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    March 3, I860.] The Leader and Saturday ...

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    THE CLASSIC AND THE GOTHIC; or, THE BATT...

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    * 2W» or Christian; or, Notes for tho Ge...

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    Convocation And Ordination. It Is Not Ou...

    has indeed trembled since then at the approach of the lord of the manor . . .. . " Payet ipse sacerdos Accessus , dominurri ' que timet deprendere . luci . Men and things have changed since the Defender of the Faith , in the midst of his zeal for Church reforms and his f unding of colleges , could find a reason for investing a priest with a living because of his " skill in the training of hawks . " ( Tytler . ) When such divertissements as these were going on , the clergy might be well content to mumble over the " humbles " ( homilies ) * and Elizabeth , who did not , on the whole , much approve of sermoning , might easily find the greatest difficulty in collecting a sufficient number of decent select preachers for Lent . ( Aikin . ) The author of the " Faery Queen" says , no doubt justly , of many a country clergyman in those days : — - "Of much deep learnings little had he need , Nor yet of Latine , ne of Greek , that breede Doubts ' mong-st divines , and difference of texts , > From whence arise diversities of sects , And hateful heresies of God abhorred , But this good sir did follow the plaine word , Ne meddled with their controversies vaine ; All his care was bis service well to sayn , And to read homilies on liolidayes—TFfien that teas done lie might attend liis plages . " There were niany causes for this condition of the clergy , dependent on the circumstances of the Church itself , as well as on the general state of society—as .. readers . .-of history well know , and on which we need riot here dwell : We say readers of history , for those who judge of the state of the Clnirch from the few great stars which shone in . the general darkness , are liable to fall into great error in these matters . In the next reign We again find the eloquent preacher and court favourite Donne complaining ' -that the . Ambassadors of God were held in small honour in England , nor can we much wonder at this , when we ¦¦ ¦ find another court favourite , and Bishop of : Oxford , Cokbet , his cotemporary , publicly making the worst possible jokes uj > on the personal appearance : of those who came to him for confirmation ; if such were his confirmations , what , probably were the consecrations , of one who had to use the native expression of BosSuet with regard to a French ecclesir astic , " Za mallteureuse habitude de traiter eomme eh $ e johantUs chores eeclesiastiq . ues ?" On the condition of the Church in the following period Macaulay may be consulted ; his account , by no means creditable , of the - status and conduct of the clergy caused recently great anger , . and produced violent reclamation ; " but cotemporary writers prove that it was substantially true , though the state of things which he describes was becoming less a-nd less the rule , an ° nore and more the exception . Since then improvement on these points has been rapid and , on the whole , steady- The last lialf-centnry has effected wonders : '—in all parties of the Church we find increased earnestness and increased energy , and much zeal , by no means untempered with charity . The thinking , and now ¦ the larger portion of society , insists on viewing serious things seriously . There is scarcely any form of Christianity , in the Church ' or out of it , which does not find thoughtful and well-read men to defend it , or charitable ones to excuse it , even in its extravagances . To the most obstinate , mon are inclined to give the credit of honesty even in their errors ; and absurdities , provided they arc religious absurdities , can no longer be criticised in n spirit of rollicking ridicule with impunity to the character of the writer ¦ who does so . If any man is inclined to make light of the whole subject , at least , " In public he complies , 1 Obliging friends alone with blasphemies . " Even the pious humorist ' s day is almost gone . Spuugeon ' s jokes are the least approved part of his sermons ; the time for [ Rowland Hill ' s facetioo is over ; and no future Sydney Smiths are likely to mingle exquisite humour with halting logic , and the utmost' charity in aption with the greatest want of it in opinion . . When such is the temper of sooioty the last thing it is likely to submit to is the careless laying on of hands of the Bishops . Enough scandals are caused by the cases of those who fall from the violence of sudden or protractod temptation ( cases against which no Ohuroli can guarantee itself , ) without suffering the admission of men originally of a law standard of character and acquirements , njen- to whom a whole parish can point . as unfit for the clerical office .. Improved as it may bo , the Church is by no means out _ of danger of such appointments . Thoro is many a good living waiting for the son of the family- —an important county family

    probably—and a sufficient amount of character has to be cooked up to satisfy the good-natured . Bishop of the diocese , who as a Christian arid a gentleman is expected to put a hopeful and charitable construction on youthful levities— -a . hard trial of dis- " crimination , ¦ it being almost impossible to tell whether such candidates will in ten years' thne turn out hard-working parish priests , or mere sots and fox-hunters . There are still men in trade who choose the slowest of their sons for the ' Church , just as professional men choose their cleverest . ; a case of the former kind just occurs to us , where a father selected his son ' s profession on that principle , and the mother selected the University on an equally curious one , videlicet , that the Cambridge coach , and not the Oxford , daily passed the door of the family mansion .

