The English church in the nineteenth century (1800-1833)

Front matter

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Preface

It was impossible to investigate the history of the English Church in the eighteenth century without being carried forward into the nineteenth, especially when one loved, and believed in, the Church's system, and could not fail to see, towards the close of the earlier period, indications of the dawn of a brighter day. Hence, the materials for this volume have been accumulating for more than twenty years. During the whole of that time the subject, though amid many interruptions, has never been wholly absent from the writer's mind ; and his notes upon it swelled into such a vast mass, that they began to be in danger of becoming unmanageable. Nearly five years have elapsed since he began to put the mass into shape ; and the result is at last presented to the public.

J. H. O.

Epworth Rectory, Doncaster. mdcccxciii.

Cornell University Library

The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library.

There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text.

Chapter I

French Revolution and war — Low state of morals and religion — Pluralities and non-residence — Improvement as years went on — Abuse of the Church and clergy — " The Church in danger " — Church unprepared for new emergencies — The Church in Wales i

CHAPTER H.

The party had not died out — Evidences of its existence — ^Jones of Nayland — William Stevens — ^Joshua Watson — ^J. J. Watson — H. H. Norris — Christopher Wordsworth — C. Daubeny — T. Sikes — -Hugh James Rose — Sympathetic prelates — Other prominent sympathizers — Old and new types of High Churchmen 24

CHAPTER HI.

Charles Simeon — Isaac Milner — William Parish — Other Cambridge residents — Clapham sect — W. Wilberforce — H. Thornton— Z. Macaulay — J. Stephen — John Venn — Thomas Gisborne — Abolition of the Slave Trade — Evangelicals in London — Evangelicals in the country — Evangelical bishops — Evangelical laity — Weak points in the system — Views of "the world" — Views of "the Church" — Alleged degeneracy- Views of " human learning " — Literature and art — Strong points — Summary - 51

CHAPTER IV.

William Paley — Samuel Parr — Sydney Smith — Henry Bathurst — Edward Stanley— The Oriel Noetics — Richard Whately— Thomas Arnold— No united action no

Vlll CONTENTS.

CHAPTER V.

PAGE

Holy Communion — Irregularities tolerated — -Psalmody — Preaching — Sunday evening services — Week-day services — Want of church accommodation — Pew system — Proprietary chapels — The war prevented church-building — State and voluntary efforts — Difficulties about church-building — Ugliness and costliness of new churches — First free church in England — Squalor of country churches — "A Clergyman's Work, A.D. 1825 " . 127

CHAPTER VI.

CHURCH LITERATURE.

Evidential writings — Practical and devotional works — Biblical literature — Liturgical literature — The Calvinistic controversy — Baptismal Regeneration — Biography — Church history — The Roman controversy — Religious periodicals — Religious poetry — General Literature — Summary . . . 163

CHAPTER VII.

THE CHURCH AND EDUCATION.

Oxford — Cambridge — Other institutions — public schools — Dr. Arnold — Elementary Education — Bell and Lancaster controversy — The National Society — Efforts of the parochial clergy — Sunday schools — Jesus Lane Sunday school — Training and infant schools 219

CHAPTER VIII.

CHURCH SOCIETIES.

Society for the Propagation of the Gospel — Church Missionary Society — Sierra Leone — India — The "five chaplains" — Alarm about proselytizing — Lord Teignmouth — Renewal of Company's Charter — Bishop Middleton — Bishop Heber — -Four lives sacrificed — Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge — Society for Suppression of Vice — Mixed societies — The Church and the Bible Society — Private rehgious societies 253

CHAPTER IX.

CHURCH AND STATE.

Acts of 1801 and 1802 — Acts of 1803 and 1804— Services of Mr. Perceval and Lord Liverpool — Acts between 181 1 and 1819 — Roman Catholic Relief Bill — Repeal of Test and Corporation Acts — The case of Queen Caroline — " The Church in danger " 295

CHAPTER X.

INTERCOURSE WITH SISTER CHURCHES.

Ireland — Scotland — America 313

THE ENGLISH CHURCH

IN THE

NINETEENTH CENTURY.

CHAPTER I.

THE GENERAL STATE OF THE CHURCH.

