Francis Cecil Legge

“ Henceforward Manning, instead of seeking Wilberforce's advice, assumed the part of teacher. The revival of the church's synodical action in convocation seemed for some time to offer to Wilberforce a via media which he could follow, and his brother, the bishop of Oxford, who as early as 1850 had seen reason to dread his brother's secession, did all that he could to keep him steadfast in Anglicanism (Life of Samuel Wilberforce, ii. 252) . The influence of his wife, too, was always exerted in favour of his remaining in communion with the church in which he had been brought up ”

“ Immediately after Wilberforce's formal election by the Christ Church chapter he received a letter from Pusey commenting on the ‘strangeness’ of his having been ‘called to a see which most of all requires supernatural gifts,’ and going no further in the way of congratulation than to mention that God's providence had been shown in the freedom of Oxford from such a bishop ‘as some with which we had been threatened’ (Life of S. Wilberforce, i. 300) . ”

“ On all these subjects the House of Lords heard from him an able and eloquent presentation of the church's view of the matter in hand, while his frequent exposition of current business in his diocesan charges did much to instruct the country clergy in affairs of state. But the public act with which he is most identified was the reform of convocation. Since 1717, when the two houses of the Canterbury province entangled themselves in hopeless controversy over Bishop Hoadly's attack on the nonjurors, no license from the crown to debate had been given to them. ”

“ Henry Edward Manning [q. v.] had in June 1833 been presented by Wilberforce's brother Samuel to the rectory of Lavington. In the November following he married Caroline Sargent, two of whose sisters were married respectively to Wilberforce's brothers Samuel and Henry William. In 1837 Mrs. Manning died, and a few years later the future cardinal was led by Robert Wilberforce's reputation for theological learning and for disinterestedness to turn to him as to a confessor for relief from the doubts as to the sufficiency of the church of England for salvation which had already begun to beset him. ”

“ To this request Lord John did not accede, and articles for a prosecution were drawn up by W. H. Ridley, E. Dean, and H. G. Young, all beneficed clergy in the diocese of Oxford. The matter thus came before Wilberforce officially, the rectory of Ewelme, which was attached to Hampden's professorship, being within his diocese. The first step of the promoters under the Clergy Discipline Act of 1840 was to give notice to the bishop that the articles were about to be filed, in order that he might, if he thought fit, issue letters of request transmitting the case to the court of arches. ”

“ It met, however, with no response, and the result was to drive the two principal signatories a step further forward in the way of secession. ‘If you and I had been born out of the English church,’ writes Manning to Wilberforce in December 1850, ‘we should not have doubted for so much as a day where the true church is;’ and on 6 April in the following year Manning was received into the church of Rome. ”

“ Hampden's letter appeared without the anticipated request for trial. On the following day the letters of request to the court of arches for Hampden's trial were signed by Wilberforce, who informed Hampden of the fact (ib. i. 454) . On the following day (17 Dec. 1847) he again wrote to Hampden. He sent a list of questions on points of doctrine, to which he invited Hampden's affirmation, asking him at the same time to withdraw the inculpated writings, and stating that if he did so the articles against him would be withdrawn. ”

“ From the outset the new provost objected to the guardianship in moral and religious as well as in disciplinary matters which the three tutors seemed to exercise over their pupils, and the friction between the head and his staff soon led to an open rupture. ”

“ Yet he lived down the feeling against him, and came to be recognised as in a peculiar way the representative of the English episcopate, and the prelate to whom Scottish, colonial, and American bishops naturally resorted for advice and counsel. ”