CHAPTER XV. THE PRIMACY. Suscitabo mihi sacerdotem fidelem, qui juxta cor meum et animam meam faciet...et ambulabit coram Christo meo." I. BOOK OF KINGS. THE exact reasons which led to my father's being offered the Primacy on the death of Archbishop Tait cannot I suppose ever be accurately known. Dean Church was certainly sounded by Mr Gladstone as to whether he would accept the Primacy; but his health and mode of life made it out of the question: the Bishop of Winchester (Harold Browne) was then approached on the subject', but his age and infirmity led him to deprecate the offer; it had been intended I believe, if he had accepted it, to offer my father the Bishopric of Winchester. The Queen was then strongly in favour of the Primacy being offered to the Bishop of Truro; the Prince Consort had reposed a singular confidence in him and she herself had long regarded him with friendly feelings. Archbishop Thomson's health was known not to be very secure, and Bishop Lightfoot had hardly been long enough at Durham to have made his mark as yet as a great ecclesiastical ruler. The Bishop of Truro was no politician; he had been appointed by Lord Beaconsfield to Truro, and had, just before the Primacy was vacant, with what might have been regarded as almost 1 v. Dean Kitchin's Life of Bp Harold Browne, pp. 452-459. unnecessary candour, had he been a personally ambitious man, taken the trouble to go to Cambridge to give his vote for a Conservative candidate1 to represent the University in Parliament. On the other hand, he was known to hold fairly liberal opinions, and his conspicuous success, wherever he had been, marked him out as a leader of men. The Dean of St Paul's, writing to Dr Asa Gray, said :— MY DEAR FRIEND, # You see the newspapers have been taking liberties with my name. Formal offer there was none, and could not be for I had already on another occasion told my mind to Gladstone, and said that reasons of health, apart from any other reasons, made it impossible for me to think of anything, except a retirement altogether from public office. But Gladstone was very kind, and people round him talked in a way which accounts for the newspaper gossip. Benson is, I really believe, the best choice that could have been made in England. Everything that he has touched he has done well. He is quiet and he is enthusiastic, and he is conciliatory, and he is firm. ...... But of one thing I am quite certain; that never for hundreds of years has so much honest disinterested pains been taken to fill the Primacy—such enquiry and trouble resolutely followed out to find the really fittest man, apart from every personal and political consideration, as in this case. Of that I can bear witness. I hope it may be rewarded by an administration of the great office, conceived of and carried out in a higher spirit than any of us has yet witnessed. Ever yours affectionately, R. W. CHURCH. Bishop Harold Browne wrote to a friend : FARNHAM CASTLE, SURREY. I did not decline the Primacy. How so much that was true and so much that was false came out in the papers, I do not know. 1 Mr Raikes, in succession to Mr Walpole. The Poll for the representation of Cambridge University closed Nov. 28. Archbishop Tait died on Dec. 3. B. I. 35 The Archbishop in his last interview with me very shortly before his death expressed and repeated to me his earnest hope that I should succeed him. The Archbishop wrote to beg me not to decline the offer if made. Other Bishops and persons of all degrees did the same. If the offer had been made, I should have had very seriously to consider whether I could decline it or not. On Wednesday night I received a long and kind letter from Mr Gladstone, from which it appears that both he and the Queen had been very desirous of offering me the Primacy, but that they came to the conclusion that the duties were too new and onerous to be undertaken by a man over 70, no one of that age having been elevated to the Primacy of the English (now "the Anglican or British") Church since Juxon, whose case was very exceptional. Gladstone speaks strongly of the pleasure it would have been to him to show his "respect and affection" for me, and says that he is directly authorized by H.M. to tell me that nothing but my age was an impediment to her conferring the honour and imposing the troubles on me of the offer of the See of Canterbury. Shortly after the death of Archbishop Tait Bishop Magee wrote to a friend1: I think there can be little doubt that our new Primate will be either Winchester, Durham or Truro. The first would be eminently the fittest, and to the bishops as well as clergy the most generally acceptable. His only drawback is his age. The second would command at the moment of his appointment much popular acceptance, which I fear he would in some respects disappoint. The third would perhaps, all things considered, age especially, prove the best for the Church. He would certainly unite and lead the Episcopate better than the second. A fourth -not a Bishop-has been named, Dean Church of St Paul's; in many respects admirable; but to move him over the heads of all the Bishops would be a very strong step, though it has been taken before now, i.e. Tillotson 2. 1 Abp Magee, vol. 2, p. 180. Letter to Rev. Aubrey Townsend. 2 Bishop Magee might have added Sancroft, who was Tillotson's predecessor. It was just about Christmas time that the Primacy was offered him; the first post came before breakfast, and he used to read his letters at breakfast. I remember the meal well: he read his letters as usual, made no remark, but shortly after breakfast called us into his study and told us that the offer had been made. I was myself not unprepared for it, as I had been told at Cambridge that many people believed it would be offered to him. He said a few words about the responsibilities of the post and his need of advice on the subject: and a few words about his private fortune which was small and which he told us would if anything be decreased by his acceptance of the Primacy. I recollect that he was pale and very grave in manner and showed nothing but an intense anxiety on the subject. He wrote at once asking for time to consider the matter. He found that all his friends had no doubt what he ought to do; and a gracious letter from the Queen, expressing an earnest hope that he would accept the Primacy, brought him to the point of decision. To Mrs Henry Sidgwick from Miss Helen Gladstone. MY DEAR NORA, HAWARDEN CASTLE. Dec. 17, 1882. I think you will like to know (and I like to tell you) that after his interview with the Queen yesterday, my father sent off his letter offering the Archbishopric to the Bishop of Truroso I hope we may look upon that great question as settled. You will understand my thinking that to be chosen Archbishop of Canterbury by my father (with his deep love for the English Church, and his lofty notions of what her chief ruler should be) is about the greatest honour that could possibly come to any man-and you will understand that we have, besides what all hope, a separate and special hope and longing that this great event should be blessed. Ever your affectionate, HELEN GLADSTONE. Mr Gladstone to the Bishop of Truro. 10, DOWNING Street, Whitehall. MY DEAR BISHOP OF TRURO, I have to propose to your Lordship, with the sanction of Her Majesty, that you should accept the succession to the Archbishopric of Canterbury, now vacant through the lamented death of Archbishop Tait. This proposal is a grave one, but it is I can assure you made with a sense of its gravity, and in some degree proportioned to it and it comes to you, not as an offer of personal advancement, but as a request that, whereas you have heretofore been employing five talents in the service of the Church and Realm, you will hereafter employ ten with the same devotion in the same good and great cause. I have the honour to be, my dear Lord Bishop, with cordial respect, Sincerely yours, W. E. GLADSTONE. Were not this letter sufficiently charged already, I would ask what information can your Lordship give me concerning Mr Wilkinson (of St Peter's, Eaton Square). The Bishop of Truro to Mr Gladstone. TRURO. 18 Dec. 1882. MY DEAR SIR, I am sure that you will be ready to believe that I cannot and ought not to do more to-day than simply acknowledge a letter which with Her Majesty's gracious sanction-seems to be a call so momentous. May I beg for a few days' interval, in which I may see one or two friends who both know my affairs and will counsel me as Christian men, with no eye to anything but the service to be done and the burden to be borne for the Church and her Lord. In Mr Wilkinson there is an almost unique union of truest sympathy with the progress of the Church, deep inner devotion, and marvellous tact in influencing the men of the Upper class |