16 Are Nonconformists to be excluded from Church Schools?

the Church of England school, could not be received into it by the sound Churchman, without a violation of conscience. Here was the dilemma. The parent must place his child under instruction and training detrimental, if not fatal (in his conviction) to its spiritual interests, or he must abandon it to ignorance. The clergyman must either admit this child to his school, and allow it to be withdrawn from any matter of instruction to which the parent might, on religious grounds object, or leave it to perish from lack of knowledge. Parliament and the public are unable to understand, that the burthen and sin of rejecting the truth can rest with those, who offer to teach the whole counsel of God confided to their ministration, rather than with those, who refuse to accept this boon, or accept it only in part. Parliament does not sympathise, with that part of the clergy of a church, established for the benefit of the nation, who would render instruction inaccessible to any part of the people. The public, contemplating, on the one hand, the sufferings, the moral debasement, and ignorance of a large class of the poor; and, on the other, the resources of a church, comprising the majority of the wealthy and privileged classes, conceive, that to deny the poor the words of life, or to offer them on conditions requiring a violation of conscience, would ill fulfil the behests of Him, who entered the Synagogue on the Sabbath day and read, from the book of the prophet Esaias, "The spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor;" and, when he had closed the book, sublimely

prevent its being set aside, it will be far better, on all accounts, that the Society should cease to exist.

"In my sentence, quoted correctly p. 15., of the Apology,' that it is not possible for men to care really about the Catholic faith, who are content to admit into the same school with the children of the Church the children of parents who are not of the Church,' the concluding words should have been written simply children not of the Church,' meaning thereby, children who had not been baptized into the Church."- A Reply to the Committee of the Promoters of the Manchester and Salford Education Scheme, by George Anthony Denison, 1851, p. 31.

Views of some Churchmen led by the Medieval party. 17

opened his mission to the world by declaring, "This day is this Scripture fulfilled in your ears." The party in which these pretensions exist is less formidable by its numbers, than by the learning, the self-devotion, and the ascetic piety of certain of its members, among whom are to be found those who have done much both to improve and to extend education within the Church. But neither their zeal nor the sincerity of their convictions can be permitted to cloak the offence of those who, under a claim of self-government, would usurp the authority of the State, and abuse the name of liberty to the hurt of the defenceless. If they be indeed worthy vicars of the Head of the Church, and would wield His power over the conscience, let them imitate His meekness and forbearance, who twice stooped down and wrote on the floor of the temple, rather than place the sinner beyond the reach of mercy.

In describing the composition and objects of this party, we do not forget, that many churchmen, who desire to separate the action of the civil and spiritual authority, unite with it in opposition to the Committee of Council, without holding the opinions of its most active and prominent section. The legislation of the last twenty-five years, which has admitted Dissenters and Roman Catholics to both Houses of Parliament, and has removed all religious tests from municipal and public offices, has also swollen the numbers of these opponents by some, who are impressed with dread of the influence of a Government, deriving its authority from Parliaments now representing every fragment of the Christian faith. In all heterogeneous parties those lead who have a definite doctrine and policy to give earnestness to their efforts. In their wake follow those whose views are more vague; many who halt between two opinions; and generally all, who though incapable of creating a new combination, have a large capacity for antipathy, fear, or suspicion. When all these elements are united, and credit is given them

18 The Alarm excited among the Clergy and Laity.

for the scholarship, earnestness, and piety by which they are distinguished, it is almost a subject of surprise, that this party has failed to make itself formidable, either in Parliament or in the country. On the contrary, its exertions have often rendered unwitting service to the Committee of Council, by shedding a sudden light on evils and dangers which their Lordships' policy was intended to avert. Thus, when the Committee of Council, in their regulations, separated the office of schoolmaster from that of an ordained teacher of religion, this party not only continued to seek to subject the teacher to the direct control of the spiritual power, but endeavoured to claim the apprenticed pupil teachers as acolytes of a future diaconate in the Church. If its designs had needed further illustration, the Minute of the 13th of June 1852, conceded to it by Lord Derby's Government, would have completed the warning. By this Minute the schoolmaster may be suspended by the clergyman, on account of any objection to his teaching, discipline, or conduct, not merely on religious but on moral grounds. In schools in which this constitution is adopted, he is therefore at the mercy of the clergyman, who may deem it his duty to render his office untenable by repeated suspensions. Such claims excite the deepest apprehension, not only in the laity, but among a very large body of the clergy, whose genuine Protestantism regards, as a mediæval corruption, any attempt to exalt the spiritual order in matters not purely clerical, to privileges which are denied to the laity. Among no inconsiderable class of churchmen has arisen a desire, that the regular communicants of the congregation should exercise some control over the patronage of the Church, whereby the patron should be prevented from thrusting a teacher of the doctrines of Laud and Bonner, on a congregation which had imbibed the principles of Leighton or Sumner. If the Council of the Bishop is to be in any form revived, either to advise in the exercise of patronage-to aid in the trial of offences, or to suggest in the administration

