Meeting the Demand for Clergy in Victorian England

Lucy Giroux
 


Many new changes came to Victorian England as a result of the age of industrialization. Where there were once small country parishes, manufacturing towns were springing up. One change resulting from industrialization was the shortage of clergy to fill the new parishes in these towns. These new parishes reflect the demographic changes of the English countryside. Rural villages grew into booming towns. Where a single parish was once sufficient, there was now a need for multiple parishes. The Church of England went about meeting these demands for new clergy in two major ways, actively recruiting men to the clergy and restructuring theological facilities and changing the requirements for ordination. These factors show us some of the upheaval and reconstruction that was going on in the Anglican Church in Victorian England. This was a direct result of the need to train a large number of clergy in a relatively short period of time.

Industrialization changed the demographic make up of England. In The Victorian Church in York Edward Royle states that "As suburban development turned sparsely populated manors into thriving and populous communities, further parochial sub-division took place" (2). Where small parishes once were sufficient, the larger manufacturing towns demanded more parishes be added to minister to the larger population. In 1832 the "Church of England was in danger and quite unequipped for ministry to an emerging urban industrial society" (Parsons 16). There was a shortage of clergy because of the rapid unanticipated growth.

The demand for so many clergy to be ordained quickly led to restructuring clerical requirements. This demand could be shown in mere numbers, for example: "In 1841 there were just over 14,000 clergy in England and in 1891 there were more than 24,000" (Parsons 25). In the 1840s these clergy were primarily trained at the two major universities, Oxford and Cambridge. A small percentage (14%) came from small theological colleges. Many people could not afford to send their sons to these universities for the length of time required to become ordained. The combination of the increased demand in number of clergy needed and the time restriction for development created a crisis. The result of this crisis, was the development of the lesser theological colleges for the non-ordained and vocationally trained clergy.. This caused a number of issues to be raised. The result of this trend was " the growth of non-university clergy and the inadequacy of its theological instruction" (qtd. in Haig 11). It stands to reason that given the reduce amount of time given to instruction, coupled with the development of new colleges, that quality may be given up for quantity. The amount of theological training was less so to some it probably seemed inadequate comparatively.

In addition to the shortage in mere numbers of clergy, there had been discord within the church. Many of its faithful didn’t attend services regularly because there was so much division on what doctrine to follow and what was most important. The general population looked to the church to serve only the basic need. Church historian John Kent argues that "What ordinary people wanted from the church was its occasional offices-from baptism to burial which function as rites of passage" (Kent 113). People were not happy with the clergy and its ministries because they felt the clergy was trying to change them instead of giving them what they felt that they needed. They looked to the church only for the performance of the required rituals. With this feeling of dissatisfaction with the clergy abounding, many men were not enticed to become ministers. The church was fighting both low parish involvement on the one hand and rapid creation of large towns of Anglicans demanding even the basic of services such as baptisms, marriages and burials.

These negative stigmas led to the need for aggressive recruitment techniques. The upper classes were appealed to on one level and the lower class on another level. The appeal to the upper class came in the means of placing the younger sons in an established and respectable profession. This had been true for some time but until now these younger sons were not actively recruited for the clergy. They were recruiting the younger sons because the oldest son inherited everything else and the younger sons had to find a profession where they could maintain their social status. The fact that this position involved little pay was of no consequence to the upper class. They were usually able to supplement their income from their family’s wealth. The Church advertised that "Church benefices may thus be found for the provision of younger sons and nobles" (qtd. in Haig 8). This allowed the younger sons to be placed in parishes where they could still enjoy their social status and practice their profession as well.

The lower classes were appealed to through the opening of many lesser theological colleges. This allowed them to become ordained without the time or expense of attending major universities such as Oxford and Cambridge. Oxford and Cambridge had long been established as theological colleges but they were very expensive and required training for approximately eight years. These new colleges were established for training non-graduate ordinands or vocational training (Parsons 25). These lesser theological colleges included colleges at Chichester, Wells, Cuddesdon, Salisbury, Exeter, Gloucester, Leeds, Truro, Lichfield, Ely and Lincoln (Parsons 26). The ministers coming out of these colleges were coming out in four years because they didn’t attend for the required time needed to become ordained. This allowed for the clergy being able to be sent out into the field much more quickly and at a much lower cost to the student and his family. The Anglican Church reacted in this to allow for the most clergy to be produced in the shortest time available to them.

Haig also notes that another technique was used to recruit clergy. The technique used was comparison of the clergy to other desirable professions that were also recruiting candidates and showed the clergy as a more appealing choice:

The Church showed well as forces (Army) were expensive, Navy was slow and not well rewarded, medicine was not cheap to enter and no profession was harder to make a beginning in, and the bar was attractive but expensive and was safer but less dashing. The Church – safe haven of patronage, bestowed an honorable position and affordable opportunity to display the talent of its members far more easily than the professions of law and medicine. (qtd. in Haig 9) This comparison showed the clergy in a positive way by showing the other acceptable professions in a somewhat negative manner. It offered that the military was expensive because a person had to buy a commission, and the navy had slow advancement for little pay. The fields of medicine and law were expensive and hard to break into. The Church offered an acceptable alternative. This means of recruitment was effective as it reaffirmed the clergy as a professional, honorable profession. It also attracted men because the cost of attaining this professional position was at a much lower cost than the other positions it was compared to.

It is completely understandable why the church followed the steps that it did to meet the demands forced upon it. The active recruitment of clergy and the restructuring of its educational facilities were valid avenues to follow to meet the church’s needs. The question of whether the actions allowed for adequate training is not as easily answered as the reasons why the church took the steps that it did.


Works Cited

Haig, Alan. Victorian Clergy. London: Croom Helm, 1984.

Kent, John. "Nineteenth-Century Church and English Society." Victorian Studies 41 (1997): 107-17.

Parsons, Gerald. Religion in Victorian Britain. Manchester: Manchester UP, 1988.

Royle, Edward. Victorian Church in York. York: St. Anthony’s, 1983.

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