Untitled - Electric Scotland

360 LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP TAIT [CH. xm.
indorsement of his action which Bishop Gray desired, and
now that his last step had been taken, and the excom
munication formally pronounced, he felt it to be more
important than ever that he should obtain specific and
authoritative answers to the questions he had officially
asked with respect to his own and Bishop Colenso s
relations to the Church at home. These questions were
reduced, for purposes of debate, to three :
1.
"
Whether the Church of England
holds communion with
the Right Rev. Dr. Colenso and the heretical Church which he
is seeking to establish in Natal, or whether it is in communion
with the orthodox Bishops who in Synod have declared him to
be ip so facto excommunicate?"
2. (From the Dean of Maritzburg.) "Whether the accept
ance of a new Bishop on our part, whilst Dr. Colenso still retains
the letters patent of the Crown, would in any way sever us from
the Mother Church of England ?
3. "Supposing the reply to the last question to be that they
would not be in any way severed, what are the proper steps for
us to take to obtain a new Bishop ?
These questions obviously covered the whole ground,
and, as full notice of their discussion in Convocation had
on this occasion been given, 1 it was seen that the Bishops
must necessarily make a public declaration of their several
opinions. A debate of the utmost importance accordingly
took place. Bishop Wilberforce urged upon the House
the solemn duty of indorsing the Bishop of Capetown s
action by a formal declaration that the Church of England
is not in communion with Bishop Colenso, but is in com
munion with Bishop Gray. On the latter proposition
there was no difference of opinion ; but Bishops Tait,
Thirlwall, Harold Browne, and Jackson, succeeded in
preventing any such formal pronouncement
"
of non-com-
1 As contrasted with the previous year, when the subject had come forward
without notice.