The first thirty years of the nineteenth century naturally divide themselves into two equal parts ; the first fifteen, when the national mind was occupied with the one subject of the war with France ; the next fifteen, when it was adjusting itself to the new condition of things which a period of settled peace brought about. In no department is this division more clearly marked than in the most important of all — that of religion ; and, therefore, for a right understanding of the general state of the Church in the early years of our period, the first thing to be done is to inquire how it was affected by the all-absorbing topic of the day.

When the nineteenth century dawned, the eyes of all England were turned across the Channel. The ardent sympathy which had been felt by many generous minds with the earlier efforts of the French to throw off oppression had been followed by a violent reaction in the opposite direction. It is true that different opinions existed as to the expediency of continuing the war with France ; but there were few bold enough to own that they objected to the war because they approved of the doings of the French in the later stages of the Revolution. A very small minority dared to utter such sentiments with bated breath ; but the vast majority were in favour either of war with France to the knife, or else of leaving n B a THE GENERAL STATE OF THE CHURCH.

her to settle her own affairs without interfering in so odious a business. This feeling towards France affected the attitude of Englishmen towards their own Church in more ways than one. It undoubtedly increased their attachment to that Church, simply because she was a type of all settled institutions ; and settled institutions were at all hazards to be upheld when the unsettlement of them in France was giving so fearful a warning. Not undeservedly was the Church regarded as the great bulwark of stability in England. She had been inactive ; but there was a vis inertm in her very inactivity which constituted an effectual barrier against all dreaded change. Moreover, her professional inactivity led to her being brought more into contact with the secular life of the nation. Her clergy were, for the most part, no separate caste, but men who mixed freely in social life ; not perhaps giving a high spiritual tone to it, but on the whole influencing it for good. The great majority of them were University men, better educated than others of the same social status ; and as a body they threw themselves enthusiastically into the anti- French scale.

It is curious to observe how the French Revolution affected the work of the Church in two diametrically opposite ways. On the one hand, it acted as a sort of drag upon her, by rendering men suspicious of any improvement, which was apt to be regarded as a dangerous innovation, savouring of that dreaded thing. Jacobinism. On the other hand, it indirectly, but very really, stimulated her to increased activity. The revolutionary ideas, which in the later years of the eighteenth century undoubtedly leavened the minds of the lower classes, and in some cases led to violent disturbances, showed the Church how little real hold she had upon the masses. In fact, she began to feel rather ashamed of herself for not having done more to instil sound principles, which might have prevented them from becoming the prey of the first charlatan who promised them liberty, equality, and fraternity.

In another way the Revolution affected the history of the Church during the early years of the nineteenth century ; because the Revolution led to the war, and the war swallowed up the available resources of the nation. After all, Church work cannot go on without money, and money was not forth-

FRENCH REVOLUTION AND WAR. 3

coming. And the war monopolized not only the money, but also the interest, of the nation. During the whole of the first fifteen years of the century men's minds were engrossed by the great struggle which was almost incessantly going on. The clergy shared to the full the excitement which was everywhere prevalent. Their pulpits were always ready to stimulate their countrymen to patriotic endeavour, to celebrate a victory, or to pronounce the funeral eulogium upon a hero. They were sometimes blamed for acting as fuglemen of war when their office was to be messengers of peace ; but they would have been still more generally blamed if they had acted otherwise, for there is little doubt that the line they took was strictly in accordance with the feelings of the majority of the nation. A hit at Tom Paine, a side glance at Voltaire and Rousseau, a denunciation of Buonaparte, was only what was expected ; and bishops and archdeacons in their Charges, as well as clergy in their pulpits, were quite ready to meet the demand. In fact, the French Revolution and the war with France at once aroused men to a sense of the need of greater activity on the part of the Church, and also, for the reasons above mentioned, were hindrances to the exertion of that activity. And this appears to me to explain, in part at least, a curious double phenomenon which may be observed all through our period, viz. a steadily growing improvement in every department, side by side with a steadily growing odium against the Church, which reached its climax in the events connected with the Reform Bill.

The Church had reached low-water mark before the eighteenth century closed, and the dawn of the nineteenth century synchronized approximately with the turn of the tide. Abuses which had been allowed to go on for nearly a century without a remonstrance began then, at any rate, to be recognized as abuses, though, of course, it took some time to apply any effectual remedy to them. The fatal soporific of Sir R. Walpole, " Quieta non movere," was losing its efficacy, and the Church was beginning to rouse herself from her long slumber.

