Bishop of Llandaff

“ Reverting to the Bishop's surprise on the receipt of Mr Gladstone's autograph letter offering him the See of Llandaff, there are two important events to be noted, which, on the one hand, prove that the people in the Diocese of St David's were convinced that Mr Gladstone had made a wise choice, and which, on the other hand, prove that the people of the Diocese of Llandaff are more than satisfied that the Bishop's labours in their midst have amply justified his appointment. ”

“ In this life there is nothing more incredible than in most lives of early Celtic saints; the title archbishop is only once given to him, and more stress is laid upon his sanctity than upon his episcopal rank. His chief abodes are on the banks of the Wye. But in the account of the early state of the church of Llandaff prefixed to this life, it is said that Dubricius was consecrated by Germanus, archbishop over all the bishops of southern Britain, and bishop of the see of Llandaff, founded by the liberality of King Meurig. ”

“ Cross the Channel, and you will see another sight. Enter by the western door of the church of Llandaff, and right before your eyes stands the altar, raised aloft in fitting majesty. Below it, open to all eyes, is the Bishop on his throne, the clergy and singers in their stalls. The long nave is filled with the people, the faithful of the city and diocese. Nothing distinguishes worshippers of higher worldly position; nothing distinguishes the households of the dignitaries of the cathedral from their fellow Christians of lower degree. There is the church as it should be ”

“ The archdeacon of Llandaff was to be dean of the cathedral church, and the corporate revenues of Llandaff were to be divided between the Bishop, the dean, and canons. All lands and endowments belonging to Saint Davids, Llandaff, and the collegiate church of Brecon vested absolutely in the Ecclesiastical Commissioners for England, who were entitled to make therefrom provision for the College at Lampeter, and to provide incomes for the various dignitaries. ”

“ William Lloyd (1679-1685) was translated from Llandaff, and was further translated to Norwich in 1685. He was deprived of his see as a Nonjuror in 1691. He lived at Hammersmith till his death in 1710. He was the last survivor of the seven deprived bishops. It is singular that his namesake, William Lloyd, bishop of S. Asaph, should have been one of the seven bishops committed to the Tower by King James II. in 1688; but he had no scruples about taking the oaths to the new sovereigns, and became afterwards Bishop of Lichfield, and ultimately of Worcester. ”

“ Accordingly the Bishop was invited to attend at the Diocesan Registry in Cardiff, where he was made the recipient of a framed illuminated address and the object of congratulatory speeches by the Archdeacon of Llandaff and several of the rural deans, all bearing testimony to the Bishop's wonderful activity for his ripe age, his kindly sympathy, his tact and ready sense for grasping difficulties in a cheerful spirit. The address was really an eloquent tribute of love and esteem.
“The eighteen years of your lordship's episcopate,” wrote the subscribers, “have been years of continuous anxiety. ”

“ The individual alluded to in our Manuscript, is mentioned as having been educated in the principles of the Dissenters, and to have officiated in earlier life as a clerk in some manufactory, or with some merchant, at Liverpool. It may be questioned, whether he ever entirely got rid of his former prejudices, but on some occasion or other, he chose to offer himself to the Bishop of Landaff [2] as a candidate for orders. By him he was ordained, and he rendered himself so acceptable to the Bishop, that he made him his Chaplain. ”

“ I am entirely of opinion that such a law is highly to be reprobated in a civil point of view; but in what concerns religion, let each man's conscience take care of itself.
But my main grief against the French legislators was the plunder and degradation of their church. In treating this matter, I as much forgot, as if I had never heard or read, that, not much more than two centuries before this period, all the bishops of England, (excepting only him of Llandaff,) and about ten thousand clergy, were deprived of their benefices, and sent to beg their bread all over Europe ”

