BISHOPS CREIGHTON AND STUBBS.*
BISHOP CREIGHTON'S episcopal life included a little less than ten years. He gave one Charge to his Peterborough diocese, and one, less than a year before his death, in London. The first is a document of considerable length—it occupies nearly a third of the volume—and was delivered in portions at various centres ; the second was given as a whole, and fills about thirty-six pages. Besides these, we have six less formal utterances, yet possessing a certain authoritative character, in " Presidential Addresses to Diocesan Conferences " ; and six papers, which may be said to derive whatever weight they have from the personality of the writer, read at Church Con, greases. In these is included the inaugural address given at the Church Congress of London in 1899. Two other essays, one read at Sion College and one at the London Hurl- Decanal Conferences in 1899, complete the contents of the volume. We naturally turn to the London Charge. It expresses the principles which Bishop Creighton had with unswerving patience endeavoured to carry out in dealing with a diocese always requiring the utmost tact in the prelate who is called to administer it, and at the time agitated to an uncommon degree by acrimonious con- trove] sie 3. It is characteristic of the tact for which Dr. Creighton was conspicuous that in this Charge he does not expressly state, though he may be taken to imply, his con- victions as to a Bishop's authority. For this we must look elsewhere, and we find it in the " Address to the Diocesan Conference, 1899," an address which had been heard by representative members of the assembly which listened to the Charge :— • (1.) The Church and the gallon. By Mandell Creighton, D.E.,.sometime Bishop of London. London : Longman. and Co. De.] -- (5.) Ordotativri Addresses. By the Right Bev. William SU:bhp, D.E., late Biabop of Oxfam. Baited by R. B. Holmes. London : Longruaus and Co. [Gal "I do not like to speak about myself. But we have reached a point when some one must be responsible for leading ; and a leader must be trusted. There is no leader possible save the Bishop. So I ask you all, clergy and laity alike, to trust me, and to follow me as far as you possibly can ; and then I hope that in a little time, with a little patience and goodwill, we shall fall into line ; suspicions will be banished, our services will not, it is true, be uniform—no one wishes that—but we shall all under- stand what we are all doing ; and we shall combine our forces for the great work which our Master has committed to us—a work which is sadly hampered by our divavneions."
No one had less wish to make himself a " lord over God's heritage," but the impossible pretensions put forward in some quarters that a Bishop can only act in concert with a Council of his presbyters met with as little favour from him as it would have met from Ignatius. It was, then, from such a position that he spoke, and was known to speak, to his clergy. And he specialised two points on which, with the insight that was characteristic of him, lie perceived that the controversy of the time really turned. He main- !ained, in the first place, that an essential part of the Reformation settlement was to " turn the Mass into a Communion." This was perceived both by friends and enemies. Dr. Creighton appositely quotes the articles which the leaders of the anti-Reformation risings set forth. " We will have the Mass in Latin, as it was before, and celebrated by the priest without any man or woman communicating with him." " We will have the Sacrament hung over the high altar, and thus be worshipped as it was wont to be." This is practically what many of the extremists want, only that English, purposely made unintelligible or inaudible, serves for Latin. This is really no mere question of ceremony. It means, as the Bishop puts it, that the priest is always to be prepared to receive the people but once in the year. The idea of Communion is directly opposed to this. As the
Bishop says-
" This is the object which the Church of England ever pur sued, to make the. Holy Communion a service for the people, to which they came prepared to receive the gifts of grace in the way which Jesus had appointed. Our own time has seen a fuller accomplishment of that object than any previous period has witnessed. The Holy Communion is more frequently and more reverently celebrated and administered; there is a higher sense of its value, a greater recognition of its supreme importance in the services of the Church It is greatly to be regretted that this advance towards the due appreciation of the mind of the Church, should be checked by anything which even remotely suggests a desire to return to that conception of the Holy Com- munion which was so pernicious."
