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HENRY |. C. KNiOHT,
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UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SAN DIEGO
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LE PASSAGE SOMBKE, BAKU
Fronthhtece
THE
DIOCESE OF GIBRALTAR
A SKETCH OF
ITS HISTORY, WORK AND TASKS
^Y^-*-
HENRY jr CP' KNIGHT, D.D.
BISHOP OF GIBRALTAR
WITH MAP AND ILLUSTRATIONS
SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING
CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE
LONDON: 68, HAYMARKET, S.W.
1917
TO
THE CLERGY AND LAITY OF THE
DIOCESE OF GIBRALTAR
WHO IN DIVERS LANDS AND SCENES BETWEEN THE ATLANTIC
AND THE CASPIAN REPRESENT THE CHURCH OF
ENGLAND AND THE BRITISH PEOPLE ; WHO HAVE OPENED
TO ME BOTH HEARTS AND HOMES; WHOSE
HOSPITALITY, CONFIDENCE AND LOVE HAVE BEEN
A JOY, CONSOLATION AND ENCOURAGEMENT
DURING OUR SIX YEARS' WORK TOGETHER; AND
WHO ARE MOST DEAR TO ME AS THE
FLOCK OF CHRIST.
INTRODUCTION
F^ROM Oporto and Lisbon on the Atlantic to Baku on
the west shore of the Caspian is a distance by rail of
over four thousand miles. Scattered over this vast tract of
Southern Europe, on the shores of the Mediterranean and the
Black Seas and in the Levant are communities of English
people, some dating from the earlier part of the sixteenth
century, some from yesterday. Varying greatly in numbers,
occupation, character, and history, all are alike in this —
loyalty to the home-country, and tenacious retention of
distinctively English character, life, and religion. With
similar colonies on the north coast of Africa from the frontier
of Egypt to Tangier and our possessions of Gibraltar and
Malta, they are now ecclesiastically under the jurisdiction of
the Bishop of Gibraltar, and form a diocese of persons, not of
a geographical area.
These communities have a claim on the concern and
interest of the English people, and in a unique way of
English Churchmen. Their importance is out of all pro-
portion to their actual numbers. It does not lie in the fact
that for some of them their homes and business in life are
cast in cities, scenes, and lands, the history and memories of
which are for Europeans unequalled in wonder and signifi-
cance. To live and work in Athens or Rome, Smyrna or
Constantinople, Tunis-Carthage, Venice, Florence, Valletta, is
indeed to dwell amid glories and marvels of the past, on
stages whereon have been acted dramas and have moved
figures shaping the highest and deepest life of Europe. All
who dwell there, given knowledge and imagination which can
recall the past and appreciate in some measure — for who can
vi INTRODUCTION
do so adequately ? — the life of peoples and individuals which
has made what it is our world of to-day, religious and political,
philosophical and artistic, are heirs, though remote, of the
treasures of ages. But it is not these things that give to our
British colonies of South Europe their claim to the thought of
their countrymen. Their importance lies in other directions.
These settlements belong historically to the astonishing
expansion of British mercantile enterprise which began in the
age of the discovery of America. Hakluyt records that when
he was chaplain in Paris (1583-1588), it was a matter of
common remark that the English, though an island people,
showed little venturesomeness in over-seas trade. The
reproach was even then being rapidly removed, and the
records which Hakluyt's life-long industry collected form
the finest account of its passing. The establishment of our
factories on the shores of the Mediterranean, in the Levant,
in North America and in India, all belong to that awakening
of latent national capacity, genius, and outlook, that move-
ment of national energy, which if it came late, came to widen
and endure.
Few in England to-day, and few of those who visit
Southern France and Italy, the centre of this wide area,
realize how old are many of our British trading settlements in
Southern Europe, or know anything of their character and
history, and of the way in which both materially and politi-
cally they have served and still serve the home country.
Few also have any idea of their present-day variety and
activity. Every one knows that there is much British shipping
at Marseilles, a great grain trade with Southern Russia ; that
there are oil-wells at Maikop and Baku ; that minerals and
fruit are imported from Spain, and wine from Oporto,
Marsala, and Jerez. But save in special mercantile circles,
there is in such general and indefinite knowledge no sense of
the English life involved. People in England know nothing
of the very capable British communities engaged, for example,
in Spain, in the iron-ore mines of Orcanera, Astillero, Cova-
donga, the lead and silver mines and huge smelting works
of La Carolina and Linares, the copper-mines of Cerro
Muriano and Rio Tinto, the sulphur-mines round Tharsis, the
INTRODUCTION vii
shipbuilding yards of Ferrol and Cartagena, the esparto-grass
depots of Aguilas, the Newfoundland salt-fish depots of
Ah'cante. Or, to pass to the eastern part of the area under
review, little or nothing is known of those engaged in the
dredging and administration of the Danube at Sulina, or in
the oil-fields of Roumania ; in the manufacture of agricultural
machinery at Elizabetgrad, in the vast dockyard of Nicolaieff,
in the coal-field and iron-works at Hughesovka, in Russia ;
or in the oil-fields of Anapa and Sherivanski, Grozny, and
Petrovsk, the copper-mine at Chingathevi, the manganese-
mine at Chiaturi, the liquorice depot at Elizabetpol, in the
Caucasus. Not all who speak of our South-European trade
realize that it means that thousands of British seamen are
every day in South-European ports, some of the busiest of
which are unknown even by name to the vast majority of our
people at home — such as Savona and Galatz, Nicolaieff and
Novorossisk.
Many of the colonies of English people thus engaged are
settled communities, with English homes, traditions, churches,
and burial grounds. Some, indeed, are in great cities —
Lisbon and Oporto, Barcelona, Seville, Marseilles and Nice,
Genoa, Turin, Milan and Naples, Smyrna, Constantinople,
Odessa, Baku. But many are far " out of the way " and out
of sight, long miles from a British Chaplain or British Consul-
General, and live under "colonial" conditions as truly, though
in Europe, as remote settlers in Canada or Australia.
But all are avenues and channels of British trade; and
through them, great and small alike, long settled or temporary
and tentative, it is ever throwing out, even if slowly, its roots
and feelers. In all alike large British capital is invested, and
great British interests involved.
These colonies are, however, something greater than
arteries of trade. All alike, whether a great colony at
Constantinople, or a group of five in the Cold Storage
Company's employ at Tchertkovo, or a dozen accountants
and clerks at Ekaterinodar, fill the responsible office of repre-
sentatives of England and her people. For one Spaniard
or Moor, Greek, Roumanian or Russian, Turk or Tartar,
Georgian or Armenian, who reads a book on our country and
viii INTRODUCTION
her sons and their ways, a thousand learn from these colonies
Hving and working among them what " England " and " an
Englishman " mean and stand for in national character, energy,
and resourcefulness, honour and truth in trade, life, and
word ; what English homes, manners, and traditions are. It
is a great function to fill in Europe — to be interpretative of
our people, a book ever read and open before eyes which
are keen, observant, and critical. In this mercantile and
representative character lies the importance of these com-
munities and groups of our people in matters political and
commercial.
But for English Churchpeople there is a further and
distinctive importance in these colonies, great and small alike.
They dwell and move in lands in which the Roman Catholic
or the Orthodox Eastern Churches are established. In the
further East, from Constantinople to Baku, the Armenian
with his agonized history, is ever before eye and mind. In
North Africa and the East the population about them is pre-
dominantly or considerably Mohammedan. It is too often
forgotten that, for example, in Morocco, Algeria, and
Tunisia, Hughesovka in Russia, Sherivanski and Chingathevi,
Grozny and Petrovsk, Smyrna, Constantinople, and Baku,
British employers of labour, surveyors, engineers, merchants,
themselves Anglican Christians, have much to do with
adherents of Islam. And beside these, there are in this area
great centres of Jewish life, notably at Tunis and Algiers,
Smyrna and Constantinople, Bucarest, Odessa, Kieff. Our
colonies in Southern Europe and North Africa dwell thus
in close touch with the life of great Christian Churches,
great non-Christian Faiths. The lines of demarcation are
sharply drawn : they dwell among them, but everywhere it is
clearly known that they are not of them. Occasionally a
member of the English Church resident in Southern Europe
seeks admission to the Roman Communion, but this is gene-
rally on grounds connected with trade or marriage. Thus
these communities and settlers not only gain a penetrating
acquaintance with the practical life of those Churches and
Faiths, but also stand before them as embodiments of the
faith and the Christian life of the Anglican Communion, of
INTRODUCTION ix
the English people. Whether they like or desire it or not,
whether they perform the ofifice by open and thankful confes-
sion, or silently, reluctantly or even unconsciously, there is
not the slightest doubt that they are representatives of the
English Church, faith and worship — again a living book,
ever open and ever read, studied, known. As such they have,
indeed, a great part to play in interpreting over a wide area
the Christian faith and life as our Church and people have
received it ; and the interpretation and presentation which
they give sinks into the minds of the masses about them
more widely and deeply than that of literature or of societies.
There is no group of British colonies in the world which
touches such a variety of faiths and creeds.
And it must not be taken that this presentation is only of
individual and personal English religious life. The individual
in the eyes of members of the Roman and Eastern Churches
and of Mohammedans is subordinate to the whole Church of
which he is a member. These our colonies represent the
English Church. If they are indifferent to worship, careless
of its dignity and the obligations which it imposes ; if they
are left for months and years without pastoral care, the Word
preached, the Sacraments ministered : the English Church is
judged thereby, and its claim to respect appraised — acknow-
ledged or questioned. There should be no mistake here.
These English colonies are, for good or ill, living embodiments
of the life, the obligations, the ministry, the faith, the worship
of the Church of England as fully as of individual and personal
religion.
Herein lies the real interest and importance of all these
British settlements, ancient or of yesterday, large or small,
for Englishmen and English Churchmen to-day. It is far
greater than their actual numbers might suggest. They are
channels of British trade, representative embodiments of
English character, life, and religion, and of the Church of
England ; and it is as such that they have a unique claim on
the concern of the English Churchman.
How nobly these colonies have fulfilled and strive to
fulfil this representative and interpretative duty can be known
only by moving among them. I wish to avoid indiscriminate
X INTRODUCTION
and prejudiced eulogy, and am aware that I have not the
intimate knowledge of the conduct of business and commerce
required to speak with authority of the standard of integrity
and honour maintained. But I have learnt something of the
prestige of the English name and word ; and I have seen
English energy and thoroughness, administrative capacity
and courage, foresight and power of self-adaptation to new
conditions in many a distant field. I have, however, had
opportunities of seeing how astonishingly the standard of
personal religion, generosity, sympathy with distress, and
virile godliness, has been upheld ; of knowing how the
simplicity and truth of English religious life has been
cherished ; how in many a lonely colony worship has been
maintained when clerical ministrations have been denied, with
a self-reliance developed by circumstances, and characterized
by an English layman's modesty ; how churches have been
built and cared for and chaplaincies supported by commu-
nities, families, and individuals, as an integral and necessary
element in truly English life. I have learnt, too, how deep
is the attachment to the Mother Church, and what the value set
on her ministrations — the more striking because of the amazing
neglect under which for decades many have lain. I have more
often than I can say felt that the honour of England in such
matters is safe indeed in the keeping of these colonies.
From the earliest days of their history our communities
in Southern Europe and the Levant have recognized the need
of spiritual ministration in their life. Whether the English
Church has seen the importance of supplying to them the
manifold grace of God, and of stablishing them in the faith
of their fathers and the order of their Church, the pages of
this book will show. The sense of the obligation resting on
the Mother Church to minister to our colonies, her own sons
and daughters, grace and knowledge has grown but slowly,
and has had, in the face of a materialism which permeated
all life, a hard struggle to make itself acknowledged and
effective. For centuries these communities were under the
spiritual supervision and care of the Bishops of London — a
supervision and a care for the most part but nominal and
INTRODUCTION xi
inefficient, and too little calculated to promote a spirit of
distinctive Churchmanship or of value of corporate life.
The new concern for the spiritual and Church life of our
growing colonies throughout the world which marked the
earlier part of the last century led to the establishment of
the Bishopric of Gibraltar, charged with the care of these
colonies of South Europe, and also with the duty of
representing the Church of England in these regions as a
Church, and in particular of advancing those friendly
relations and that mutual understanding between our Church
and the Orthodox Churches of the East which had been
slowly growing for two centuries and a half, and which, under
God's blessing, have made such marked progress in recent
years. It is a matter for profound regret that the Bishopric
was left for years after its establishment coldly to itself, with
no attempt made to foster its infant life by supplies of clergy
and funds from home, and that too much of the aid given in
latter years has been given to particular congregations and
directed to extending the influence of societies centred and
administered in England, and unable to consider or indeed
to know the needs of the wide jurisdiction, rather than to the
diocese as a diocese and for the developing of its maturity,
internal power, and consciousness of dignity and responsibility.
The Diocese of Gibraltar — if it may be allowed to use the
term for the body of clergy and congregations under the
jurisdiction of the Bishop — is thus a Colonial one, bearing a
distinctively representative and interpretative character, and
a peculiar duty of reconciliation ; and from its birth it has
never been charged with and has never attempted either
proselytism or interference with the acknowledged jurisdiction
of other Christian Churches. The establishment of the
Bishopric and its maintenance has from the first enjoyed the
clear approval of the whole Church of England. The estab-
lishment was indeed the measure necessarily taken by our
Church to minister to her own children under altogether
exceptional and unprecedented conditions.
Some have imagined that the action of our Church in
ministering to these her children in South Europe by her own
clergy and in her own churches, and in placing clergy,
xil INTRODUCTION
congregations, and churches under a Bishop consecrated for
such a charge, is an act of " intrusion " into the jurisdiction
of other Churches and Bishops, and that such "intrusion " is
contrary to the fundamental principles of the Church
Catholic. But intrusion here there is none. To regard this
action of our Church as intrusive is to close the eyes to the
facts under which we have to live. " Church Organization is
an accommodation of the Kingdom of God to the conditions
of space. In becoming local it naturally loses something of
its ideal character. . . . As system grows, so grows the
danger of being in love with system : of treating it as an end
in itself, and of confusing the Church with the conditions of
the Church on earth. . , . We cannot now treat a map of the
world as if it were divided into Dioceses coloured red, blue
and yellow, according to the extent of the jurisdiction of the
Bishops who preside over diffei-ent sees. The different
Christian communions must in some degree overlap one
another, and in some places (as at Jerusalem) there may,
without offence, be several Bishops claiming the allegiance of
the members of these communions, and not of the whole
Christian population. But where full inter-communion is
unfortunately impossible, a certain comity and reasonableness
of action are to be kept steadily in view." * "A great deal
of the loose (or rather rigorist) language," wrote Bishop
Collins,t "which is current upon this point is at once inde-
fensible and ridiculous. People talk as if whole regions had
been, or could be, formally ' taken over ' by Churches in the
way in which parts of Africa have been taken over by the
great Powers, so that henceforth any ' intrusion ' into such
regions on the part of another Church is of the nature of an
'unfriendly act.' But the real truth of the matter is that
ecclesiastical jurisdiction is primarily personal and not geo-
graphical. It has to do primarily not with regions, but with
such individuals as are subject to the particular jurisdiction ;
and it is only for purposes of obvious and necessary con-
venience that these individuals are marked out as beinsf
* B'shop John Wordsworth, The Mifiistry of Grace, pp. 143, 177.
t 7 he Anglican Communion, Pan-AngUcan Papers, No. 6, S.P.C.K.,
1907.
INTRODUCTION xiii
those who dwell within a particular region, . . . There is no
infringement of ecclesiastical jurisdiction involved in the fact
of (^.^.) Greeks, Roman Catholics, and Anglicans working in
the same country (deplorable as such overlapping may be
in other ways) any more than in their working on the same
earth. This is gradually being recognized on all hands. It
is true that some people still talk as if they believed in a
kind of Monroe doctrine ; popular delusions die hard. But
little by little the logic of facts is making the matter plain
to everybody."
Even had the great Communions preserved full inter-
communion, it would still be fitting and right that, for the
complete instruction and edification of our own people living
among nations of other tongues and customs of worship, our
own clergy should minister to them, that they might hear
in their own language, wherein they were born, the mighty
works of God.* But conditions are not so happy. We are
thankful, indeed, that the Spirit of God has preserved the
Church of England from excommunicating the other great
Communions. But we are not in communion with them ;
and while at present mutual understanding and friendliness
with the Eastern Church is steadily advancing, and that
Church is willing to minister to our people in extreme
necessities, the Roman Church withholds even this exercise
of charity, and refuses all ministrations save on the condition
of repudiation of our Mother Church and joining the
Church of Rome. Neither Church acknowledges responsi-
bility for the children of our Church living in South Europe ;
and so long as both find themselves unable to minister to
them regularly the Sacraments and privileges of the Church,
it is an act of necessity and bounden duty incumbent on the
Church of England to serve her own children and have them
in her keeping, and it is consistent with acknowledged
principle ; and the normal way of doing this is through a
Bishop and his clergy. There is no intrusion here ; and the
Eastern Church perfectly understands our action, claiming
for herself and exercising the same liberty of action, and does
* Cf. Bishop Sandford's Pastoral Letter, 1878, p. 20.
xiv INTRODUCTION
not interpret it in any way as unfriendly. Of this the follow-
ing pages will furnish full evidence, if evidence be required.
There are, however, still some who base Catholicity upon
geographical accidents, and from this position challenge the
action of our Church in this matter. These have to face the
Cyprianic maxim, Episcopates imus est, cuius a singulis in
solidum pars tenetur — The Episcopate is one, and all Bishops
are full partners in it, zvith joint and several responsibility * —
and its underlying principle. That general principle is that
all Bishops are equal, and all have a share in the concerns
of the whole Church. The words and their principle are
judged by such an authority as the late Bishop Wordsworth
of Salisbury to justify a Bishop in grave emergencies in act-
ing in other Dioceses than his own " in cases where he has
reason to believe that the general approval of the Church
will follow what he has done, not when he acts in an arbitrary
and singular manner." It is difficult to imagine a clearer case
for such action than that created by the conditions of our
English Church people abroad, for without it they lack the
ordinary ministrations of the Church which are the heritage
of all her members, save on terms inconsistent with continued
loyalty to the Church of England. If St. Athanasius, return-
ing from exile in Arian days, made no scruple (as Bingham
says) to ordain in several cities as he went along, although
they were not in his own diocese, and St. Anselm, in travelling
on the Continent, confirmed children brought to him,t the
Church of England has surely full right to commission a
Bishop and clergy to minister to her own sons and daughters
who would otherwise be sheep not having a shepherd.
All will acknowledge that, in this maternal care of her
children and their enjoyment of it, it is both a duty and, as
the Lambeth Conference of 1908 declared {Res. 66), " of the
greatest importance that our representatives abroad, both
clerical and lay, whilst holding firmly to our position, should
show all Christian courtesy towards the Churches of the
* Cyprian, De Unitate, 5. See Bishop J. Wordsworth, The Ministry
of Grace, pp. 173 ff. See also infra, pp. 169 ff.
t Bingham, Aut. II., 5, § 3, q.v. ; Socrates^ H. E., ii. 24; Words-
worth, op. cit., pp. 174 ff. ; R. W. Church, St. Anselm, p. 272.
INTRODUCTION xv
lands in which they reside and towards their ecclesiastical
authorities." And as we may be profoundly thankful that
our Church has been guarded against excommunicating the
Eastern and Roman Churches, so we may be equally
thankful that in her care for her members in South Europe
she has been guided to observe that "comity and reasonable-
ness of action " which Bishop J. Wordsworth declared should
be kept steadily in view. " Organized proselytism among
Christian Churches," wrote Bishop Collins,* " is an ' unfriendly
act ' ; Christian courtesy dictates a proper consideration and
due deference among Churches as among individuals ; " and
not only has " organized proselytism " been markedly absent
from the spirit of our communities from their earliest days,
but it has been, and is the settled purpose of the Bishopric of
Gibraltar to confine its ministrations entirely to our own
people in accordance with its clear commission, and accord-
ingly to abstain from proselytism, direct or indirect, and from
all action liable to be so interpreted ; from anything of the
nature of an " Anglican Mission " in the Eastern or Roman
Churches ; and to disclaim and repress all attempts to detach
members of those Churches from the Communion of their
baptism. This it is hoped the following pages, and in
particular the account of Bishop Sandford's long and noble
episcopate, most amply prove. And this purpose, in no way
to infringe the jurisdiction of other Christian Bishops over
their flocks, has been followed with increasing clearness and
fixity, in spite of much pressure both from England and on
the Continent, a growing sense of the need of reform in both
the great sister Communions, and frequent invitations and
prayers to depart from it. But we in the Diocese of Gibraltar
feel that the very intensity with which we resent and protest
against the Roman Catholic claims and propaganda must be
a measure of the firmness with which we set our face against
similar or retaliatory action, and that we live under the great
law, Whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, even so
do ye also unto them.
While this determination lasts, and this clear line of action
is maintained, no member of the Church of England need
* The Anglican Communion, p. 9.
xvi INTRODUCTION
have any misgiving of the rightfulness of her action in
South Europe ; and on all her children, to whom she offers
there her ministration of the Word and Sacraments, rests the
duty and the blessing of receiving it, with grateful and quiet
hearts, at her hands and hers alone, or those of Churches in
communion with her.
