they were to divide, as specified in the Act, between the wives and children of the ejected ministers, the approved preachers and schoolmasters, and the widows of godly ministers. For the maintenance of the new preachers the Commissioners could appropriate the revenues of all parochial benefices "which now or hereafter shall be in the disposing of Parliament or any other deriving authority from them." The funds obtained from these sources were to provide stipends not exceeding £100 per annum for the new ministers, and not exceeding £40 per annum for the new schoolmasters. Allowances not exceeding the yearly sum of £30 might be made to the widows and children of godly ministers. Pensions amounting to one-fifth of the value of the benefices were to be granted to the ejected ministers. The Commissioners obtained the control of large sums of money under this Act.
Full powers were granted to the Commissioners as a Committee of Indemnity to deal with all acts of high misdemeanour, oppression, and injury, the only appeal being to the Committee of Indemnity which sat in London. The provisions of this Act were strictly carried into effect. About 185 benefices passed into the hands of the Commissioners, and the vacant places were filled with vigorous substitutes. "The most conspicuous of the intrusive ministers was Vavasor Powell, a perfervid Welshman, who was able to speak to his countrymen in their native tongue and who, by the sincerity of his own life, gained numerous converts even in that unpuritanical land."[1] Under this Act charges of malignancy, either alone or in conjunction with other offences, were preferred against about twenty clergymen. "Delinquency " was charged in a few cases, "insufficiency" in a dozen cases; "plurality" was complained of in some instances; and a number of incumbents were charged with unbecoming conduct, chiefly drunkenness. Two Cardiganshire incumbents were charged with keeping alehouses.
- ↑ Gardiner's "History of the Commonwealth," vol. ii. p. 249.