    There are still religious parents trusting to their own prayers for the final fitness of their sons , by no means "Jilii ' vere ' --aureV * ( we remember a most worthy man who intended to " offer up " three of Ms sons in this way , not exactly at that time worthy offerings ); and other parents , daily fewer , who care little for any fitness except fitness for a good entree into the world , a small income , and a gentlemanlike profession . ' There are still young fellows of colleges to be presented to

    college livings , without any over-excessive care on the part ol the -authorities as to their fitness for presentation . Of such constitueii . ts . is a college often mainly made . u p * . as we can witness ; some sincerely regretting their destination , but obeying their parents rather than their consciences , and feeling that it is too late to seek a living elsewhere ; " Put me into one of the priests * offices , that I may eat a piece of bread . We could mention many cases of this sort : let parents look to it . At last , such men reconcile themselves to a lower standard , from the force of example , on the old principle , " Where many men are bad , not to be worst Stands in some rank of praise , " Subsequently they may rise to their duties , or / all so much beneath them as to dismiss a congregation , after having collected , one , without ; a sermon , but with a smiling face , and with the plea " that it is the first of April ;" . this is not an imaginary ; , case , nor an old , though , we fully believe , an unique one . Much improvement , for which there is still room , will doubtless . take " place . Bishops themselves are now chosen less frequently with reference to family . connections , or mere

    classical attainments , and are more likely to exact from their examinees qualifications like their own . So many of them are chosen from amongst the public schoolmasters , that the latter will be tempted to pay increasing attention to the religious knowledge and condition of their pupils previous to sending them' up to the university , even for their own sake . A gain : as education becomes more general in its character , men will no longer find that their education has only fitted them for a profession which they woxild be likely to desecrate , and the competitive examinations throw open ninny paths for men who fuid that they have more talent than seriousness .

    Bishops seem so shy of doing anything that can appear to annul the effect of " the laying on of hands , " and ecclesiastical la \ v holds such a thick shield over heads once consecrated by a bishop , that the world is scandalised at the determined and effectual resistance often made by the unworthy and refractory : it behoves the bishops then to talco- enre how they do what it is so difficult to undo . The world is intensely ci-iticul just now of the character of the clergy ; there is scarcely a fashionable novel of the day which has not its imaginary clergyman , and its judgment upon him , till we arc sick of the processions of black coats . And this criticism on the imaginary is not likely to fail on the real .

    Since the introduction of so much of the voluntary system into the Church , the quality of the clergy has been raised , and congregations have become , moro and more fastidious : the more clergy of a high standard the Church has , the leas likely is it to acquiesce in those of a low one . On the whole , Convocation can do nothing more useful or more popular than to attend to the hint given by tho Bishop of London .

    March 3, I860.] The Leader And Saturday ...

    March 3 , I 860 . ] The Leader and Saturday Analyst . 203

    The Classic And The Gothic; Or, The Batt...

    THE CLASSIC AND THE GOTHIC ; or , THE BATTLE OF THE STYLES * TTIHE Chissioi and the Gotici are tho very Montagues and Capulets -I of modern times . At aoirdo or in lcctwre-room , every whore we meet them , frowning and biting 1 the thumb at each other . Tho tiltyard , of the preBs is , however , tho special arena for ^ heir singl e combats , and scarcely has tho blooding body of onq diacomfitod arg-umentatist ) been truilod from tUo duaty ring , than « J » ° ^ r truiapit sounds blaringly without , and lo , iin gallops another plumed ohampion , his quiver full of quills ready to do baittlo a I ' otctranco w » th tho tfothfl , or to die fir tho honour of the Classics . The battle >» porpo ^ 'y

    * 2w» Or Christian; Or, Notes For Tho Ge...

    * 2 W » or Christian ; or , Notes for tho General Public onottr MUqmI Arohiffctm . By W . J . Coqjkdurn Mwn . Lon & on : Bont ^ y ,

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), March 3, 1860, page 7, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_03031860/page/7/