In this book I have tried to sketch the history of the
Diocese ; to trace the main features of the life of the colonies
under review as communities of the Church of England widely
scattered and long neglected ; the steps by which since the
establishment of the Bishopric they have slowly advanced in
Church Order and organized Diocesan life, coherence, and
mutual service. I have tried to show also the attitude
adopted by the Bishopric and Diocese towards both the
Eastern and Roman Communions, and towards various
reforming movements, especially those aiming at reforms in
the Church of Rome. And lastly, I have wished to give an
idea of what lies before the Diocese in its task of ministering
to all classes of communities — a task which it will appear
has yet to be met when the many small colonies scattered
between the Atlantic and the Caspian, as yet inadequately
shepherded, and the vast number of British seamen frequenting
the ports in this vast area is borne in mind. That so much
has been done is due, under God's blessing, to the deep and
long-standing religious character of our larger colonies, and
the generosity of those newer communities which have grown
up in the Riviera and Italy since the formation of the Diocese.
But my pages are little more than a first sketch. Records
available have been few, scanty, and difficult to get at ; and
the life of a Bishop of Gibraltar is not one that makes easy
the task of a chronicler or student of research. The materials
and information here put together have been collected in
intervals spread over six years between, and even during long
journeys, and in the midst of the never-ceasing routine duties
of a colonial bishop ; and I am aware that my sketch will call
for, and I trust it may receive, real indulgence and considera-
tion. It has not been possible to relate the history of particular
chaplaincies or colonies, or, as I should have liked to do, to
INTRODUCTION xvii
dwell on contributions made to spiritual life and work within
the limits of the jurisdiction by many noble-hearted and
unselfish laymen and clergy. I must perforce leave to others
the happy labour of gathering from works of travel, biographies,
consular annals, and indeed local Church records much that
will illustrate the religious life of communities and the
vicissitudes and progress of chaplaincies, and the correction
of inadequacies and mistakes into which I have fallen. But
without some knowledge of earlier days no one can rightly
live and work as churchman or chaplain ; and I trust that these
pages may at least promote among ourselves a serviceable
acquaintance with our own character, tasks, and working as a
Diocese ; may foster interest in our past and grateful appre-
ciation of some who have passed to their rest ; and may
create in the home Church a greater understanding of the
Diocese and concern for it, and elicit more assistance than
has been hitherto vouchsafed in ministering to the distant
sons and daughters of English homes.
I am indebted to the Society for the Propagation of the
Gospel for a complete set of the Colonial Church Chronicle,
and for the use of the blocks of the illustrations of the
Crimean Memorial Church at Constantinople, and of the
Society's Seal ; to the Society for Promoting Christian
Knowledge for the use of a portrait of Bishop Tomlinson in
the possession of the Society; to the Reverend Dr. A. J.
Mason, Canon of Canterbury, for permission to use his
Memoir of Bishop Collins, and to Messrs. J. Russell and Sons
for the use of a photograph of the Bishop ; to Mr. W. E.
Gray for a photograph of the portrait of Bishop Sandford
now in Christ Church, Oxford, and to the Very Reverend the
Dean and the Body of Christ Church for permission to use it
as an illustration ; and lastly and in particular to Mrs. E. G.
Sandford, whose kindness has presented to the Diocese
through m.e the Bishop's own complete series of his Pastoral
Letters, without which it would have been impossible to try
to do a belated justice to his long labours among us. To these
and all others who have helped me I am sincerely grateful.
Hy. G.
CONTENTS
I
I 500- I 842
CHAPTER I
BRITISH MERCANTILE COMMUNITIES IN SOUTH EUROPE AND THE
LEVANT
PACK
1. Early British Trading Settlements in Southern Europe and the Levant i
2. The rehgious spirit of early English mercantile enterprise, especially
manifested in missionary anticipations based on it ... ... 5
3. Religion in early British Communities of Southern Europe and the
Levant — in {a) the Factories of the Levant Company ; (6) in other
Communities ... ... ... ... ... ... 14
CHAPTER n
THE SPIRITUAL SUPERVISION OF THE MERCANTILE COMMUNITIES,
AND THE DISSOLUTION OF THE LEVANT COMPANY
1. The responsibility for spiritual oversight of the Bishop of London ... 23
2. The dissolution of the Levant Company in 1825, and the Consular
Advances Act ... ... ... ... ... ... 28
CHAPTER ni
NON-MERCANTILE CONGREGATIONS AND CHAPLAINCIES
1. Congregations and Chaplaincies of the Riviera and Italy ... ... 33
2. Of Government Establishments ... „. ... ... ... 35
3. Of Embassies ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 35
Jcjd CONTENTS
CHAPTER IV
THE FOUNDATION OF THE BISHOPRIC OF GIBRALTAR
PAGE
1. Anxiety for the episcopal supervision of Colonial Churches ... ... 37
2. The Consecration of Bishop Luscombe, 1825 ... ... ... 39
3. The action of Bishop Blomfield, 1840-1841. The Bishopric of Gib-
raltar proposed ... ... ... ... ... ... 41
4. The Letters Patent establishing the See of Gibraltar, and the Foreign
Office Circular, 1842 ... ... ... ... ... 42
Note. — The legal aspect of the Bishopric of Gibraltar as founded ... 46
II
THE BISHOPRIC OF GIBRALTAR, 1842-1873
CHAPTER V
THE EPISCOPATE OF BISHOP TOMLINSON, 1842-1863
1. Bishop Tomlinson. The condition of Church Life in the Diocese, 1842 50
2. Bishop Tomlinson's ministrations ... ... ... ... 55
3. The Church of England at Constantinople ; the building of the Crimean
Memorial Church ... ... ... ... ... ... 57
4. The spiritual condition of the English in Spain ... ... ... 61
Note.— Charge at Visitation of 1844 ... ... ... ••• 64
CHAPTER VI
THE EPISCOPATE OF BISHOP TROWER, 1S63-J868
1. Bishop Trower. His ministrations and travel ... ••• ••• 05
2. Resumption of work on the Continent by the Society for the Propagation
of the Gospel ... ... ••• ^^
3. Progress in the work of the Church of England at Constantinople ... 70
4. Relations with the Eastern Churches ... ... ••• ••• l"^
5. Movements of Religious Reform in Italy and in Spain ... ... 7*
CONTENTS xxi
CHAPTER VII
THE EPISCOPATE OF BISHOP HARRIS, 1868-1873
PAGE
1. Bishop Harris : Personal notes ... ... ... ... ... 77
2. Extension of the jurisdiction of the Bishop ol' Cibialtar ... ... 7S
3. Bishop Harris' three Visitation Tours ... ... ... ... 80
4. Relations with the Eastern Churches ... ... ... ... 81
5. Movements of Religious Reform in Italy and in Spain ... ... 84
6. Missions to Mohammedans in Constantinople and Morocco ; and to
Jews ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 87
7. Foundation of the Gibraltar Diocesan Spiritual Aid Fund ... ... '89
Summary of the progress of the Diocese, 1842-1873 ... ... 91
Note. — Notes of the Visitation Tours of Bishop Harris ... ... 95
III
THE EPISCOPATE OF BISHOP SANDFORD,
I 874-1903
CHAPTER VIII
THE EPISCOPATE OF BISHOP SANDFORD
1. Character of Bishop Sandford's work. His Pastoral Letters. Pre-
sentation of the period, 1 874- 1 903 ... ... ... ... 99
2. Bishop Sandford : Personal notes ... ... ... ... lOi
3. The Disestablishment of the Bishopric ; the repeal of the Consular
Advances Act ; the extension of the jurisdiction of the Bishop of
Gibraltar ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 107
CHAPTER IX
THE EPISCOPATE OF BISHOP SANDFORD {cotttinued)
THE INTERNAL LIFE OF THE DIOCESE
1. The formative work of Bishop Sandford in the Diocese ... ... 116
2. The internal growth of the Diocese, 1874-1903 ... ... ... 125
Advance in Diocesan coherence — The first Diocesan Conference of
1894 — Increase in number of clergy — Parsonages — Lay- Readers —
Building, rebuilding, and improvement of Churches.
XXll
CONTENTS
PAGE
3. Work on behalf of British Seamen ... ... ... ... 134
The Gibraltar Mission to Seamen — its character, growth, and effect
on the Diocese.
4. The Pastoral care of small scattered Communities ... ... ... 14°
5. Care of women ; the Girls' Friendly Society ... ... ... 144
6. The Bishop's attitude towards gambling establishments, and, in par-
ticular, towards that at Monte Carlo ... ... ... ... 146
7. The shrinkage of Missionary Work in the Diocese ... ... ... 149
8. The attendance of Anglicans at Roman Catholic Services ... t.. 150
9. The Diocese and Church Societies ... ... ... ... 152
2.
CHAPTER X
THE EPISCOPATE OF BISHOP SANDEORD {cOncluded)
THE RELATIONS OF THE DIOCESE AND BISHOP OF GIBRALTAR
WITH OTHER COMMUNIONS
Relations with (a) the Orthodox Churches of the East ; [b) the Roman
Catholic Church ... ... ..'. ... ... ... 154
The attitude towards Proselytism, and towards Movements of Reform
in Italy and in the Peninsula. The Spanish Reformed Church, and
the Consecration of Bishop Cabrera in 1894 ... ... ... 163
IV
THE EPISCOPATE OF BISHOP COLLINS,
1904-1911
CHAPTER XI
THE EPISCOPATE OF BISHOP COLLINS
PROGRESS OF DIOCESAN LIFE, 1904-19II
1. Bishop Collins : Personal notes ...
2. Progress of Diocesan life
(fl) Extension of preceding work.
{b) The Diocesan Conference and Synod of 1905.
(f) The foundation of the Chaplaincies Sustentation Fund.
((/) The Gibraltar Diocesan Trust.
(^) The Deanery of Gibraltar. St. Paul's, Valletta, made
legiate Church.
176
183
Col-
CONTENTS xxiii
CHAPTER XII
THE EPISCOPATE OF BISHOP COLLINS {continued)
THE DIOCESAN CONFERENCE AND SYNOD OF CLERGY, I905
PAGE
The Organization and Internal Economy of Chaplaincies ... •■• I95
(fl) Chaplaincies and Societies.
(p) Control and disposal of Church Collections — Churchwardens.
The Services of the Church abroad — Special conditions of the Diocese —
The Rubrical requirement as to number of Communicants ... 202
The Synod of Clergy ... ... ... ... ... ■•• 207
CHAPTER XIII
THE EPISCOPATE OF BISHOP COLLINS {coucluded)
RELATIONS WITH OTHER COMMUNIONS, AND WITH RELIGIOUS
BODIES
Relations with the Eastern Churches ... ... ... ... 208
(a) The Bishop's journey to Kurdistan — Marash and Aintab.
{d) The Lambeth Conference, 1908.
(c) Representative character and function of English clerg>' and
laity.
Relations with the Roman Catholic Church ... ... ... 211
(a) The Lambeth Conference, 1908.
{i>) Reforming Movements in Italy and in the Peninsula.
Need of diocesan, congregational, and individual loyalty to the
Church of England, especially in relations with Nonconformists ... 214
V
CHAPTER XIV
THE DIOCESE OF GIBRALTAR, 191I-I914, AND ITS PRESENT
WORK AND TASKS
191I-I914 ... ••• ••• ••• ••• ••• ••• 218
Present work and tasks ... ... ... ... ••• ... 219
{a) Maintenance of relations with the great Communions,
{d) The work of the Church in the larger and settled Mercantile
Communities.
{c) The provision of ministrations for small scattered Mercantile
Communities.
(d) Extension of work among British Seamen,
{e) The work of the Church in Riviera and Season Chaplaincies.
(/) The revival of concern for Foreign Missions.
{g) The provision of a cential Diocesan Registry and Office.
(/i) The formation of a Diocesan Council .
XXIV
CONTENTS
CHAPTER XV
The Diocese under the Kuropenn War, 1914-1917
PAGR
244
Chaplaincies of ihe Diocese of Gihrahar, 1914
258
IxDKX (i) Persons
(ii) Local ..
(iii) General
263
266
269
ILLUSTRATIONS
Map showing the limits ok the JuRisDicrioN of the Bishop
OF Gibraltar To face introduction
I. Le Passage sombre, Baku To face title-page
TO FACE PAGE
33
2. English Chapel at Nice, built 1821
{From a drawing preserved in Holy Trinity Church)
3. IIOLY Trinity Cathedral, Gibraltar {interior) 41
4. Bishop Tomlinsox 50
{From a drawing in the possession o/S.i^.C.A'.)
5. The Crimean Memorial Church, Constantinople (<'x^m<;i>') ... 59
6. Bishop Trower 65
7. Bishop Harris 77
8. Bishop Sandford 99
{Front the portrait painted by Mr. Herbert Olivier, now in the Hall of
Christ Church, Oxford)
9. Holy Trinity Church, Nice {interior) 133
10. All Saints' Church, Rome {interior) 154
11. Bishop Collins 176
12. Marsamuscetta Harbour, Valletta, showing the position
OF St. Paul's Collegiate Church 193
13 A City of Spirts— An Oil-field, Baku 217
14. "The old order changeth, giving place to new." The
Temple, Court, and Cells of Fire-worshippers, Baku ... 243
REFERENCES TO AUTHORITIES
H. The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques, and Discoveries of the
English Nation, by Richard Hakluyt, 1589, 1598. References are given
to the edition in Every Man's Library (J. M. Dent, 8 vols.).
Anderson. The History of the Church of England in the Colonies and Foreign
Dependencies of the British Empire, by the Rev. J. S. M. Anderson,
M.A. 3 vols., 1845-1856.
Account of the Levant Co. An Account of the Levant Company, with
some Notices of the Benefits conferred upon Society by its Officers in
promoting the cause of Humanity, Literature, and the Fine Arts, etc., etc,
London, 1825.
R. The Bishop's Register, containing entries 1842- 1903.
C.C. C. The Colonial Church Chronicle and Missionary Journal. Published
July, 1847-1875-
S. Bishop Sandford's Pastoral Letters. Issued annually (except 1877), 1875-
1903.
S. C. P. Bishop Sandford's Papers read before Church Congresses.
C. Q. R. The Church Quarterly Review.
A. C. M. The Anglican Church Magazine (London Agent: Hugh Rees,
119, Pall Mall).
C. Reg. Bishop Collins' Register of Episcopal Acts.
S.P.G. denotes the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel ; C.C.C.S., the
Colonial and Continental Church Society ; L.J.S., the London Society for
Promoting Christianity amongst the Jews.
Other references are sufficiently given in text or notes.
THE DIOCESE OF GIBRALTAR
I
1500 — 1842
CHAPTER I
BRITISH MERCANTILE COMMUNITIES IN SOUTH
EUROPE AND THE LEVANT
(i) Early British trading settlements in Southern
Europe and the Levant
FOR practical purposes the historian of the Diocese of
Gibraltar must start by a study of the " Principal
Navigations " of Richard Hakluyt, and particularly of the part
of that priceless and absorbingly interesting compilation which
deals with English trade on the coasts of the Mediterranean
and in South Russia in the sixteenth century. It is out-
side our present subject to touch these wonderful pages, save
to refer to the evidence which they afford not only of early
trade at a great number of ports, from Portugal to the Caspian,
but also of settled English merchants and mercantile com-
munities. Thus these records tell of Robert Thorne who
"dwelt long in the citie of Sivil " before 1527 ; of trade with
Cadiz (1550) ; of the " ordinarie and usuall," the "very usuall
and much frequented trade " to Sicily, Crete, Chios, Cyprus,
from 15 1 1 to 1534, interrupted in 1550 and renewed, "happily
reviving and much increasing", in 1575. So they incidentally
tell of William Eyms, factor at Chios, 15 33-1544, and his
successor Robert Bye 1 544-1552 ; of William Barret, factor of
John Gresham, in Crete, 1535 ; of trade at Messina, 1550; of
B
2 BRITISH TRADING COMMUNITIES
a passport for trade at Malta granted by the Great Master
of Malta in 1582; of English residents and Consul Richard
Forster at Tripoli in Syria in 1583; of English traders,
factors, and their houses at Tripoli in Africa, 1583 ; of resident
merchants and a Consul in Patras, the Morea, Lepanto, and
in Rhodes, 1586. It is worth special note that there was a
Consul at Scio appointed by Henry VIII. as early as 15 13.*
This renewal of the Levant trade in 1575 was doubtless
much promoted by the foundation in 1581 of the Levant
Company. The Company received notable privileges from
the Crown, and Hakluyt preserves the letter of Elizabeth to
the Emperors of Constantinople (1580) and Morocco (1581)
in support of British trade. Mr. William Harebourne, factor
for Sir Edward Osborne, became our first "Ambassadour or
Agent" in the parts of Turkey 1582 — a vigorous champion
of the privileges granted to the English Merchants by the
Emperor of Constantinople in 1580.
With the growing superiority of British sea-force from
1588 such colonies increased in number and wealth, and in
settled residential character. This expansion of colonies and
trade appears in the Charter granted to the Levant Com-
pany, December 14, 1605, conferring monopoly of trade in
or to the Seigniory of Venice, the Gulf of Venice, the State of
Ragousa, any other state or government within the Gulf of
Venice, the dominions of the Grand Seignior {i.e. the Sultan
of Turkey), any other port of the Levant or Mediterranean
Seas, except Carthagena, Alicante, Denia, Valencia, Barcelona,
Marseilles, Toulon, Genoa, Leghorn, Naples, Civita-Vecchia,
Palermo, Messina, Malta, Minorca, Majorca, Corsica, and all
other ports and places of trade upon the coasts of France,
Spain, Tuscany, or any of them.f
Meanwhile, in the further East British trade with its
accompaniment of resident communities had penetrated
across Russia, following the great water-ways of the Dwina
and the Volga. In 1552 was founded "The Mysterie and
Companie of the Marchants Adventurers for the discoverie
of Regions, Dominions, Islands, and places unknowen," later
* Anderson, i. p. 16.
t Account of the Levant Company, pp. 22, 23.
SOUTH EUROPE AND THE LEVANT 3
known as " The fellowship or Companie of English Merchants
for the discovery of new trades," or more briefly the " Muscovie
Company," of which in his old age Sebastian Cabot was first
Governor. This company soon had its factories and resident
families. In 1568 it had at Colmogro, Vologda, and Jeraslav
lands, houses, offices, and stores. When in 1571 Moscow was
burnt by the Crimean Tartars, there must have been a con-
siderable English Colony, for 29 English, including women
and children, perished by suffocation in their own houses.
In 1565 the Company had "a barke or craer of 27 tunnes "
on the Volga for trade down the great river and on the
Caspian, "handsomly made after the English fashion;" but
soon a still larger one of 60 tons or more was required for
goods and victuals, and for safety. In about 1570 the Com-
pany's Agent, Mr. Geffrey Ducket, had discovered Baku and
its oil trade. " Neere unto Bachu," he writes, " is a strange
thing to behold. For there issueth out of the ground a
marvellous quantitie of oile, which oile they fetch from the
uttermost bounds of all Persia : it serveth all the countrey
to burne in their houses. This oile is blacke, and is called
Nefte : they used to cary it throughout all the countrey upon
kine and asses, of which you shall oftentimes meet with foure
or five hundred in a company. There is also by the said
towne of Bachu another kind of oile which is white and very
precious : and is supposed to be the same that here is called
Petroleum." *
Thus were born those vigorous, far-sighted, adventurous,
resolute, observant English mercantile communities in Southern
Europe now under the spiritual care of the Bishopric of Gib-
raltar. Of their early character and enterprise the records of
Hakluyt, of the great Companies named, and of the State
must tell. Few visible local memorials of them remain ; the
chief and earliest are connected with burial. On the island
of Halki in the Sea of Marmora there is.still the tomb of Sir
Edward Barton, the first resident Ambassador from England
to Constantinople, who went out in 1581 and died in 1597.
It was in good condition when seen by the late Sir Gerard
* H. 2, p. 132.
4 BRITISH TRADING COMMUNITIES
Lowther, our Ambassador. In the Embassy Chapel at Con-
stantinople is treasured a headstone, inscribed
REV. THOMAS KING (CANTAB.)
ENGLISH PASTOR AT CONSTANTINOPLE
DIED OCT. 15, 1618. AGED 35.
MOST FAITHFUL.
The great Palace of the Levant Company built in that
city at a cost of ;^io,ooo|has vanished. At Tunis, in the
garden of St. George's Church are two fine long, narrow tomb-
stones with arabesque borders, bearing inscriptions in raised
letters : the one,
IN MEMORIAM MRI
GULIELMI HAINES
MERCATORIS ANGLI
CI QUI OBIIT TUNISIIS
XIX DIE NOVEMBRIS MDCXLIX
the other,
DEPOSITUM CONSULIS
CAMPION OBIIT
PRIMO OCTOBRIS MDCLXI
Our English burial grounds began at an early date.
Among the first is that at Leghorn (1640). The magnificent
Factory House at Oporto, with its reception rooms, library,
and hospitable spirit, built about 1756,* belongs to a later
date ; but it transmits the associations and cameraderie of the
old Factory life, and serves to give to our Colony in that city
its peculiar charm. The present Parsonage at Lisbon is said
to be part of the old Factory there. It was only in 1890 that
the old buildings of the Levant Company at Smyrna, with
the almost historic Chapel, were demolished to meet modern
Consular needs, to the great loss and distress of the com-
munity.
The chief monuments of those days are literary, and
reference to them will be made later in connexion with the
distinguished men of the Company to whom we owe them.
* Sellers, Oporto New and Old, pp. 66, 91. '
SOUTH EUROPE AND THE LEVANT 5
(2) The religions spirit of early English Mercantile
Enterprise
The mention of the grave of the " most faithful " young
Engh'sh Pastor at Constantinople, with its note of the grateful
appreciation of his flock there, leads us to dwell on the deeply
religious spirit of the mercantile expansion of England in the
seventeenth century, and of provision made for the spiritual
needs of our mercantile colonies.