The very first year of the new century ^ witnessed a stirring

' Perhaps it would be more correct to say the last year of the old, but the effects of the Report of 1800 would not be observed till iSoi.

of the dry bones in the shape of a remarkable document, entitled, "A Report from the Clergy of a District in the Diocese of Lincoln, convened for the Purpose of considering the State of Religion in the Several Parishes of the said District (1800).'' " It is to be feared," says the advertisement, with only too much truth, " that this interesting statement of facts existing in the district to which the Report relates will be found, upon examination, to be applicable to a great part of the kingdom." The Report gives a sad picture of the indifference to religion, as shown by statistics about Church services, education, and so forth, and then suggests remedies.

The wail was repeated with melancholy monotony. " Loud," writes a reviewer of Dr. Hugh Blair's " Sermons," in 1802, " are the daily complaints of the irreligion and depravity of the age, and we are afraid they are not louder than just" {British Critic). The preface to the famous Lenten lectures, preached by the Bishop of London (Dr. Beilby Porteus) in four successive years, from 1798 to 1801 inclusive, tells us that they were delivered because " the state of the kingdom, political, moral, and religious, was so unfavourable as to excite the most serious alarm in every mind of reflection " — with more to the same effect. " No crisis," says Bishop Horsley, in his Charge to the clergy of the diocese of Rochester in 1800, "at any period of time since the moment of our Lord's departure from the earth has more demanded than the present the vigilant attention of the clergy of all ranks, from the prelate to the village curate, to the duties of the weighty charge to which we are called. . . . For the last thirty years we have seen in every part but little correspondence between the lives of men and their professions, a general indifference about the doctrines of Christianity, a general neglect of its duties."

Such general complaints might be quoted ad infinitum ; ^ and they are certainly justified by the details which have come down to us. The disgraceful opposition which Hannah More and her sisters met with in their single-minded efforts to elevate a degraded people at Cheddar and the neighbourhood, began in the eighteenth century, but did not reach its

• See, e.g., the Charges of the Bishop of Rochester in 1803, of the Bishop of Hereford in 1792, the preface to Sydney Smith's Sermons in 1801, etc.

LOW STATE OF MORALS AND RELIGION. 5

climax until the nineteenth.'- William Wilberforce, when visiting Brigg in 1796, found "no service on Sunday morning, and the people sadly lounging about." ^ At Stamford, in 1798, he records, "This seems a sad, careless place. I talked to several common people. I found the butchers' shops open [on Sunday]. At church, miserable work. Remnant of Sunday school, only eight children. I have seldom seen a more apparently irreligious place. A shopkeeper said none of the clergy were active, or went among the poor." ^ When Daniel Wilson went to Worton, a village near Banbury, as curate, in 1804, he found "everything had fallen into sad neglect. The curate had been a keen sportsman, and kept hunters. The neighbouring clergy were like-minded, and the discussions at clerical parties turned chiefly on country sports. Very few attended church." * When Venn Elliott made a pilgrimage, in 18 13, to Yelling, the scene of his grandfather Henry Venn's later labours, he found the church almost in ruins, and the steeple taken down by the clergyman's orders.^ Legh Richmond, when he went to Turvey, in 1805, found the parish had been greatly neglected before the time of his immediate predecessor, Erasmus Middleton, who only held the living for a year." Wilberforce writes, in 1809, that he had " heard but a very melancholy account of Olney," the scene of John Newton's and Thomas Scott's labours.''

These accounts all come from members of the Evangelical party ; but earnest men of other schools tell the same tale. When Edward Stanley entered upon the vicarage of Alderley, in 1805, he found that " the parish had, from the long apathy and non-residence of the previous incumbent, been greatly neglected. The clerk used to go to the churchyard stile to see whether there were any more coming to church, for there were seldom enough to make a congregation. The rector

' See Hannah More, by Miss Charlotte M. Yonge, in the Eminent Women Series, passim, especially pp. 80-89.

'^ Life of William Wilberforce, by his son, revised and condensed from the original edition, p. 155.

