Lords Spiritual
In the United Kingdom, the Lords Spiritual are the clergymen of the Church of England who have a seat in the House of Lords. Presently, there are twenty-six Lords Spiritual.
Formerly, the Lords Spiritual formed the majority in the House of Lords. Archbishops, Bishops, Abbots and Priors were entitled to attend. However, after Henry VIII supressed the monasteries, there remained no abbots or priors to attend. Nonetheless, the bishops and archbishops formed approximately one-third of the House. The number of clergymen in the House remained stable for years, but the number of temporal Lords rose dramatically. In the seventeenth century, there were about one-hundred temporal Lords; by the nineteenth century, there were over four-hundred.
In 1847, it was desired to expand the Church of England by creating a new bishopric. The act doing so, the Bishopric of Manchester Act, limited the number of bishops entitled to sit in the House, as did future acts. In 1878, the number was finally settled at twenty-six by the Bishoprics Act. Under that Act, the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Archbishop of York, the Bishop of London, the Bishop of Durham and the Bishop of Winchester have permanent seats in the House of Lords. Furthermore, the twenty-one most senior diocesan bishops, excluding the Bishop of Sodor and Man and the Bishop of Gibraltar, have seats in the House.
Diocesan bishops from the Church in Wales, which was a part of the Church of England, were allowed to attend on the same basis as English bishops until 1920, when the Welsh Church was disestablished. Bishops also represented the Church of Ireland from 1800, when Great Britain and Ireland united into the United Kingdom, until 1871, when that Church was disestablished. In addition to its temporal representative peers, the Church of Ireland was entitled to be represented by four Lords Spiritual - one Archbishop and three Bishops - at any one time. Amongst Archbishops, the Archbishop of Armagh was first in rotation, followed by the Archbishop of Dublin, the Archbishop of Cashel, and the Archbishop of Tuam. The Bishop of Meath was the first amongst Bishops, followed by the Bishop of Kildare, the Bishop of Derry, the Bishop of Raphoe, the Bishop of Limerick, Ardsert and Adgadoe, the Bishop of Dropmore, the Bishop of Ephin, the Bishop of Down and Connor, the Bishop of Waterford and Lismore, the Bishop of Leighlin and Ferns, the Bishop of Cloyne, the Bishop of Cork and Ross, the Bishop of Killaloe and Kilsenora, the Bishop of Kilmore, the Bishop of Clougher, the Bishop of Ossory, the Bishop of Killala and Achonry, and finally the Bishop of Clonsert and Kilmacduagh. But if a Lord Spiritual were a member of the House of Lords already as a Lord Temporal, then his place in the rotation would be skipped. The Presbyterian Church of Scotland, which has no Archbishops or Bishops, is not represented.
By convention, the Lords Spiritual do not all attend at once. The Bishops rotate attending the House, with one Bishop "on duty" during each week. In the House of Lords, one of the primary duties of the Bishop on duty is to read the Prayers at the beginning of each day's session.
As of February 2004, the Lords Spiritual, in order of seniority, are as follows:
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