Religion entered much into state and commercial life in
that century. Witness the prayer which prefaces " the privi-
ledges graunted by the Emperour of Russia to the English
Marchants " of the Muscovie Company, dated Sept. 22,
1567. "One only Strengthener of all things, and God with-
out beginning, which was before the world, the Father, the
Sonne, and the holy Ghost, our onely God in Trinitie, and
maker of all things, whom we worship in all things, and in
all places, the doer and fulfiUer of all things, which is the
perfect knowledge giver of the true God, our Lorde Jesus
Christ, with the Comforter the holy Spirit, and thou which
art the strengthener of our faith, keepe us together, and give
us good health to preserve our Kingdome, thou giver of all
good fruites, and helper of all Christian beleevers." * That
this prayer was not a mere fixed conventional preface to a
State document is shown by the variation in the opening of
a similar grant two years later, which runs : " One God ever-
lasting, and without and before the beginning, the Father, the
Sonne, and the holy Ghost, the blessed Trinitie, our onely
God, maker, and preserver of all things, and replenisher of
all things everywhere, who by thy goodnesse doest cause men
to love the giver of wisdome our onely Mediatour, and leader
of us all unto blessed knowledge by the onely Sonne his word,
our Lord Jesus Christ, holy and everlasting Spirit, and now
in these our dayes teachest us to keepe Christianitie, and suf-
ficest us to enjoy our kingdome to the happy commodity of
our land, and wealth of our people, in despight of our enemies,
and to our fame with our friends."!
* H. 2, p. 73. t H. 2, pp. 85 f.
6 BRITISH TRADING COMMUNITIES
The presence of the reh'gious spirit breaks out in all the
records of our mercantile expansion. The first voyage of ships
of the new Muscovy Company in 1553 is declared in the new
Act for the corporation of the Company in 1566 to have been
not only " for the honor and increase of the revenues of the
Crowne, and the common utilitie of the whole Realme of
England," but also " for the glory of God." * Practical care
for the religious life of its servants was made by the new
Company from the first. John Stafford, Minister, sailed on
the " Edward Bonaventure of 160 tunnes," the largest of the
three vessels which formed the fleet of 1553, as Chaplain to
the combined body of officers, crews, and traders, numbering
only 115 in all. He was apparently the same as " Master
Richard Stafford, Minister," one of the twelve Counsellors
appointed in this voyage.f The " Ordinances, Instructions,
and Advertisements of and for the direction of this first
voiage " contain these provisions : —
" 12. Item, that no blaspheming of God, or detestable
swearing be used in any ship, nor communication of ribaldrie,
filthy tales, or ungodly talk to be suffered in the company of
any ship, neither dicing, carding, tabling, nor other divelish
games to be frequented. . . , These and all such like pesti-
lences, and contagions of vices, and sinnes to be eschewed,
and the offenders, once monished, and not reforming, to be
punished at the discretion of the captaine and master, as
appertaineth.
" 13. Item, that morning and evening prayer, with other
common services appointed by the King's Majestie, and lawes
of this realme to be read and saide in every ship daily by the
Minister in the Admirall (the Bona Esperanza, Admirall of
the fleete, of 120 tunnes), and the marchant or some other
person learned in other ships, and the Bible or paraphrases to
be read devoutly and Christianly to God's honour, and for
his grace to be obtained, and had by humble praier of the '
Navigants accordingly." %
It is remarkable that this last direction is ninety-one years
earlier than the "Prayer particularly fitted for those who
travail on the Sea " and the " Prayer in a Storm " put forth
* H. 2, p. 66. t H. I pp., 241, 245. X H. 1, p. 235.
SOUTH EUROPE AND THE LEVANT 7
in the Order of 1644, and no years earlier than our present
" Forms of Prayer to be used at Sea," added to the Prayer
Book in 1662. And the note then struck in 1552 was con-
tinued later less formally. In the Commission of the Com-
pany to Arthur Pet and Charles Jackman for the voyage
of 1580 we read, "Doe you observe good order in your
dayly service, and pray unto God, so shall you prosper the
better ; " * and in the Instructions to the Masters of a fleet of
nine ships, June i, 1582: "13. See that you serve God,
abolish swearing and gaming, be carefull of fire and candles." t
This solicitude frequently finds expression : " we pray God to
blesse you with a lucky beginning, fortunate successe, and
happily to end the same. Amen " ends the Commission to
the party trading with Russia in 1588. t
This religious spirit and interest is reflected in the Reports
despatches and narratives written to the Company, and in
letters to friends of the traders themselves. Everything con-
nected with religion attracts as much as openings for trade,
custom, fashion, or geography. The state, worship, forms,
rites and ceremonies, and the practice of religion in Russia
and Persia are described from full and shrewd observation.
The presence of a Christian Georgian prince at a Moham-
medan Court in 1561, an Armenians' Christian burial-ground
at Derbent in 1589, find notice. § To Company and friends
alike frequent hints are given of personal religion and prayer.
" I have sowen the seede," writes Richard Cheinie to his
Company of his voyage into Persia of 1563, " and other men
have gathered the harvest : I have travailed both by lande
and by water full many a time with a sorrowful! heart. But
ever my prayer was to God to deliver mee out of these
miseries which I suffered for your service among those
heathen people." || " I shall willingly do my best, putting
my trust in God that he will send me well to speed in this
journey. God give me a good houre and well to speed with
a mery heart in returning againe," writes Arthur Edwards to
the Company on the eve of his perilous journey to Casbin,
* H. 2, p. 205. t H. 2, p. 247. t H. 2, p. 97.
§ H. 2, pp. 22, 187. II H. p. 2, 32.
8 BRITISH TRADING COMMUNITIES
April 26, 1566.* After his safe return, he writes (August 8,
1 566) from the town of Shamaki in Media, " Praysed bee God
who hath wrought with me and for me in all my doings
God graunt me in health to see your worships, for I have had
a carefull travell, with many a sorrowfull day and unquiet
sleepes. Neither had I the company of one English person,
to whom sometimes I might have eased my pensive heart, as
God well knoweth who hath delivered me from mine enemies.
Thus almightie God graunt you in health and wealth long to
live." t There was no disguising of their religion. " That
valiant, wise, and personable gentleman," as Hakluyt calls
him, J Antonie Jenkinson, to whom Mahomet was "a. false
filthie prophet," in his interview in 1561 with the Sophie, the
Shaw Thamas, at Casbin, reports to his Company that the
Shah "reasoned much of religion with mee," and that he was
not ashamed to confess that he was " neither unbeleever nor
Mahometan but a Christian," even though it cost him the
opening for trade. " Doest thou beleeve so ? said the Sophie
unto me. Yea, that I do, said I. Oh thou unbeleever, said
he, we have no need to have friendship with the unbeleevers,
and so willed me to depart. I being glad thereof did
reverence and went my way." §
There was a keen, shrewd sense that the character of the
merchants affected the prospects of trade. " Your worships,"
wrote Richard Cheinie to the Company, " must send such
men as are no riotous livers, nor drunkards. For if such men
goe, it will be to your dishonour and great hinderance, as
appeared by experience the yeere 1565, whenas Richard
Johnson went to Persia, whose journey had bene better
stayed than set forward. For whereas before wee had the
name among those heathen people to be such marchants as
they thought none like in all respects, his vicious living there
hath made us to be compted worse than the Russes. Againe,
if such men travaile in your affaires, you shall never know
what gaine is to be gotten. For how can such men imploy
themselves to seeke the trade, that are inclined to such
* H. 2, pp. 38, 39. t H. 2, p. 49.
t Preface to 2nd Edn. oi Principal Nazdgatio7is^ 1598.
§ H. 2, pp. 21, 22.
SOUTH EUROPE AND THE LEVANT g
vices ? or howe can God prosper them in your affaires ? But
when a trade is estabh'shed by wise and discreet men, then
wil it be for your worships to traffique there, and not before :
for a voiage or market made evil at the first is the occasion
that your worships shal never understand what gaine is to be
gotten thereby hereafter." * Testimony to the good name
borne by the English traders finds a place in a letter dictated
by Lionel Plumtree to the Company in 1574, giving an
account of the fifth voyage into Persia. " One thing some-
what strange I thought good in this place to remember, that
whereas hee (the Shaugh) purposed to send a great summe of
money to Mecca in Arabia, for an offering to Mahomet their
prophet, he would not send any money or coyne of his
owne, but sent to the English merchants to exchange his
coyne for theirs, according to the value of it, yeelding this
reason for the same, that the money of the merchants was
gotten by good meanes, and with good consciences, and was
therefore woorthie to be made for an oblation to their holy
prophet, but his owne money was rather gotten by fraud,
oppression and unhonest means, and therefore not fit to serve
for so holie a use." f
But the religious element in the spirit of English mercan-
tile enterprise is even more strikingly shown in the missionary
anticipations based on it. While Richard Hakluyt himself
expected that trade and discovery would turn to " the infinite
wealth and honour of our Countrey, to the honest employ-
ment of many thousands of our idle people, to the great
comfort and rejoycing of our friends, to the terror, daunting
and confusion of our foes," as he writes in the Epistle Dedi-
catorie of 1598, he could also write in his first Epistle
Dedicatorie of 1589 of our intercourse with Eastern peoples
as a "pledge of God's further favour both unto us and them :
to them especially, unto whose doores I doubt not in time
shalbe by us caried the incomparable treasure of the trueth
of Christianity, and of the Gospell, while we use and exercise
common trade with their marchants." t
* H. 2, pp. 32 f. t H. 2, p. 121.
X H. I, pp. 4, 18.
10 BRITISH TRADING COMMUNITIES
The earlier attempts at American colonization were marked
by careful concern for the heathen natives as well as for the
spiritual welfare of the adventurers. To Frobisher's third,
and last, expedition of 1578 there was added by Her
Majesty's Council " Maister Wolfall, a learned man, to be
their Minister and Preacher. He being well seated and
settled at home, with a good and large living, having a good
honest woman to wife, and very towardly children, being of
good reputation among the best, refused not to take in hand
this paineful voyage, for the onely care he had to save soules,
and to reforme those Infidels if it were possible to Chris-
tianitie." On landing he " preached a godly sermon, which
being ended, he celebrated a Communion upon the land, at
the partaking whereof was the Captaine of the Anne Francis,
and many other Gentlemen and Souldiers, Mariners, and
Miners with him. The celebration of the divine mystery
was the first signe, scale, and confirmation of Christs name,
death, and passion ever'knowen in these quarters. The said
M. Wolfall made sermons, and celebrated the Communion at
sundry other times, in severall and sundry ships, because the
whole company could never meet together at any one place." *
Sir George Peckham, Knight, the "chiefe Adventurer
and furtherer " of Sir Humphrey Gilbert's voyage to New-
foundland in 1583 regarded Christopher Columbus as "the
first instrument to manifest the great glory and mercie of
Almightie God in planting the Christian faith, in those so
long unknowen regions," and wrote that the "sequele" of
his discovery of America " hath since awaked out of dreames
thousands of soules to know their Creator, being thereof
before that time altogether ignorant." To Peckham it was
" to be lamented that these poore Pagans, so long living in
ignorance and idolatry, and in sort thirsting after Christianity,
that our hearts are so hardened, that fewe or none can be
found which will put to their helping hands, and apply them-
selves to the relieving of the miserable and wretched estate
of these sillie soules." He regarded Gilbert's voyage as for
trade " commodious to the whole Realme in generall, profit-
able to the adventurers in particular, beneficiall to the
* H. 5, pp. 250 f. ; 265, f.
SOUTH EUROPE AND THE LEVANT ii
Savages, and lastly (which is most of all) A thing tending to
the honour and glory of Almightie God. The use of trade
and traffique (be it never so profitable) ought not to be pre-
ferred before the planting of Christian faith, without which
Christian Religion can take no roote, be the Preachers never
so carefull and diligent," and by "planting" Peckham means
the peaceable and righteous establishment of trade. He
hopes that " it shall fall out in proof e, that the Savages shall
have just cause to blesse the houre when this enterprise was
undertaken. First and chiefly in respect of the most happy
and gladsome tidings of the most glorious Gospel of our
Saviour Jesus Christ, whereby they may be brought from
falshood to trueth, from darknesse to light, from the hie way
of death to the path of life, from superstitious idolatrie to
sincere Christianity, from the devill to Christ, from hell to
heaven. And if in respect of all the commodities they can
yeelde us (were they many moe) that they should but receive
this onely benefit of Christianity, they were more than fully
recompenced." Peckham held that " by Christian dutie we
stand bound chiefly to further all such acts as do tend to
encreasing of the true flock of Christ." To this missionary-
hearted layman trade and discovery are " gratefuU in the
sight of our Saviour Christ, and tending to the honour and
glory of the Trinitie. Bee of good cheere therefore," he
continues, " for he that cannot erre hath sayd : That before
the ende of the world, his word shall bee preached to all
nations. Which good worke I trust is reserved for our nation
to accomplish in these parts : Wherefore my deere countrey-
men, be not dismayed ; for the power of God is nothing
diminished, nor the love that he hath to the preaching and
planting of the Gospell any whit abated." *
And Peckham was not alone. At the same time Mr.
Edward Haie, " gentleman, and principall actour in the same
voyage" of 1583, "who alone continued until the end," in
his account of it, writes that had the discoveries of John
Cabot and his son Sebastian been followed up, " the seed of
Christian religion had bene sowed amongst those Pagans,
which by this time might have brought foorth a most plentiful!
* H. 6, pp. 46, f. ; 49 ; 68 ; n, f.
12 BRITISH TRADING COMMUNITIES
harvest and copious congregation of Christians ; which must
be the chiefe intent of such as shall make any attempt that
way : or els whatsoever is builded upon other foundation
shall never obtaine happy successe nor continuance " — a truly
remarkable presentation of a foundation of mercantile pros-
perity. To Haie, if a man's motives in participating in
trade expansion " be derived from a vertuous and heroycall
mind, preferring chiefly the honour of God, compassion of
poore infidels captived by the devill, tyrannizing in most
woonderfull and dreadfull maner over their bodies and
soules . . . the same may hope or rather confidently repose in
the pre-ordinance of God that in this last age of the world
(or likely never) the time is compleat of receiving also these
Gentiles into his mercy, and that God will raise him an
instrument to effect the same." *
It is certainly worth recording that Sir Walter Raleigh
himself after he had made over to a company of merchants
in London in 1588-9 all the rights and privileges conferred
upon him by the Letters Patent which he had received from
Elizabeth, not only continued to assist the company with his
advice, but also gave them ^100 " for the propagation of the
Christian religion in Virginia," the first offering avowedly
made by an Englishman for this purpose.f This colonial
evangelization was rewarded by the first baptism of a native
of Virginia, an Indian chief, which took place on the island
of Roanoak on August 13, 1587. Even the Crown hoped for
spiritual fruit from the colonies. James I. in an ordinance
which accompanied the Charter for Virginia in 1606 showed
that he did not regard them as mere trading outposts, desiring
"that the true word and service of God be preached, planted
and used not only in the Colonies but as much as might be
among the savages bordering upon them, and this according
to the rites and doctrines of the Church of England." t The
missionary hope of these sixteenth-century mercantile adven-
turers is blazoned for ever in the well-known seal of the
* H. 6, pp. 2, 3.
t See Anderson, T/ie History of the Colonial Church, I. loi ; Oldys's
Life of Raleii^h, p. 118.
X See Cheetham, Church History; Modej-n Period, p. 68.
SOUTH EUROPE AND THE LEVANT 13
Society for the Propagation of the Gospel which was adopted
at the second meeting of the Society on July 8, 1701, and
appears on the First Report of 1704, in which an old wood-
cut of Raleigh's vessel at anchor (with the cross at the mast-
head and a clergyman of gigantic proportions standing in
the bows with Bible in hand, while natives are running down
to greet the vessel, and a scroll, inscribed " Transiens adjuva
nos" floats in the sky), is combined with the^ seal of
Massachusetts.*
* Wynne, The Church in Greater Britain^ 1903, p. 26 j The Spiritual
Expansion of the Empire (S.P.G.), P- 6.
14 BRITISH TRADING COMMUNITIES
(3) Religion in early British Communities of Southern
Europe and the Levant ; {a) in the Factories of
the Levant Company ; (b) in other colonies
It was to be expected that this reh'gious element thus
characterizing organized British mercantile expansion both
in the East and West, alike in those who directed it from
England and those engaged in it abroad, would be found
also in those concerned with our trade in the Mediterranean
and the Levant. And so it is in the Association of Levant
traders known as the Levant Company. We have already
seen the evidence of resident British merchants in the Levant
and Mediterranean early in the sixteenth century. There
was a close connexion between those concerned in the dis-
covery of trade here and in Russia ; for example, Antony
Jenkinson, who plays so large a part in the early history of
the Muscovy Company had in 1553 advanced to the ex-
tremity of the Mediterranean and visited Aleppo. African
pirates, however, Mohammedan rule, French and Venetian
competition delayed awhile the organization of our trade in
these parts. But the Licence for trade obtained by Elizabeth
from the Ottoman Government in 1580, under which Mr.
Harebourne and Sir Edward Barton served as Ambassadors,
led to the grant of a perpetual Charter by James I. in 1605
to certain English merchants to be " one Fellowship and one
Body Corporate and Politic, by the name of Governor and
Company of Merchants of England trading to the Levant
Seas," and Sir Thomas Glover was then sent out as Ambas-
sador to watch over the interests of the merchants in Turkey.
The Charter and its privileges were renewed and extended
in 1643 and 1753. This Company was in character an asso-
ciation of merchants. It was not a Joint Stock Company.
It laid no imposts on the trade of its members. Merchants
could join of right on payment of a small sum {£20), and
then trade entirely on their own account. The members taxed
themselves for necessary expenses. Thus it championed and
did not fetter liberty of trade ; indeed it traded only in
specified ports, as is shown by the charter of 1605 (see p. 2) ;
and the name of a Turkey merchant became one of the most
SOUTH EUROPE AND THE LEVANT 15
respectable for opulence and character in the commercial
world. These brief notes of this famous company are re-
quired if we would do justice to the chief early British trading
settlements in South Europe.
From the very first the company had power to provide
ministers at the expense of the members of the Corporation,
and not by levy laid on the trading community on the spot.
The choice of the ministers and their removal rested with the
company. Thus it provided chaplains as well as officials and
doctors for their factories at Constantinople, Smyrna, Aleppo —
the most important mercantile establishment in the East in
the early seventeenth century — Alexandria, Algiers, Patras,
and elsewhere. At Smyrna it built a chapel (demolished
only in 1890) and a house for the chaplain attached ; and we
may judge from this that the same was done elsewhere. If
some of the clergy it employed is any indication of the
calibre of the chaplains generally, of the religious character
and intelligence of the trading settlements, and of the home
appreciation of the importance of such ministry abroad, we
are led to form a very high estimate on these points, and one
which may well contribute to a justification of the famous
dictum, current early in the seventeenth century, stupor mtindi
clems Anglicanus.* The "most faithful" Thomas King,
English Pastor at Constantinople, who died in 1618, was
presumably their earliest chaplain there. Many of their
chaplains were men of notable learning. Charles Robson,
chaplain at Aleppo, 1628, was a Fellow of Queen's College,
Oxford. Edward Pococke, the orientalist, later Professor of
Arabic at Oxford, was chaplain at Aleppo in 1630, and at
Constantinople in 1637 — a man distinguished not only for
his vast learning, but for charity, pastoral zeal, and self-
devotion in ministering to those stricken by plague in 1634.
Thomas Smith, " Rabbi Smith," chaplain at Constantinople
1668, was another Fellow of Queen's College, Oxford ; a
collector of MSS. and a voluminous author. Robert Frampton,
* "About this time of King Charles the First's reign it was justly said
stupor mundi clerus Anglicanus^'' So Thomas Plume, ''^ Life of Bishop
Hacket^^ in Racket's " Century of Sermons." I owe the reference to
Mr. Alfred Rogers, of C.U. Library.
i6 BRITISH TRADING COMMUNITIES
who fought as a Royalist on Hambledon Hill, and later was
Bishop of Gloucester 1 680-1 691, when he was deprived as
a Nonjuror, was chaplain at Aleppo 165 5-1670. His suc-
cessor was Robert Huntington, chaplain 1 670-1 681. He
was a Fellow of Merton College and a student of research,
who made, in the course of his travels in Samaria, Galilee,
Cyprus, Palmyra, and Egypt, a valuable collection of MSS.,
now in the Bodleian. Later he became Provost of Trinity
College, Dublin, and Bishop of Raphoe. John Covell, chap-
lain at Constantinople 1670-1677, a Fellow of Christ's College,
Cambridge, was the great authority of his day on the subject
of the Greek Church. He became Master of Christ's in
1688, Henry Maundrell, chaplain at Aleppo 1695, was
Fellow of Exeter College, Oxford, and travelled to Jerusalem
and Baalbec with fourteen of his flock, an account of which
expedition he published at Oxford in 1703. He was greatly
attached to his flock, and we shall refer later to a description
he has left of it. Edmund ChishuU was a Fellow of Corpus
Christi College, Oxford. A college travelling exhibition
enabled him to visit the East, and he was chaplain at
Smyrna 1 698-1702. It was he who discovered the mode
of reading the ftovaTpo(pr]^6v inscription on the Sigsean
Marbles, and some of these, discovered by him, are now in
the British Museum. His great literary work was his Ani/'-
quitates Asiasticce Christianam Air am antecedentes, 1728.
Thomas Shaw of Queen's College, Oxford, chaplain at
Algiers about 1720, who travelled in Barbary and Egypt, was
elected a Fellow of his college in his absence. He became
famous as the author of Shaw's Travels and Marmora Oxoni-
ensia, and was appointed in 1740 Principal of Edmund's Hall,
and in 1741 Regius Professor of Greek. James Dallaway
was chaplain and physician at Constantinople in 1794; and
Philip Hunt, the indefatigable investigator of libraries in
Constantinople and Mount Athos, and the explorer of the
Troad and Assos, was his successor in 1799. Such a series
of chaplains implies that the chaplaincies of the Company
had attractions for able and scholarly clergy, and that the
Company sought such men.
