This statute was passed in 1535, and under its provisions three Suffragans were consecrated in 1534, five in 1537, three in 1538, and one in 1539. The Suffragan Bishops consecrated during the sixteenth century were : 1513. July 3. 1536. Mar. 19. Oct. 22. 1537. June 24. Nov. 4. 1538. Mar. 24. April 7. Dec. 29. 1539. Mar. 23. 1567. Mar. 9. 1569. May 15. 1592. Nov. 12. Richard Naturensis,' Suffragan of Durham. John Salisbury, Bishop of Thetford; died Bishop of William More, Bishop of Colchester. Robert King, Bishop of Rheon, Province of Athens, John Bird, Bishop of Penreth. With the close of the reign of Elizabeth the consecration of Suffragans came to an end, till they were again revived in the reign of Victoria. Of the Suffragan Bishops mentioned above, the most celebrated was John Hodgkins, the predecessor of Bishop Walsham How in the See of Bedford. He was consecrated at St. Paul's Cathedral on December 9, 1537, by the Bishops of London (Stokesly), Rochester (Hilsey), and St. Asaph (Wharton). He subsequently took part in many important consecrations: in that of Nicholas Ridley to the See of Rochester in 1547, of Miles Coverdale to Exeter, and John Scorey to Rochester, both in 1551, and subsequently in that of Edmund Grindal to London and Edwin Sandys to Worcester in 1559, and of John Jewell to Sarum in 1560. But his greatest distinction is that he was one of the consecrators of Archbishop Matthew Parker at Lambeth, on December 17, 1559. He assisted, according to Stubbs, in sixteen consecrations in all. The last Bishop, then, who bore the title of the See of Bedford previous to Bishop How, was by no means an inactive or unknown prelate. He took part in all the chief consecrations between 1540 and 1560, and so was one of the chief instruments in carrying on the episcopal succession at the time of the Reformation. The first movement towards the revival of Suffragan Bishops in modern times is due to the Colonial Episcopate. In 1836 Dr. Mountain, Archdeacon of Quebec, was consecrated Bishop of Montreal, as Suffragan to Bishop Stewart of Quebec. In the following year Dr. Stewart died, and Dr. Mountain became Bishop of Quebec. The next move in this direction was in 1856, on the retirement of Bishop Aubrey Spencer from the See of Jamaica. The correspondence which then took place, and the opinion given by Dr. A. J. Stephens, Q.C., on August 3, 1855, on this question, will be found in a parliamentary - paper printed on the motion of Mr. Gladstone on May 20, 1856. Dr. Stephens had been consulted as to whether any statute existed which would prevent the consecration of a Suffragan or Coadjutor Bishop in the Diocese of Jamaica, and he gave it as his opinion that Suffragan and Coadjutor Bishops were appointed in England before the Reformation, and that no statute subsequent to the Reformation has altered the law in this respect. The Archdeacon of Middlesex in Jamaica (Dr. Reginald Courtenay), was accordingly shortly afterwards consecrated a Coadjutor Bishop of Jamaica, under the title of Bishop of Kingston. To the present indefatigable Bishop Wordsworth of Lincoln the revival of Suffragans to Diocesan Bishops in England is mainly due. After considerable ventilation of the subject, and a correspondence with the then Prime Minister, Mr. Gladstone, the Bishop of Lincoln, under the provisions of 26 Hen. VIII. c. 14, nominated 'two honest and discreet spiritual persons, learned and of good conversation,' to the Crown-the Ven. Henry Mackenzie, Archdeacon of Nottingham, and the Rev. Francis Morse, Vicar of St. Mary's, Nottingham. The choice of the Crown fell upon Archdeacon Mackenzie, who was consecrated Suffragan Bishop of Nottingham in 1870. In the same year the Archdeacon of Canterbury, the Ven. Edward Parry, was consecrated Suffragan Bishop of Dover. In 1874 the Archdeacon of Surrey, Dr. Utterton, was consecrated Suffragan Bishop of Guildford; and upon the lamented death of Bishop Mackenzie in 1878, the Archdeacon of Stow, the Ven. Edward Trollope, was consecrated Bishop of Nottingham. So that, including the new Bishop of Bedford, there are now four Suffragan Bishops in England, holding the titles of Nottingham, Dover, and Guildford. M IVAN THE TERRIBLE. EN who have been long oppressed, frequently become in turn oppressors; for tyranny produces tyranny, and despots are made out of slaves. The servile princes of Moscow, who were obliged to present a cup of mare's milk to the Tartar envoy as he sat on horseback, lick up the drops that fell upon his horse's mane, and kneel before him while hearing the commands of the Khan, ruled their own subjects with a rod of iron; the nobles beat the peasants, and the peasants ill-treated their own families. For two hundred years the Golden Horde of the Mongol Tartars * oppressed the peasantry of Russia. The country was divided into several principalities, under the nominal dominion of the grand prince of Moscow, who was appointed by the Khan of Kiptschak. When the Tartars became divided and weakened by dissension, the * The Mongol Empire, the largest the world has ever seen, was divided by Tschingkis, or Genghis-khan, its founder, between his four sons. The Khanate of Kiptschak included Russia. The Tartar encampment on the Volga was called the Golden Horde, from the golden hangings of the Khan's tent. Russia was subdued in 1237, and the Tartars driven from the country in 1481 by Ivan III. Russian princes seized the opportunity of asserting their independence. Ivan the Third succeeded in driving out the Tartars and laying the foundation of the empire. He made roads, adopted the title of Czar, or Great King, and gave the Russians a code of laws; but under the feeble rule of his son Vasili the Tartars recovered Moscow; and it was not till the reign of his grandson, Ivan the Terrible, that their power was completely destroyed. ; Ivan, the fourth of the name, was born in 1529. He was only three years old when his father Vasili died, and left him under the regency of his mother Helena, a woman of most profligate