IRELAND, Cut la it or. The name applied to the independent branell in Ireland of the Angli can communion. It was established by law ac cording to the Act of • 111011, which went into effect on January 1. ISO'. the listahlished Church 14 Ireland. considering itself the rightful successor of t he medi:eval Boman Catholic Church. took of the dioceses, parishes, and Church property. and for a long time retained the divisions then existing. The Roman Catholics, constituting a large majority (more than three fourths) 14 the population. always regarded as the existence, in their count ry. of an Established Protestant Church in con nection with that of England. Notwithstand ing its small membership, the Church had. in Is33• 4 archbishoprics, IS bishoprics. the income from which was estimated at front £13(000 to £1S5,11(n). In that year the first inroad was made upon the prerogatives of the Established Church in the reduction of the archbishoprics to two and the bishoprics to ten. In 18(1S, on motion of Oladstone, the English House of Commons voted to disestablish the Church Ireland. The House of Lords rejected the proposition. But so strong was the expression of public opinion against the continuance of the privileges of the Irish Church that the royal eommissioners on the revenues and conditions of the Church of Ireland reeommended in their report, July 27, 1868, important reduc tions as to its benefices. They suggested, among other changes, the abolition of four bishoprics and one archbishopric. and that all benefices with less than forty Protestants should be suppressed. I fladstone introduced. in March, 1869, a bill for the disestablishment and disendowment of the Irish Church, which, after a long and earnest debate. passed both }louses of Parliament. The disestablisliment was to be total; ecclesiastical courts and laws were to cease; the bishops were to be no longer peers in Parliament ; the eeclesi astieal commission was to terminate, and a new commission of Church temporalities, composed of ten men, was to he appointed. in which the whole property of the Irish Church should be vested. Public endowments, including
State grants or revenues (valued at £15,500.000). were to be retained by the State, and private endowments. such as money given from private sources since 16(10 (estimated at £500. 000 , were to remain with the disestablished Church. The vested interests connected with ..Nlaynooth College. with the Presbyterians who were receiving the regium donum, and the in cumbents. were to he secured. The aggregate of the payments would amount to about £S,000,000, leaving £7,500.000 at the disposal of Parliament. A general convention held in Dublin, 1870. adopt ed a constitution for the disestablished Church, according to which it was to be governed by a General Synod, composed of a House of Bishops and a House of clerical and lay delegates, meet ing annually in Dublin. The House of Bishops has the right to veto, but seven members must agree upon a veto to render it valid. The bishops are chosen by the diocesan convention, but if the convention fail to elect a candidate to a vacant Fee by a majority of two-thirds of each order, the election falls to the House of Bishops. The Primate, the Archbishop of Armagh, is elected by the House of Bishops from their own order. 'I he property of the Church is vested in a perma nent representative body, composed of three classes—the ex-officio archbishop and bishops. one clerical and two lay representatives for each diocese, and the co-opted members chosen by the cx-officio and representative members. and equal in number to the dioceses. One-third of the elected members retire by rotation. In 1901 the Church of Ireland had two archbishops (Armagh and Dublin), eleven bishops. a membership of over 600,000. and £8.128.440 in funds in custody of the financial trustees. the so-called representa tive body made up of the hierarchy, and 13 cleri cal and 36 lay representatives, elected by the General Synod. The general feeling among the members of this Church has been hostile to the introduction of High Church doctrines and prac tices, and the Prayer-Book has, since the dis establishment, been modified in this sense. See ENGLAND, CHURCH or.