We must not stay to draw a picture of the moral and
SOUTH EUROPE AND THE LEVANT 17
religious life of the Factories. There are darker and brighter
sides. On one hand there are pictures like that drawn by the
Company about 1660: "the Factors were often severely re-
proved for sensuality, gambling, Sabbath-breaking, neglect of
public worship, and other irregularities of conduct." * On the
other hand, there is that of Henry Maundrell of his flock
at Aleppo at the close of the seventeenth century. Writing to
Bishop Sprat of Rochester he confirms the praise given to
them in England from " a most faithful and judicious hand —
the excellent Bishop Frampton," the great improver of the
rare temper of this society." "They still continue," he proceeds,
" as that incomparable instructor left them — that is sober,
pious, benevolent, devout in the offices of religion, in con-
versation innocently cheerful, given to no pleasures but such
as are honest and manly, to no communications but such as
the nicest ears need not be ofiended at, exhibiting in all their
actions those best and truest signs of a Christian spirit, a
sincere and cheerful union among themselves, a generous
charity towards others, and a profound reverence for the
Liturgy of the Church of England. It is our first employment
every morning to solemnize the daily services of the Church,
at which I am always sure to have a devout, a regular, and a
full congregation." f
This attachment to the Church of England and her
Services seems to be characteristic of English mercantile
expansion from the first. Attention has been drawn to the
custom of the Muscovy Company (p. 6). It rose from
and was an evidence of that deep love of England and her
settled ways that marked these early settlements, and inspires
the patriotism which is so remarkable jn those of to-day.
Sir George Peckham relates that Sir Humphrey Gilbert on
August 3, 1583, two days after his arrival at Newfoundland,
gathered the whole body of colonists and signified to them
that they were to live as in Crown Territories and to be
governed in all things as nearly as possible in accordance
with the laws of England. " And for to put the same in
execution, presently he ordained and established three Lawes.
* Account, etc., p. 52.
t A Journey from Aleppo to Jerusalem^ 6th edn., 1740.
C
i8 BRITISH TRADING COMMUNITIES
First, that Religion publiquely exercised should be such, and
none other, then is used in the Church of England." * If
we may judge from the Factory at Smyrna in 1660, our
Levant Colonies had little sympathy with new-fangled ways
of the Commonwealth. In that year one John Broadgate, a
Presbyterian minister, was sent out as chaplain. He brought
with him a bale of copies of a Catechism, and called on the
merchants to ansv/er certain questions therein. He departed
with his Catechism " in disgust " and " after much disgraceful
altercation," as " the Factory refused to comply with his
discipline." f The order of the Church of England was clearly
well accepted and approved by all sober, peaceable and truly
conscientious sons of the Church of England in Smyrna.
It may be asked whether there was in the Levant Com-
pany and its Factory-communities anything corresponding to
the missionary out-look and effort which we have seen in the
American mercantile expansion. Besides its anxiety for the
spiritual welfare of the Factories, the Company consistently
promoted charity and humanity, in the liberation of Christian
captives and slaves, relief of distress, investigation into the
causes of plague, and rendering noble services through its
Agents in the ravages of plague, small-pox and famine.
But the fact that the Levant Company Colonies lay among
a population of which the heathen part belonged to Islam
makes it not surprising that actual evangelization was far
more difficult than among the Indians of Virginia. So far as
the Greek Church was concerned, what these Colonies and
the Company could promote was respect for the Church of
England and knowledge of it, while they served as a means
through which our Church could learn of the Greek Church,
and increase knowledge of language, monuments, and history
pertaining to Theology. To this latter end the labours and
learning of men like Pocock and others mentioned above
made great and solid additions, far too numerous and wide
to be dwelt on here. Archbishops Laud and Ussher, both of
whom had such learning intensely at heart, availed themselves
of the Company to the full. Laud, in particular, was brought
* H. 6. p. 43. f Account of the Levant Co., p. 52.
SOUTH EUROPE AND THE LEVANT 19
into close touch with it by the events of 1632-4. A King's
Order was issued to the Company in February, 1634, that
" every shippe of yours at every voyage shall bring home one
Arab or Persian manuscript booke, to be delyverd presently
to the Master of the Company, and by him carryed or sent to
the Lord Archbishop of Canterbury for the tyme being, who
shall dispose of them as Wee in our wisdome shall thinke
fitte . . . provided always that they bring any bookes saving
the Alkarons, because wee have choyce of them allready." *
Not the chaplains alone were zealous to give such aid.
Many of the leading merchants and Consuls of the Company
made constant contributions. One of these, Thomas Davis,
Superintendent at Aleppo, appears from Ussher's Corre-
spondence to have supplied him constantly with valuable
information. Sir Thomas Roe, formerly Ambassador at
Constantinople, secured for Laud many valuable MSS.
Towards promoting in the East knowledge of our Church,
Pocock in about 1670 translated into Arabic our Catechism,
M. and E. Prayer, the Offices of the Holy Communion and
Baptism, the 39 Articles, and the arguments of the Homilies,
for the use of Eastern Christians. Isaac Basire, who though
a native of Rouen, was a B.D. of Cambridge and in English
Orders travelled in the East 1 649-1 661 with the express pur-
pose of making known the Catholic teaching and discipline
of the Church of England. This he did both orally and by
translating the Catechism into Greek, Arabic, and Turkish.
" He availed himself of every legitimate opportunity to pro-
mote that reformation of the Greek Church which might
lead to her communion with others." Evelyn's Diary records
(October 10, 1661) : "In the afternoon preached at the
Abbey Dr. Busire, that great travailler, or rather French
Apostle, who had been planting ye Church of England in
divers parts of ye Levant and Asia." Though Basire was
not strictly connected with our settlements, his activity is
evidence of the spirit of interest in the welfare of the Greek
* State Papers Domestic, vol. 260, Nos. 116, 117. It is of interest
to note that in 1632 Mr. Thomas Adams, a Cambridge man, afterwards
Master of the Drapers' Company, Lord Mayor of London, and Baronet,
founded the Professorship of Arabic at his old University.
20 BRITISH TRADING COMMUNITIES
Church which animated leaders of our church at that
time. Thus early these colonies, churchmen, and scholars
belonging to them formed a link, a channel of interpretation
and understanding, between the Greek Church and the Church
of England.
But of possible actual missionary enterprise towards
Mohammedans, all I can find is that Pococke, who enjoyed
the respect of Mohammedans at Aleppo, made an Arabic
version of Grotius' treatise " Concerning the truth of the
Christian Religion," and that Robert Boyle bore the cost
of a translation into Turkish of the New Testament and
Catechism.* But this was probably done more to enlighten
Greek Christians than convert Mohammedans.
There, were, however, many English settlements in
Southern Europe whose spiritual life was not nurtured as it
was in the factories of the Levant Company. From the
charter of the Company of 1605, the pages of Hakluyt, and
other evidence, we learn of our trade at the close of the
sixteenth century in many ports, cities, and islands of
Southern Europe, besides those in which the privileges of
the Company held good — Cartagena, Alicante, Denia, Va-
lencia, Barcelona in Spain ; Marseilles and Toulon in France ;
Genoa, Leghorn, Florence, Naples, Civita Vecchia in Italy ;
Palermo and Messina in Sicily ; Malta, Minorca, Majorca,
and Corsica. Of the provision of ministrations in most of
these centres of trade we know but little. It would depend
on the resources and desires of the English merchants. In
some of the larger, chaplains were maintained by the
Factories. At Lisbon there was a succession of chaplains
from the reign of Charles II., distinguished by the names
of Dr. Colbatch, a learned Fellow of Trinity College, Cam-
bridge, and Mr. Williamson, who ministered acceptably to
Dr. Doddridge in 1751.! At Oporto the Port Factory Chap-
laincy dates from 1661, and the Register of Baptisms, Mar-
riages, and Burials, dated 17 16-1797, which evidences faithful
and regular ministrations, is still in the keeping of the Bishop
of London. The English Chapel there (consecrated August 20,
* Anderson, II, p. 296. . t Anderson, III. pp. 171 f.
SOUTH EUROPE AND THE LEVANT 21
1843, and since enlarged) was built about 1756.* At Leg-
horn there was an English Factory early in the seven-
teenth century, and our tombs in the old cemetery (now
closed) begin in 1640. Here the English merchants sought
a chaplain in 1706, when Basil Kennett, then Fellow of
Corpus Christi College, Oxford, went out as first chaplain,
and officiated for some years in the British Consulate. A
church of a modest character was built about 1640 ; for
180 years it was the only English church in Italy, the next
being the chapel built at Nice (then in Italy) in 182 1-2.
Isaac Basire implies that there was a chaplain at Messina
about 1654, for he mentions that in his absence he held
service himself for some weeks. But the smaller and weaker
communities, especially where there was not the protection of
a resident Consul, had probably the rarest ministrations, as so
many of our similar colonies to-day. A note of their spiritual
starvation is struck in the first Report of the Society for the
Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, founded 1701.!
This Report, published in 1704, states " that in many of our
Plantations^ Colonies^ and Factories beyond the Seas, the Pro-
vision for Ministers was veiy mean : and many others of our
Plantations, Colonies, and Factories were wholly destitute and
unprovided of a Maintenance for Ministers and the Publick
Worship of God: and that for lack of Support ajid Main-
tenance for such, many wanted the Administratioti of Gods
Word and Sacraments, and seem'd to be abandoned to A theism
and Infidelity ; and also that for tvant of Learned and Orthodox
Ministers to instruct others of His (i.e. King William Ill's)
Subjects in the principles of true Religion, divers Romish Priests
and Jestdts were the more encouraged to pervert and draw them
over to Popish Superstition and Idolatry l* It may be thought
that these words refer only to our American Plantations and
* Sellers, Oporto New and Old, pp. 41, 75 ff., 91. The Register
above mentioned is reprinted in this work.
t The full title of this Society is for our purpose noteworthy. It is,
" The Society for the Propagation in Foreign Parts : for the receiving,
managing, and disposing of funds contributed for the religious instruc-
tion of the King's subjects beyond the Seas ; for the maintenance o»
Clergymen in the Plantations, Colonies, and Factories of Great Bcitain^
and for the Propagation of the Gospel in those parts,"
22 BRITISH TRADING COMMUNITIES
Colonies, with which the Report is chiefly concerned. But
the Report deals also with the needs of British colonies in
Europe, and describes aid given to those in Amsterdam and
Moscow ; and that the words quoted apply to European
colonies as well as American is seen in the forecast given of
future activities of the Society. After referring to American
colonies, it proceeds : " which prospect, should it be enlarged by
a view of the future care that is to be had of the remaining
Factories and places to ivhich ive trade in Asia, Africa, and
Europe itself, ivhere they live as it were without God in
the zvorld to tJie great reproach of the Christian religion,
except at Hamborough, Lisbon, Smyrna, Aleppo, Constanti-
nople, Fort St. George, Surat, etc., ivhich are well supplied
by our worthy Merchants that trade or live there, etc!' Thus
the Report evidences strikingly the state of some of our
Colonies in the Mediterranean and Levant, and also shows
that from the very first the S.P.G. considered itself formed to
meet their needs along with those of others.
Unfortunately for the colonies which form our subject, the
Society soon left them out of its consideration. " It would
appear," says a publication of the S.P.G., "that after the first
few years the Society did nothing for British Subjects on the
Continent of Europe until 1862. ... In 1862 it resumed
work on the Continent which had been suspended for more
than 1 50 years." * The Colonial and Continental Church
Society (founded 1823) began to aid existing chaplaincies in
Southern Europe from about 1840.
* The Spiritual Expansion of the Empire (S.P.G., 1900), pp. iii,
114. See also infra, p. 68.
CHAPTER II
THE SPIRITUAL SUPERVISION OF THE MERCANTILE
COMMUNITIES, AND THE DISSOLUTION OF THE
LEVANT COMPANY
(i) The respoiisibility for spiritual oversight of the
Bishop of London
REFERENCE must now be made to two very different
events, one early, the other late in the period under
consideration, which have had much to do with the spiritual
welfare of the communities under the jurisdiction of the
Bishop of Gibraltar. Each ought to have created some
coherence among them, but apparently failed to do so. One
connected them more definitely than before with the organized
system of the Church of England ; the other connected many
of them with that of the State. The first was the recognition
in 1633 of the responsibility of the Bishop of London for
their episcopal superintendence ; the second was the initiation
of Consular and Consular-aided Chaplaincies in 1825.
The jurisdiction of the Bishop of London over English
Congregations abroad " rests on established custom from
time immemorial, and was recognized and confirmed by an
Order in Council on the ist October, 1633. It was also
further explained and ascertained by an Order in Council
made in 1726 and by a commission under the Great Seal
made in pursuance of such Order." * As the Order of 1633
is the first known definite act connected with this ancient
custom, and is so much referred to in connection with the
* Letter of Mr. F. Hugh Lee.
24 BRITISH TRADING COMMUNITIES
Bishop's jurisdiction, it is worth while setting down the facts
which gather round it.*
The incidents which led to the Order originated with a
petition to the Crown of English Ministers in the Low
Countries in 1624, praying for the vindication and main-
tenance of their position and liberties. These were threatened
in the English Factory at Hamburg by the adoption of
Genevan discipline and worship, the omission of reading
the Common Prayers, and management of Church affairs on
Calvin's plan of elders and deacons.
The answer given at the time is not known. But in
1632 Laud, then Bishop of London, offered through the
Secretary of State, proposals to the Privy Council dealing
with the case of foreign Factories and English Regiments
employed by the States abroad. These proposals were
directed to ensure conformity to the Church among the
English beyond the seas. Clergy of the Church alone were
to be employed, and her doctrine and discipline fully
respected. There is, however, in the proposals no explicit
introduction of the Bishop of London as Diocesan of these
congregations. Custom may perhaps be taken to lie behind
all Laud's action.
On September 19, 1633 Laud became Archbishop of
Canterbury. On October i he procured the Order from the
Privy Council " by which," writes Heylyn, " those English
Churches and Regiments in Holland (and afterwards by
degrees in all other Foreign parts and plantations) were
required strictly to observe the English Liturgie with all the
Rites and Ceremonies prescribed in it." At the meeting of the
Council on October i, 1633, the King himself being present,
it was " resolved and ordered " by the Council " that they {i.e.
the merchants) should not' hereafter receave or admitt of any
Minister into their said Churches in foraigne parts without
his Ma*" knowledge and approbacion of the person. And
that the Liturgie and discipline now used in the Church
* See Jeremy Collier (Nonjuror, died 1726) Eccl, Hist., VIII. pp. 50
fif. ; Peter Heylyn (Chaplain to Charles I. and II., died 1662), Life of
Laud, ed. 1668, pp. 274 fif. ; Bishop Sandford's Paper on Foreign
Chaplaijicies, Church Congress, 1884,
THEIR SPIRITUAL SUPERVISION 25
of England should be receaved and established there. ' And
that in all things concerning their Church Government they
should be under the jurisdiction of the Lord Bishop of London
as their Diocessan. For the orderly doeinge wherof Mr.
Atturney General is hereby prayed and required to advise
and direct such a course as may be most effectual." * This
minute of the Council, it will be observed, explicitly recog-
nizes the Bishop of London as Diocesan of merchants in
foreign parts.
In accordance with this the merchants of the Factory at
Delph selected one Beaumont as their Preacher, and he took
with him a letter from Laud, dated June, 1634, addressed to
the Factory, which is full of interest. In this, writes Heylyn,
" he signifieth in his Majesty's name. That they were to
receive him (Beaumont) with all decent and courteous usage
fitting his person and calling, allowing him the ancient
Pension which formerly had been paid to his Predecessors.
Which said in reference to the man himself, he lets them
know that it was his Majesty's express command that both
he, the Deputy (Governor) and all and every other Merchant
that is or shall be residing in those parts beyond the Seas,
do conform themselves to the Doctrine and Discipline settled
in the Church of England: and that they frequent the
Common-Prayer with all Religious duty and reverence at all
times required, as well as they do Sermons ; and that out of
their company they should yearly about Easter, as the
Canons prescribe, name two Church-Wardens, and two Sides-
men, which may look to the Orders of the Church and give
an account according to their office." The letter proceeded
to provide for these Letters being registered and kept, and
copies furnished to Beaumont and his successors. Beaumont
further " took these Instructions for his own proceedings ; that
is to say That he should punctually keep and observe all the
orders of the Church of Englajid, as they are prescribed in the
Canons and the Rnbricks of the Litnrgie ; and that if any
person of that company shall shew himself refractory to that
Ordinance of his Majesty, he should certify the name of such
offender, and his offence to the Lord Bishop of London for
* Privy Council Register, \ October, 1633, vol. 43.
26 BRITISH TRADING COMMUNITIES
the time being, who was to take order and give remedy
accordingly."
Heylyn's concluding remarks show that these measures
were applied to other colonies of our people beside those
in the Low Countries, and in particular to those in the
Levant. He writes : " And now at last we have the face
of an English Church in Holland responsal to the Bishops of
London for the time being, as a part of their Diocess, directly
and immediately subject to their Jurisdiction. The like
course also was prescribed for our Factories in Hamborough,
and those further off, that is to say in Turky, in the Mogul's
dominion, the Indian Islands, the Plantations in Virginia, the
Barbadoes, and all other places where the English had any
standing residence in the way of trade." He then makes
reference to our earlier class of chaplaincies, namely, those
connected with Embassies (see p. 35). "The like done also
for regulating the Divine Service in the Families of all
Ambassadours, residing in the Courts of Foreign Princes for
his Majesty's Service ; as also in the English Regiments,
serving under the States. * * * The English Agents and
Embassadours in the Courts of Foreign Princes had not been
formerly so regardful of the honour of the Church of England,
as they might have been, as designing a set Room for religious
uses, and keeping up the Vestments, Rites, and Ceremonies
prescribed by the Law in performance of them. It was
now hoped that there would be a Church of England in
all Courts of Christendom^ in the chief cities of the Turk^
and other great Mahometan Princes, in all our Factories and
Plantations in every known Part of the world, by which it
might be rendred as diffused and Catholick as the Church of
Romey
It is clear that a jurisdiction so wide as that contemplated
here, and widening with each decade, could never satisfy the
ideals of the Episcopate of the Church of Christ. The Bishop
of London could only appoint commissaries, who could, of
course, exercise jurisdiction, but, being only priests, could not
convey the spiritual gifts for the conveying of which the
Episcopate exists. Such an entire misapprehension of the
Episcopate still lives ; there are persons who can only associate
THEIR SPIRITtTAL SUPERVISION 27
government and jurisdiction with the function of a bishop ;
and such jurisdiction is too often made to depend on letters
patent, or (worse still) on the power of the purse. Bishop
Gibson (Bishop of London, 1723-1748) declined responsi-
bility for the Colonies : he could find no authority for his
assuming it. He looked in vain for the Order in Council
of 1633 ; but on receiving a commission from the King he
followed the example of his predecessor and appointed his
commissaries.* But, as is said above (p. 23), the jurisdiction of
the Bishop of London over the colonies — and the burden of it
— does not rest on the Order in Council. " The statement
that all British subjects abroad were placed by an Order in
Council of Charles I. under the care of the Bishop of London
does not appear to apply to the colonies, since in 1764 A.D.
the jurisdiction of the Bishop of London in the colonies was
still regarded as resting on the foot of custom and was stated
not to be established or exercised effectually. The Virginia
Company were merely recommended to apply to the Bishop
of London to assist in sending some clergy of the Church of
England to reside in that colony. On the other hand, on the
supposition that the Bishop of London had some jurisdiction,
all instructions to Governors up to 1764 ordered them to give
countenance to the Bishop of London's jurisdiction." t In the
Colonies the Governor acted as Ordinary in so far as it was
possible for a layman to do so.^ It was doubtless the impos-
sibility of really being Bishop to such communities that
pressed Bishop Blomfield to promote, as we shall see later,
the extension of the colonial episcopate, and in particular the
establishment of the Bishopric of Gibraltar.
In the Diocese of Gibraltar the ancient connexion with
the See of London is preserved in several ways. The Bishop
of London signs, with the Archbishop, the "Authority"
delivered to each Bishop of Gibraltar. Some churches are
vested in him, and he is the patron of one or two, though as
patron or corporation sole in whom the churches are vested,
* Ch. Q. Review, Oct., 1877, p. 37.
t Halsbury's Encyclopedia, vol. XI. p. 488, note {s).
X Halsbury's Eiicyclop., I.e., where examples are given.
28 BRITISH TRADING COMMUNITIES
he claims no jurisdiction over them when appointment has
been made.
(2) The Dissolution of the Levant Company^ 1825, and
the Consular Advances Act
The dissolution of the Levant Company, involving the
termination of its Chaplaincies, and the beginning of Con-
sular and Consular-aided Chaplaincies, took place in 1825,
From the earliest days of the Company the great repre-
sentatives and guardians of British trade in the Levant had
been appointed and paid by the Company, from Ambassadors
at Constantinople to the Factors and Agents. As British
trade increased, it became clearer that much of the work
done by Companies ought to be done by the State ; that
the great Joint Stock Companies, and in a lesser degree the
Levant Company, had served their purpose ; and that in the
interests of British Commerce charters and privileges should
cease. A sign of what was coming was that in 1803 Govern-
ment assumed to itself the appointment and payment of the
Ambassador at Constantinople and his secretaries, with some
additional Consuls. Next, the political events of 1821, in
which Turkey figured largely, made trade of secondary im-
portance compared with great State interests of Europe ; and
our Government deemed it expedient that the whole of the
Consular Establishment should be in the appointment and
under the control of the Government. Thereupon followed
the reorganisation of the whole of our Consular system.
