The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1873-11-22
w1THpRAwAL OF BISHOP Cumm1Ns.

The Protestant Episcopal Church of Ken
lucky, as well as of the whole country, was
taken by surprise Il week ago by the
announcement that the Rev. Dr. Cummins
assistant Bishop of Kentucky, had withdrawn
from the communion Of the Episcopal church.
The bishop himself announces the fact in Il
letter to Bishop Smith of Kentucky, giving
the reasons for his course; and these reasons
are based entirely on what he alleges to be
the present ritualistic tendencies of the
church. DR. Cummins finds these 50 abhor
rent that he puts on his hat and walks out
not, however, in the way Of resignation, with
the purpose of joining some other religious
body, but he proposes to take his Office with
him." by which he can only mean that he
intends to place himshlf at the head of a new
sect or division Of Episcopalians, of extreme
low church principles, who instead Of the
present prayer book, will, as he says, use that
of the "sainted Bishop White the Bishop
White prayer book being one which Bishop
W had drafted for adoption by the church in
this country after the severance from England
in l1,6, but which the convention of 1899 but
partially adopted, adopting instead the prayer
book at present in use by the churches in this
country
The step had doubtless been contemplated
by Bishop c, for some time, one of its leading
purposes being to relieve such clergymen as
DR.. Cheney and one or two others from their
embarrassment of belonging to an Episcopal
church without bishop; but was precipi-
tated by the criticism which the action of the
Bishop provoked in taking so CONSPICUOUS a
part in the recent Evangelical Alliance at
New York and assisting in celebrating the
holy communion with Presbyterian clergy
men in a Presbyterian church. The ottense
IN itself was not very serious one and in the
case of ordinary clergymen would probably
have been overlooked; but committed as it
was b. Bishop Cummins, in spirit of bravado
and defiance might have led to charges being
preferred against him and even his ultimate
deposition-consequcn which he proposes
to avoid by taking flight, if we may use the
figure.
Bishop Cummins, from his history and
training, was not the sort of man one would
be inclined to tie to theoogically. Originally
an actor, he attended Methodist revival and
became converted. His impulsive and en-
thuSiastiC temperament naturally drove him
into the Methodist pulpit and his combative
and polemic disposition as naturally drove
him out of it,when unhappily he soughtrcfuge
in the Episcopal communion; in which how
ever he found no more rest than in that OF
Methodsm, or than he will probably find in
any other.
OF course, in Withdrawing from the Episco-
pal church and placing himself aloof, as he
intimates, from any other body of christians,
It's constitutions, canOnS, rules or ordinances,
Bishop Cummins may still call himself a
Bishop or a Pope if he is mind to do so;
but so far as the church of Kentucky or the
Episcopal church of the United States is con-
after the formal action of his peers
recognizing and confirming the severance,
his functions as a Bishop must cease, He
can then no longer give Episcopal validity
to the acts of DR., Cheney than DR.. Cooper
could by calling himself bishop. As Il
bishop he is thenceforth .tNactuS cticIo. |
While he was very earnest and efficient
worker when in the strict line of duty, as an
clement of discord he was so much a bane |
hat, having no longer the power to control
him, the church is probably the 'gainer by
his leaving.
That any agreeable number of the mem
ship of the Episcopal church will follow
him is not at all probable The heart and
center of the extreme low church element is |
in Philadelphia, yet the Evangelical wing
Of that city at meeting on Monday evening |
after fully discussing the recusant bishops |
case, wholly repudiated all sympathy with
him in his secession from the church. /