Church Temporalities (Ireland) Act

Church Temporalities (Ireland) Act (1833), a major reform imposed by the Whig government on the Church of Ireland. It reduced two of the four archbishoprics, Tuam and Cashel, to bishoprics, united 10 of the 20 existing bishoprics to adjacent sees, revoked the right of churchwardens to levy church cess for the upkeep of ecclesiastical buildings, and permitted tenants on episcopal lands to purchase their holdings at a fixed annual rent. The purchase sums and reserved rents thus arising, along with the income from the suppressed sees, the proceeds of a tax on ecclesiastical livings, a substantial levy on the disproportionately wealthy dioceses of Armagh and Derry, and the income and functions of the Board of First Fruits, were vested in ecclesiastical commissioners, who were to use them for the building, upkeep, and improvement of churches and other buildings. The act provided for a more efficient and rational allocation of the church's resources, but significantly eroded its status as a self‐governing corporation.