The passing of the Consular Act of 1825 was accompanied by
the extinction of practically all these ancient corporations.
The Levant Company dissolved itself voluntarily, after long
service to the Realm, to trade, and to the peoples among
whom its members and agents traded, and with an un-
equalled character for enlightenment, humanity, and con-
sideration. Two great companies survived — the East India
Company, founded Dec. 31, 1600, which lasted until 1859,
and the Hudson Bay Company, founded in 1669, which still
exists.
THEIR SPIRITUAL SUPERVISION 29
As some knowledge of this Act is essential for the right
understanding of many of our chaplaincies, an account of
certain of its provisions must be given. The Act itself is
dated July 5, 1825.* It made provision for the support
(along with that of Burial grounds and hospitals) of churches
and chapels in foreign ports and places where a chaplain was
appointed and maintained by subscription. The Consuls
were authorized to advance for such purpose a sum equal to
the amount subscribed. " As such chaplains," the Act runs,
" have been appointed and are resident, and it is expedient
to afford encouragement for the support of such Churches so
erected, and to promote the erection of others in Foreign
Ports and Places to which His Majesty's subjects may resort
or wherein they may be resident in considerable numbers for
the purposes of trade or otherwise," it is enacted that " at
any Foreign Port or Place in which a Chaplain is now {i.e.
1825) or shall at any future time be resident and regularly
employed in the Celebration of Divine Service, according to
the Rites and Ceremonies of the United Church of England
and Ireland and of the Church of Scotland, the grant shall
be made for and towards the maintenance and support of
any such Chaplain as aforesaid, or for and towards defraying
expences incident to the due Celebration of Divine Service
in any such Churches and Chapels." The grant could be
made for erecting, hiring, or purchasing a church or chapel.
The measure enacted further that all such expenditure should
have first the sanction of the Government ; that the whole
salary of the chaplain should not exceed i^Soo per an. in
any Foreign Port or Place in Europe, or ^800 per. an. in any
Foreign Port or place not in Europe ; and that all such
chaplains should be appointed to officiate by His Majesty
through one of his principal Secretaries of State, and should
hold such office "for and during His Majesty's pleasure and
no longer." Lastly, it provided for Meetings of Subscribers,
and that " General Meetings " might establish Rules for the
* The title is " 6 George IV., c. 87. An Act to regulate the Payment
of Salaries and Allowances to British Consuls at Foreign Ports, and the
Disbursements at such Ports for certain public Purposes." It is known
as " The Consular Advances Act."
30 BRITISH TRADING COMMUNITIES „
management of such churches and chapels, subject to the
sanction of the Consul, who was to transmit the same for His
Majesty's approbation.
The measure promised, and had, mixed effects. It was
undoubtedly for good that small and poor colonies which
either could not quite afford to maintain a chaplain, or did
so with great difficulty, while the chaplain was inadequately
paid, now found substantial aid. In many cases local effort
and support of church and chaplain (and burial ground and
hospital) would be encouraged, though in others it may have
been reduced and local independence impaired by acceptance
of such aid and dependence on it. It was by no means an
unmixed good that a chaplaincy and church should be thus
closely connected with the State ; or that in all such aided
chaplaincies so much influence and control should rest with
the Consul, who might be altogether indifferent to religion.
If, however, we may judge from the patriotism and impartiality
of members of the Consular Service of to-day, it may be
reckoned that the disadvantages of this provision, save in
some special cases, were not so great as the advantage gained
by the countenance given to the Church and religion by con-
nexion with the recognised head of the British community.
Again, the entrusting to local subscribers the drawing up of
Rules for management was not without risk of future trouble
and confusion ; for communities and Consuls living for a long
time away from England, and without any trustworthy guid-
ance as to the traditions, customs, and laws of the Church of
England might easily frame rules inconsistent with these, and
such as infringed either the rights of a clergyman of the
Church of England or of the congregation, or on the other
hand bestowed on one the functions of the other. In par-
ticular, the Act was made subversive of all Church principles
in one important point by allowing a mere money qualifica-
tion for a vote at the Church meetings for managing the
affairs of the chaplaincies (§ 14 of the Act) — a precedent
which has been most unhappily followed in the constitution
of some other Church of England committees on the con-
tinent.* And though such points in the sets of Rules then
* Bishop Sandford, Ch. Q. R-, Jan. 1878, p. 355.
THEIR SPIRITUAL SUPERVISION 31
drawn up passed unnoticed, yet they have in certain places
created traditions which have caused difficulties in more
recent times when questions have been raised by those who
have looked and called for closer adherence to the acknow-
ledged principles and customs of the Church of England at
home. Had there been a Bishop of Gibraltar in 1825 the
framing of these Rules would doubtless have had his most
careful attention. As it was, the Bishop of London had not
that intimate knowledge of the colonies nor that personal
touch with them as would enable him to give the watchful
guidance required.
But on no class of chaplaincies did the changes of 1825
fall so heavily as on those of the Levant Company. These
communities passed as to their Church affairs from being
under the generous control of a Company fully acquainted
with their history, and with an almost paternal care for their
welfare to that of Consuls and a Government which necessarily
in the long run took a harder, colder, more "business-like"
view of things, and whose action as years passed was affected
by party-spirit in matters of politics and religion in England,
Of this we shall see the fruit when we come to consider the
episcopate of Bishop Sandford. But the change was immedi-
ately felt by the Communities in matters financial. A colony,
which up to 1825 had a chaplain with a stipend provided
entirely by the Company, found itself called on to find a large
sum, if the chaplaincy were to be maintained. Doubtless the
larger colonies, such as that in Smyrna, were fully equal to
such a demand ; and it was not any loss to their churchman-
ship that they should be called on to contribute to the cost
of privileges they enjoyed. But in the case of smaller com-
munities, e.g. that at Patras, the change must have been
severely felt. Moreover, the Act was capable of change and
repeal. In this matter again, had the Bishopric been estab-
lished before, it is at least possible that better provision would
have been made for poorer and smaller communities, instead
of state aid being rigidly proportionate to local means and
contributions. As it was enacted, a wealthy colony obtained
a large grant because of its wealth, and a poorer a less grant
because of its poverty. The provision which was made, if
32 BRITISH TRADING COMMUNITIES
convenient, was in this matter really inconsiderate. It is to
be observed also that the Act allowed assistance to be given
only in Ports and Places where there was a British Consul
resident.*
* The repeal of this Act in 1873 necessarily affected all chaplaincies
and churches which had received allowances under it, and will be
referred to later (see p. no).
CHAPTER III
NON-MERCANTILE CONGREGATIONS AND
CHAPLAINCIES
( I ) Congregaiions and Chaplaincies of the Riviera
and Italy
AS the eighteenth century closed and the nineteenth
century opened a new class of English congregations
began to appear in South Europe. The trickle of occasional
visitors grew into a steady stream as facilities for travel
improved, the endless attractions of the climate, the treasures
of art and architecture, the scenery of Southern France and
Italy became more known and appreciated, and the less
expensive cost of living and the freshness of a different type
of life were realised by persons of slender means and uncon-
ventional tastes. In many French and Italian cities there
had long been resident little groups of English people usually
of good station of life. But now year by year the flow
of invalids, artists, retired officials, as well as of tourists,
speculators, and writers grew in volume, and large settle-
ments were formed. Such colonies, however much some
individuals abandoned English habits of life, maintained
home traditions very strongly, and desired the spiritual
ministrations to which they had been used in England.
The laws of the land made the erection of English churches
difficult if not impossible. Services were held in private
houses or in hired rooms. Travelling or visiting clergy were
the first officiants. But before long the need of settled
chaplains made itself felt, and steps were taken to collect
necessary stipends. Hence arose our now permanent chap-
laincies other than those of purely mercantile communities.
In most places the congregations had only their own resources
D
34 CONGREGATIONS AND CHAPLAINCIES
to depend on. Unless there were a British Consul resident,
no assistance under the Consular Advances Act of 1825 was
available.* The S.P.G. was strangely indifferent to such
growing communities ; and the Colonial and Continental
Church Society, founded in 1823, first considered their needs
in 1839.
It is impossible to dwell in detail on the gradual develop-
ment of chaplaincies of this type. They are so familiar
to-day, and so numerous, that to the majority of English
Church people, knowing little of the far older mercantile
chaplaincies, little else comes to mind when the Diocese of
Gibraltar is mentioned. Moreover within the last few years
two valuable monographs have furnished the history of
two such chaplaincies, those at Florence and Rome, tracing
their growth from intermittent services in private rooms
to the settled chaplaincies of the beautiful Churches of
Holy Trinity, Florence, and All Saints', Rome.f The first
chaplain at Florence was the Rev. Dr. Trevor, chaplain
1 8 19-1823, and he had eight successors before the establish-
ment of the Bishopric in 1842. Holy Trinity Church was
built in 1844 and consecrated on June 2, 1846. At Rome
(where in the days of the temporal power of the Papacy con-
ditions were altogether unique) the first service for English
people generally was held by the Rev. Dr. Hue in his own
rooms on Sunday, October 27, 18 16. A hired granary was
adapted as a chapel, and served from 1824 until the present
church was built in 1882-1887.
The preceding pages will enable the reader to realise that
the ancient mercantile communities are far older and more
settled than these later colonies of English people seeking
health, recreation, art, or place of retirement, of whom year
by year an increasing proportion are temporary sojourners.
See reply of the Government, October 29, 1841, to an application
from Florence, given in Tassinari's The History of the English Church
in Florence, p. 203.
t The History of the English Church in Florence, by Catherine
Daniell Tassinari, Florence (London Agents, J. M. Dent & Co.), 1905,
The History of the English Church in Rotne. from 1816-1916, by Muriel
Talbot Wilson, 1916. To be obtained from the Authoress.
THEIR VARIED CHARACTER 35
(2) Government Establishments
Besides the congregations, churches, and clergy of these
two classes of colonies, there were those of a third class —
namely those of the Government Establishments at Gibraltar
and Malta, British possessions by capitulation since 1704 and
1800 respectively, and in the Ionian Islands. By a treaty
made at Paris in November, 18 15, between Great Britain,
Austria, Russia, and Prussia, the seven Islands scattered
along the coast from Epirus to the extreme south of the
Morea were constituted into a single free and independent
state under the name of the United States of the Ionian
Islands, and this state was placed under the immediate and
exclusive protection of Great Britain, with a Lord High
Commissioner in residence.* When these islands were ceded
to Greece, May 30, 1864, the Government provision of chap-
lains ceased. There were mercantile communities on the
islands, especially on Corfu, Zante, and Cephalonia.
(3) Embassy Chaplaincies
If there were any Embassy chaplaincies in Southern Europe
(beside that at Constantinople) during this period, they would
form a fourth class. " Such chaplaincies are the earliest
foreign chaplaincies of which we have any distinct account.
We find the mention of Mr. Chamberlayne, ambassador from
King Edward VI. to the Lady Regent of Flanders in 1550,
and Mr. Mann, ambassador of Queen Elizabeth in Spain in
1556, both of whom were attended by their chaplains, and
both of whom were interrupted in the exercise of their religion
by being prohibited from having service in their own houses —
a prohibition which was removed upon the urgent representa-
tions of the English Government." f Hakluyt tells of Mr.
Humphrey Cole, "a learned preacher" who accompanied
Sir Jerome Bowes, ambassador to the Russian court in 1583 \\
* See Motley's Li/e of Gladstone, Bk. IV. c. X.
t Bishop Sandford, in Ch. Q. Review, January, 1878, p. 348.
X H. 2, p. 252.
36 CONGREGATIONS AND CHAPLAINCIES
and Hakluyt himself was chaplain of the embassy in Paris,
1 583-1 588. But I have not learned of any such chap-
laincies regulariy maintained in the countries in which the
communities with which we are specially concerned were
settled.
CHAPTER IV
THE FOUNDATION OF THE BISHOPRIC OF
GIBRALTAR
AS we survey the Church life of these English communities
it is impossible not to be struck by one fact. They
were from the sixteenth century thoroughly loyal to the Church
of England. The Levant Company lived and flourished with
the spirit of the Church within it. The whole attitude of
the Home Government from the days of Laud onwards was
calculated to keep the communities within the doctrine and
discipline of that Church. By ancient custom, and more
explicitly from 1634 they were under the diocesan care of
the Bishop of London. In cases of difficulty the Eccle-
siastical authorities in England assisted benevolently and
readily, as when a Commission was obtained from the Queen
in Council, Sept. 8. 1709, authorizing Basil Kennett to perform
Divine Service at Leghorn "after the usuage and manner of
the Church of England," or when in 181 5 countenance and
advice was given as to the building of a church at Oporto.
Presumably many of the chaplains went out holding the
Licence of the Bishop of London.
( I ) Anxiety for the episcopal supervision of Colonial
Churches
But of other episcopal functions in these widely scattered
chaplaincies we hear nothing ; nor have I discovered any
demand for them proceeding from the chaplaincies them-
selves. In the first Report of the S.P.G. of 1704, words from
a letter written in 1702 by the Rev. J. Talbot, one of the
Society's earliest missionaries to America, are quoted thus :
38 DIOCESE OF GIBRALTAR
" N.B. — There are earnest addresses from parts of the (Ameri-
can) Continent, and Islands adjacent, for a Suffragan to visit
the several churches ; ordain some, confirm others, and bless
all." But I can find no similar desire for confirmation and
blessing in the history of our South European colonies. The
historian of the colonial Churches must tell of the long
efforts to secure Bishops for our people in North America, which
originated from the S.P.G. in 1702. These found a strong
advocate in Dean Kennett in 17 16 and received a legacy of
;^iooo from Archbishop Tenison to S.P.G. in the previous
year "toward the settlement of two Bishops, one for the
continent, the other for the isles of America.* These efforts
reached their goal only when Bishop Seabury was consecrated
by the Scotch Bishops in 1784 and our first colonial Diocese of
Nova Scotia was created in 1787 under gallant Bishop Inglis.
But our communities in South Europe were smaller in numbers
and less before the public eye than those in North America,
India, and Australia ; they were communities of English
people, and not strictly speaking Colonies of the British
Crown ; they could not make themselves heard collectively ;
and it was not until 1841 that their need of a Bishop was
recognized.
Need indeed there was. The encouragement and comfort
which the personal presence of a Father in God can bring :
the grace of confirmation : the strength, mutual help, and
spirit of progress which a Bishop and Diocese secure : the
seeking of suitable clergy : the disciplinary supervision of
both congregations and chaplains : t the vigilant provision of
ministrations for smaller scattered communities : the storage
* Anderson, III. 161.
t From an early date in the nineteenth century a considerable number
of English clergy, not of good character, and unable to obtain work in
England, went to the Continent, and either ingratiated themselves with
congregations, or started English Church Services speculatively wherever
they saw a promising opening. See the article by F. N. Oxenham,
Anglican Bishops and Clergy o?i the Continent, " The Church Times,"
July 19, 1907 ; and Paper of Bishop Sandford at the Church Congress,
1884, on Foreign Chaplaincies ; their Episcopal Supervision^ p. 6 ; also
F.O. Circular, 1866, p. 75, infra.
FOUNDATION OF BISHOPRIC, 1842 39
of precedents and experience : — all this was wanting to the
sons and daughters of our Church in South Europe. The life of
our communities was an individual life : coherence there was
none, nor corporate power and action. The Act of 1825
ended what coherence there was between the chaplaincies of
the Levant Company, and all other chaplaincies lived and
worked each alone by itself. Though I cannot say that there
was not a single episcopal visitation or confirmation in South
Europe either by a Bishop of London or by a Bishop com-
missioned by him before the establishment of the Bishopric
of Gibraltar, yet I have not found a record of any. Such
" Church life " of our communities was no true Church life :
it was a kind of " Church Congregationalism."
Anxiety and action for the welfare of Colonial Churches
grew steadily from the close of the eighteenth century. Quebec
received its first Bishop (Dr. J. Mountain) in 1793, India (Dr.
T. F. Middleton) in 18 14, Jamaica (Dr. Lipscomb) and Barbados
(Dr. Coleridge) in 1824, Australia (Dr. W. G. Broughton) in
1836. In 1839 the Colonial Bishoprics Council was constituted
and the Colonial Bishoprics Fund (to which the chief initial
contributors were the S.P.C.K., the S.P.G., and the C.M.S.)
was started. Through action of this council and its Fund the
See of New Zealand was erected in 1841, and in 1842 the
Sees of Antigua, Guiana, Tasmania, and Gibraltar. The
Bishopric of Gibraltar was the twelfth colonial Bishopric of
the Church of England. The only contribution from the
Diocese itself for the endowment of the See of which I know
was ;^8oo-.^900 from Malta.*
(2) The Consecration of Bishop Liis combe, 1825
The following facts bearing on the establishment of the
Bishopric and the selection of the first Bishop require record.f
British residents of our communion ;in France had
long felt the need of episcopal ministrations, especially for
the confirmation of their children. Seeing difficulties in
* See Gibraltar Diocesan Gazette, Jan., 1914, p. 72.
t The substance of the paragraphs which follow is taken largely
from Bishop Sandford's article in the Ch. Q. R., Jan., 1878, pp. SSM-
40 DIOCESE OF GIBRALTAR
obtaining a consecration from England, they applied to the
Bishops of the Scotch Church, who proceeded in the matter
with great caution, and only consented to consecrate Dr.
Luscombe to be Bishop of the Scots, English, and others of
their communion abroad when they had clearly ascertained
that they might do so with the full concurrence of the Arch-
bishops and the Government of the day. Dr. Luscombe
was consecrated on Sunday, March 20, 1825. The letters
of collation delivered to him by the consecrating Bishops
contain these words : —
"He is sent by us representing the Scotch Episcopal
Church, to the Continent of Europe, not as a diocesan
bishop in the modern or limited sense of the word,
but for a purpose similar to that for which Titus was
left by Paul in Crete, that lie may seti?i order the things
that are wanting among such of the natives of Great
Britain and Ireland as he shall find there professing
to be members of the United Church of England and
Ireland and the Episcopal Church of Scotland. But
we do solemnly enjoin our Right Reverend Brother
Bishop Luscombe not to disturb the peace of any
Christian Society established as a National Church in
whatever nation he may chance to sojourn."
Bishop Luscombe built entirely at his own expense a
chapel at Paris in the Rue d'Aguesseau, officiating both as
Bishop and also from 1828 as Chaplain to the British Em-
bassy. Some few chaplains accepted his licence ; some
declined to sever the older tie binding them to the Bishop
of London, while those who wished to avoid all interference
or inquiry were more easily able to maintain their inde-
pendence when they might be supposed to have a choice
as to their diocesan.*
When Bishop Luscombe died at Lausanne on Aug. 24,
1846, no successor was appointed.
* Dr. Biber states that of 68 English Clergy officiating in North and
Central Europe and Portugal in 1846, 27 were licensed by the Bishop of
London and acknowledged his jurisdiction ; 13 (12 in France, i in Ger-
many) were licensed by Bishop Luscombe ; 28 officiated with no episcopal
licence. The English Church on the Continent, ed. 1846, pp. 27 fif,
FOUNDATION OF BISHOPRIC, 1842 41
(3) The action of Bishop Blomjield, 1 840-1 841 ;
the Bishopric of Gibraltar proposed
In April, 1840, Bishop Blomfield of London addressed a
letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury (Dr. Howley) urging
the necessity of a large increase of the colonial episcopate.
" If we desire," he wrote, " the good done by missionaries
to be complete, permanent and growing with the Church's
growth, we must plant the Church in our colonies in all its
integrity. Each colony must have not only its parochial or
district pastors, but its chief pastor, to watch over and guide
and direct the whole. An Episcopal Church without a bishop
is a contradiction in terms." *
There were then only nine colonial dioceses, and for the
whole of the Clergy and people not included in them Dr.
Blomfield as Bishop of London was theoretically responsible.
A public meeting was consequently held on April 27, 1841,
when, among other pressing claims, the necessity for a Bishop
in the Mediterranean was strongly insisted upon, especially
by the Archbishop and Archdeacon Manning. It was urged
that, besides the need of providing episcopal supervision and
ministry for our own congregations and clergy in S. Europe,
there was the second necessity of promoting a better under-
standing with the Churches of the East.f This latter necessity
had been felt so strongly that in 1840 the Rev. G. Tomlinson,
one of the Secretaries of the S.P.C.K., had been sent on a
mission to the Patriarch and other Prelates of the Greek
Church, furnished with commendatory letters from the Arch-
bishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of London. He met
with a friendly reception from the heads of the Oriental
Church, and especially from the bishops and principal clergy
of Greece ; and the results of his mission, together with the
needs of the English residents on the Mediterranean, led to
♦ C.C.C., Aug., 1866, p. 41. The indebtedness of Colonial Churches
for establishmetit a)id progress of Bishop Blomfield.
t A summary of communications of different kinds between the
English Church and the Eastern Patriarchates is given in Bishop J.
Wordsworth's Lecture (delivered in i8g8) on The Church of England
and the Eastern Patriarchates. Parker, Oxford,
42 DIOCESE OF GIBRALTAR
the determination that one of the first of the new bishoprics
should be for the English in these parts.
According-ly, at a meeting of the Archbishops and Bishops
held at Lambeth, on the Tuesday in Whitsun week, 1841, a
declaration was put forth, which, after first proposing the
establishment of a bishopric in New Zealand, proceeds
thus : —
" Our next object will be to make a similar provision for
the congregations of our own communion established
in the islands of the Mediterranean, and in the
countries bordering on that sea ; and it is evident that
the position of Malta is such as will render it the most
convenient point of communication with them, as well
as with the bishops of the ancient Churches of the
East, to whom our Church has been for centuries
known only by name.
