Untitled - Electric Scotland

i86i-66] THH GROWING ALARM 337
by Bishop Wilberforcc, 1
it was only by Bishop Tait s
refusal to join in any corporate condemnation of an
absent brother Bishop, who had not even been heard in
defence or explanation, that Bishop Wilberforce was pre
vented from carrying a resolution which would have
prohibited Bishop Colenso from officiating in England.
Bishop Tait was clear that such a proceeding would be,
at the least, premature, and probably most unwise ; and
there the matter rested for the time. Bishop Gray and
Bishop Colenso were now both of them in England, and
the appearance of the two volumes on the Pentateuch,
during the winter of 1862-63, brought the whole question
once more to the front.
Two letters to the Bishop may be quoted as showing
the different hopes and fears which were stirring the
various sections of the Church :-
Rev. Dr. Pusey to the Bishop of London.
^CHRIST CHURCH, Dec. 17, 1862.
" MY DEAR . . . LORD,- Will your Lordship bear with me
while I write on a very painful subject ? I fear that your Lord
ship s Charge is construed as intending to shield such a case as
Bishop Colenso s, while yet he is using his office of Bishop to
propagate among our mechanics disbelief in the authority of our
Lord and of God s Word. Had he been Mr. Colenso still, his
book would have been still-born. Now it is read by tens of
thousands because he is a
which propagates infidelity.
Bishop. It is his office of Bishop
Unbounded toleration to the laity
is very different from allowing Bishops and Priests to teach
publicly grave errors, destructive of all faith. Up to a certain
point a latitude has always been allowed. But if such teaching
as now claims to be recognised as allowed teaching of the English
Church is admitted, I fear that the Church of England will lose
the devout while she retains the indevout. People wait patiently
to see what the result of this struggle is. Dr. Manning is using
it very successfully to detach people from the Church, and your
1
life, vol. iii. p. 115.
VOL. 1. v