REQUIRED READING FOR THE SEMINARY THE WARDEN While touring Sussex in 2007, Mary and I came across a building near the Long Melford church with the following plaque: HOSPITAL OF THE HOLY AND BLESSED TRINITY ESTABLISHED IN 1573 BY SIR WILLIAM CORDBELL OF MELFORD HALL AS AN ALMSHOUSE FOR 12 AGED MEN AND A WARDEN AND STILL SERVES ITS ORIGINAL PURPOSE. TODAY IT ALSO PROVIDES ACCOMMODATION FOR WOMEN AND MARRIED COUPLES. IT IS AN ENDOWED CHARITY ADMINISTERED BY A BOARD OF TRUSTEES. We knew all about an almshouse for twelve aged men and a warden. We had read _The Warden_. This is the first in the Barsetshire series, six novels dealing with the clergy in and around Barchester Cathedral. Although I have often thought the Barsetshire series should be required reading for all seminary students, _The Warden_ is perhaps less pertinent to today's church, because it exposes the disproportionately high incomes earned by some of the clergy in the Church of England, and the disproportionately small amount of work done by some. Since this is an infrequent issue in today's churches, some appreciation of the concerns in Victorian England is gained from a tabulation of clerical incomes in the novel, converted into an approximation of 2013 currency values: Mr. Harding's income As Precentor £80/yr £6,112 As Warden £800/yr £61,120 As Crabtree vicar £80/yr £6,112 Paid to Rev. Smith At St. Cuthbert's £75/yr £5,730 Archdeacon Grantly's Income as rector of Plumstead Episcopi £3,000/yr £229,200 Bishop's income £9,000/yr £687,600 (pretax) As of September, 2013, the conversion rate was $1.60 per pound. This shows that the Bishop's income was more than a million dollars a year before taxes. In the absence of concern about the income and bonuses of corporate CEO's in Victorian England, it's understandable that this issue led to efforts at reform. The test case in the story is not the Bishop, at the equivalent of over a million dollars a year, or even his son the Archdeacon at a third that amount--but Mr. Septimus Harding, precentor (music and choir director in the cathedral) and also warden of Hiram's Hospital. A gentle and kindly soul, beloved of the twelve old men in his charge in the hospital, Mr. Harding frequently plays his violoncello for them. As a more concrete gesture, he has voluntarily increased their daily pittance by two shillings, which amounted to some sixty-four pounds a year out of his own income.