Untitled - Electric Scotland

356 LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP TAIT [CH. xm.
act in the name of the Church the sin is ours, and the punish
ment will be ours. What would our Lord have us do in this
case? What would the early Bishops and martyrs have done?
They would have said, To whom we gave place by subjection,
no, not for an hour. ... It is through Civil Courts that the
world in these days seeks to crush the Church. They represent
l
the world s feelings, and give judgment accordingly."
And again, a few weeks later, on hearing of the
criticisms made at home upon his action :-
"The line of the press and of Churchmen sickens me. . . .
I write by this mail to the % Archbishop, and pray him, if Civil
Courts reinstate Colenso, and prevent him from consecrating a
successor, to write and encourage me to do my duty to our Lord
and to the Church, for which He gave Himself, and to elect out
here and consecrate one without letters patent or other idle
formalities. 2
And again :-
"
I fully anticipate an appeal to the temporal Courts . . .
perhaps a verdict in Colenso s favour return to Natal resump
tion of spiritual functions excommunication and then the real
struggle. Will the diocese place the appointment of another
Bishop in my hands,
Crown without letters patent ? . . . Upon
to be consecrated in the teeth of the
these topics my mind
is dwelling. Nothing has more discouraged me or weakened
my hands than the low, worldly, servile view which nearly every
body in England takes of these questions. Well, say they,
you have done your duty, whatever the result of an appeal
to the Privy Council. What
three centuries have said to
would
such a
a Christian of the first
notion ? And whatever
your state in England may be, ours is that of the three first
centuries." 3
April 1 6th was the day up to which it was in Bishop
Colenso s power to retract, and express his repentance,
and on that very day the indomitable Metropolitan took
ship for Natal.
1
Bishop Gray s Life, vol. ii. p. 108.
^d. vol. ii. p. 119.
*
Ibid. vol. ii. p. 136.