Henry Morse Stephens

“ A strong advocate of educational reform, he was also a social reformer, as evidenced, among other things, by his strong and persistent advocacy of temperance ; but all his experience strengthened his conviction that neither education nor temperance could have its perfect work apart from religion. ”

“ The privy council had ruled there was nothing illegal in the figures, and the legislature had granted to the bishops discretionary power to stop proceedings. Accordingly, as bishop of London he refused to allow the case to proceed. His speeches while bishop of Exeter, in the House of Lords on the university tests bill (1870) and the bill for opening churchyards to non-conformists (1880) , showed him true to his liberal principles. While bishop of Exeter he became a member of the governing body of Rugby School, and for the last ten years of his life was its chairman. ”

“ They embodied a system of exhibitions, furnishing a ladder by which the poorest child might rise from the elementary to the highest class of school and so to the university, and the establishment of two good schools for the secondary education of girls. ”

“ He came up to Oxford a tory, and so remained while he was an undergraduate. But Oxford enlarged his outlook, and his views gradually settled into the liberalism which characterised him through life. When W. G. Ward's case came before convocation at Oxford, Temple voted in the minority against the censure and also against his degradation ; and later, in 1847, he gave his name to the memorial against Bishop Hampden's condemnation. In November 1842 he was appointed lecturer, and was afterwards elected fellow of Balliol, and in 1845 junior dean of his college. ”

“ As bishop of Exeter he had an early opportunity of putting his views into practice.
Forster's Education Act was passed in 1870. It was necessary for church people to improve and add to their schools, and at a meeting at Exeter, by his words and his example in subscribing 500l., he induced the diocese to raise a large sum for the purpose. It was also necessary to deal with schools of higher rank in the diocese of Exeter. ”

“ He was ordained deacon in 1846, and in 1847 priest, by Bishop Wilberforce of Oxford.
When Tait left Balliol for Rugby in 1842, he had vainly offered Temple a mastership there. Temple then felt that his first duty was to his college, but in the spring of 1848 he left Oxford to undertake work under the committee of education, first as examiner in the education office at Whitehall to the end of 1849, then as principal of Kneller Hall, Twickenham, a training college for workhouse schoolmasters. In 1855, when Kneller Hall was closed. Temple was made inspector of training colleges for men. ”

“ In October 1896 he was nominated by Lord Salisbury to the archbishopric of Canterbury. A meeting took place at the Guildhall on 18 Jan. 1897 to commemorate his London episcopate, when the lord mayor and corporation of the City of London attended in state and at least 1500 persons were present, and many presentations were made to the archbishop. The 'Morning Post' stated that 'the history of church work in London since Dr. Temple entered upon the diocese has scarcely a parallel in the history of church work during the century.' He was enthroned in Canterbury Cathedral in 1897. ”