character and on her death, in 1538, the government was assumed by a council of boyards or nobles. Amid scenes of cruelty and vice the young prince spent his childhood; his education was neglected, and Prince Schnisky, one of the council, treated him with the utmost barbarity. When he was only thirteen years of age, Prince Glnisky, a factious noble, incited him to speak insultingly to Schnisky at a hunting expedition; and when that prince replied in insolent terms, he was dragged out and worried alive by dogs. Glnisky succeeded him in the control of affairs, and encouraged Ivan in every species of cruelty and licentiousness; one of his amusements being to ride through the streets of Moscow at full gallop, overthrowing and trampling on every one in his way. At eighteen years of age the young prince was crowned Czar; but the people had been so oppressed and outraged, that in their terror they fired the city in several places, and Ivan wakened out of his sleep in the midst of flames. At this moment the monk Sylvester appeared, Bible in hand, and denounced the vengeance of Heaven on his head if he did not reform. From this time there was a change in the Czar. He turned his attention to the welfare of his subjects; appointed just governors, revised the code of laws, and re-organizing the army and raising it to 300,000 men, he marched against the Tartars in the depth of winter. Kasan and Astrakhan fell before his valour; and the destruction of an immense army sent against him by the Turkish Sultan, Selim II., freed Russia from her enemies. The Czar was hailed as a hero, and as the champion of Christendom against the infidel ! At this time Siberia was discovered, and the empire greatly extended. Cannon were made, and fire-arms introduced instead of the bow. Architects were sent for from Italy, and printing-presses established for the first time in Russia. This brilliant period was of brief duration. On the death of the virtuous Anastasia, wife of Ivan, his native ferocity broke out with irresistible violence. The wise and just counsellors were banished, and their adherents tortured. One of the nobles daring to remonstrate was stabbed by the Czar's own hand, and another was murdered in the church. Prince Kurbsksky, flying to Poland and joining King Sigismond, wrote a letter to the Czar, upbraiding him with his crimes and bad government. A messenger presented it to Ivan, who, striking him across the legs with his iron sceptre, quietly read the epistle whilst the wretched man weltered in his blood. Russia was now threatened with invasion from both Poland and the Tartars. The Czar's fury and suspicion increased, and he suddenly left Moscow with his family, and retired no one knew whither. Far from looking on this event as a relief, the citizens thought they were abandoned; and assembling in the streets, exclaimed, 'The Czar has forsaken us, and we are lost! Who will now defend us against the enemy? What are sheep without a shepherd ? And when at length two letters arrived from the Czar, dated from Alexandrovsky, a fortress situated in the depths of a forest, prelates and nobles were sent to prostrate themselves before him, and to implore his return to his faithful people. He did return, and was welcomed with acclamations. His aspect was gaunt and wasted; his own furious passions were consuming him. It is not possible to think it remorse, when his very first acts were fresh cruelties and executions. Affecting to fear for his own safety, he established a guard of 1000 men of good birth, who were called the Opritchnina, or Select Legion.* They carried at their saddle-bow a dog's head and a broom; emblems that they worried the enemies of the Czar, and swept them from the face of the earth. Prowling like beasts of prey through the streets of Moscow, they murdered all of whom they had the least suspicion, and frequently merely for the sake of plunder. Ivan seemed to have become possessed with a demoniac thirst for human blood. A forged letter, purporting to be written by the Archbishop of Novgorod to the King of Poland, furnished him with an excuse for marching against that great and flourishing city as if it were in a hostile country. He sacked and pillaged all the towns that lay in his way; and after plundering Novgorod, and leaving 60,000 dead bodies in its streets, he returned to Moscow with 300 prisoners, 200 of whom were hung upon gibbets or boiled alive in a huge cauldron in the market-place. It was his intention to destroy Plescow also; but it was saved by the courage of the hermit Nicholas, who dwelt in the neighbourhood. As the Czar and his troops rode up tothe city, the bells were ringing for mass; and halting, he sent presents to the holy man, and requested his blessing. Nicholas in return sent him a piece of raw meat. The Czar reminded him that it was Lent; when the hermit cried out, 'Evasco! Evasco! † thinkest thou that it is unlawful to eat a piece of a beast's flesh in Lent, and not unlawful to eat up so much man's flesh as thou hast already?' And pointing to a dark thunder-cloud overheard, he threatened him with instant destruction if so much as a single hair of a child's was injured. Ivan's superstitious feeling was touched, and Plescow was preserved. This superstition led him to form a monastery at his retreat of Alexandrovsky, styling himself abbot, and his guards brothers. Over their gold-embroidered dresses they wore sombre habits; and after going through the most rigid austerities, the Czar would descend to the dungeons to delight himself with the agonies of his tortured prisoners. He had now lost all the boldness he possessed in youth; and when war broke out with Sweden and Poland he showed the greatest timidity. The chivalrous king, Stephen Battori, challenged him to decide the war by single combat ; but the Czar * Afterwards known as the Strelitz. This legion was the nucleus of the standing army; previously, the troops had only been called out when occasion required. A familiar form for Ivan, like 'Jack, Jack.' |