THE BISHOPS AND THE CLERGY.
WE are not at all sure that the Bishops have not been rather embarrassed than helped by the recent assurances of obedience on the part of the clergy. Under any circumstances these assurances would have had the inconvenience that they leave the next step to the Bishops. "We will do whatever you tell us to do" is a delightful expression of an admirable sentiment. But the most passive obedience and the most absolute non-resistance have their limit somewhere, and we cannot think the Bishops unduly suspicious if they believe that this limit may prove in practice to be a good deal nearer than people think. Professions of submission when they are voluntary are commonly held by those who make them to create a corresponding obligation on the part of those to whom they are addressed not to drive a willing horse too bard. If this obligation is disregarded, and the orders given prove to be stringent beyond expectation, it will not be difficult to show that they relate to matters to which the promise of obedience does not extend. Those who are most sincerely anxious that some bound should be set to the present lawlessness in the Church of England may well be most fearful lest some want of judgment in a Bishop should give disobedience a fresh sanction instead of a new check. Instances of such want of judgment are already to hand. If there be one thing more than another that those who are most bent upon restraining the adoption of new and startling ceremonial might be expected to desire, it is the severance of the most extreme clergy from their more moderate fellows. We are not saying that this is a good thing in itself, and we can quite understand why some at least of the signers of the memorandum which has lately appeared should wish to avoid anything of the kind. In the interest of the High Church party no doubt such a severance is greatly to be deprecated. We, however, are thinking, not of High Churchmen, but of Low Churchmen, and it seems to us that, from their point of view, a break in the solidarity of the High Church party is much to be desired. We are familiar with a similar state of things in politics. Liberals and Unionists are alike given to exhorting one another to show their independence by breaking up the party to which they belong. But Liberals and Unionists are equally aware that this advice is for the- most part prompted by a desire which is not quite dis- interested. A divided party is a far less formidable • adversary than a united party. In the case, however,- with which we are dealing the people whose interest it is to prevent solidarity among High Churchmen are the people who seem bent on doing all they can to produce it. The Bishop of Hereford the other day, the Bishop of Sodor and Man more recently, have been doing their best to bring High Churchmen of both wings, moderate and extreme, once more into line. They con- found doctrines and practices which are held and used by a few of the High Church clergy with doctrines and.. practices which are held and used by the great majority. of the High Church clergy. They may be quite justified-, in viewing all alike with impartial disfavour,—in de- nouncing, for example, with equal vehemence the man who reserves the Sacrament and the man who teaches the - Real Presence, the man who sings the Litany of the Virgin in procession and the man who hears confessions.
in his church. We say nothing about the validity or the consistency of their objections, we are only concerned with.
their practical results. Viewed in this light we can, imagine nothing more unfortunate. Here, for the first time, they have a number of prominent High Churchmen voting resolutions and signing memorandums the object of which is to dissociate themselves from certain other High Churchmen who have, as their critics consider, gone too far in the way of ceremonial development. The.
obvious policy of the Low Church party—at least, so we should have thought—was to welcome these unexpected allies, to be on their guard against saying anything which could serve to reunite once more moderates and extremes, to keep, for the moment at least, all their hard words for the men who have been abandoned even by their own friends. What they have done, so far at all events as the action of these two Bishops goes, is the direct opposite of this. They have directed their censures against matters on which all High Churchmen are agreed, instead of limiting them to . matters on which High Churchmen are strongly, and even fiercely, divided. The effect of such a policy can only be to make High Churchmen close their ranks, and forget • their possibly grave differences in presence of a common enemy. It may be an effect for which certain High Churchmen will be thankful, but for that very reason it is strange to see it brought about by the very men who have most reason to wish it away.
Happily for the Church of England, there are other Bishops who are anxious to deal with the present difficul- ties in a different temper and with a different object. The Bishop of Rochester in his address to his Diocesan Conference, the Bishops of Wakefield and Chester in the York Convocation, the Bishop of Winchester in his dio- cesan magazine, have all spoken with a general agreement in the direction of patience and temper. Liberty, accord- ing to the Bishop of Rochester, must remain the rule, and. when it needs restraining, as he acknowledges it does. in some ways now, the weapons used must be " per- suasion and counsel." A. growing and living Church,, says the Bishop of Wakefield, must have constant developments, and some of these developments must be of the nature of experiments. The situation, says the Bishop of Chester, is critical, but it is not acutely critical, and the worst possible way in which the Bishops could meet it would be to give the rein to excitement and-
alarm. Let both sides, says the Bishop of Winchester, try to be as reasonable as they can,—reasonable in their con- demnation of observances which they do not like, reasonable in their introduction of observances which their people do not like. The meaning of all this we take to be that the wiser Bishops see strongly the value of patience, of giving the resisting clergy a long interval in which to consider whether disregard of Episcopal authority is consistent with their position as ministers of an Episcopal Church. It is difficult, no doubt, to imagine ourselves in the place of one of the extreme clergy, but if such a transfer were possible we can conceive nothing that would suit our book better than an avalanche of Episcopal directions and prohibitions sent forth on their mission with an entire disregard of circumstances, antecedents, and characters. There would certainly be something in the list which could not be obeyed without doing mischief in the parish or con- gregation, and we should only have to concentrate our disobedience upon this one point, and wait for the whole fabric of Episcopal intervention to break down. We greatly doubt whether even the clergy who are most opposed to what they regard as a gratuitous act of submission will be found specially anxious to defy their Bishop if he privately asks them to reconsider the intro- duction for this or that service for which there is no authority in the Prayer-book, and to make allowance for the irritation which its sudden appearance among the services of the Church of England is likely to excite. It may make all the difference in a case of this kind whether the Bishop is tactful or inconsiderate; inclined to parade his authority, or willing to go into the question as one friend with another ; given to the use of big words about Popery and secret societies, or prepared to listen to the clergyman's defence of his action, and to examine with him the advantages and disadvantages of the course he wishes to take ; hasty in laying down general laws, or .careful to restrict his intervention to each successive case as it arises. If we have some Bishops to whom we must look for the first of these sets of alternatives, it is something to know that there are others who may be expected to guide themselves by the second. We can only hope that it is to the latter that the occasions for taking action will present themselves.
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