Untitled - Electric Scotland

1860-64] THE ESSAYS CONDEMNED 321
Not a little indignation was aroused by this somewhat
contemptuous
estimate of the solemn declaration of the
clergy, and by the Bishop of London s angry denuncia
tion no milder word is possible of the form of the con
demnatory schedule drawn up by Archdeacon Denison s
committee three years before, and now resuscitated by
Bishop Wilberforce.
"
I deeply regret," said Bishop Tait,
"
that such a paper
should ever have seen the light of day. If the book entitled
Essays and Reviews is likely to do harm to the Christian faith
. . .
[this particular answer] is a document which, I undertake
to say, would be received with contempt and ridicule by every
impartial person who understands what the subject is which has
been brought before us. Of all the foolish publications which it
has been the misfortune of these controversies to call out, if
there be one which, more than another, is likely to injure the
Christian faith, it is this. ... I will put it to any intelligent
layman or clergyman who is not already committed on the
subject, to read this paper, and I would ask him whether, in the
name of the Church of Christ, he would not request that it
should, as soon as possible,
be committed to the flames." l
The Bishop of Oxford spoke with equal warmth upon
the other side, and in the end his motion for the appoint
ment of a committee to re-open the consideration of the
subject was carried by the casting vote of the President,
and two months later the Committee reported in favour
of the synodical condemnation of the book. Bishop Tait,
undaunted by the immense preponderance of clerical
opinion against him, adhered to his opposition to such a
course. In the final debates upon the subject he again
referred to the famous declaration of the 12,000:-
" No
one will, I hope, suppose," he said,
"
that I think there
is no cause for alarm. It has been my belief for many years
1 Chronicle of Convocation, April 21, 1864, p. 1549. The schedule to
which reference is made will be found in the Chronicle of Convocation for
June 18, 1861, pp. 673-687.
VOL. I. X