Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1867-10-18
bishop Ives.

of the General become i'll theory, what they
are in fact, the laws of the State.
bishop Ives.
The newspapers bring us intelligence Of
the death Of the Kt. Rev. LEVI 5. IVES,
once Bishop Of North Carolina. The
popular and beloved Rector of St. Luke's,
New York, he was elected, in 1881, to the
See, vacated by the death Of that remarka-
bic man, Bishop RAvASscEoFT. His popu-
larity On his new sphere riyalled that which
he enjoyed in the old. Rarely has Chief
Pastor been the object of a warmer or more
reverent regard on the part OF his diocese
than was Bishop IVES, the first part OF his
Episcopate, and rarely has there been
more evident instance of the triumph OF
religious convictions and traditional faith
over personal influences and personal pre-
objections than in the subsequent history OF
his Diocese It is well known that about
the years 1889 Bishop IVES began to pGb-
ish and maintain doctrines at variance
with what his Diocese believed to be the
faith Of the Primitive Church. The strug-
gle which ensued and which took It's sharp
est forms of conflict in the Conventions OF
1919, 1850 and 1851, will always be remem-
bered with sadness by the Episcopallans Of
North Carolina.
They are not among the scenes upon
which we would dwell. The first result OF
the struggle was the public remuneration by
the Bishop at the Convention of 1851 Of
the doctrines he had recently espoUsed.
The next year, however, he returned to
them, and in the Winter of 1852, while
absent in Europe, he finally abandoned the
faith of his Diocese, and of his own carrier
years, and upon Christmas day made his
formal submission to the Bishop of Rome.
In the crypt OF st. Peters, in the city Of
Rome, there hangs at the right OF the altar
his ring and cross, dedicated to the patron
Saint as a memorial of his conversion.
At the ensuing General Convention he
was pronounced ipso ,fdcto deposed from his
Bishopric, and though in view Of the
Church, orders are indelible, and so he re-
manned a Bishop still He was thence
forward Bishop without jurisdiction and
under sentence.
The fidelity of the EpiscOpalians Of North
Carolina to their ancient faith was eviden-
ced by the remarkable fact that not more
than one or two persons out OF the whole
Diocese followed him in his change, and
even they are believed by many to have
previously determined upon that step. If
before his detection there were any tenden-
cies to such opinions as those he finally
adopted, they seem to have ceased with
that event.
In what we have said we have purposely
abstained from expressions Of approval OF
condemnation Of his course. It is scarcely
within the range Of a secular journalist to
speak to that question. There is 20 neces-
sity for doubling that the Bishop was sin
cere in his convictions, nor was the yacilla-
ton with which he asserted them altOgeth-
er strange or un-human. Il must be re-
membered that with the abandonment of
his earlier faith went not only the renunci-
alton of his Episcopate with all its honors
and all the revering love of his people, bat
the loss also, to some good degree, of So
cial position and the sacrifice of nearly all
the previous friendships Of his life. While
we respect the sturdy consistency of his Do
cese, we respect also the convictions which
caused him to descend from his Episcopal
seat, and in the humber garb of a layman,
devote himself to the religious labors Of the
faith he had adopted.