" We propose, therefore, that a See be fixed at Valetta,
the residence of the English Government, and that
its jurisdiction extend to all the clergy of our Church
residing within the limits above specified. In this
city, through the munificence of Her Majesty the
Queen Dowager, a church is in course of erection, which,
when completed, will form a suitable cathedral."
There were, however, civil as well as ecclesiastical reasons
which led to Gibraltar being constituted the territorial diocese
and cathedral town of the Bishop, as there already existed a
Roman Catholic Bishop of Malta, who was acknowledged by
the English Government.
In view of much that follows the double purpose of the
promoters of the Bishopric calls for special attention. They
hoped that it would not only serve the spiritual life of our
own people, but would also prove to be an interpreter and
bond between our Church and the Churches of the East.
{4) The Letters Pate^it establisJiing the See of
Gibraltar, 1842
The Letters Patent establishing the See of Gibraltar are
dated August 21st, 1842. They establish the Bishopric on a
FOUNDATION OF BISHOPRIC, 1842 43
large scale, which Bishop Sandford thought " rather too
ambitious." * They recited that the Crown had received
representations that the Clergy and Laity of the communion
of the United Church of England and Ireland resident within
Gibraltar and Malta and in divers places within the islands
and countries situated in and around the Mediterranean were
from the divided state of Christendom and from other causes
destitute of the pastoral superintendence of local Bishops and
Ordinaries ; that they had been customarily subject to the
jurisdiction of the Bishop of London in subordination to the
metropolitical See of Canterbury, but owing to remoteness
from England, and increased and increasing number of clergy
and laity, both clergy and laity were exposed in matters
spiritual and ecclesiastical to grave detriment and incon-
venience ; that the Archbishops and Bishops who made the
representations had urged that these evils might in some
degree be remedied by the erection of a Bishop's See in
Gibraltar, and prayed the Crown by Royal authority to erect
and constitute the same.
In granting the prayer, the Letters Patent made the
following provisions : —
1. The Church of the Holy Trinity, Gibraltar, to be a
Cathedral Church and Bishop's See.
2. Gibraltar to be a city, and be called The City of
Gibraltar.
3. The City of Gibraltar and all territory comprised in
that possession, and its dependencies to be the Diocese
of the Bishop of Gibraltar, and to be called in all time
coming the Diocese of Gibraltar, with power of
extension.
4. Dr. Tomlinson to be consecrated Bishop for the new
See.
5. The Bishop of Gibraltar to be a Body Corporate and
made a perpetual Corporation, known by the name of
the Lord Bishop of Gibraltar, capable of holding
property, pleading, etc., in all Courts, and having a
Corporate Seal.
* S., 1879, p. 25.
44 DIOCESE OF GIBRALTAR
6. The Bishop of Gibraltar to be subject and subordinate
to the Metropolitical See of Canterbury and its Arch-
bishops as a Bishop of any See in the province of
Canterbury.
7. The Bishop of Gibraltar to perform all functions
peculiar and appropriate to the office of Bishop in
the Cathedral and Diocese of Gibraltar and in all duly
consecrated churches and chapels in Malta and
dependencies thereof, especially in St. Paul's Church,
Valetta.
8. The Bishop of Gibraltar to appoint divers Diocesan
officers, who shall exercise only such and so much
jurisdiction as he shall commit to them.
9. The jurisdiction Spiritual and Ecclesiastical of the
Bishop of Gibraltar to be according to ecclesiastical
laws now in force in England.
10. The Bishop of Gibraltar to give institution to benefices
and grant licences to officiate ; to visit clergy with all
and all manner of jurisdiction power and coercion
ecclesiastical ; to administer such oaths as are accus-
tomed and by law may be administered according to
the Ecclesiastical Laws of England to exercise
discipline ; and may found and fill Canonries.
11. Governors, Judges and others, and Clergy to help
the Bishop of Gibraltar.
12. Appeal provided to the Archbishop of Canterbury
from judgments of the Bishop of Gibraltar.
1 3. For the resignation of the Bishop.
The Foreign Office Circular^ 1842
After Dr. Tomlinson's consecration, and before his instal-
lation at Gibraltar on Nov. 6, Lord Aberdeen, the Foreign
Secretary, issued on Oct. 20, 1842, a Circular to Her Majesty's
Ministers and Consuls in the States bordering on the Medi-
terranean. This Circular is of importance as indicating the
limits within which the Bishop of Gibraltar was to have
spiritual superintendence over members of the Anglican
Comniunion, and the nature thereof. It was addressed to
FOUNDATION OF BISHOPRIC, 1842 45
the Ambassadors in Constantinople and Paris ; the Ministers
at Athens, Florence, Naples, Turin, and Madrid ; the Consuls
at Alicante, Barcelona, Cadiz, Cartagena, Malaga ; Ancona,
Genoa, Leghorn, Messina, Naples, Nice, Palermo, Rome,*
Venice; Marseilles; Fiume, Trieste; Athens, Patras, Prevesa ;
Constantinople, the Dardanelles, Salonica, Smyrna ; Tripoli,
Tangier, Tunis ; and in the islands of Sardinia (Cagliari),
Corsica, Minorca (Mahon), Crete, Cyprus, and Syra.
After notifying the consecration of the Bishop, the
Circular proceeds : — " And it has been ordered by Her
Majesty's permission that the spiritual superintendence
hitherto exercised by the Bishop of London over the
Ministers and Congregations of the United Church of
England and Ireland in certain of the countries bordering on
the Mediterranean, including that country in which you
reside, shall henceforth devolve upon the Bishop of Gibraltar."
Such Ministers and Congregations are exhorted to pay a
dutiful obedience to the Bishop of Gibraltar in all spiritual
matters, and to give him all due support. If they fail to do
so they must be prepared to risk the advantage which they
derive from the countenance of H.M. Government. Ministers
and Congregations receiving pecuniary assistance from
Government will be expected and required to render such
obedience and to give such support as a condition of this aid
being continued.
Speaking summarily the Bishop, with his authority in
Gibraltar as the Diocese, and in Malta, was to exercise such
spiritual superintendence over Clergy and other members of
our Communion in Spain, S. France, Italy, part of Austria,
Greece, part of the Turkish Empire, N. Africa (West of
Tripoli), and the Islands of the Mediterranean as the Bishop
of London had previously exercised.
It will be observed that in these documents no reference
* A Copy of the Circular preserved in the Bishop's Register contains
" Rome." A note is appended to the efitect that its despatch to Rome
was disputed, and that " there is a proof that it never arrived there."
On the consequences of this dispute see M. Talbot Wilson, The History
of the English Church in Rome^ pp. 47, 54-58, 68 f., 88, 91. See also
infra^ p. 67 «,, 91 f., 114 «.
46 DIOCESE OF GIBRALTAR
whatever is made to Government Chaplains, Chapels, or
Forces. From the first these have not been under the juris-
diction and superintendence of the Bishop of Gibraltar. For
the provision of ministrations to them the Admiralty and the
War Office are solely responsible. Neither Navy nor Army
chaplains have ever been licensed as chaplains by the Bishop
of Gibraltar : it is clearly impossible for him to be responsible
for all that is implied in the licensing of clergy in their case
without reducing his licence to the merest form or constituting
the Government Bishop-in-commission for the purpose. Nor
do these clergy minister in congregations or churches under
his Jurisdiction, save as visiting clergy or after his granting
them licence to do so. The government chapels, of both
garrisons and dockyards, are independent of the Bishop of
Gibraltar. If he ministers in them, it is on invitation, not as
Diocesan and Ordinary. The Bishops of Gibraltar have always
welcomed opportunities of serving the Forces of the Crown,
as these pages will testify, and as all in Gibraltar and Malta
know ; to do so is ever a peculiar privilege and delight. The
assistance of Navy and Army chaplains is often generously
given to the civil chaplains and gratefully received. But the
fact that the Bishop of Gibraltar neither has jurisdiction over
the Forces (or their chapels), nor is responsible for ministra-
tions to them wherever they may be within the geographical
limits of his Jurisdiction, needs plain recognition.
It is clear that certain inconveniences must arise from
these conditions, and indeed such have arisen, especially in
Malta ; but at present change is impossible, and all that is
needed is that they be dealt with considerately and equit-
ably.*
Note on the legal aspect of the Bishopric of Gibraltar
as fou7tdcd
The following extract from Lord Halsbury's Encyclopcsdia of the
Laws of England (Vol. XI., pp. 483 f., Ecclesiastical Law, The Church
of England in the Colonies and India and elsewhere), presents the legal
position of the Bishopric as founded. " The ministrations of the Church
* See pp. 35 ; 50 f. ; 53 f- 5 66 ; 91 ; 93.
FOUNDATION OF BISHOPRIC, 1842 47
of England are not confined within the boundaries of England and Wales,
but may be extended throughout all the other dominions of the King and
on the high seas, and throughout foreign parts wherever persons reside,
whether subjects of the King or not, who are desirous that the Word of
God and the sacraments should be administered to them according to
the liturgy of that Church.
" The State recognizes a duty to provide for religious ministrations to
those who are in the direct employment of the State, whether within or
without the realm, and while provision is made for the appointment of
ministers of other denominations where a sufficient number of members
of a particular denomination are serving to justify it, the provisions in
general made relate both in the Army and in the Navy and other services
to the appointment of ministers and the provision of ministrations of the
Church of England.
" Although there is no legal obligation on the State (excepting as above
mentioned in respect of its own servants), or on any officers or members
of the Church of England as such to provide for such ministrations
outside the boundaries of England and Wales, provision has been freely
made, not only by the State (including therein the Crown as representing
the Home Government and the Government of the particular locality
where it has independent powers), but also by officers and members of
the Church and by societies formed for the express purpose of providing
or assisting such ministrations wherever they maybe required or needed.*
* " The principal organizations engaged in providing for such minis-
trations are, the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, founded in
1698 ; the Society fo: the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts,
founded in 1701 ; the Church Missionary Society, founded in 1799 ; the
Colonial and Continental Church Society, founded in 1823 ; and the
Colonial Bishoprics Council, constituted in 1841. The societies named
administer large funds, derived from voluntary subscriptions and endow-
ments, in providing and assisting the ministering of the Word of God
and the sacraments according to the liturgy of the Church of England,
and they take such precautions as are deemed necessary to secure that
their funds are administered for the purposes for which they have been
given for the benefit of the Church of England as by law established, or of
Churches forming branches of it, or, where the trusts permit of it, for the
benefit of churches in communion with the Church of England ; but
they do not directly interfere in the organization of churches or the
foundation of bishoprics or of dioceses, excepting so far as the provision
of funds and the taking of due precautions for the right application of
them are concerned.
" The Colonial Bishoprics Council, although constituted as a voluntary
association without any power as an association to give its decisions any
binding legal form, has undertaken the duty of applying funds for the
endowment of additional bishoprics in the colonies so as to provide for
48 DIOCESE OF GIBRALTAR
By these means, as well as by the organised efforts of persons living in
the Colonies or abroad, provision has been and is being made for such
ministrations."
This position was affected later by the measure of 1872 ; see pp. 107 fif.
a systematic superintendence of the clergy and the administration of
those ordinances which are committed to the episcopal order, having due
regard to the insufficient provision which has been made for the spiritual
care of the members of the Church of England in the colonies and in
distant parts of the world. With these objects in view it promotes and
assists the formation, constitution, and endowment of those dioceses
which it considers to be most urgently needed, and by means of the
influence of the archbishops and bishops who compose it, and by invoking
the assistance of the prerogative rights of the Crown in some cases, and
of the colonial legislatures in other cases, it has succeeded in effectively
constituting many colonial archbishoprics and bishoprics on a vahd legal
basis and in fixing the boundaries of their provinces and dioceses.
" The procedure which was followed in the case of the creation of
bishoprics from the formation of the Council in 1841 until the year 1872 was
that the Council, having satisfied themselves that it would be expedient
to found a bishopric in a particular colony and that sufficient funds for
the due maintenance of a bishop were available, obtained the assent of
Her Majesty's Government and entered into an agreement with the
Crown through Her Majesty's ministers that a specified annual income
should be appropriated out of the Colonial Bishoprics Fund for the use of
such bishop, and Her Majesty thereupon granted her letters patent
purporting to create the diocese required, and then appointed some priest
to be consecrated as bishop of such diocese " {Natal (Bishop) v. Gladstone
(1866), L. R. 3 Eq. I, at p. 25).
II
THE BISHOPRIC OF GIBRALTAR, 1842-187
'J
A REALLY satisfactory account of the development of
the Diocese during the period 1842- 1873 is as yet im-
possible owing to the paucity of records. The Bishop's
Register, beside copies of documents relating to appointment
and enthronement, contains the scantiest entries.* No Con-
firmation Lists or Diaries which might have given first-hand
notes, or hints of schemes of organizing and working the
Diocese, have survived. Most of the information now avail-
able is drawn from (a) scattered notes in the pages of the
Colonial CJiurch Chronicle, issued 1 847-1 874 ; {b) Dr. G. E.
Biber's The English Church on the Continent, edn. 1846;!
{c) the Pastoral Letters of Bishop Sandford ; id) Records of
the S.P.G. A careful examination of records preserved
in the several chaplaincies will probably yield more, but has
yet to be made systematically. The Bishopric was started
without an official residence, or a Diocesan Office ; and to
this fact is due the loss of our earliest official records.
* The only entries are these. Of Bishop Tomlinson's episcopate ; of
the consecration of Burial-grounds at Gibraltar and Cadiz, 1842 ; of the
collation to a canonry of the Rev. T. Sleeman, 1853 ; of the ordination
of Dr. Alder at Gibraltar, 1853, and of his appointment to divers offices.
Of Bishop Trower's episcopate : of the confirmation of Dr. Alder in his
offices ; of the consecration of St. Mary Magdalene Church at Bournabat,
Whit Monday, 1864 ; of the consecration of a Burial-ground at Port St.
Mary, 1865 ; of the licence of the Rev. M. Powley, and of his collation
to a canonry, 1866. Of Bishop Harris' episcopate: of the confirmation
of Dr. Alder in his offices ; of the collation into Canonries of the Rev. W.
F. Addison and the Rev. H. Sidebotham, 1870.
t This edition is fuller and more accurate than that of 1845. The
1845 edition has no information about the Jurisdiction of the Bishop of
Gibraltar.
£
CHAPTER V
THE EPISCOPATE OF BISHOP TOMLINSON, 1842-1863
DR. GEORGE TOMLINSON was born in 1794. He was
a graduate of St. John's College, Cambridge, of which
College he was a Scholar 1823-1826. His selection as first
Bishop of Gibraltar was probably due to his wide outlook, his
connexion with the Society for Promoting Christian Know-
ledge (of which he was a secretary 183 1- 1842), and in
particular to his mission to the Patriarchs and Bishops of the
East in 1840 (see stipra, p. 41). He was consecrated in
Westminster Abbey on St. Bartholomew's Day (August 24),
1842, by the Bishop of London (Dr. Blomfield), assisted by
the Bishops of Winchester (Dr. Sumner), Rochester (Dr.
Murray), Chichester (Dr. Gilbert), and Bishop Coleridge. He
was installed at Gibraltar on November 6.
(i) Condition of Church life in the Diocese, 1842
It was indeed a strange and difficult charge which he was
called to rule, and it may be doubted whether he was as well
fitted to carry out as he was to plan work such as that of the
new Diocese.* In 1842 there were 30 clergy at work within
the limits of the jurisdiction prescribed.! But of these only
the civil chaplains at Gibraltar and Malta, and the Chaplains
at Trieste, Messina, Florence, Nice, Pisa, Athens, Constanti-
nople and Smyrna — ten or eleven in all — were known in 1846
to be under the Bishop of Gibraltar.^ The Government Chap-
lains at Gibraltar and Malta, Corfu and Cephalonia, numbering
probably in all eight or ten, held no episcopal licence, and
* C.Q.R., Jan., 1878, p. 359. t Anderson, III. p. 715.
X Biber, 1846, pp. 72 ff.
GKORGE TOMLINSON, lUSHOP OF GIBRALTAR, 1S4-2-1S03
(kKOM a UKAWiNC; IN' THE I'OSSE.SSION' OK THE SOCIETV FOR I'ROMOTINO
CHRISTIAN KNO\VI,ED(;e)
To/ace J>. st^
BISHOP TOMLINSON, 1842-1863 51
were not under the jurisdiction of the new Bishop. Five other
clergy were missionaries, three of them the C.M.S., and two
of the L J.S. and it is not known whether they were licensed
by Bishop Tomlinson. Of the remainder, the chaplains at
Genoa and Naples were under the Bishop of London, and
those at Rome and Turin with the civil chaplain at Corfu
oiBciated without episcopal licence.
Some idea of the clergy, chaplaincies, and congregations
may be drawn from the particulars furnished to Dr. Biber in
1 845- 1 846, The clergy were unsatisfactorily obtained, and
their maintenance was insufficient and precarious. "There
were without doubt," wrote Bishop Sandford of the days
before 1842, "many clergy who were bright exceptions, and
who strove both by their lives and teaching to uphold the
dignity of their office : but the prevailing character of Conti-
nental chaplains became a byword and a reproach to the
English Church." * A contributor to the Colonial Church
Chronicle said with regard to the period before 1844 that "the
ecclesiastical anomaly of the Church of England upon the
Continent was grievously aggravated by the lawless appoint-
ments made to many foreign chaplaincies and by the still
more lawless behaviour of some of the chaplains." f As an
example of this the case of the Rev. E. Whitby may be
quoted. This clergyman acted as chaplain at Nice from
1822 for about eight years apparently without either title or
nomination. If the report of the state of things prevailing in
N. and C. Europe made by the Rev. R. Burgess in 1850 after
investigation carried out at the request of the Bishop of
London, and the difficulties experienced by that Bishop for
many years subsequently, give any indication of the condition
of Church affairs in S. Europe which confronted Bishop
Tomlinson in 1842, it is to be feared that many officiating
clergy were unfit to be licensed, being either plausible adven-
turers or men burdened with debt or of scandalous life.J
There were churches permanently secured only at
* C.Q.R., Jan., 1878, p. 353. t C.C.C, 1864, p. 201.
X C.C.C, 1850, May, p. 435 ; 1862, p. 107.
52 DIOCESE OF GIBRALTAR, 1842-1873
Gibraltar, Malta, Trieste and Athens. Of these only the
first was consecrated, and the consecration of that seems open
to question. Elsewhere services were held in rooms or
buildings of most diverse character, and great difficulty was
frequently found in obtaining even these. The furniture for
worship was mean to a degree. On everything connected
with Church life the Hanoverian blight rested as heavily as
on English parishes. Many communities were indifferent
and apathetic. State aid and control had deadened interest
and life. Congregations and churches were regulated not
by Church membership, but by money qualifications. A
charge for admission to service was sometimes made on those
who were not recognized members of the congregation.
Coherence between congregation and congregation there was
none : they were " deficient in one essential characteristic of
all true Church life, viz. membership with one another, and
with that body at home from which they were offshoots." *
Baptism was ordinarily ministered privately. Confirmation
was unknown.
But there were some things which encouraged. The
Holy Communion was in most chaplaincies celebrated once
a month and on the Great Festivals. At Rome there was a
weekly Celebration, and daily during Passion Week. Dr.
Biber records that one-third of the congregations were
communicants. Pastoral intercourse was general. In 1844-
1845 the congregations at Rome, Athens, Nice and Valletta
contributed £^7 to the funds of S.P.G.f The spirit of
the colonies was really religious, and there was genuine attach-
ment to the Church of England. All congregations con-
sidered themselves episcopal, though there was in truth little
that was episcopal in them.
A Bishop's presence was desired chiefly that he might
minister Confirmation, but episcopal authority and discipline
were unknown and even undesired. In spite of the F.O.
circular of 1842 the Archbishop of Canterbury found it
necessary in 1850 to issue a Circular Pastoral Letter to the
Clergy and Congregations of the Church of England and
Ireland under the spiritual superintendence of the Bishop of
* Biber (1846), p. 18. t Biber (1846), pp. 72, ff-
BISHOP TOMLINSON, 1842-1863 53
Gibraltar. After reciting that doubts had arisen as to the
Bishop's jurisdiction and the obedience due to him in
countries not subject to Her Majesty, and referring to the
Foreign Office Circular of 1842, the Archbishop declared that
the Clergy and congregations in the aforesaid countries were
bound in conscience to pay the same obedience to the Bishop
of Gibraltar as was due to a Diocesan Bishop in England.*
This Pastoral Letter implies that in some chaplaincies and
congregations the new Bishop's authority was questioned, and
that he experienced difficulty in obtaining due recognition
and support. A letter of 1854 speaks of "coarse and un-
looked for obstructions put in the Bishop's way by those of
whom better things might have been expected," and of his
failure to secure more than two or three additional clergy.t
It is somewhat hard to realize the position in which the
congregations and chaplaincies stood with regard to the civil
and religious law of the land, excepting in the Levant and
the East. There the old traditions of the Levant Company
had secured liberty and ease. But in the Roman Catholic
countries much was most trying as to marriage and burial,
and in particular as to securing places of worship, and an
adequate degree of religious liberty. The restrictions placed
by the different governments as to both worship and the
character of places of worship (which will appear more fully
in later pages) accounted in large measure for the meanness
of our churches and church-rooms. And it must be added
that while the general acceptance and use of the term
"Protestant" by members of our Church abroad greatly
affected their own idea of their Church and compromised its
claim and dignity, it also disposed the finest and most truly
religious element of the peoples among whom they dwelt to
identify the Church of England with movements which they
regarded as intrusive, revolutionary, aiming at the disruption
of their own Church, and too often plainly irreligious and
subversive of all spiritual order.
* This account of the Pastoral of 1850 is taken from a MS. of Bishop
CoUins. It has not been possible to consult a copy of the document
itself.
t C.C.C, 1854, Aug., p. 62.
