Untitled - Electric Scotland

OF ARCHBISHOP TAIT [CH. xm.
may well be brought forward without much controversy,
and without the slightest mention of the book against
which the arguments are directed."
When the Convocation of Canterbury met in May,
Archdeacon Denison carried through the House, almost
without discussion, the Report of his Committee upon
Bishop Colenso s book. Warned, it may be, by the recep
tion accorded to his Report upon Essays and Reviews two
years before, and especially by the reference made to it
by Bishop Tait, the Archdeacon had couched this Report
in very different terms, merely analysing the contents of
Dr. Colenso s volumes, as in apparent contradiction to
statements both in the Bible and the Prayer-Book, and
involving, therefore,
dangerous
"
errors of the gravest and most
character." At the same time the Committee
emphatically desired "not to be understood as express
ing any opinion opposed to the free exercise of patient
thought and reverent inquiry in the study of the Word
of God." 2
When the Report came before the Upper House, each
of the leading Bishops adhered to the line he had pre
viously taken. Bishop Wilberforce pleaded earnestly for
immediate action :
that one means by which we can
"
It seems to me,"
"
he said,
bear our witness against error is by setting solemnly the mark of
this body, meeting synodically, upon such erroneous teaching by
one of ourselves, and declaring that it is, in our judgment, false
and dangerous."
The Bishop of London repeated his objections to any
such formal action while the whole matter was still sub
judice. Bishop Gray had already returned to Capetown
:;
Chronicle of Convocation, February 13, 1863, p. 1094.
Ibid. May 19, 1863, pp. 1175-1184.
Ibid. May 19, 1863, p. 1164.