Vicar of the parish where the Major lived, with directions to shew him the same, that he might have an opportunity of vindicating himself, and remove the offence given, and lest in the meantime he should offer himself CHA P. at the Lord's Table. 66 In the month of April last, the woman aforesaid made complaint in court that she could not get Major Christian to appear before us to father her child, at which time she persisted in her charge as before, and praying for further authority, she obtained an order in writing to charge the said Major to the next Consistory Court in Kirk Michael (which has not yet been held) in order to the filiation. "This, my Lord, is truth, as near as I can recollect at present, the fame whereof is public, acknowledged by himself, and I believe known to every man in the diocese. "And under these circumstances, if I administered the Sacrament to Major John Christian, I presumed I could neither answer it to God, to your Lordship, nor to the Church of Christ. All which is pursuant to the rubric. Certified by, my Lord, "Your Lordship's most dutiful obedient servant, The Bishop was thus enabled quickly to settle the affair :- "Sir,-The above are the reasons which my Vicar-General, Mr. Moore, gave me for his not admitting you to the Lord's Supper on Whitesunday last, while you lay under the public fame of so great a crime as adultery, without endeavouring to clear yourself; and I am of opinion his reasons are such as will justify him to every man who wishes well to the Church of Christ, the souls of men, and the rules of the Gospel. If you think otherwise I shall be ready to hear what you have to say against what he has done. In the meantime I am, your sincere well-wisher, your friend and servant in Christ, 66 "THO. SODOR AND MAN. To Major John Christian of Lezaire." Had not the old claim of exemption for the Lord's retainers been finally abandoned, this complaint, I imagine, would have been magnified into a grievance, instead of being quietly dropped as it was. XXIV. ary causes Again; although one at least of the regulations to which Disciplinthe Bishop had attached most importance the power, decrease in namely, of tendering the oath ex officio-had been entirely number. done away, neither his own writings, nor his son's, so far as I have seen, contain any word lamenting it, or complaining XXIV. CHAP. of the result. The only one of his remaining sermons, known to have been composed after the change, which dwells at all on the discipline, speaks of the law of excommunication as yet in full force, and only liable to the opposition of individuals-I mean the sermon now numbered 89, which was preached in Douglas Chapel, Sept. 23, 1739, when Philip Moore was ordained Priest. And my extracts from the Episcopal Register exhibit nearly the same number of excommunicates in proportion to the time: it is nine in the first period, of twenty-eight years, from 1708 to 1736, against six in the second period, of nineteen years, from 1736 to the Bishop's death in 1755. On the other hand, the minor censures registered in the same two intervals are as 108 to 18; which gives to the later period only one-fourth of what it should have to keep up its proportion. And when we turn to the Episcopalia, which might be regarded in some sense as the Bishop's own private register, the disproportion is perfectly marvellous. From 1720 to 1736 the number of persons dealt with as subjects of the Manx Church criminal discipline, mostly in the Chapter and Consistory Courts, a few perhaps in foro domestico by the Bishop or his substitutes apart, appears to be not less than 1,450 from 1736 to 1755 the number of the names is only about sixty-eight. The diminution may in part be thought due to the change in the law touching compurgation; which change, whatever its merits in itself, was of course so much taken from the quantity of available evidence in a great many cases. It would lessen the chances therefore both of attack and defence, and would occasion many causes to be left off before they were meddled with. The Parochial Chapters would have a ready excuse for declining to present, and the spiritual officers for dismissing the charges easily. There are tokens of its being more difficult to get the Questmen together. Conviction on the one hand, and satisfactory acquittal on the other, would be harder to attain, and the whole system would tend to become gradually obsolete. : Although therefore the Courts continued in action, and were acknowledged by the Government and legislature as in old times, yet the interest of all persons in them could hardly fail to be much diminished. Old age too was growing on |