“ He was one of the bishops who, ‘clothed in silk and velvet,’ rode in procession between the earls and the lords at the opening of the parliament at Perth in 1606. The general assembly at Linlithgow in December of the same year appointed him, as bishop, perpetual moderator of the presbytery of Caithness, which was charged by the privy council (17 Jan. 1607) to receive him as such within twenty-four hours on pain of rebellion. ”

“ But since the middle of the nineteenth century, as the Anglican Church has become at once more threatened and more energetic, as more of the life of the nation has flowed into her and round her, the office of a bishop has risen in importance. People show more interest in the appointments to be made, and ministers have become proportionately careful in making them. Bishops work harder and are more in the public eye now than they were eighty, or even fifty, years ago. They have lost something of the antique dignity and social consideration which they enjoyed. ”

“ He threw himself without any regard to increasing trouble and labour on the great power of personal influence. In every corner of his diocese he made himself known and felt; in all that interested its clergy or its people he took his part more and more. He went forth to meet men; he made himself their guest and companion as well as their guide and chief; he was more often to be found moving about his diocese than he was to be found at his own home at Cuddesdon. The whole tone of communication between Bishop and people rose at once in freedom and in spiritual elevation and earnestness ”

“ A still more interesting relic of the bishop is the ‘office’ adapted to the breviary hours, containing special hymns in his praise, prayers, and ‘capitulum’ grounded on the events of the bishop's life and his alleged miracles. The most remarkable of these was the restoring of human speech to certain people in Rutlandshire who could only bark like dogs. The people, on the refusal of the pope to canonise, took the matter into their own hands, and worshipped at the shrine of St. John de Dalderby, as they did under similar circumstances at that of Robert Grosseteste. ”

“ Many districts are, unavoidably, entirely without the exhortations and offices of a minister. At King George's Sound, an important post, no clergyman is seen from one year to another. Human beings are born, married, and buried, without a minister to baptize, to teach, to bless, or to give consolation in their extremity. There is no bishop to consecrate, to watch over, or to reprove.*
[footnote] *By the munificence of Miss Burdett Coutts, a bishopric has been recently founded in South Australia; and the Western Colony is for the present to be included in the same diocese. ”

“ One could hardly desire a larger measure of popularity, either with his parish or in his diocese, than Bishop McCoskry enjoys. Every where the highest testimony is borne to the loveliness and excellency of his character, and the faithfulness and evangelical spirit of his ministry. This I heard from all quarters—from clergy and laity, Episcopalians and Presbyterians. Indeed I think the bishop's greatest danger lies in this quarter. May he still have grace as he hath hitherto done, amid all these praises of men, to count himself as nothing, and to sit as a little child at the feet of Jesus. ”

“ Such communities as have returned from the Donatists and have had bishops, without doubt may continue to have them even without any action of the councils, but such a community as had a bishop and when he dies wish no longer to have a bishop of their own, but to belong to the diocese of some other bishop, this is not to be denied them. ”

“ The rulers of the Church were the abbots of the monasteries, commonly known as the coarbs or successors of their founders. These abbots were sometimes bishops; but whether they were bishops or of lower rank in the ministry, their authority was inherent in their office of coarb. At this period bishops were numerous—more numerous than in later medieval or modern times; and certain functions were reserved for bishops, for example, ordination. No ecclesiastic, of whatever status, could perform such functions, unless he was of the episcopal order. But no bishop, as such, had jurisdiction. ”

“ The reformers felt that a theoretical question lay behind the practical, and insisted that the oversight and therefore the residence of Bishops was de jure divino and not merely de lege ecclesiastica—something enjoined by God, and therefore beyond alteration by the Pope. Behind this lay the thought, first introduced by Cyprian, that every Bishop was within his congregation or diocese the Vicar of Christ, and in the last resort responsible to Him alone. Thus the old conciliar conception, maintained at Constance and at [Pg 593] Basel, faced the curial at Trent ”

“ These nine parishes, comprised in the urban district, have twenty churches and eighteen mission-rooms, with accommodation for about 12,000 persons. This area, together with Pontypridd, Glyntaff and Llanwonno, form the rural deanery of Rhondda in the archdeaconry and diocese of Llandaff. ”

