Rise of the
Broad Church.

attempts to give life to their meetings in Convocation, and submitted, though with much grumbling, to the temporal authority of the Privy Council. But there were a few who began to think the tyranny unsupportable, and desired disestablishment. On the laity, on the other hand, the increasing pretensions of the Church were producing a strong effect. They inevitably roused a feeling of antagonism among those who did not accept them. The Church appeared to be forcing itself more and more into the position of an exclusive sect, and thus laid itself open to such attacks as were implied in the constant efforts to get rid of Church rates, and to open the churchyards to dissenters. The publication of two books of liberal tendency afforded the ground on which the divided opinions of the Church exhibited themselves. The echoes of the disputes arising from them filled the whole of Lord Palmerston's Ministry. In 1860 a series of Essays by authors well known in the Oxford world made its appearance. The publication was attended by a notice that the writers were not acting in union, and were responsible for their own writings only, but as all the Essays were conceived much in the same spirit, the work was regarded with some justice as a declaration of the views of the Broad Church. The Essays contained little, if anything, that had not been said before either in Germany or in England, but their tone, the free handling of Scripture which they appeared to recommend, and the application to the Bible of the ordinary methods of criticism which they adopted, were something new within the limits of the English Church, and emanating as they did from men of such distinction as Dr. Temple, Dr. Williams, Mr. Wilson, Mr. Baden Powell, Mr. Park Pattison, and Professor Jowett, the Essays excited an amount of interest and hostility which perhaps they scarcely deserved. The clergy at once assumed an attitude of active hostility to them. Largely signed petitions prayed the Archbishops to devise means for banishing from the Church the authors of such heresies, and the matter was brought forward in Convocation. But Excitement suits being instituted against Dr. Rowland Williams and Mr. Wilson, the question became a legal one. A decision in the Ecclesiastical Courts incriminating both writers on two points, though absolving them on the rest of the articles alleged against them, produced an appeal to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council. The judgment of the Committee delivered by Lord Westbury, and based upon strict legal grounds, reversed the judgments of the Courts below; it had not been proved, in the opinion of the Privy Council, that the assertions of the Essayists had

caused by Essays and Reviews.

1863]

66

ESSAYS AND REVIEWS

66

397

either contradicted, or been plainly inconsistent with, the Articles or Formularies of the English Church. With this opinion however the leaders of the clergy, the Archbishops, did not agree, and in spite of it they issued pastoral letters in accordance with their own opinions. The vast majority of the clergy agreed with the Archbishops, and at length, in June 1864, both Houses of Convocation formally declared a synodical condemnation" of the volume, as containing teaching contrary to the doctrine of the United Church of England and Ireland, in common with the whole Catholic Church of Christ." No action of Convocation is valid without the consent of the Crown; and the legality of this judgment was questioned in the House of Lords, where Lord Houghton inquired whether the Government intended to take any steps in consequence of what had been done. An opportunity was thus given to Lord Westbury to explain the legal position of Convocation. He used his opportunity somewhat mercilessly, and spoke in a bitter and jeering tone, which did much to increase the dislike of the clergy for that lay supremacy under which many of them were already fretting. The subordination of the Church could scarcely be expressed in harsher terms than those which the Lord Chancellor employed. "There are three modes," he said, " of dealing with Convocation when it is permitted to come into action and transact real business. The first is, while they are harmlessly busy, to take no notice of their proceedings; the second is, when they seem likely to get into mischief, to prorogue and put an end to their proceedings; and the third, when they have done something clearly beyond their powers, is to bring them before a Court of Justice and punish them." The Lord Chancellor pointed out, however, that the drawing of the judgment was such as to render it practically nugatory, and contemptuously explained that the Government had no intention of interfering. But though thwarted in the Courts of Law, and brought up rudely in their attempt to give independent effect to their action in Convocation, the orthodox party believed that in Oxford an opening for a more successful assault upon their opponents was offered. Dr. Pusey, Dr. Ogilvie, and Dr. Heurtley combined to institute a suit against Professor Jowett in the Chancellor's Court, for heresy. It marks the advance of the High Church party that Dr. Pusey had himself been suspended, in 1843, for heterodoxy, and that Dr. Ogilvie, now acting with him, had taken a personal share in his condemnation. The case was tried before Mr. Mountague Bernard, Assessor in the Court. The objection that the Court had no jurisdiction in spiritual matters was overruled; but the Assessor went on

to declare that it was not fitting that the case should be carried any further. The general feeling against any form of religious persecution, and the desire, among the laity at all events, to avoid any restriction of the wide inclusiveness which is the chief advantage of a National Church, was too strong to be disregarded.

