Untitled - Electric Scotland

4 i4 LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP TAIT [CH. xv.
a bigot and as un-Christian a gentleman as ever disgraced
a Bishopric ";
and
there is much more to the same effect 1
To this mere abuse he attached no great importance, but
the difficulties of the position are illustrated by
correspondence as the following :
The Rev. - - to the BisJiop ofLondon. " MY
such a
Feb. 1866.
DEAR LORD, Almost every post brings me some cir
cular or form of address to % somebody on the subject of Ritual.
One says boldly that it wants to put down Tractarianism ; an
other mysteriously hints at certain practices contrary to the
custom of the Church, and so on. I suppose that all these are
attacks on clergymen who like myself have what is called high
ritual, and even hope that in time they may peacefully and profit
ably have more of it. Now nothing could better serve our pur
pose than what wears the appearance
of an inconsiderate and
uncharitable agitation, were it not that it helps us too fast. For
instance, in my own church, vestments and high ritualistic prac
tices, which six months ago would have offended very many,
grieved not a few who are too good to take offence, and pleased
hardly any one, are now calmly talked about, instruction sought
in their meaning and use, and the things themselves asked for
by many. . . . The feeling of appreciation of high ritual is very
much more widely spread than is generally supposed : it is in
many cases very intent, and, more than that, very bent upon
being gratified. ... I am one of the Council of the English
Church Union, and I signed their memorial to the Archbishop
against altering the Rubrics or touching the Prayer Book in any
way ; but I desire nothing less for myself and for my party than
to be left to carry out these rubrics unregulated and unadvised
by the Ordinary, guided only by individual taste, notion,
or dis
cretion, or driven on by lay pressure. The feeling that one is
besides,
regarded as lawless has a tendency to beget lawlessness ;
it exposes us to the influence of those who are lawless and want
to make us so. Then the effect on the High Church laity is
1 See, for example, letters in the Church Times^ 1867, pp. 282, 283, etc.,
and (in milder language) in the Guardian of 1865, pp. 715, 739, etc.