And he goes on to add a salutary caution against the use of the word "Mass." Its real meaning is harmless, but "words gain a significance which cannot be removed."
The other subject which is made prominent in the Charge is, of course, Confession. The Bishop's conclusions are thus summed up : " Confession is left to every man's discretion, It is not to be enjoined, still less to be enforced, by the clergy." We must content ourselves with quoting the very weighty words in which Dr. Creighton gives his view of the causes which have led to the increased demand for private confession,—for that it is a demand made by the laity much more than a condition imposed by the clergy no one can deny
There can be little doubt that the practice of confession has grown of late years ; and I think it behoves those who view this increase with alarm to investigate the causes, and try to supply a remedy. Clerical influence on the part of a few does not suffi- ciently account for it. I think that it arises from two features in the modern life of great populations, which call for serious attention. One is the increasing pressure of a sense of bustle and hurry, which creates a feeling of personal helplessness. The mechanism of life is so powerful; there is so little room for quiet and reflection, that many people, who wish to escape the power of the world, end it easiest to do so by providing definite refuges for the purpose. This is to be met by adapting the teaching given in sermons to the actual needs of human life. Private confession is frequently prompted by a desire to supply the lack of personal help, which is felt in the general teaching given in our churches. A second cause is the decline in parental authority, we ich largely proceeds from the decay of family religion, This I know comes from many causes; but it is abso- lutely necessary to replace it by all possible means. Without family worship, regularly conducted, without a sense of public worship attended by the members of a family united fur that purpose, we lose the basis necessary for the parental guidance in matters of personal religion. If parents claim their children's etas/Pee-A they must deserve it. A clergyman's task, be he never so o;• cruet, is made very difficult when he finds that he cannot refer the questions of the young to the will of. their parents, with any expectation that they will be seriously answered." Among the other contents of the volume we wish to single out for notice the paper on "Papal Dispensations." It _is an admirable instance of the historical method which Dr.
Creighton was accustomed to apply. He argues that,, as in Germany the anti-Papal movement began with indulgences,
so in England it began with dispe nsations. The French
King Louis XII. married firstly Jeanne of France; it became convenient for him to marry Anne of Brittany. Jeanne was his fourth cousin, and her father had been his godfather. So Alexander VL, on the finding of a Council of Bishops, dis- solved the marriage, and gave a dispensation for the marriage with Anne, though she was the widow of. Jeanne's brother. Louis's third wife was Henry VLIL's own sister Mary. Mary, left a widow, married Charles Brandon. He had married a cousin by dispensation. After a while he pleaded that the dispensation was invalid because he had previously made a contract of marriage with a lady who was his wife's cousin, and because his grandmother was sister to the father of a former husband of his wife. The marriage was declared null. Margaret of Scotland, Henry's other sister, obtained a divorce from her second husband, Lord Angus, on some such grounds. These were the precedents which Henry had before him. Is it any wonder that be tried to gain a similar indul- gence for himself ? Does any one doubt that he would have got it if the Pope had not feared to alienate Charles V. more than he feared to alienate the English Sing ? Whatever blame we may assign to Henry, much more is to be assigned to the Papal Curia, which, as Dr. Creighton says, " had so behaved that anything was possible." The subject is not "attractive or edifying," to quote the Bishop again, but it is of enormous importance when we consider the rights and wrongs of the Reformation on its political side.
The subject with which Dr. Stubbs's volume is occupied is one with which criticism is not called upon to deal. We have included the Ordination .Addressee in the subject of this notice from a wish to call the attention of our readers to the book as emphatically as possible. With the work of a Bishop as a ruler and judge among his clergy the public is more or less familiar. His relation to them as a " Father in God," his function as an instructor and counseller, is less in evidence, though it is not less im. portant. We heartily commend this volume to the attention of all whom its subject concerns. Those who are meditating the choice of ministerial life, and those who are following it, and are realising its difficulties, cannot do better than inform, strengthen, and refresh themselves with these words of piety and wisdom.
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