Meanwhile Dr. Colenso had in 1862 published a work upon the Pentateuch and the Book of Joshua which still further illustrated the Action against growth of liberal opinion within the Church, while the Bishop Colenso. disputes arising from its publication brought into still greater prominence the difficulties which beset the relations of Church and State. The Bishop's work was a rationalistic criticism of the Pentateuch, leading to the conclusion that large portions of these books were not strictly historical. The Colonial Metropolitan, the Bishop of Cape Town, pronounced sentence of deposition against Dr. Colenso, who then brought his case to England. He was received with great animosity by the English clergy. A Committee of the Upper House of Convocation was appointed to inquire into his book, most of the Bishops inhibited him from preaching in their dioceses, the Archbishop warned his clergy against him. Against this treatment Colenso raised a protest; he was being judged, he declared, unheard. But eventually, in May 1864, his petition against the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Cape Town came before the Privy Council, and in February of the next year the Lord Chancellor pronounced judgment. He carefully avoided settling the doctrinal points at issue, but declared the proceedings of the Bishop of Cape Town null and void. By strict interpretation of law, neither the See of Natal nor the See of Cape Town existed at all; the Bishops held their position under patent from the Crown, and the Crown had no power to create a Bishopric in a colony possessing an independent legislature. The decision, strictly legal as it was, seemed to leave the questions at issue untouched, and gave Dr. Pusey the opportunity of expressing` his pleasure at finding that the Church of Africa was thus free, and emphasising his opinion that the temporal jurisdiction was the great source of weakness of the Church of England. In fact, if these two cases brought into strong relief the value of a final appeal to a lay jurisdiction capable of interposing an obstacle in the way of persecution, they rendered no less obvious the powerlessness of the Church in matters of discipline and doctrine. It was only natural, that men who set great store upon the authority of the Church should begin to desire for it a position of more independence. On the other hand, the loud and somewhat illiberal clamour which had been raised, and

1864]

ACTION AGAINST COLENSO

rates.

399

the questionable steps which had been taken to enforce Church authority, led many thinking men to dread the predominance of clerical influence, and, in face of the evident determination of the Church to oppose itself to the progress of thought, to question the possibility of its existence except as one among many religious sects. The efforts repeated year by year to obtain the abolition of Church rates were a further source of anxiety to those who were eager for the complete maintenance of the Church. For many years Efforts to the imposition of a tax for the support of the Church abolish Church fabric on all householders of a parish, whatever might be their religious opinions, had been exceedingly distasteful. In many parishes in the North of England it had been practically dropped. The decision of the Law Courts in 1843, in the case of the parish of Braintree, had affirmed the legality of such a tax, though imposed by a minority of the parishioners. Legal relief being thus unobtainable, the matter had been brought before Parliament, and divisions had been taken, showing an increasing feeling in favour of the total abolition of the rate. But Mr. Disraeli had thrown himself strongly upon the side of the Church, and had declared that the existence of a National Church was involved in the maintenance of the rate. The support thus given had enabled the defenders of Church rates to withstand the threatened measure. But it was only by the narrowest majorities. In 1861 Sir John Trelawny's Bill for the abolition of Church rates had been rejected only by the casting vote of the Speaker; in the following year an adverse amendment was carried by a majority of one; and in 1863 an increase to a majority of ten in favour of the maintenance of the rates was regarded as a great triumph. The parties were, however, sufficiently closely balanced to give colour to Mr. Disraeli's assertion that the Church was threatened.

Not less well-grounded was the implied censure on the sluggishness of the late Ministry, contained in Mr. Disraeli's speech. The Government, which had so long been in power, had deceived the hopes of its more advanced supporters by ceasing, after its one weak effort, to speak of the question of Reform at all. Again and again Mr. Locke King and Mr. Bayne had attempted, as private members, to bring about a reduction both of the county and borough franchises. In every case the Government had found means either to reject the proposed measures, or to avoid the question. political An answer had always been found in the fact that there were no visible signs of strong agitation among the working men; yet it was known that two at least of the Cabinet, and those two the

Revival of

interests.

most important members of it, felt that some extension of the franchise was necessary. To Lord Russell the completion of the measure he had initiated in 1832 was a matter of conscience, and Mr. Gladstone had somewhat astonished the world by his assertion, in the year 1864, that he too regarded an extensive Reform Bill as necessary, and that, so far from thinking the absence of agitation a reason against it, he saw a truer wisdom in doing what he considered an act of justice before it was called for, rather than in waiting for an agitation which could not but rouse angry passions, and be carried on with immense loss to the working class. It was certain that if the Liberals obtained a majority in the new elections, a Reform Bill would be imminent. It was equally certain that the introduction of such a Bill would lead to a split in the Liberal party. The language of Mr. Lowe made it plain that some at least among those who had followed Lord Palmerston believed that the want of agitation implied want of wish, and that an extension of the franchise to a lower class was in itself an evil. But in fact, the reason for the apparent want of interest among the working classes in political matters was to be found in their absorption in questions of a different sort, and it was this probably which influenced Mr. Lowe.

Aware that no political change was at the time possible, of sufficient completeness to allow of legislative interference in their favour, the workmen were devoting all their attention and energy to free themselves from the tyranny of capital. It is impossible that political reforms affecting the poorer classes should be undertaken without bringing to the surface and emphasising social questions. The upper classes and the well-to-do find interest in mere political

Practical

politics of the working classes.

questions, in the play of Party, and in the possession of power. But working men, though by no means devoid of political views, are apt to regard the questions that arise chiefly from their own point of view, and to desire the power which political status gives chiefly as a means of rectifying the social evils from which they suffer. So it happened now. The awakening which the national conscience had undergone on the passing of the Reform Bill had not been confined to politics, but had touched social questions of all sorts. The great Bill could not be considered as final. Its very principle that the franchise should be extended to all who were fit to exercise it implied the admission of class after class as they acquired that fitness. But such a process of absorption is necessarily slow and gradual. As a matter of fact it was the middle class which had reaped nearly all the benefits of the