The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1877-11-13 00:00:00

THE SALISBURY DIOCESAN SYNOD.
To the Editor.

Si,—The "list" letter of the Rural Dean, in answer !
to one of mine on the subject of the Synod, affords
me an opportunity of making an explanation or two.
The imeetion before us is whether the general feeling
of the Churchmen of the Diocese can be ascertained
by means of the Synod, and not wheth, r those
members of the Synod who coincide in 01 ' 'on with
the Bishop feel themselves to be free to express their
..wn feelings. This may be, and yet the Synod may
be very far from expressing the feelbute of the Church-
men generally of the Diocese. The Rural Dean c 'im-
plants that I have substituted suples-itions and
theories for facts. lam not conscious of having ilohe
AO. lii, own admitted facts, however, are 'mite
eufficient to illustrate the case. It is a fact that the
Bishop can erase from the agenda paper any subject
which be does not wish to have discuseed ; and,
further, that a favoured few, etyled an Organising
Committee, "claim and exercise the right of rejecting
any subjects which they think unfit to be discussed."
It is also a fact that the "Constitution- of the Synod .
requires that it shall not overrule the Bishop; real
ids that the Bishop can at his own discretion
" Extinguish discussi.ei" witheut dissolving the Syrtis'. !
It is a fact th it there are Churchmen in the !Meese
whose opinion do not altigether coincide with those of
the Bishop, and they feel that if they were to exercise
their independence .4 mind they would be nut id place
in the Synod, because if they were to be present in
sufficient numbers, and vote according to their convic-
tions, they would overrule the Bisbee, which would
•• Unconstitutional" in that Synod. They may
justly regard some of those subjects in which thew
opimons 110 not ate.' .rd with these of the Bishop ax of
vital importance at the present crisis of the Church,
but they cannot lute since any of them for iliscussi in
—there is a double guard at the very threshholil. The
reje ted subjects may not be "Cretchets," or "Useless."
or •• Irrelevant," Gut if they are " Cuomstitntional"
enough t threaten to leave the Bairns in a minority
they niay he [ejected. These I 'hurchnien, therefore,
feel that every avenue by which they could hope II I
render any effectual help to remove the evils which
endanger our Church is securely closed them,
awl that by the very C institution of the Synod its
deeisieus can only represent the peculiar views of the
Bishop and those who coincide with him. The Synod
"beings men together.' who hold.x those viewm, and
parades them as expressing the feeling I,f the Church-
men .4 the Diocese f. but if th it general feeling be the
very reverse, as 1 beieve that it is, all who vote for
representatives, and all who take part in the Synod,
are promothig a state id things which is dangerous
and may be destructive to the i liurch of England.
Ace irdiug to the Constitution of the Synod, the
may not he overruled, and yet its 011, go
before the country as the expression of the general
feelings of the Churchmen of the Diocese. It ix inost
important that the general feeling of the Churchmen
of the country should be accurately ascertained and
expresse I, and not misrepreseuted ; for the I gielature
of this c eintry is an eminently desirous of promoting
the wishes as well as weleire of every respectable
portiou id the community that every eredible evidence
of a general feeling will influence legislation in that
direction. We have a legitimate and accurate way
.pen ne of making our wishes known by petition to
. Parliament ; and though my weak voice may not
reach far, too far as it does reach my advice is to ailed
that method. But the Rural Dean says that "Some
opponents of our Synod write self they were members
of a Presbyterian and not an F:pis sipalian Church,
and resent a+ an intellerable grievance a claim en the
part I,f the Diocesan to exercise a greater authority
than is peressed by any iudividual clergyman." If
there be any such opposers of the Synod the remark
thee not apply in the present instance. I feel indeed
that I am now on holy ground, and I enter upon it
with all reverence, but aix., with full confidence that
my standing upon it is firm, steadfast, and initnovei
able. The Rural Dean Ls very vague and indefinite ae
Gi the nature and degree of the authority which he
claims for the Bishop, ileclariug only that it must I e
