On this page
- Departments (1)
-
Text (4)
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
-
CONVOCATION.* -
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
-
-
Transcript
-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
apd who is he ? An old mining manager , brought-, up in the very system he proposes to inspect 5 bound up by custom and by gratitude for recommendation , \ yith the Northern viewers . Recommended by them , he was , in fact ; their nominee . We might say much upon the system Of appointments , upon the gentleman employed to examine candidates , and upon the necessary consequence of all the parties forming one concern . We fear , however , that it Would he useless to waste words upon this matter . The day is yet distant when an overworked Home Secretary can enter into these minor matters . He knows nothing of mines- ^ how should
he ? He inquires who are the men of highest repute in mining circles ; He is referred to the very viewers themselves . ' These viewers have particular friends and particular foes , and have pupils who are looking out for places . Some have special reasons for believing in the competency of certain candidates . What , then , is to be expected ? Why , only this : that the course of things under ground and above ground * is very much alike—only this : that , as aecmxling to homoeopathy , similia similibus curantur , so according to coal-managers , pits are best inspected by their own nominees and friends—only this : that the country , instead of the coal-owners , pays a corps of inspectors for that which is not , and cannot be , in the nature of things , independent , authoritative and impartial inspection !
Untitled Article
I N the present day the pamphlet is very a critical survey ' than the volume ; the former contains generally a ' strong and succinct , though almost invariably a party if not an individual view of some matter of deep present interest , and is often a "brief , " more or less fair , of former arguments , with frequently an historical summary . Such briefs as Mr . Poyndee ' s are very valuable when honestly written , as we believe his to be , on a subject much talked about but little understood by the generality of readers . Truth , like certain marine animals , makes its progress by alternate contractions and expansions ; now a volume shrinks into an aphorism ' , andanon a word is puffed up into a controversy , truth generally being in the end the gainer : we confess we like to catch a subject in its undilated and undiluted , or in its reduced state . ¦ .-... : .
Whether the reader agree with Mr . Poyndeb in his deductions or not , the summary is valuable and interesting , especially that part of it which goes to prove that the- "English Church only ; recognised even Henry VIII . ' s supremacy , with tlie saving clause , " so-fur as the law of . Christ permits . " We have here a brief account of sotne of the more interesting- councils , synods , or convocations , from the apostles'days to the present time ; and , in touching the Hoabley matters , one might fancy the writer had his eye on the page of a ' well-known , modern historian , iio indifferentist , by the bye , who says " this debate ' known by the name of the Bangorian controversy , would supply materials enough for a volume , but hardly interest enough for a page . " Those who agree with Lord Mation on the matter may be thankful to Mr . J ? oy > tder , who has kept himself pretty nearly -within the noble historian ' s * limits .
The inferonce that the \ vriter draws is that the Church should be left to the government of her own authorities ; and as long as she keeps herself w ' itfii ' n her own pale , to this we see no objection . A forcible passage . is quoted from Lord Bacon to show thut « frequent meeting of Convocation for ecclesiastical , is as rational and as necessary as a frequent meeting of Parliament for civil , purposes . Theoretically , perhaps , what is a rule for one time in such cases ought to be a rule for another j practically , we very much doubt whether this principle would apply . As to the parallelism betweon the two cases , we may observe in the Jii'st place , thiib tho consequence of doing 1 without parliaments , or the allowing * the same ' Purliament to sit too long , was , in the days of the Stuauts , moat injurious to the civil government , and the peace und progress of the nation , whilst the
most nmrljod improvement in the condition of tho Church of England happens to have taken place during 1 the precise period on ¦ whi ch Convocation has only met to bo dissolved . Again : civil councils are on questions practical , and , when once decided , resolve themselves for / the most part out of the state of doctrine and theory ; and familiarity with the practice to which * tho vanquished party on a political question is compelled to submit becomes at lust a habit , and , sooner , or later , the theory on which it was baseclbe * comes less and less obnoxious . In Church matters the same mjght le the ense in , points of ritual and discipline , nob involving any important doctrinal point , bnt not where the essence of the question is doctrinal . Where the difference is or is likely to be of the latter description , wo believe that the odium 4 > 7 teolQffioum between tho extremes of tho conflicting 1 parties » a likely to be lUv more intense and earnest than any odium politicivni between the extreme right and extreme left on any purely political question . There is betwoou Church » n ©>» moro bitter and ill-concealed unchristian contempt , less disposition to give , or evqn receive , quarter , than there would bo in tho case of a Bright and a Disbaeu . The contotnpt is vile , but the excess of earnestness perfectly reasonable , inasmuch as spiritual questions are of higher import than temporal ones . 'In face to face disputation on certain doctrinal points- ^ wo could mention , of course , three or four especially which ocour in the Catechism , Articles , and ,
Convocation
Services of the Church—we should , probably , have old scenes and old weapons , with new combatants , " Was it by Scripture tried ? No , sure to that the rebel would not yield s Squadrons of texts he marshalled in the field ; It was but civil war ,. an equal set , Where spears with spears and eagles eagles met : With texts point blank and plain each faced the foe . And did not Satan tempt our Saviour so ? It is our full belief that Convocation is only sincerely desired at any given time by that party of the Church which conceives itself to be the stronger , or , at any rate , to have an equal chance with its adversary ; and that . either party , if fully convinced of its own inferiority of strength , and the necessity of implicit obedience , if vanquished , would rather leave the matter to besettled by the
slowbut less offensive action of opinion without point blank controversy , and , if to be defeated , would receive its defeat with more patience and temper in a court of law , or from a Parliament , if . partially , not generally , unchristian , than at the hands of its regular and professed eeclesiasticxil opponents . What has happened several times in the House of Commons would be likely to happen far oftener in Convocation . Offensive measures -might induce indignant ecclesiastical Winbhams or Btjkkes to withdraw altogether with their section of followers from the public councils of the Church after some obstinate encounter , not improbably from the Church itself ; rather than submit to the effects of a victory . Even afc present many only remain in the Church with the idea that they are the leaven ot it , and that ultimately they will be its regulators—as an honest director , a Kennedy , may stay in a British Bank , believing it . though shaken , to be solvent , and that he may be the saving of it in time if the public will have patience .
