Untitled - Electric Scotland

322 LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP TAIT [CH. xii.
that there is but the ;
greater the cause for alarm from the spread
of dangerous opinions, the greater the calmness and wisdom
required in selecting the proper mode of meeting them. One
great danger of the rise of erroneous opinions in all ages has
been that they have produced statements equally and some
times more erroneous than the statements which originally caused
the alarm. . . . Reference has been made to the Declaration
of the clergy, addressed to your Grace and to the Bishops
generally. Having looked at the document very carefully, and
considered the great number of signatures attached to it, I can
not help coming to the conclusion that a very undesirable
amount of excitement has been raised. ... I think it most
undesirable that persons should append their names to any
document unless they fully and entirely agree with it at all
events to such a document as this. Now I understand that
document to state nothing less than this that it has been the
Doctrine of the Universal Church in all ages that Holy Scrip
ture is not only our guide of life, and the lamp that is to
enlighten our path not only our infallible guide as to faith and
doctrine, but that in matters which have no connection with
either faith or doctrine as, for example, matters of physical
science, every single syllable of Holy Scripture is to be con
sidered as infallible. If that is not the meaning, and if the
words of the Declaration have any meaning at all other than
to express the agitation and unwise alarm into which those
who signed the Declaration were thrown, I should be glad to
l
hear what that is."
meaning
In the end, after prolonged and vehement debate, a
resolution was formally carried by a large majority in both
Houses, 2
synodically condemning the volume
"
as con
taining teaching contrary to the doctrine received by the
United Church of England and Ireland in common with
the whole Catholic Church of Christ."
A remarkable scene followed in the House of Lords a
1 Chronicle of Convocation, June 21, 1864, pp. 1660-64.
1 In
the Upper House it was carried by 8 votes to 2. The minority
consisted of the Bishops of London and Lincoln, the Bishop of St. David s
being absent. In the Lower House it was carried by 39 to 19. Chron. of Conv.
pp. 1683 and 1830.