The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1867-09-03 00:00:00

ercltsiestical intelligrnce.

WHAT THE BISHOPS ARE ABOUT.

There can be.. doubt, in the mind of any intelligent
• observer, of &hostels of Ecclesiastical matters, that
Episcopacy is on its trial. Just as the Bench of
Bishops is showine its utter incompetence to deal
with any of the difficulties of the Church, and when
some memOrs of it are showing that the only power
they have ilia power of working mischief, just at such
• time are they endeavourink to increase their
number, parade their magnificence, and if possible
make their power greater at the expense of the
Church, and at the price of her independence. First
of all we have the attempt to increase their numbers,
an attempt happily defeated ; for the cause of its
defeat @hewed plainly enough that its object was not
the good of the Church, but the glorification of the
Order; they will not have more Bishops, unless
they are to be " my Lords," and members of the
House of Lords. Now if it is really the work of the
Church that requires them, it would bean advantage
that they should have all their time devoted to their
Diocese. But why is there so much work now?
Simply because Bishops think proper to claim as duir
work what doge not belong totbem, in order to obtain
a more absolute power over their clergy. Bishops are
expensive ornaments, and should be kept only for
use. We cannot afford to provide • Bishop to give
eel& to every precaution or choral service; there is
no need of a Bishop to open • Church after rester-
stion, or to dela:moor to • new organ, or to form part
of a choral meeting. Doubting each exhibitions are
imperfect without • dignitary, but while numbers of
working clergy have scarcely enough to live on, we
hold it a shameful waste of money to expend •
hundred thousand pounds upon show and pomp.
Let the Bishops confine themselves to their awn
proper work, and then there would be no need of
any more.
But in order to make • greet display of them-
selves, they have determined to hold a Pan•Anglioan
Synod. Like the frog in the fable, who burst himself
in attempting to make himself as big as an ex, they
have been dazzled with the amounts of the sociably
of Bishops at Rome, and think they will not be
behind that Apostate Church. Di 004•01 are to be
left and neglected, in order to give Importance to the
Bishop of Oxford's grand entertainment, and after
all what will it be? • few dozen men, whale °Miaow
at the present time, nobody regards, making them.
selves ridiculous by apiog the gigantic gathering
at Rome. Of tonne Bishop Colima& will not be
invited; but as he is given to arithmetic, he can
amuse himself with working out the problem, which
will give, as its result, the probable value of this
Pan-Angliata Synod. The following formula might
help him, "Given • number of empty bottles, to
Sod out bow many together will make a full one."
Many of these men may be very worthy men in that
way, but how many have any claim on the Churchht
respect in point of learning, or Christian experience?
Some of the Colonials are much below the aysregs.
But the whole scheme is an attempt to ilentify the
Church with Bishops. As if they possessed by
virtue of their office superior wisdom to others.
Now Jerome and Chryeestom both affirm that the
only work pimplier to bishops, as distinct from other
Presbyters, is Ordination; and it will be an evil day
for the Church when she forgets this limitation.
One would suppose that enough had taken Owe
of late years to shew the absurdity of these
Episcopal claims. The missions of the Church
Missionary Society were condemned become they
were commenced without • bishop • but in New
Zealand and Western Africa, and elsewhere, they
succeeded so well that a bishop became necessary,
and then • bishop wee sent out. But look at their
model cohesions, that have gone forth in foil stet*,
with • bishop at their heed? and what do we see, in
spite of the exaggerated statements occasionally
indulged is? Central Africa, Melanesia, Orange
River, and the shamefully schismatic mission at
Honolulu, are miserable failures.
And look at the way that bishops are amusing
themselves in Natal :
-

- -
'The position of the Church and the question of the
Episcopate still agitate the public mind, and the
Cathedral of Pietermaritzburg has been made the battle-
ground of the rival nartles in a literal sense for from
words they have really come to blows. It appears that
Dr. Twolla, armed with the authority of the Metro-
politan, viaited the diocese of Natal, and endeavoured
to officiate and exercise jurisdiction there, but that on
intimating hi. intention to preach in the cathedral, Dr.
Colemo.B churc',vsalens determined upon offering an
active resistance, and with that view had new locks put
on the door. The sheriff acting under e Judge's order
endeavoured to obtain admission for Mint but was
defeated by the Colenaoitm who raised a barricade
against his entrance. A second attempt was made on
Sunday, the 29th of June, this time with a
hammers, and as illustrating th, old aiw' "bettar rt.
day, better the deed," it .1* "lemedul and the men
who defended the building were sashimi. Th. Malt
was that Dr. Twells preached there the same day in the
morning and afternoon, and a late morning service was
also held by Dr. Colones."
It is all very well for The Standard to ins the
blame on Dr. Colonels ; be may be to blame, but the
Bishop of Capetown is more to blame, aad Dr.
Twells still more.
However Dr. Colima) may have deserved to he
',moved. it is quite clear that Dr. Grey'. absurd
Jmistits for his own dignity as lifetronolitan pr.-
vented the matter being settled, and if Dr. Twelle
bad minded his own business sad attended to hie
mission, these disgraceful came. would not have
Wren plain. [fit was right that • bishop should
interfere at Natal, why did not Dr. Grey go himself
He has made the Church contemptible enough in
Capstone, be bad better go on to Natal. And
perhaps it would be well to seartain who the