However , to Convocation we have really no hostility ; restriction and regulation , from some quarter or other , are evidently wanted to check individual extravagances , thoroughly distasteful not only to the lower orders , with their stubborn dislike of practices which expei'iencelwis justified them in suspecting of concealed Rpmnhism , but to the mass of : intelligent members of the Church Of Eng-land . Convocation is on . its trial as regards its practical good—to leave alone its claiois and its rights . Its opportunities of making itself even popular arc yreat if it chooses to avail itself of them , mid its
chances of continued efficiency greater now than at many other periods of its history , perhaps greater than at that eiirly period . ! of the Church when there were heresies ; though , from the fact of the popular election of the bishops , one might have expected almost unanimity in the synods . There are , no doubt , violent , men in the present day at the , two extremes , perhaps many of them ; but , on the whole , there is a very great approximation of parties , especially where some prnciical good is at stake . It is difficult to distinguish between large masses of the highest of the Low and the lowest-of
High Church , party ; Black steals unheeded from the neighbouri ng white , "Without offending the well-puzzled sight . We hope the half prophecy contained hi the latter part of the following passage , from a kindly and moderate writer already quoted , will not be realized : —¦ et Several gopd and wise men have deplored the cessation ( of convocation ) , and it is certainly possible that the frequent holding of this assembly might have checked the progress of dissent , and more early provided sufficient space and means fov religious , worship .. is at least that its disputes would have ¦
But it equally probable sometimes-widened into schism , its zeal warmed into intolerance ; that the trade of agitator might have g-rewn profitable in the Church as it is iu the State , and that ) the enemies of all religion would often ; have been gratified with the unseemly sight of conflicting divines . " { Lord Malion's Jlistort / of England . ) As to the idea ' of the counsels of Convocation having a tendency to check tho progress of dissent quoad Convocation ,-we very much doubt any such result : that would depend on tlio accidental moderation , or tho want , of it , of the rnou who might happen to form the Convocation at the time being ; unless a hint is here given " of the old Bomnniat idea of making use of the civil power to coer , ce others , without any Bubrnission whatever to the civil power on tho part of the Church itself « s represented by Convocation . Somewhat with this view , the author of tho pamphlet before us quotes a passage from M « gna Cliartu granting 1 the Church " -jura suftiiitegra , " and , amongst others , ] f . he election of her own bishops , a noint which the earlier Norman Inh'trs would not concede , and for
which they wore plentifully abused by the churchmen of those times . Many churchmen now would claim the plenary authority of Convocation , and consequently , of course , its power of meeting as a pluiii right , without entertiiining the question of expediency at all . They ore inclined to say , whatever quarrels wo have let us settle among ourselves ; lot tho Church of England be left alone to provide for the spiritual interests of England . Every article even of Magna Chartu is not eternally binding on the British nation , under every conceivable change of circumstances ! . tlwn the ecclesiastical of
Magna Charta aimed ,, at what was liberty the nation , against the intolerably corrupt disposal of benofiees by Norman tyrants . It was tho expression of the genorwl fueling of the nation when there was . jtittle or no dissidenco pn religious mutters ; it was o human and not a divine charter . The Legislature . now has to consult many interests , and to net for tho general good of the nation , and to give satisfaction and content as far »« possible to its component interests ; and wo are not disposed , to think that on such questions its tho payment of churoh rutes by dissenters , it ought to come to Convocation for its authority . Let
Untitled Article
254 The leader and Saturday Analyst . | March 17 , 1860 .
Untitled Article
* Historical tteniarto on the Convocations qf tho QhimJi <\ fJ £ uffl ( in < l oto , By tho Rev . 1 " rbJ ) EWIOK Povndjbiv M . A . Uivington j Bell and »«\ ldy j J . Pftrker .
Convocation.* -
CONVOCATION . *
-
-
Citation
-
Leader (1850-1860), March 17, 1860, page 254, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2338/page/10/
-