Sir Edward Hall Alderson

“ It would be obviously absurd to institute upon an antecedent supposed fitness, instead of a fitness properly ascertained at the time of institution. The solemn words of institution, accipe curam meam et tuam, would forbid such a conclusion. Besides, if the sufficiency of the examination before the Bishop is to be the sole criterion, in what way is an examination merely frivolous, one which neither shows affirmatively nor negatives heresy or unfitness to be dealt with? ”

“ It is clear that any future Judicial Committee could overrule this decision; and so might even any inferior court subject however to the consequences of an ultimate appeal against their decision, to which appeal the Judicial Committee itself is not liable. In truth, where the House of Lords makes in a civil suit, a decision contrary to the rules of law, the courts of law very soon, although they do not expressly overrule it, make it practically inoperative by distinguishing every case which comes before them from it, however minute such distinctions may be ”

“ He determines ecclesiastical matters by ecclesiastical judges, as he does civil matters by civil judges. In both it is done by the law, a rule by which the king as well as the Church is bound. If it be a case of heresy, these judges are to ascertain what the law of the Church calls heresy and how it is to be punished. If they find the law, they apply it to the facts. But they do not make or pretend to alter the law: they have no power to do this. If they made as well as administered it, no man would be safe for a moment. To live subject to that would be to live under a pure despotism. ”

“ I therefore, for all these reasons have come to the conclusion that after all the only effect of the judgment of the Privy Council was to send Mr. Gorham before the Archbishop of Canterbury, in order that he might judge, after examining him at his discretion, whether he, the Archbishop, thought him a fit person to be instituted to the living of Brampford Speke, and in that event only to institute him as on a presentation to himself. ”

“ Here the supremacy is simply of order and rank, with one exception only (common to both civil and ecclesiastical supremacy) , the power of p. 14the initiative as well as the veto. No law can be discussed in convocation at all without the initiative of the Crown first granted. This prerogative exists, but is not universal, in civil matters. In them it is confined to particular subjects when brought before the parliament. The difference however is one of degree and not of principle. Subject to this exception the king has the very same and no greater power in convocation than in parliament. ”

“ P.S.—I am aware that it is a received, and probably a correct opinion, that Baptism, if rightly administered, is to all persons effectual regeneration, either for good or for ill. Perhaps it was for this reason that the very same declaration, “Seeing now that these persons are regenerate,” is retained in the service for adults, as is found in that for infants, although the regeneration for good is in adults confined to the worthy receivers of the rite. ”

“ For that adults being baptized and not sincerely believing what they profess to believe are not regenerate in Baptism, is a proposition, I believe not disputed by many. If this be true, regeneration does not so necessarily accompany the act of Baptism, that regeneration invariably (that is to say in all cases) takes place in Baptism. ”

“ A qualified employment of the Church Legislature is essential to the healthy action p. 16of the English Church. Let me take the Gorham controversy as an instance. There was a decision of five Judges and two Archbishops, with one Judge and the Bishop of London dissenting, which overruled the opinion of the Bishop of Exeter, the diocesan, and that of the Judge of the Arches, Sir Herbert Jenner Fust. Surely that was a case in which the expressions of the written law were so doubtful, that a declaratory Act of Convocation to avoid such doubts in future, was, to say the least of it, very desirable. ”

“ That Baptism is an effectual sign of grace by which God works invisibly in us, but only in such as worthily receive it: in them alone it has a wholesome effect: and that without reference to the qualification of the recipient it is not in itself an effectual sign of grace. ”

“ This jurisdiction is even now occasionally exercised when upon the accidental incapacity of the Archbishop a commission is granted by the Crown to Bishops to consecrate a Bishop elect here, or as it may be now, in the colonies. For the act being spiritual, seems to have been thought ultra vires of the king himself. So little did the king ever dream of exercising personally or by lay judges what some ill-informed people have since ascribed to him, pontifical or spiritual power. ”

“ It merely asserts, “that in no case is regeneration in Baptism unconditional.” Nor does the Church, as I believe, say otherwise. There is always the condition of being a worthy recipient. If Mr. Gorham thinks all infants are so, and he nowhere in this statement of his opinions says the contrary, I do not think the Church will disagree with him, for it may well be holden that a condition of p. 10worthiness is both required and fulfilled in infant Baptism. ”

“ But no system of law can well stand which is not accompanied by a power of amending from time to time those errors to which all human institutions are liable, and which from changes of manners and habits become in time more and more apparent. ”

“ Gorham’s opinions be a true, full, and complete statement of them, and he holds nothing more adverse to the Church than these exact words necessarily import, you cannot with justice impeach or complain of the decision in his favour. ”

“ It would have been determined that Clergymen holding the specified opinions must be instituted—and no injury could arise to the Church from such a decision. Our complaint p. 7would be that Mr. Gorham did not hold these opinions in fact. This wrong would only apply to his individual case.
Let me now call your attention to what the Judicial Committee have done. They begin by stating, as I have suggested, Mr. Gorham’s opinions as they collect them from the documents laid before them. They are these.
1. That Baptism is a Sacrament generally necessary to salvation ”

“ Now the suit, and of course the Appeal to the Privy Council, is, properly speaking, confined to the first branch alone. If the Archbishop decides against the Bishop, the latter then appeals to the p. 5Crown to prevent the Archbishop from improperly infringing on his Diocesan rights, and if the Crown, upon argument before the Delegates or Privy Council, think the Bishop right they will by their judgment overrule the Archbishop and prohibit him thereby from proceeding. ”

“ The executive ecclesiastical power, however, he did claim and did exercise. But this also he did only in the same way as he proceeds in civil p. 13matters. He acted not personally, but by deputed judges. ”