Untitled - Electric Scotland

216 LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP TAIT [en. x.
"
three standards to guide him in the ritual of St. Barnabas :
first, whatever was practised in any other churches in the
Diocese, and as yet undetected by the Bishop ; secondly, what
ever had been done in the Bishop s presence at the consecration
of the church ; and thirdly, whatever he could find practised in
any of the English Cathedrals. To such rules of ritual obser
vance the Bishop, of course, was not likely to give his consent,
and finding no other way of ending a controversy, the protracting
of which only increased the agitation, he at length accepted an
offer, made more than once by Mr. Bennett, of resigning his
i
living."
After a short interval of comparative quiet the contro
versy began again.
Mr. Bennett had been succeeded at
St. Paul s by the Hon. and Rev. Robert Liddell, whose
ritual in both the churches under his control soon formed
the subject of a fresh complaint. In December 1855
judgment was delivered in the Consistory Court of the
London Diocese directing certain changes in the ritual
complained of. The Court of Arches confirmed this
sentence on appeal, and Mr. Liddeli at once appealed
further to the Privy Council. Matters had reached this
^tage when Bishop Tait s Episcopate began,
and he thus
found himself the inheritor of a controversy with the
origin of which he had nothing to do. Within a few
months of his consecration he had to sit as a Privy
Council Assessor to hear Mr. Liddell s appeal, and he took
part in formulating the ultimate Judgment
delivered by Lord Kingsdown en March 21, 1857.
which was
^ was
the first of what is now a long series of ritual judgments.
The questions raised were comparatively new, and some of
the statements contained in the judgment have since been
seriously impugned in the light of historical evidence, sub
sequently unearthed, upon a subject which is admittedly
both intricate and obscure. It was evident, however, that,
* Memoir of Bishop Blomfield i vol. ii. p. 140.