Untitled - Electric Scotland

i86i-66] BISHOP GRAY S VEHEMENCE 353
had written about the
To another he had written :
"
condemnation );
"
of the accused. 1
If he [Bishop Colenso] is
tolerated, the Church has no faith, is not a true witness to
her
" 2 Lord : and to a third,
" The Church of England is
no true branch of the Church of Christ, nor is her South
African daughter, if either allows one of her Bishops to
teach what Natal teaches, and to ordain others to teach
the same. If the Faith is committed to us as a deposit,
we must keep it at all hazards ; and if the world and the
Courts of the world tell us we have no power, we must use
the power which Christ has given us, and cut off from
Him and from His Church avowed heretics, and call upon
the faithful to hold no communion with them." 3
The full vehemence of his opinions, his intolerance of
opposition, or even criticism, and his scorn of the time-
servers who showed respect to the existing Courts and
modes of procedure, became more manifest, if not more
earnest, in the years that followed, when even his staunchest
friends in England felt bound to deprecate the steps
he took, with a fiery disregard of consequences, in pro
moting what he believed to be the cause of truth. The
far-reaching character of his Metropolitan rights, as inter
preted by himself, had long been a source of combined
irritation and amusement to his suffragans, 4 and in the
delivery of his Capetown judgment he gave
himself a
licence of criticism and comment not usually regarded as
judicial. Before such a judge Bishop Colenso declined,
not unnaturally, to appear. He remained in England,
and contented himself with putting in a protest against
the whole proceedings, and refusing to admit their legality.
For further explanation of his meaning
"
he referred to a
letter which he had written to Bishop Gray two years before.
1 See above, page 340 ; and Bishop Gray s Life, vol. ii. p. 32.
Life, vol. ii. p. 63.
1 See Bishop Colenso s Life, vol. i. p. 341, etc.
3 jbid. vol. ii. p. 64.
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