■* Life of Daniel Wilson, Bishop of Calcutta, by Josiah Bateman, i. 120, 121.

^ Life of H. V. Elliott, by Josiah Bateman, p. 31.

" Life of Legh Richmond, by T. S. Grimshaw, p. 112.

used to boast that he had never set foot in a sick person's cottage." This was in a parish containing thirteen hundred inhabitants.^ When Charles Daubeny took the Hving of North Bradley, towards the close of the eighteenth century, he found the church "in a state of shameful dilapidation," and the " people so barbarous that they opposed all improvements ; and would pull down the walls [of church and vicarage] which were building, and cut down and destroy the trees recently planted." ^ When Bishop Burgess was appointed to the see of St. David's, in 1803, "the churches," we are told, " and ecclesiastical buildings were generally in a ruinous condition. Many of the clergy were incompetently educated, and disgraced their profession by inebriety and other degrading vices." ^

Many other evidences to the same effect might be. given ; * but the point is most forcibly illustrated by the low standard which even thoroughly good clergymen took of their duties, and the little that was expected of them even by good men.

Dr. Van Mildert, for instance, was one of the ablest and best clergymen who flourished during our period ; and yet, in 1807, when he was rector of a large and important London parish, St. Mary-le-Bow, Cheapside, he thought it no harm to apply also for the living of Farningham, near Sevenoaks, "as an agreeable retreat within a convenient distance from town ; " and the Archbishop of Canterbury (Dr. Manners- Sutton), also an excellent man, thought it quite right to give it him for this purpose.^

Dr. Valpy, of classical fame, an earnest Christian man, was Rector of Stradishall, in Suffolk, at the same time that he was Head-master of Reading School, that is, for twenty years at the close of the last and the early part of the present

' Memoir of Edward Stanley, Bishop of Norwieh, by A. P. Stanley, p. 9.

^ Life of Charles Daubeny, prefixed to the third edition of the Guide to the Church (1830).

^ Address of the St. David's clergy to the bishop, on his leaving the diocese in 1825. See Life of Thomas Burgess, Bishop of Salisbury, by John S. Harford, p. 361.

* See, inter alia, the account of the diocese of Norwich in Bishop Bathurst's time, in the Memoir of Bishop Stanley, p. 31 ; Southey's account of the Lakes, given to Wilberforce, Life of Wilberforce, p. 379.

° See Memoir of William Van Mildert, late Bishop of Durham, prefixed to his Sermons and Charges, by Cornelius Ives.

PLURALITIES AND NON-RESIDENCE. 7

century. He salved his conscience by writing to his parishioners an address of a very plain, practical, sensible character, in which he remarks, with delightful naivete, " My absence from you for the greatest part of the year was a strong reason to induce me to form this engagement. I lament the necessity of that absence ; and, though my place is ably supplied, I shall receive great comfort from the consideration that this address will give me, at least, an imaginary presence among you." And so far was he from apprehending any episcopal interference in the arrangement, that he had the audacity (as we should now deem it) to dedicate the address to the very man who should have prevented its being necessary — the Bishop of Norwich.

But the fact is, bishops, as a rule, were not in a position to be over-strict ; they were wont in their Charges to make some faint general protests against the incumbents' non-residence in, and consequent neglect of, their parishes ; but it was not likely that their protests would be of much effect when some of their own body were among the most glaring offenders.^ Thus the rich living of Stanhope had been held by three successive prelates when its rector, Dr. Phillpotts, was made Bishop of Exeter in 1830. Bishop Courtenay held the living of St. George's, Hanover Square, with a population of 43,396, Bishop Pelham a living in Sussex, and Bishop Bethell a living in Yorkshire, each with the see of Exeter.^ Two such conscientious men as Bishops Ryder and Blomfield were both pluralists for a time — the one holding the deanery of Wells, the other the living of Bishopsgate in coinmendam, in conjunction with his bishopric. Bishop Copleston held the deanery of St. Paul's with the see of Llandaff. The arrangement was not so difficult with many, because their proper episcopal duties must have sat very lightly upon them. We hear strange tales of one bishop examining his candidates for ordination in a tent on a cricket-field, he himself being one of the players ; of another sending a message, by his butler, to the candidate, to write an essay ; of another per-

• This does not apply to the particular bishop mentioned above, for Bishop Bathurst was not a pluralist.

