POSTSCRIPT.
SATURDAY NIGHT.
The clergy seem to be doing their best to make the contest in the parish of St. Sidwell's become as profanely diverting as possible. The Mayor, representing the Magistrates and inhabitants, asked the Bishop to interpose. Accordingly, Dr. Phillpotts sends to the Mayor an open letter addressed to Mr. Courtenay, the Curate ; in which he says, alluding to the mobs at St. Sidwell's church- " In the very imperfect state of information in which I was placed, I was afraid of incurring the responsibility of advising-yeti to yield to the violence of the popu- lace, lest such a concession should be deemed injurious to the cause of peace and order by those whose official duty it is to guard those main objects of all good go- vernment.
" If you receive this letter, you will understand from it that I advise you to give way, at the request of the civil authorities of Exeter, and not to persist in wearing the surplice in the pulpit, unless, conscientiously and on full inquiry, you have satisfied yourself that your engagements to the Church require you to wear the surplice when you preach. " I do not myself think that the matter is so free from doubt that you may not act on your Bishop's advice, as now given to you. " Still I do not pretend to any right to order you to wear the gown: I only ad- vise it, and advise it with this limitation—that you can, without wounding your own conscience, comply." A public 'fleeting of rate payers was hold, on Thursday, to call upon Mr. Courtenay to resign his cure. The Reverend Mr. Atherley, the Vicar, attended as a kind of moderator; and with difficulty obtained admission for Mr. Courtenay, who had a communication to make; several of the parishioners crying that it was " too late." The Curate accordingly stated, amid some interruption, that " he had authority to discontinue the use of the surplice "; that he had no more to say; and that the parishioners had better see " in black and white " " a corespondence which had taken place on the subject." [Making no more distinct allusion to the Bishop's letter.] He then wanted to retire; but he was detained by a parishioner, who ques- tioned him.
Mr. Sayell asked Mr. Courtenay, whether he had said that lie did not care a snap of the fingers for all the names in a requisition, but one; whether he tore from the church-gate and stamped upon a notice calling a meeting ; and whether he called the promoters of the meeting " riffraff"?
Mr. Courtenay—" With regard to the first question, I am not aware of having said anything of the sort. With regard to the next question, I have repeatedly said, I would rather cut off my arm than do what it was my duty not to do. As to pulling down the notice, I constantly pull off notices from the church-gate& It was hanging in strips when I pulled it down."
"A Parishioner—" I saw it, and it was not in strips." Mr. Courtenay—" I don't say it was in strips: but when I pulled it, it came in strips." (Loud cries of " Oh !" and groans.)
Captain Tanner—" I wish to ask, why a corpse was left in the churchyard last night for forty minutes, without a minister to bury it?"
A Parishioner—" And I wish to ask, why a couple were kept waiting for two hours last Monday morning and could not get married ?"
A loud burst of groaning and yelling followed these questions; in the midst of which Mr. Conrtenay retired. Resolutions then passed unani- mously, declaring the concession " too late "; calling upon Mr. Courtenay to resign ; and distributing censure all round—on the Curate, on the Vicar who appointed him, and on the Bishop.
Subsequently, came forth a letter from Mr. Courtenay to a parishioner, incorporating the Bishop's letter; and making this announcement from the Curate himself, as the means of restoring "peace"— "Therefore, with the conscientious conviction that the use of the surplice in preaching, though desired, is not directed by the Church, with the permission and advice of my Bishop, and at the earnest request of the civic authorities of Exeter, conveyed to me both through the Bishop and personally, I feel it my duty to discontinue the use of the surplice in the pulpit."
An announcement, dated " Oxford, 24th January," formally confirms it previous report. " At a meeting of the Heads of Houses, held yesterday afternoon, it was resolved to withdraw the new statute or test, that was intended to be submitted to Convocation. The other proceedings relative to Mr. Ward, as proposed to be settled by Convocation on the 13th Febru- ary, remain unaltered."
Previous page