“ When the High Churchmen found their way to the Bench, as they did very largely under Lord Derby’s and Mr. Gladstone’s rule, they showed as much theological zeal as the Evangelicals, and perhaps more talent for administration. The popular idea of what may be expected from a bishop rose, and the bishops rose with the idea. As Bishop of Oxford, Dr. Samuel Wilberforce was among the first to make himself powerfully felt through his diocese. His example told upon other prelates, and prime ministers grew more anxious to select energetic 199 and popular men. ”

“ The Queen was much amused, but the remark conveyed a true view of Irish Catholicism.
The fact is, his bishop can do very little with a treasonable man when once he has been inducted a parish priest; and the curate who obtains irregular fees, of course, panders even more to the taste of his congregation. A bishop will haul up a tonsured subordinate mighty sharp for any breach of ecclesiastical duty, but when it comes to politics and instigation to crime, he finds it far more difficult to keep a tight hand. ”

“ They are quite as much seceders from the Church of England, as if they had set up separate congregations in this country. The pretence of being subject to English Bishops is paltry and evasive, because no English Prelate can exercise any jurisdiction in Scotland, while no man can be an Episcopalian, whatever may be his profession, who is not subject in his ministrations to some Bishop. ”

“ The Jesuits, having the Viceroy of New Spain on their side, obliged Palafox to fly; on which occasion he wrote his celebrated letters against his enemies. A brief of the Pope in his favour did not prevent his being recalled in civil terms, by the King. At the petition of the Jesuits, who dreaded his return to America, the King named him to the bishopric of Osma. Of the austerity and extravagance of his principles, the following resolutions of the pious bishop are specimens: Not to admit any woman to his presence, and never to speak to one but with his eyes on the ground, and the door open. ”

“ To withdraw from allegiance to the Scottish Bishops, under the pretence of being in some way under the jurisdiction of the Bishops of the Church of England, is only adding duplicity to dishonesty. [110] It would be far more consistent to acknowledge themselves to be separatists, or even to become Presbyterians, since their principle of acting for themselves, without regard to a Bishop, is Presbyterian rather than Episcopal. ”

“ That a see whose bishops had behaved so haughtily in the past should, at the very moment of its entrance into the Irish Church, receive so signal an honour, long denied to Armagh and Cashel, and that in the person of its bishop it should be given jurisdiction over bishops whom till now it had treated with contempt, could not but be regarded as unreasonable, or even insulting. ”

“ Above all, the Episcopalians of the Diocese loved their Bishop as a man—a vital, interesting personality who possessed none of the unctuous pompousness of the commonplace ecclesiastic. Miss Nell Battle Lewis once aptly characterized the Bishop as "much more than a Churchman, able Churchman though he is. Foremost, he is a man—a gentleman—of the most unswerving honesty, conviction, courage, kindness, humor, and charm." [42]
Throughout almost all of his Episcopate Bishop Cheshire had no secretary. ”

“ I was excessively distressed when I heard of the sad event.”
“What did he die of?” asked the Prime Minister, indifferently.
“Oh, he was a very old man,” promptly replied the other, who had no idea to what fell disease the late Bishop of Barchester had succumbed. “My own conviction is that bishops ought to retire like ambassadors. A bishop should be a man of restless strength, active and versatile; he should be ready to put his hand to anything. To be a bishop you want as much energy and resource as if you were manager of the Army and Navy Stores.” ”

“ I have said more about the diocese to which Luidhard may have belonged than I think the question deserves. This is done out of respect to my predecessors in the enquiry. The idea that a bishop must have had a see is natural enough to us, but is not according to knowledge. A hundred and fifty years later than this, there were so many wandering bishops in Gaul, that a synod held in this very diocese of Soissons declared that wandering bishops must not ordain priests; but that if any priests thus ordained were good priests, they should be reordained. ”