54 DIOCESE OF GIBRALTAR, 1842-1873
It is to be remembered that in facing these conditions the
Bishop had not the aid of the Society for the Propagation of
the Gospel. Though that Society contributed generously
towards the establishment of the See, it did not resume its
pristine activity on the Continent during Bishop Tomlinson's
episcopate. The Colonial and Continental Church Society
(founded 1823) began to subsidise local chaplaincies in
1 839-1 840.
For some reason unknown the new Bishop pledged him-
self to reside from six to eight months in each year in
Gibraltar or Malta, and this long residence was usually spent
in Malta.* It might have been expected that in these British
possessions his work and position would have been com-
paratively easy. But though in the course of twenty years
his presence and influence effected a great improvement in
the condition of Church affairs, there was in both colonies
much at first that was trying and depressing, especially in
Gibraltar. Here the fact that the garrison with the Govern-
ment chaplains and chapels was independent of the Bishop's
jurisdiction made him write that in the face of the military
chaplains his office was " a perfect shadow." t The chapel
built in 1 82 5-1 832 by the Government, the dock surveyor
being architect, was created a Cathedral in 1842. It had
been consecrated (under description in Garrison Orders as
" the Garrison Church," and in the Gibraltar Chronicle as " the
Protestant Church") on October 17, 1838, by Dr. Burrow, the
Civil Chaplain, under a warrant (dated June 13) issued by the
Archbishop authorizing him to carry out the consecration.:}:
The church, Moorish in style and spacious, had no ecclesi-
astical pretensions, and little to uplift a worshipper. All
the Bishop's attempts to improve it were resisted for some
years, and he was even obliged to be responsible himself for
debt incurred in making the interior more convenient. It was
served by the civil chaplain, who was also Archdeacon, and
who in a general way presided over the civil interest. On
Sunday evening the Church prayers were read in Spanish. The
* S., 1884, p. 44 ; 1887, p. 24. t S. 1884, p. 44.
\ A.C.M., 1909, Nov. The documents are preserved in Gibraltar.
BISHOP TOMLINSON, 1842-1863 55
civilians, having been without church or chaplain from 1704
to 1832 had, with few exceptions, none of the hereditary love
of English people for their church, her use and services ; and
there was no call made for personal sacrifice on her behalf.
The Government paid the Archdeacon ;^400 a year, and in
return let the pews in the Church, the proceeds going into the
colonial chest. The nominal Roman Catholics in the city
numbered over 10,000. The Vicar- Apostolic had 10 clergy,
and increased them for purposes of proselytizing. The civil
British population numbered about 1500, and was divided
between the Church of England, Wesleyans, and the Free
Church of Scotland. There were many Jews, and no fewer
than five synagogues on the Rock.*
At Malta there was but one civilian chaplain under the
Bishop's jurisdiction. But the position was easier for two
reasons. The fine new Church of St. Paul, Valletta, was under
the Bishop entirely, and was built under his supervision ; and
owing to the very inadequate spiritual provision made for the
troops, he was able to take a regular share in the ordinary
work of ministering to them. But the recognition of the
Roman Catholic Church was of a nature calculated to be felt
— as it still is — by an Anglican bishop ; and Dr. Tomlinson's
position in both Gibraltar and Malta made him feel ill at ease
as Bishop of a Diocese.
(2) Bishop Tomlinson^ s Ministrations
Of Bishop Tomlinson's actual visitations, and of his deal-
ing with his congregations during his twenty years' tenure
of the See little is at present known. The pledge of long
residence at Malta and Gibraltar must have seriously hindered
his gaining personal knowledge of his scattered flocks. He
appears to have kept it usually in the winter months ; and
then, as now, all communities are depleted during the heat of
summer. In 1843 he visited Athens to consecrate, on Palm
Sunday, the Church built in 1841;! Smyrna, where, on
April 23, he consecrated the Consular Chapel belonging to
* C.C.C, 1849, July. P- 22 ; Nov., p. 88.
t Print in possession of the Bishop ; and S-, 1890, p. 35.
56 DIOCESE OF GIBRALTAR, 1842-1873
the old buildings of the Levant Company (see p. 15) ; Trieste,
where he held a confirmation, and consecrated on June 4 a
"church" built in 1830 ; * and Messina, where he held a con-
firmation.! Later in the year he consecrated, on August 20,
in Oporto, St. James' Church, which had been built in 1756. f
This was probably under commission from the Bishop of
London, as the congregations in Portugal were not transferred
to the jurisdiction of Gibraltar until 1869. In 1844 he held
confirmations in Rome and Florence (where there were forty-
five candidates).§ On All Saint's Day in that year he con-
secrated the large " Collegiate " Church of St. Paul, Valletta,
built at a cost of ;^20,ooo by Queen Adelaide, who had
wintered in Malta 1 838-1 839. The Queen intended the
Church "for the worship of Almighty God, the accommoda-
tion of the Protestant inhabitants of the island of Malta, and
her Majesty's land and sea forces employed there." She had
greatly desired the foundation of the See, and had hoped that
the church would become the Cathedral of the Diocese, as
indeed the Bishop regarded it. It will be remembered that
the declaration of 1841 (see supra, p. 42) contemplated
Valletta as the future See-city, but that later, for certain civil
and ecclesiastical reasons, Gibraltar took its place. The new
Church, owing to the Governor's objection, was in 1844 styled
not " Cathedral " but " Collegiate Church " — a prefix which
Bishop Harris called " unaccountable," and which was mean-
ingless until 191 1, when Bishop Collins connected with it a
College of Honorary Canons (see infra, p. 193). ||
In 1846 he visited Malaga, and consecrated there the
cemetery acquired in 1830 by the efforts of the Consul,
Mr. W. Mark, an indefatigable son of the Church, who later
secured the establishment of a consular chaplaincy there in
1850.11 On June 2 in this year he consecrated the new
Church of the Holy Trinity^ in Florence,** which has since
* So Return made to Dr. Biber (pp. 73 f.) ; but see infra, p. 67.
t Biber, p. 76. t Seller's Oporto New and Old, pp. 41, 91.
§ Biber, pp. tz, 77.
II S.. 1879, pp. 22 ff. ; 1896, p. 60 ; 1898, p. 37 ; C.C.C,, 1 869, p. 7.
1 C.C.C, 1849, April, p. 381.
** The' Deed of Consecration is preserved in the Church Archives.
See Tassinari, History of the English Church in Florence, pp. 57 f.
BISHOP TOMLINSON, 1842-1863 57
been so admirably transformed by Mr. Bodley. In 1847 the
Bishop was at Patras, where there was no chaplain, and spent
Easter at Corfu, where there was no place of worship.* In
1854 he held an ordination in St. Paul's, Valletta, ordaining a
priest for Smyrna and two deacons.f In that year, during
the Crimean War, the Bishop visited the British Expeditionary
Force at Scutari, and on May 20 confirmed 302 men, and com-
municated on the next day between 300 and 400 men of the
Force. In a letter addressed to the S.P.C.K. from Pera he
described the moving scenes, and in the same letter outlined
a plan for building an English Church at Constantinople, of
which our Crimean Memorial Church is the outcome.;]: The
visit to Scutari was repeated in 1855 to consecrate the burial-
ground there. He consecrated the present Church of the
Holy Trinity (and its burial-ground) at Nice on December
22, 1862. Bishop Harris states that he consecrated a little
church-room at Syra, and a burial-ground at Tripoli, but with-
out giving dates.§ Of the Bishop's other travel no particulars
are at present available.
(3) The Church of England at Constantinople ; the
Crimean Memorial Church
The interest of English Churchmen of this time was
centred beyond all question in the Eastern portion of the
Diocese, and in particular in Constantinople. The Crimean
War served to heighten attention already aroused. It will
be remembered that one of the objects of the foundation of
the See was the maintenance and increase of communication
with the bishops of the ancient Churches of the East. In
1847 the Bishop of Gibraltar was described as "not only
superintending our congregations along the Mediterranean,"
but as "being the authentic expositor of the creed of our
• C.C.C., 1847, Dec, p, 215 ; 1848, May, p. 411. There is some
evidence (not beyond question) that he consecrated in 1844 the church
room at Pisa, and in 1846 that at Bagni di Lucca, and Bishop Spencer
of Madras Christ Church, Cannes, on December 27, 1855.
t G. D. Gazette, Jan., 1914, p. 73. % Guardian, June 21, 1854.
§ C.C.C, 1865, p. 4 ; 1870, pp. 175, 296.
58 DIOCESE OF GIBRALTAR, 1842-1873
Church to the long-neglected Churches of the East," and as
" considering this not his least important function." * Con-
stantinople, as the seat of the CEcumenical Patriarch, was
thus naturally a focus of interest. But there were other
points in connexion with Constantinople that gradually
enforced the concern of English Churchmen from 1850
onwards. The American Church sent Bishop Southgate on
an embassy to the Oriental Churches, and from his activity
began much American religious and philanthropic enterprise
in teaching and hospitals. In this not only Episcopalians
but also Independents played a great part ; and these were
followed by Scotch, English, and Irish Dissenters through
the Turkish Missions Aid Society. At the same time the
poverty of our provision there for our own people was revealed.
In the Embassy, rebuilt at a cost of .^70,000, no correspond-
ing care for a worthy chapel was shown ; and a church
independent of the Embassy was required both for our own
merchants and also to represent our Church to the Greek
Church. And yet further, no witness of our faith was borne
to Mohammedans. " I have heard," wrote a correspondent
to the Colonial Church Chronicle, " that the Turks have been
in the habit of saying of the English lately that they have no
Priest, no Church, no Religion. And really there are a great
number of English merchants who seem to have lost all
interest in religion. Sometimes they have been for months
together without even the possibility of partaking of the
means of grace. And yet we have prayed for Turks every
Good Friday for 300 years." f It was urged that we needed
a large and worthy church and a school with a missionary
Bishop and a staff of clergy, to prosecute active missionary
work, and to enter into friendly relations with Oriental
Bishops, so that the Anglican Church would be really repre-
sented in Constantinople deahng with Greeks and Latins as
a church, and refusing to be "swamped in a crude Pro-
testantism." % At the same time the Roman Church taking
advantage of the weakness of the Eastern Communion
became aggressively active. A " physical torrent of monks,
♦ C.C.C, 1847, Dec, p. 230 «. t C.C.C, 1850, Oct., pp. 139 ff.
% C.C.C, 1855, Nov., p. 177 ; Dec, p. 240.
r.
■J.
_)
X
BISHOP TOMLINSON, 1842-1863 59
riests, and sisters " flowed eastward to induce acknowledg-
ment of the supremacy of the Pope. An Encyclical Epistle
by the Orthodox Patriarchs of Constantinople, Alexandria,
Antioch, and Jerusalem, and twenty-nine Bishops was called
out by this aggression. There can be little doubt of the
reality of the Roman effort, though some years later both
the propaganda and its success was denied.*
In the face of this open door the Church of England
seemed to be "only preparing" while Rome was at work.
While the Roman Church shewed herself at her best in
England, we shewed ourselves at our worst at our work
abroad, looking on with quiet indifference while our own
people starved, and the Eastern wondered that no helping
hand against Rome was held out to the Greek and Armenian
Churches. It was asked somewhat indignantly what the
new Bishopric had done for our people, the Greek Church,
Islam, or the Jews, to justify itself or the expenditure of
;^30,ooo on its foundation.t
The Bishop's letter to S.P.C.K. of May 22, 1854, from
Constantinople broached the idea of a Crimean Memorial
Church. As the proposal was considered, the purpose was
widened, and ultimately the church was designed to fulfil a
fourfold aim : to serve as a Memorial of the War ; to be a
worthy presentation of the English Church and centre of
spiritual life for the English residents ; to be the seat of a
Church Mission to the Turks ; and the centre of growing
communication with the Greek Church. The collection of
required funds for a noble church necessarily took time ; but
the delay at least served to make clear each point of the
purpose of the church ; and the foundation-stone was. laid on
October 19, 1858. Actual building was not, however, begun
for many years, as stone had to be brought from Malta,
and skilled workmen, employing natives under them, from
England, | and consequently the church was not consecrated
till ten years later. It is much to be regretted that the first
* C.C.C, 1856, June, pp. 441 ff. ; Nov., p. 183 ; 1862, Dec, p. 467.
t C.C.C, 1852, Nov., p. 173 ; 1854, Aug., p. 62 ; 1855, Nov., p. 161 ;
1856, April, p. 391.
X S,, 1896, p. 65.
6o DIOCESE OF GIBRALTAR, 1842-1873
point mentioned above was suffered to overshadow all others,
both in the appeal made in the public Meeting in London, on
April 28, 1856, and in the speech made by Lord Stratford de
RedcHffe on the occasion of the laying of the foundation-
stone ; and even Bishop Harris, in the sermon preached when
the church was consecrated on October 22, 1868, though he
dwelt on the functions of the church as to our own people,
the Orthodox Communion and the Armenian Church omitted
to make any reference to its being the heart and centre of a
Mission to Islam. But it is clear that the church was by
many contributors intended to initiate a Mission with a fixed
and resolute purpose and clear idea, to the success of which
its independence of the Embassy was expected to contribute.*
But everything did not wait for the great church, for the
erection of which S.P.G. opened a fund. In the course of
1855 that Society came into action, and on November 15, in
view of the fact that the Embassy chaplain was occupied with
his own peculiar duties, while the number of British residents,
sailors, shipping agents and temporay residents was greatly
increased, resolved to send two chaplains to Pera to minister
to them. Early in 1856 the Rev. C. G. Curtis proceeded to
Constantinople, where he was destined to labour till his
death in 1896, and he was joined a little later by the Rev.
C. P. Tiley. In June, 1856, Mr. Curtis wrote, " I am obliged
to assure you that we are sadly behind the time ; our back-
wardness is the subject of general rebuke and astonishment,
and the character of both Church and nation is at stake."
On Whitsunday a little English Church holding 120 persons,
the first Anglican Church in European Turkey, was opened
at Ortakeui on the Bosphorus, the Bishop of Gibraltar to
be Diocesan of its congregation. Mr. Curtis and Mr Tiley
at once began work, opening a Mission Chapel with daily
services, and a school, and ministering in the Sailors' Home,
the hospital, and the gaol. On Trinity Sunday, 1858, the
first Mussulman was baptized in the Mission Chapel. By
October, 1859, Mr. Curtis had begun services in Turkish, and
was himself able to preach in the vernacular. In this year the
congregation was about sixty, while the day-school numbered
* C.C.C, 1856, June, pp. 441 ff-j 480; 1858, p. 461 ; 1868, p. 481.
. BISHOP TOMLINSON, 1842-1863 61
over fifty. In i860 the Bishop ordained Mr. Antonio Tien,
a nephew of the late Patriarch of the Maronites of Mount
Lebanon, a student of St. Augustine's College, Canterbury,
to be attached to the S.P.G. Mission. There was thus con-
siderable Anglican work going on while the church was
building ; and there can be no question that the hand of
Bishop Tomlinson was behind it, if he were not himself
actually on the scene.* Further progress, and difficulties,
will appear in the record of the next episcopate,
(4) The Spiritual Condition of the English in Spain
Besides the East much attention at the time was directed
to the spiritual destitution of English people in Spain. Until
1869 (and more definitely 1874; see p. in) the English con-
gregations of the eastern sea-coast only of Spain were under
the supervision of the Bishop of Gibraltar. But in view of
the future, some notice of matters in Spain must be given
here.
When the Bishopric of Gibraltar was established, although
trading communities, dating from the early seventeenth
century, fringed the eastern coast of Spain at Barcelona,
Tarragona, Valencia, Denia, Alicante, Murcia, Cartagena,
and Malaga, there was not a single Anglican chaplaincy in
Spain, not even in the British Embassy at Madrid. This
was due not alone to British indifference, though to that in
part ; it was largely due to Spanish intolerance. In the
Report of September 22, 1851, of Lord Howden, the British
Minister at Madrid, it is stated : " By the law of the land,
there is but one religion professed in Spain — the Roman
Catholic, and no other form of worship is tolerated ; there-
fore, until this law, which is declared also in the constitution
of the country, is modified, no facility for the establishment
of Protestant places of worship can be given." A Royal
Decree (Madrid, November 17, 1852) said, "No foreigner
shall be able to prof ess in Spain any other religion than the
Catholic Apostolic Roman religion." A letter of the Spanish
* C.C.C, 1855, Dec, p. 219 ; 1856, July, p. 35 ; i860, pp. 159 ; 281,
287 footnote.
62 DIOCESE OF GIBRALTAR, 1842-1873
Minister of Foreign Affairs to the British Minister (Madrid,
May 24, 1853), in reference to a cemetery, declared "No
chapel, or any other sign of a temple, or of public or private
worship, will be allowed to be built in the aforesaid cemetery.
All such acts which can give any indications of the per-
formance of divine worship whatsoever are prohibited. In
the conveyance of dead bodies to the burial any pomp or
publicity shall be avoided." As late as the summer of 1858,
after a service for English people employed on a railway,
held by a clergyman in the private house of an Englishman
in North Spain, the master of the house received on the
following day an intimation that such acts in the house of
any British subject, being " public and impudent," would lead,
if repeated, to repression and punishment. In i860 the
British Consul at Barcelona forbad a grant of Bibles and
Prayer-books from S.P.C.K. for British workmen to be sent
from England as being contraband. All this will show what
patience and tact is implied in Mr. Mark's securing a British
Cemetery at Malaga in 1850. It was not until December,
1859, that a chaplain was appointed at the British Embassy
at Madrid.
The matter received attention in England from 1849, ^"d
some effort was made to secure permission for our com-
munities to have chaplains and chapels. Lord Howden's
Report of 185 1, quoted above, appears to have ended the
concern of the Foreign Office for some time. But in the
autumn of 1859, owing to the account of the religious starva-
tion of our colonies everywhere in Spain, save at Malaga,
given by the Rev. A. J. D'Orsey, who in that year had
visited Malaga, Almeria, Cartagena, Alicante, Valencia and
Barcelona, an appeal was made to the Bishops of London
and Gibraltar, and Lords Palmerston and John Russell.
Bishop Tomlinson at once gave Mr. D'Orsey his support,
appointed him "Missionary Chaplain to the English in
Spain," and took a leading part in launching " The Church of
England Mission to the English in Spain, and to the English
Sailors in Spanish Ports" in January, i860. It was intended
that the Mission should employ an experienced itinerating
clergyman, and should organize, if possible, permanent chap-
BISHOP TOMLINSON, 1842-1863 6$
laincies " to serve "the thousands of our countrymen resident
in Spain, as agents, engineers, miners, founders and navvies,
or occasional visitors, as tourists, invalids, masters of vessels,
and sailors." It was stated that it was "hoped that there
would be no opposition from the Spanish authorities, if the
chaplains restricted their labours to their own people ; and
that one great obstacle to the successful working of foreign
chaplaincies had arisen from the attempt made to proselytize."
" We need hardly say," adds the Appeal for the Mission, " that
when we claim liberty of action for the Church of England
abroad, it is simply in order that she may minister to her own
children ; and that we disclaim in toto any attempt to inter-
fere with the people of another communion."
For a time little encouragement was forthcoming, owing
to the indifference and nervousness of our colonies and the
political relations of the day. The Foreign Office stated in
1861 that British subjects must conform to the law of Spain,
though a general assurance was given that the Government
would "at all times use their influence with the Spanish
Government, with a view of obtaining liberty of worship for
British subjects." The case was made still more difficult by
the action of a certain active and influential section of
Churchmen at home, who, in combination with Presbyterians,
Methodists, and others had been trying for some time, by
an extensive diffusion of tracts, to bring about a religious
reformation in Spain ; and indiscreet action in the country
itself on the part of English clergy (some of whom belonged
to the Colonial and Continental Church Society and were
openly charged "with trying to convert the natives of the
country," while their ministrations had not the Bishop of
Gibraltar's licence or his sanction of such propaganda efforts)
added to the trouble and darkened the prospect.
Such was the position in this quarter of the Diocese at
the Bishop's death. It was long before it was materially
improved.* And yet, in spite of all its distress, it was not
without fruit. It served to define for the Diocese of Gibraltar
and its Bishop the only clear and catholic line of duty
* C.C.C, 1849, Apr., p. 381 ; May, p. 423 ; 1850, May, p. 432; i860,
p. 1 ; 1862, pp. 201, 241, 307 ; C.Q.R., Jan., 1878, p. 360.
64 DIOCESE OF GIBRALTAR, 1842-1873
towards the unreformed churches — to carry on work which is
constructive, positive, instructive, irenical, and not destructive,
polemical, and negative ; to take full and charitable account
of both the shortcomings of our own Church, and of the fact
that the very word " Protestantism " is odious to many loyal
children of other churches ; and to aim steadfastly at the
exclusion of suspicion, jealousy, recrimination and prose-
lytism whether direct or indirect, and at the vindication
of the Catholicity of the Church of England in whole-
hearted loyalty and love.
The effect of Bishop Tomlinson's episcopate cannot be
rightly estimated apart from those of at least the next two
Bishops. It will therefore be right to defer the attempt to
view it till later. He died at Malta on February 6, 1863.
He was nearly 69 years of age. His body rests in the Ta
Braxia Cemetery.
Note. — Since these pages were printed " A charge delivered to the
Clergy of the Diocese and Jurisdiction of Gibraltar at the Visitation
held in the English Collegiate Church of St. Paul, Malta, December 28,
1844, by George, Lord Bishop of Gibraltar. Malta, 1845 (p. 46)," has
been biought to light. It adds nothing to our knowledge, save as to
the position taken by the Bishop. " We no longer present ourselves to
the notice of the Churches of the Mediterranean as isolated chaplains or
missionaries, but as a regularly organized Diocese of the Church of
England. . . . You are, therefore, to consider yourselves a legitimate
portion of the province of Canterbury, and are to be governed by the
same ecclesiastical laws as the rest of that province. . . . Our own
proper work is in the congregations of our own people. We are not
responsible before God for the souls of those whom He . . . has com-
mitted to the care of others. . . . We are bound to uphold the Truth,
and to declare it fully both to Churches and to individual Christians.