persons were that almost forced Dr. Gams° on the
Ids Archbishop Sumner, when his grace was un•
wiling to consecrate him. Truly • hus•Auglican
Synod oonsisting of snob men, under the guidance of
Dr. Wilberforce, will be a most edifying spectacle.
We are thankful to find that the Archbishop of
York declines having anything to do with it (and
many other bishops will follow his example), and
Ulna • owns will be wanting, which would have
carried weight with it, and the Synod loses all right
to the title it has assumed, and, like the three tailors
of Toolerstreet, is important only in ite
own estimation. But how will the impor.
tent matter of precedence he settled? Will
bishops with croziers precede bishops without
them? And what if • bishop Amid appear in a
mitre? Of oourse Dr. Twells will oome furnished
with • crowbar or piokays, that being the proper
emblem of the work by which he has been especially
distinguished ; and thus these gentlemen will
amuse themselves, while the Church is diatracted by
heresy of emery kind, and will chew to the country
what a mistake it has made, and what money it has I
wasted already in multiplying the number of those, I
who, when an emergency arises, *hew themselves
uneq oil to cope with it, and try and veil their
wretched incapacity by an empty display of physical
force.

But bow about the legality of this Synod? Our
Church says, Article :xi., "General Councils may
not be gathered together without the commandment
and rule of Prithes." Has Queen Victoria bees
cionsulted ? or is this to be a practical denial of her
being "over all causes Ecclesiastical r Truly it is
time that some limit was pieced to the absurd pre-
tensions of them "men in lawn." But it is no
new story; the history of our Church for three
hundred years proses cle&rly enough that she has
existed te *pile of theses who especially were ap-
pointed to support her; and every real reformation
Wm been effected in direct opposition to these in
authority. It is time that the laity should wander
where the remedy is to be sought for; it is time that
it should be declared that our Church shall not be
degraded into • theatre and stage, for bishops to
display their grandeur, and amert their ridiculous
claims thereon. It is time they should learn that
they are not the mastc s but the servants of the
Church; and all this discreditable struggle for
Sectarian power, and professional dignity, will not
much longer be treated with simple contempt and
goons, but will be met with • storm of indignation,
before which even their hearts, puffed up as they
seem to be with self-imparthoos, will be compelled
to quail. And hers it is perfectly refreshing to turn
away from these triflers, and look at men who under-
stand what the offioe of a bishop really is; who use
their position, not for self-glorification, but for
enlarged usefulness, And if we wept to find Duch
men, we must not look for them in the Pan
Anglican Synod, or struggling for increased Epic
oopal power in the Hones of Lords, but at work in
their diocese. In the Bishop of Durham we have
• man who would never willingly leave his diocese,
and one, who acting upon definite fixed principles,
is not afraid to carry them out; and therefore be
has not hesitated to thew his hatred of this ritualistic
heresy by forbidding the Bishop of Oxford's par-
ticular pet, Dr. Morrell, to Offitliat• in his diocese,
and ban deprived of his office as rural deep a clergy-
man who publicly expressed his sympathy with the
Salisbury Charge. If we go on to Carlisle, we fled
the exoellent bishop of that diocese, speaking at the
meeting of the Diocesan Church and Pantheism
Building and Benefice Augmentation Society, boldly
declaring that he had opposed with his" most per.
tinacious resistance," that clause in the Bill for the
Increase of the Episcopate, which authorized the
Ecclesiastical Commissioners to give half the en-
dowment of these bishoprics. Through his exertions
they have raised in the Diocese .£12,000, which
had been met by 04,000, to meet the etheal deed-
tution of the clergy, many of whom live like farm
labourers. And while clergymen in that and other
dioceses are working for lase than mechanics' wages,
we maintain that the very idea of expending the
money, which the oommiesioners have entrusted to
them, to enlarge the power and number of bishops,
instead of applying it to the augmentation of the in-
adequate incomes of the working clergy, is a gross
job, and • themeless swindle.
The mention of these two excellent prelates, to
whom might be added the Bishop of Norwich, leads
us directly to one great cause of the present evil.
A Bishop. ordinarily • man of the middle or profes-
sional clam, of small fortune, and no particular
influence, having had to fight his way through the
world, finds himself some fine morning living in •
Palace; addressed as "my Lord" with immense
patronage of the most coveted kind, and con-
sequently surrounded by a host of obsequious
flunkey, lay and clerical, is it a wonder if he loess
his heed, and fancies that all this is owing to Ins
superior wisdom, or "to the Apostles' blood flowing
in his veins?" A man who is born a nobleman,
votes all these things a tore, and is not elevated by
them : be is so used to be called "my Lord,' that he
is thankful to anyone who will call him "Jack," or
"my good old fellow," and thus men of noble
family, who have Income bishops, have always born
their elevation well, as witness the three we have
mentioned above, and this thews us where the
remade lies: there mast be a little less power a
little 40 patronage; and if possible the abrogation
of "my Lord ;" and if that won't do • removal from
the House of Lords, and then perhaps they will
remember what their realduties are, andwill bud that
with a little lees grandeur, they will have more time
at command, and will not want an addition to their
numbers.