2 See Life, Times, and Writings of H. Phillpotts, Bishop of Exeter, by R. Shulte, i. 290.

forming the difficult process of examining a man while shaving, and, not unnaturally, stopping the examination when the examinee had construed two words.^

At the same time, though to the end of our period there was still a very wide margin for further improvement, there is no doubt that matters did steadily improve as the years of the century rolled on, and that the Church in 1833 showed a very different record from that of the Church in 1800. The evidence to this effect is strong and varied. In 1 8 17 Robert Southey wrote to John Jebb, afterwards Bishop of Limerick, " Unless I deceive myself, the state of religion in these kingdoms is better at this time than it has been at any other since the first fervour of the Reformation. Knowledge is reviving as well as zeal, and zeal is taking the best direction."^ This seems an exaggerated estimate, but it must not be lightly passed over, as it comes from one of the foremost and most intelligent laymen of the day. A correspondent of Hannah More, in 1 81 5, contrasts most favourably the then state of religion with that of twenty years before, "when the poor lived in vicious ignorance, and the rich in presumptuous apostasy."^ A clever, anonymous writer, in 1824, affirms that "the last twenty years may be termed an epocha of a further revival of religion. More has been effected for the diffusion of religious knowledge, at home as well as abroad, than has ever occurred in the annals of any country. A very real increase of piety has manifested itself in our Church," etc.* Another, in 1827, calls attention to "the astonishing advancement of the sacred profession, within the last half-century, and the steady and vigorous pace with which it is still going forward."^ Lord Liverpool, in 1813, declared in Parliament that " the subject of the efficiency of the Church had long occupied his attention, and that he was

' The names of all these bishops are given, but I purposely abstain from mentioning them, because such stories are apt to be exaggerated, and it would be unnecessarily cruel to gibbet individuals except on the strongest evidence.

^ Life and Correspondence of Robert Southey, iii. 285.

' See William Wilberforce, his Friends and his Times, by J. C. Colquhoun : "Hannah More."

* A Letter to a Friend, with some Observations on the Present State of the Established Church, by a Layman.

» British Critic, April, 1827.

IMPROVEMENT AS YEARS WENT ON. 9

of opinion that, however, some years ago, there might be a deficiency in the performance of their duties by the clergy, they had of late improved ; that both residence and performance of duty among the lower orders of the clergy had increased." ^ William Wilberforce, on his return from a tour in Yorkshire, in 1827, expressed himself "highly gratified with the opening prospects, and," he continues, " I can add, who knew the aspect of things forty years ago, with the highly improved state of the clergy, especially in the East and West Ridings." ^

Perhaps one ought not to lay too much stress upon the utterances of bishops about their own clergy, whom they would naturally be inclined to regard in the most favourable light, while, of course, the clergy themselves would be on their very best behaviour in the presence of their diocesans. Still, the testimony of such men as Bishops Howley, Van Mildert, and Sumner cannot be lightly passed over. Bishop Howley, in his primary Charge to the diocese of London, in 1 8 14, speaks of his clergy as "respected and respectable as a body for piety, for learning, and conscientious attention to their pastoral care, and abounding with members distinguished in an eminent degree by all the qualifications which bestow attraction or dignity on intrinsic worth;" and in 18 18 he affirms that his " anticipations had been realized by the experience of five years." He has " no personal ground of complaint against his clergy ; and can regard with satisfaction the general complexion of their professional conduct and attention to their sacred duties." " A body," he adds, " more truly respectable for learning and piety than the clergy of this diocese will not easily be found." In 1833 Bishop Van Mildert said, in the House of Lords, " I may say of my clergy [in the diocese of Durham] in general, that they are a valuable body of men, attentive to their duties, and ready to adopt any improvement that may be recommended." ^ Bishop J. B. Sumner, in his primary Charge to the clergy of the Chester diocese in 1829 admits, "Such has been the

' Memoirs of the Public Life and Administration of the Earl of Liverpool,

^ Recollections of William Wilberforce, by J. S. Harford, p. 187. ' Memoir of Bishop Van Mildert, by Cornelius Ives.

lo THE GENERAL STATE OF THE CHURCH.