greater than that possessed by any Individual clergy-
man- Those Churchmen, with whose opinions I agree,
slo concede to the liishepjand that ex maw., a degree of
authority far above that of any ordinary clergyman,
for we regard him as ruler of the Chur itcoortioy to
the Chure.:44 lair, and that by Divine right; hut we do
not admit that he has any Divine right to rule the
Church according to his own discretion. in defiance of
the Church's law. We do not admit that "The
Bishop's word is law." The Rural Dean seems to
think that the Bishop must be either a law-giver er a
Cypher." But the judges in this country or net
cyphers' though their sentence, must be according to
iunl not otherwise at their own discretion. lie
Sovereis:n ot this I old is not a cypher, though the
laws cannot be made or altered excel... by and with
the advise and consent of the Legislature. Neither is
the Bishop a cypher, because lie cannot a.ter the
Clinirell's Ma according to his own discretion, but can
administer it as he finds it. The Government of
I the Church of England, since the reformation, has
been the most perfect deny Church on earth. It his
hitherto been governed by the laws of the Church,
administered by the Bishops ; and if at any time any
Bishop has attempted to overrul the law, an appeal to
the Church has overruled the Bishop. The late
Bishop of Exeter was so ovemiled, and others also ,
have been. By the law of the Church I mean, of I
c awn, the statute law 114 it affects the Church of
England, in connection with the common law, with
due regard to the c istems and preset iptions which the ,
Church has established for itself. But now, Pince the
rise of the Oxford c .us iracy, s .me of the Bish are
endeavouring to establish a pisitnn, not as adminis-
trator+ of the Church's law, but as rulers at their own
diseretion. The proceedings of the "Bishop in a far
distant Diocese," alluded to by the Rural Dean, is a
eignitieant example. If the Bishop of London were he
withdraw all the licences of the licenced clergy in
indon ; send his relioleae•in to the Secretary and
Committee .4 the Pastoral All Society to take its
affairs into his own boils; send his own clergy to
officiate in all the churches, with titer altars, candles,
images, confeesonals, &c., &c. forbid the people to
attend any other churches, or Li.LI Divine service in
any ether Pi m 4, and all the clew to mid .y any
Scripture reader without a license from the Bishop, it
would closely resemble what has been tried IF,et in the
far distant Diocese, hut not without reference to home.
The whole Church of England is under deep obligation
to the Church Missionary Society for the temperate
constitutional and faithful manner in which it has
hitherto retained its position as a bond
.ifde extension
of the true Church of England against finch foreign
pretenflons. And we should all be ready to thank the
Bishop of Colombo for the clear proof that he has
given of the tendency of the Oxford conepirasy, if in
the Church of England to be forewarned were to be
firearmed. But at the present time is it,,? The
Convocation which had slept for an hundreil and fifty
years (then had the churches rest) has since 1553, been
abased, by Oxford influence, and has already obtained
the passing of an Act which has deprived the clergy at
home of all power of managing their own affairs,
choosing their own advisers, or making any effectual
appeal If the Oxford conspirators should gain such
influence, by means of their confessionals, absolutions,
masses, &e.' as to think they can try any thing similar
to this with the laity, it does not require the spirit of
prophscy to foretell an explosion which will reud the
church into fragments, and perhaps the nation too.
Of course nothing .1 this kind can be trie,i immediately.
A secret preparation must be made for it, and what
can be more appropriate than the establishment of
such a position for the Bishops in a representative
assembly, as that now claimed for him in the Salisbury
Diocesan Synod ; where the people may indeed elect I
freely, but their representatives can only discuss what I
subjects the Bishop pleaees, when he permits them, I
and must come at last to the conclusion which is most
agreeable to himself. Such ais eition looks more like
that of the Bishop of Rome than of any Bishop of the
Church of England. To vote for a representative in
an assembly so "constituted" is to my mind too great
&recognition of the seamed right of the Bishop to I
have an authority in the Church far above that