Measures contemplated by the Reformation party 19

of ecclesiastical affairs, they would take care that the laity were represented equally with the clergy in this Council. They have a great apprehension that Convocation might attempt to revive medieval practices, and exercise an intolerant1 control, but if these Diocesan Councils are to be followed by a Provincial Synod, they would have it representative in origin: composed equally of clergy and laity, and its decisions subject to the assent of the Queen in Council. Generally, the party which has put forth exalted notions of spiritual authority, has awakened in the Church and the country a most formidable resistance. Their opponents are slowly maturing a policy which shall render impregnable the principles of the English Reformation.

Within the Church therefore, a large and increasing body of the clergy and laity have been led, by the very exertions of the medieval party, to regard with greater confidence the Committee of Council on Education.

This party is dissatisfied with the constitution of the Committee of the National Society, in which they conceive that the Church is not duly represented.2 They

1 Hallam's Const. Hist. vol. i. p. 413. 439; vol. iii. p.

324.

2 "Memorial.-We the undersigned Members of the National Society, and others anxious to promote the education of the poor in the principles of the Church of England, of which we are all attached members, desire respectfully to present this our Memorial to the Committee to which the management of the National Society is exclusively entrusted. Many of us lately contributed to form the majority by which, at the last Annual Meeting of the Society, the agitation for some years past prevalent in the Society was resisted, and a protest entered against attempts to hinder the cordial cooperation of the Government and the Society. We cannot, therefore, but hope that this Memorial will be received as expressing the sentiments of a great body of the clergy and laity of our Church having a claim upon the attention of the Committee of the National Society. And should the recommendation contained in this Memorial be adopted by the Committee, there is good reason to expect, that, while agitation will thereby be discouraged, a considerable increase in the number of members and in the amount of their donations will ensue, and thus far larger means than ever be secured for extending the blessings of a sound education to the growing masses of the population.

"Admitting the services of the Committee in the cause of Education, by the prudent management of its resources in the distribution of grants for building new school rooms, in raising the standard of acquirement for

20

Their Memorial to the National Society.

object to the distribution of the funds, derived from general collections in the churches in obedience to a Queen's letter, by a Committee thus constituted. They regard as unwarrantable and impolitic the jealousy which has characterised the communications of this Committee with the Government. The Cathedral service, adopted in the chapels of certain Training Colleges, appears to them a suspicious attempt to impregnate the minds of the students with predilections for a mediæval ceremonial. They have published the catechetical instruction of the Evening Service in certain of these chapels, and in a church attended by the scholars of the central schools of the National Society, as examples of teaching having a Romanising tendency. The general control of the Prelates and of the Chapters of Cathedrals, aided by a body of clergy and laity variously

teachers in the Society's Training Institutions, and in the facilities afforded to the clergy and others for procuring school maps and other apparatus, we feel bound nevertheless, under the pressing urgency of the occasion, to unite in calling their attention to the great importance of the following measures.

"First. That they should, through the President and Vice-Presidents, from time to time, submit for the choice of the Society at the Annual Meeting such a list of candidates to serve on the Committee as may reasonably be expected to secure the confidence of the Church generally; and that notice of all business to be transacted, and resolutions to be moved, at the Annual Meeting, should be sent to the subscribers, who should be permitted, if they please, to vote by proxy on all subjects not precluded by the charter.

"Secondly. That a more cordial co-operation with the State in promoting the education of the poor than is now apparent should be forthwith resumed, entirely confiding in the disposition of the Committee of Council to exact no condition of which the Church can reasonably complain.

"Thirdly. While the undersigned are ready to acknowledge the great improvement effected by separately acting councils in some of the National Society's Training Institutions, they would urge upon the consideration of the Committee, in whom is vested the whole responsibility of management, the great importance of reducing all church services, at which students in those Training Institutions assist, to the model usually adopted in wellordered Parish Churches, and which has recently been recommended by almost all the Bishops, Vice-Presidents of the National Society, to the parochial clergy.

"Finally. Your memorialists would suggest, that, in providing Catechetical Instruction for students or scholars in the Society's Institutions or Schools, the utmost vigilance be exerted, in order to prevent the apparent sanction of any doctrine or ceremonial not strictly in accordance with the articles and formularies of the Church of England."