Cardinals and Abbots in the English Church.—It may not be generally known, but the fact is so, that the English church numbers two Cardinals and a Lord Abbot amongst her members. In Whitaker's Clerical Diary, under the head of London Diocese, there is attached to St. Paul's a senior and a junior cardinal; and in Ireland exists the exempt jurisdiction of Newry and Mourne, under the government of the Lord Abbot, who is the Earl of Kilmorey. Can any of your readers give me any information respecting these officials?
W. J.
[Cardinal.—The title of cardinal (cardinalis) in early times was frequently applied to any bishop, priest, or deacon holding an official post. In France there were many cardinal priests: thus, the curate of the parish of St. John de Vignes is called, in old charters, the cardinal priest of that parish. There were also cardinal deacons, who had the charge of hospitals for the poor, and who ranked above the other deacons. Thus, two of the minor canons of St. Paul's are called cardinals of the choir, whose duties are to preserve order in Divine service, administer the Eucharist, and officiate at funerals. In former times, they heard confessions and enjoined penances. (Newcourt's Repertorium, vol. i. p. 233.) It was not till the twelfth century that the Sacred College of Cardinals was organised; nor was it till 1567 that clergymen were forbidden by Pius V. to assume the title of cardinal unless appointed by the Pope.
Lay Abbots.—In early times we frequently find secular persons denominated "field abbots" and "abbot counts," upon whom the sovereign had bestowed certain abbeys, for which they were obliged to render military service, as for common fiefs. In the time of Charles the Bald many of the nobility in France were abbots, having a dean to officiate for them. Thus, too, in Scotland, James Stuart, the natural son of James V., was, at the time of the Reformation, Prior of St. Andrew's, although a secular person. The Earl of Kilmorey, who is impropriator of the tithes of St. Mary, Newry, is a lay abbot, or representative of the preceding abbots of a Cistertian Abbey which formerly existed in that town. His abbatial functions, however, are confined to convening ecclesiastical courts, and granting probates of wills, and licenses for marriages, subject only to the metropolitan jurisdiction of the Archbishop of Armagh. A remnant of the secularisation of ecclesiastical dignities has already been noticed in our pages (Vol. ii., pp. 447. 500.), in the case of the late Duke of York, who was at the same time Commander-in-chief and Bishop of Osnaburg.]
Replies.
SIR BALTHAZAR GERBIER.
(Vol. ii., p. 375.)
Your correspondent J. Mt. has great reason to congratulate himself on the possession of the singularly curious tract which he describes, and which gives an autobiography of this extraordinary adventurer. I am not aware of any other copy in any public or private collection. I have a 4to. tract in nineteen pages, evidently printed abroad, the title of which is—
"Balthazar Gerbier, Knight,
to
All Men that love Truth."