activity and ability of my predecessors, and so cheerful the compliance which has been paid to their regulations, that in the administration of the diocese there is no accumulation of abuses requiring to be noticed or crying for correction. My wishes will be fully gratified if I can maintain and complete the system which I find generally established." Not to weary the reader with evidences of improvement, which might be multiplied ad libitu7n, let it suffice to end as we began, by quoting Robert Southey, who, in 1833, wrote again to the Bishop of Limerick, " There is a comfort in knowing that the Church of England and Ireland could never at any time have been better able to bear hostile inquiry, and to defend themselves than now ; " and to John Miller in the same year, " Among the many ominous parallelisms between the present time and those of Charles I., none has struck me more forcibly than those which are to be found in the state of the Church ; and of those, this especially, that the Church of England at that time was better provided with able and faithful ministers than it had ever been before, and is in like manner better provided now than it has ever been since. . . . No human means are likely to avert the threatened overthrow of the Establishment." ^

If we cannot quite agree with Southey that the Church was at its best, we can at any rate agree with him when he implies that it had reached the climax of apparent popularity. For, side by side with its growing efficiency, there was, oddly enough, a growing odium against it, and that for just those very faults which it was doing its best to amend. When the Church was doing next to nothing, it was popular enough ; when it began to do something, it was unpopular because it was supposed to be doing nothing. This curious paradox was noted by several writers besides Southey. " The Church and clergy," writes one in 1823, "were never worse spoken of, and never less deserved it. The Church, as a body, was never so free from secular views ; its clergy, as individuals, never so distinguished for general morals, learning, and industry."^ In 1831, Bishop Kaye, having shown that the Church was

Life and Correspondence of Robert Southey, vi. 222. ^ An Appeal to the Gentlemen of England on behalf of the Church of England, by Aug. Campbell, Rector of Wallasey, Cheshire, p. 57.

ABUSE OF THE CHURCH AND CLERGY. ii

denounced not merely as worthless, but as positively injurious, as obstructing instead of advancing the interests of true religion, adds, " There never was, perhaps, a time when the clergy stood in less need of being urged to a diligent performance of their duties, when they entertained juster notions of the responsibility attaching to the ministerial character." ^ A very abusive book appeared in 1820, entitled "The Black Book," the writer of which quite lashes himself into a fury when he thinks of the iniquities of the Church. It is " that ulcerous concretion," " that foul and unformed mass of rapacity, intolerance, absurdity, and wickedness ; " the Church Catechism is "this poisonous production;" a "Church of England priest " is " a furious, political demon, rapacious, insolent, luxurious, having no fear of God before his eyes ;" and so forth, and so forth, in language which, one would have thought, would carry its own confutation with it. After the lapse of eleven years matters do not seem to have improved, the " Extraordinary Black Book," published in 1831, is quite as abusive as its predecessor. The charges are absurdly exaggerated, and the statistics on which they are founded are often false or misleading ; ^ but the books reflect only too truly the feelings with which the Church was then regarded. In fact, both friend and foe agreed that there was every probability of its being swept away, as a national institution, by the besom of Reform, when that implement had done its work in the political world. One can scarcely now conceive the state of things when a Prime Minister could tell

' See Nine Charges, etc., by John Kaye, late Lord Bishop of Lincoln, edited by his son.

' For instance, we find among the pluralists gibbeted in the Extraordinary Black Book, " Chaplin, W. : Raithby R., Hallington R., Maltby C, Haugham V.," implying that this clergyman held four pieces of preferment, some of which he would be bound to neglect. As a matter of fact, the whole population of the four did not exceed four hundred. HaUington consists simply of two farms in the little village of Raithby, Maltby of a single farm in the little village of Haugham. Raithby and Haugham are two small adjoining parishes, and an able-bodied man would scarcely find enough work in both put together to occupy his time. Again, " Massingberd, F. C. : Driby R., Ketsby R., South Ormesby C." Here are three cures which practically are well within the compass of one man. Driby is one of those very small parishes in which Lincolnshire abounds, and which it would be absurd to give as the sole work for a man in health and strength ; Ketsby is simply a farmhouse in South Ormsby. The writer knew personally both Mr, Chaplin and Mr. Massingberd ; both were excellent clergymen.