Untitled - Electric Scotland

454 I-H K OF ARCHBISHOP TAIT [CH. xvi.
point in connection with Sisterhoods the systematic and
ordinary practice of auricular confession- -Bishop Wilbcr-
force wrote in 1854, with reference to the Sisterhood at
Clewer :
*
As to the disputed question of Confession, we must make
provision that those whose consciences are burdened with any
weighty matter may be able, before communicating, to open
their grief to some discreet minister of (iod s Word and Sacra
ments, that by his ministry they may receive the benefit of
absolution, together with ghostly counsel and advice. But we
must not provide that what the Church of England so manifestly
treats as an occasional remedy for exceptional cases should
become the established rule of their ordinary spiritual life. . . .
\\ e cannot allow the Sisters to practise continual confession to,
or erect into directors, the Warden or Chaplains of our house." l
Similar principles were adopted by Bishop Tait with
respect to the conditions on which he consented to become
the Visitor of Sisterhoods in his diocese. On February 14,
1862, the subject was debated in the Convocation of
Canterbury, when Bishop Tait and Bishop Wilberforce
both explained their views. The Lower House requested
that a Committee might be appointed to
"
consider the
modes and limitations under which encouragement and
guidance might be "
given to the movement. The Bishop
of London supported the request for a Committee.
"As nothing but good," he said, "can arise from these
individuals devoting themselves for Christ s sake, if their labours
are judicious, so it is desirable that we should consider what
advice can be given, and what checks can be put upon any ten
dency towards a want of that judiciousness which is necessary in
such matters. . . . Though their efforts have naturally been
viewed with some jealousy, I have great reason, in my own
diocese, to be thankful for the amount of self-denial and goodness
1
Life of Bishop Wilberforce, vol. iii. p. 362. In order fully to under
stand the attitude of Bishop Wilberforce in this matter, the whole letter
from which the above extract is taken ought to be read.