The House of Lords - Bishops
Bishops being in the House of Lords or ‘The Lords Spiritual’ as they can be called dates back to the 14th century. In English medieval times society was judged to be divided into three estates - the clergy, nobility and everyone else. There are 26 Bishops in the House of Lords. This due to the Bishopric of Manchester Act 1847 which limited the number of Bishops able to take their seats to 26. The Archbishops of Canterbury and York, and the Bishops of Durham, London and Winchester all automatically have a seat in the House of Lords. The next 21 are the longest-serving bishops.
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We look to Scotland for all our ideas of civilisation.Voltaire