The Commissaries: Deputies of the Bishop of London

Abstract

The shared responsibilities for colonial church affairs delegated to the royal governors and successive bishops of London were shaped by Henry Compton.¹ For the governors, their instructions required them to oversee that The Book of Common Prayer was read each Sunday, that the Holy Communion was celebrated according to the rites of the Church of England, and that no clergyman was to be inducted into a benefice in their governments without a certificate from the bishop of London. This delegation of partial oversight for the church to a civil officer was a departure from the regular practice in English dioceses. It diminished the authority of the London prelate responsible for ecclesiastical matters and effectively divided supervisory duties for the provincial church between civil and ecclesiastical officers. In hindsight it was a policy fraught with potential conflict.