We are also bound, both by the general laws of the Church and by the
principle laid down by our own Metropolitan, not to intermeddle with
the rightful Jurisdiction of the Bishops and Clergy of the countries where
we dwell."
The Bishop traces steps leading to the establishment of the Bishopric ;
urges need of religious instruction of the young, and of study ot the
Prayer-Book and its offices ; also of care in admitting to Communion
qualified persons not members of the Church of England. He refers to
his own Mission in 1840; to the many EngHsh in Spain and N. Africa
without a single chaplain, and says that he has commenced the formation
of a Diocesan Fund for provision of chaplains and missionary purposes,
to which objects the English Church at Oporto has already contributed
liberally. The Charge gives no statistics as to clergy, congregations, or
churches, or of the Bishop's own activities 1842-1844.
WALIKR J.»;fN TROWliR. lUSHOP OI' OIKRALTAR, ISiia-l is
To face f>. 6j
CHAPTER VI
THE EPISCOPATE OF BISHOP TROWER, 1863-1868
DR. WALTER JOHN TROWER, second Bishop of
Gibraltar, was born April 5, 1804. He was educated at
Eton and Christ Church, Oxford ; and after graduating with
distinction in 1826 was elected Fellow of Oriel in 1828. He
intended to follow law as his profession ; but the influence of
Samuel Wilberforce led him to seek Holy Orders. He had
already considerable episcopal experience before his nomination
to the See of Gibraltar. From 1848 till 1859 he was Bishop of
Glasgow* ; during 1859-1860 he acted as Bishop for N. and
C. Europe under Bishop Tait of London ; and during 1860-
1863 he assisted the aged Bishop Phillpotts of Exeter. The
Letters Patent of his appointment acknowledged his Scotch
episcopal consecration to be canonical ; and in accordance
with a demand in them he received on September 24, 1863,
in Addington Church " due and Canonical mission " as
Bishop of Gibraltar from Archbishop Longley, He was
declared to be " Bishop and Ordinary of English Congrega-
tions, etc.," and in the sentence of Consecration of St. Mary
Magdalene Church, Bournabat, he spoke of his authority as
" Ordinary and Episcopal."
( I ) Bishop Troiver^s ministrations and travel
Of his Episcopate, save from the pages of the Colonial
Church Chronicle, little record is available. Only four entries
are made in the Bishop's Register (see supra, p. 48). No
* Consecrated Sept. 21, 1848, by the Bishops of Aberdeen (Dr.
Skinner), Edinburgh (Dr. Terrot), Argyll (Dr. Ewing) and Brechin
(Dr. Forbes).
F
66 DIOCESE OF GIBRALTAR, 1842-1873
Confirmation Lists or Diaries are known ; and apparently
none of his official correspondence has survived.
Like his predecessor, he pledged himself to reside for six
or eight months in each year at Gibraltar or Malta. This in
his case also hampered his obtaining much personal know-
ledge of the British colonies, excepting such as gained by his
visitation tours of 1864 and 1867. Travelling moreover was
not easy for a man of his proportions. Like Bishop Tomlin-
son, he found his office and position at Malta and Gibraltar
" a shadow " in the face of the military chaplains, who were
not within his jurisdiction.* To Malta he was much attached ;
and when, in 1865, St Julian's College (the large schoolroom
of which had been used for Sunday Services) was closed, he
appealed at once for funds to build a Church in Sliema and
gave £1000 himself to it. The result was the beautiful little
Church of Holy Trinity. The Bishop consecrated it on
Easter Tuesday, 1867. Later he bequeathed to the Bishop,
as a Bishop's residence, the adjoining house and garden. t
To St. Paul's, Valletta, he presented a valuable library of
theological and classical books, still preserved in the Church,
for the use of the clergy of the Diocese.
The Bishop's Visitation Tour of 1864- 1865 was the first
of its kind of which we have any details. Owing probably to
the exigencies of residence in Malta it was carried out during
the summer, when the English communities in South Europe
are generally much reduced in numbers. Unfortunately, the
account of it given in the Colonial Chtirch Chronicle con-
tains very few dates, although it is full of notes of interest
touching the colonies visited and ministrations in them. J
He began at Messina, on April 20 (service in a room :
chaplain resident : stipend scanty and difficult). Thence he
went, on April 25, to Athens (English Chapel), Syra, where he
found a small building with one room consecrated as a
church by Bishop Tomlinson, and a C.M.S. chaplain at
work, and Smyrna, Boudjah, and Bournabat. Here the
',* S., 1884, p. 44-:
t C.C.C., 1866, p. 141 ; 1867, p. 262. S., 1880, p. 45.
X C.C.C, 1865, pp. 2 ff. ; 50 ff. ; 124 ff, ; 183 ff.
BISHOP TROWER, 1863-1868 67
English Church was in " a decidedly prosperous and flourishing
condition." At Smyrna the Consulate Chaj^el was conse-
crated. At Boudjah a house had been purchased and adapted
as a chapel in 1839, and at Bournabat Mr. Whittall had
built "a most substantial and costly chapel," which the
Bishop consecrated on Whit Monday, noting the warm
attachment of the colony to the Church of England. Here
also was a C.M.S. station. May 18 found him at Constanti-
nople. The Crimean Memorial Church was not yet ready for
consecration. Ten clergy were at work in harmony together
— the Embassy Chaplain, four Clergy of S.P.G., three of the
C.M.S., and one each of the London Jews Society and of
the Colonial Church and School Society. On St. Barnabas'
Day ten Turks were confirmed in the S.P.G. Mission Chapel.
Of an important interview with the Armenian Patriarch some
account will be given later. During July the Bishop visited
Galatz, where he consecrated a cemetery ; Constanza, where
his services were coldly received ; and Vienna, as Commis-
sary for the Bishop of London. He then spent two Sundays
at Trieste, where he consecrated the church,* and visited
Fiume, where the chaplain of Trieste held service once a
quarter. Thence he passed into Italy — to Venice (service
held in the chaplain's house), Milan (chapel), Turin (services
in a " poor school-room "), Genoa (^2000 collected for a
church), Leghorn (church), Pisa, Bagni di Lucca. Florence
and Spezia. It was now the end of September. Passing by
Rome f as there were few English in residence and the
chaplain was absent, the Bishop went on to Naples, where
* But see p. 55.
t " It is well known that it has always been a question whether or not
the English Chapel at Rome is within the (intended) jurisdiction of the
Bishop of Gibraltar. It is included in the copy given to the late and
present Bishops of the places mentioned in the circular of Lord Aberdeen,
on the erection of the See ; but it seemed that the circular was never
actually received by the Consul at Rome. The question was referred to
the late Archbishop of Canterbury and the law-officers of the Crown, and
decided by those authorities against the Bishop of Gibraltar's claim to be
regarded as diocesan. The present Bishop would willingly visit the
chapel at any time, without formal recognition of his diocesan authority
(as Conlmissary for the Bishop of London)." Bishop Trower : C.C.C.,
1865, p. 185.
68 DIOCESE OF GIBRALTAR, 1842-1873
the new church was being built on the site granted by
Garibaldi when " Dictator," the grant being made good later
by the King of Italy ; thence to Palermo (service in the
Consulate) and Messina, where the chaplain was ministering
to English operatives employed on the railway to Catania.
Thus the visitation ended. It is needless to say that at
most of the places where he called he held Confirmations.
In his summary the Bishop dwells on the following
points: (i) The welcome given to him everywhere, and the
fact that the English settled congregations in Italy were
generally in a satisfactory state ; (2) the need of greater
independence being accorded to the chaplains in conformity
with the principles of the Church of England ; (3) the in-
difference to any service but that of the morning, and the
poorness of the collections ; (4) the progress and character of
the Italian Reformation. Of this more will be said hereafter.
Of other travel of the Bishop for the visitation of his
chaplaincies little can be said. On March 11, 1865, he con-
secrated the fine new Christ Church at Naples * and on
July 3 in the same year a burial-ground at Puerto S. Maria
in Spain. t In 1867, soon after the destructive earthquake,
he visited Corfu, Athens, and Patras where a collection for a
church was being made.:|: But as yet there is no evidence
that he was able to visit the Riviera and the Spanish
congregations.
{2) Resumption of work on the Continent by the
Society for the Propagation of the Gospel
The power and resources of the Church in the Diocese
received a welcome addition at the very beginning of Bishop
Trower's episcopate by the action of the Society for the
Propagation of the Gospel. It will be remembered that from
about 1 7 10 it had ceased to work on the Continent of Europe
(see i-z/f/r^, p. 22). This was probably due to the rapid growth
of the needs of the great colonies of the Crown in N. America
and elsewhere. But the Crimean war had led to a call on its
* C. C. C, 1865, p. 149 ; where a list of gifts to the church is given,
t R., p. 60. C.C.C, 1867, p. 262.
BISHOP TROWER, 1863-1868 69
aid, in response to which it had sent no fewer than twenty-five
chaplains to the camps and hospitals ; and the building of
the Crimean Memorial Church at Constantinople and the con-
duct of the Mission which was to gather round it, had aroused
and deepened the concern of the Society for S. and S.E.
Europe, The result was that in 1863 the Society " resumed
its ancient care for the religious needs of British subjects on
the Continent," appointed a committee consisting of many
leading Churchmen to carry such care into effect, and appealed
for a Special Fund for divers objects. These were, to
encourage the erection of suitable churches, and to procure
fit decently temporary places of worship ; to supplement
inadequate stipends of clergy ; to facilitate season chap-
laincies ; to supply correct information regarding the prin-
ciples of the Church of England ; and to provide for the
regular administration of Confirmation to English residents.
Lest the last object should surprise, it ought to be said that
the Bishop of London had appealed to the Society to do
this.*
The resumption of work in S. Europe by the S.P.G. was
of double importance. In the first place it began an activity,
which, starting from Constantinople, has proved of increasing
blessing to our people both in settled communities and the
ever growing temporary communities of our people in search of
health, art, and travel. In the years immediately following
1863 it prosecuted vigorously directly missionary work at
Constantinople, and assisted effectively in providing ministra-
tions for remote colonies such as those in Bulgaria, Roumania,
and on the Danube, and for British seamen. It is much to
be regretted that in time this adventuresomeness well-nigh
vanished, and its aid was almost exclusively given to Riviera
and Italian chaplaincies. Further, the Churchmanship of the
members of this Society promised the presence of clergy who
would definitely sympathize with the true Anglican position
in the face of "reforming movements" in the Latin Church
and the growing intercourse and understanding with the
Eastern Churches, which the action of certain clergy in the
Diocese tended somewhat to compromise.
* C.C.C, 1863, p. 307 ; 1864, p. 203.
70 DIOCESE OF GIBRALTAR, 1842-1873
(3) Progress of Work of the Church of Englmid at
Constantinople
The work of the S.P.G. Mission in Constantinople made
rapid progress towards the end of Bishop Tomlinson's
episcopate and in the beginning of Bishop Trower's, both in
our trading community, and also among the Turks. In the
Rev. C. G. Curtis, who laboured for nearly forty years in
this charge, during the greater part of which time he was
single-handed, the Diocese and Society had the finest of
leaders. It has already been noted that when Bishop Trower
visited Constantinople in 1864 he found no fewer than ten
clergy there, of whom three, Mr. Curtis and two recently
ordained Turkish clergy, converts from Islam, who had been
trained at St. Augustine's College, Canterbury, were on the
roll of the S.P.G., while three others were on that of the
C.M.S. That Society had begun to work in the city in 181 1
or shortly after. On the occasion of that visit, the Bishop
confirmed ten Turks, and Turkish women (veiled) were present
at that service for the first time. Up to that time the
Turkish Government had acted liberally to the Mission.
But the Confirmation seems to have given rise to exaggerated
reports of the number of converts, and a sudden and violent
persecution followed in violation of positive engagements on
the subject of religious toleration. It is, however, stated by
some that the disturbance was wholly unconnected with
missonary work in Constantinople, and was really due to
an extensive movement in one part of the Turkish Empire
in the direction not of Christianity but of modification of
ancient Mohammedan faith and custom. Mr. Curtis and
Rev. E. Williams, another of the S.P.G. clergy, were arrested
(but soon released) with some of the converts, and two of
the latter were exiled. In spite of this all the confirmed
remained steadfast in their faith. Direct missionary work now
stopped ; and since 1865, for lack of suitable native agents,
has not been resumed. It is to be recorded that at a meeting
of the Moslem Missiofi Society, on Nov. 5, 1866, Archdeacon
Emery was able to announce that, thanks to the eft'orts of
BISHOP TROWER. 1863-1868 ^\
Lord Stratford de Redclifife, the liability to death which
attended the conversion of a Turk had been removed, and
that that statesman had succeeded in procuring a charter
of religious freedom in Turkey. * The rest of his work,
however, Mr. Curtis continued, conducting a school for many
years, ministering as chaplain of Christ Church, and visiting
communities on the shores of the Black Sea. And not least
of his services was the constant maintenance of friendly
intercourse with the heads of the Orthodox and Armenian
Churches in Constantinople. His intimate knowledge of the
East, and his linguistic gifts made him the valued interpreter
of successive Bishops in their interviews with the Patriarchs.
Later he was made Canon of Gibraltar, and died at Pera
from sunstroke on Aug. 13, 1896 — nomen venerabile.\
(4) Relations with the Eastern Churches
Bishop Trower diligently fostered the friendly relations
with the heads of the Eastern Church which his predecessor
had done so much to develope. During his visits to the
near East in 1864 and 1867 he met the Patriarch and Bishops
whenever possible — at Athens, Smyrna, Constantinople, Corfu,
and Patras. The value of such frequent intercourse was
shewn strikingly in 1864 when the Bishop met the Armenian
Patriarch at Constantinople. It would appear that the
American (Independent) missionaries had from 1840 addressed
themselves especially to the promotion of reform in the
Armenian Church, and that the Armenian congregation at
Pera had fallen to a great degree under their control. As
time went on, however, that congregation perceived that the
Independent discipline and teaching did not meet their
primitive and catholic standard, and they demanded a restora-
tion of Liturgical worship and Episcopal government. This
brought them to seek the advice of Bishop Tomlinson, who
* SeePascoe, Two Hundred Years of S.P.G.,^^. 736-8 ; C.C.C, 1865,
pp. 7, 50 ff., 124 ; 1866, p. 503 ; S., 1896, pp. 63 ff.
t For an account of his services to the Church and Diocese, see S.,
1896, pp. 63 ff.
72 DIOCESE OF GIBRALTAR, 1842-1873
shortly before his death counselled them to prepare a re-
formed Armenian Liturgy. They asked him eventually in
1862 to admit them into his Diocese. The request was
renewed to Bishop Trower on his visit to Constantinople in
1864, and he was inclined at first to accede to it. Before
doing so, however, he consulted the Patriarch. But while
appreciating greatly the Bishop's frankness and straight-
forwardness, the Patriarch objected in the strongest manner.
He declared that no words could express the injury done to
his flock by the Independent missionaries, who had treated
them as idolaters and had sown seeds of strife in families ;
that if this congregation obtained their request, their example
in seeking it would probably be followed by others ; and that
if the English Bishop received them he would inflict serious
injury on that ancient Christian communion. Bishop Trower
accordingly followed the Patriarch's wishes, though evidently
with some reluctance. Although at the moment the Pera
Armenian congregation may have suffered some hardship in
consequence, it is manifest that the friendly relations which
existed and the possibility of access of the Bishop to the
Patriarch saved the Church of England from a great mistake,
and from an act which would have laid on her the charge of
a congregation which she could not really regulate or serve,
and which would have certainly estranged the ancient
Churches of the East, laying our own Church open to the
accusation of proselytism and to a suspicion which would
have been most difficult to remove.* As it is, " the Greek
prelates," Bishop Trower writes, " do not seem to regard the
presence of an Anglican Bishop in the East as an intrusion,
but as the natural and legitimate consequence of the residence
of Englishmen. Their theory of Episcopacy is that Dioceses
are distinguished by race and nations, rather than by place." f
(5) Movements 0/ Religions Reform in Italy and Spai7i
During this episcopate the spread of the craving for
religious reform in Italy and Spain, especially in Italy, made
* C.C.C, 1865, pp. 2 ff., 50 fif., esp. 54-6 ; 1876, p. 262.
t C.C.C, 1865, p. 54.
BISHOP TROWER, 1863-1868 73
it increasingly needful that the Church of England repre-
sented in S. Europe by the Bishop and Diocese of Gibraltar
should adopt a clear, unequivocal and unchallengeable posi-
tion. It 1864 considerable inquiry was made by enlightened
Italians as to the faith and worship of our Church.* The
movement of reform, which spread especially in Naples and
Messina, and which was influenced to some considerable
extent by Plymouth Brethren, was described by the Rev. J.
Long, a C.M.S. Missionary, in 1865, as mischievous, " levelling
everything, and building up nothing." It was impossible for
English Churchmen to stand completely aloof from and
indifferent to the desire for light spreading over Italy, and
the disposition to return to those principles of primitive
Christianity of which the Church of England is so true a
representative. The S.P.C.K. had placed at the disposal of
Bishop Tomlinson a grant in aid of promoting Christian
knowledge in Italy, and now (1865) a fund was opened to
promote internal reform in Italy by methods which would
spread knowledge, especially of Holy Scripture, but would
give no sanction to anything of the nature of proselytizing ;
and all use of the fund was to have the sanction of the Bishop
of Gibraltar.f The Bishop's visitation tour of 1864-5 gave
him the opportunity of gaining first-hand knowledge of the
character and spread of the movement. He judged it to be
real, and (in the South of Italy especially) satisfactory, though
he did not anticipate any very great immediate results. In
N. Italy he feared that the zealous efforts of various Presby-
terian and dissenting sects occasioned a tendency to rush from
one extreme to the other, and he recognized that the prin-
ciples of our Church forbade the vehement aggressive action
which the various Presbyterian sects were unscrupulously
adopting, and justifying on principle. |
The matter made increasing demands on the Bishop's
attention. In the spring of 1866 he joined the Bishop of
Pennsylvania, and the two Bishops had many interviews in the
chief Italian cities from Naples to Messina with Italians
seeking Church reform, and took much pains to form an
* C.C.C., 1865, p. 3. t C.C.C., 1865, pp. 230-3.
X C.C.C, 1865, pp. 188 f.
74 DIOCESE OF GIBRALTAR, 1842-1873
accurate opinion upon the facts of the movement. In the
end they had no doubt whatever that a desire existed for a
Liturgical worship in the vernacular, and freed from the
superstitions gradually introduced into the Church of Rome ;
but they disclaimed all notion of reproducing in Italy a copy
of the Anglican Liturgy. They believed that there was a
widespread, though often vague, yearning for a return to
primitive Catholicism, and that many of the clergy and laity
desired to reform but not to destroy the ancient historical
Church of Italy. Accordingly they jointly recommended to
the Anghcan and American Churches the rendering of such
assistance as would promote knowledge of Scripture and give
information calculated to "tend to a sound and sober Reform-
ation of the Italian Church on a primitive Catholic basis,"
and also give support as to maintenance and means of minis-
tration to such priests of undoubted moral and religious
character as might, with their congregations, suffer for
conscience' sake. The closing paragraph of the paper issued
by the two Bishops from Milan in May, 1866, is noteworthy.
They "hold that an indispensable condition of rendering
assistance to this last object should be careful investigation
on the spot, to ascertain that such religious services spring
from a genuine and spontaneous desire on the part of the
Italian clergy and laity, and that the sincerity of the desire
should be attested by earnest native efforts to meet the need-
ful expenses." * In consequence, an Anglo-American Com-
mittee was formed, to meet annually at Nice, of which both
Bishops with several of the clergy of the Diocese of Gibraltar
were members.f The movement, however, tended to take an
ever more violent form ; and it is to be doubted if any
adequate results followed the great labour this work entailed
on Bishop Trower and his friends, save that it made clear the
line and policy of the Diocese and its Bishops.
The advance of religious enlightenment in Spain forced
* For the text of the Metnoradum see C.C.C, 1866, pp. 290,291. The
wisdom of this recommendation was emphatically pressed on the present
writer by the late Bishop Wordsworth of Salisbury.
t C.C.C, 1867, p. 2x3.
BISHOP TROWER, 1863-1868 75
itself on the Bishop's attention early in 1864, through the fact
that a number of Spaniards, clerical and lay, took refuge in
Gibraltar from a persecution which overtook them for pro-
fessing opinions opposed to those of the dominant Romish
faith. The foremost refugee had never conversed with a
Protestant or read a Protestant book. The Bishop took the
lead, on behalf of the Church of England, together with
Archdeacon Sleeman, in meeting their wants and in estab-
lishing a House of Refuge. The need seems to have been
transitory ; and the incident calls for record only as indicating
the Bishop's readiness to sympathize with such sufferers in
the cause of truth.*
Of Bishop Trower's work in his congregations little can
be said. We have recorded his consecration of churches at
Bournabat, Trieste, Naples and Sliema, and of cemeteries at
Galatz and Puerto S. Maria. The annals of his successor
show that the Riviera communities and their chaplaincies
developed greatly during his episcopate ; but notes from him
of the development are wanting. It appears that he was
troubled by the officiating in the Diocese of unlicensed and
discredited clergy; for it was to put a stop to this scandal
that in 1866 the Foreign Office, at the instance of our Church
authorities, issued a Circular to Her Majesty's diplomatic
representatives on the Continent, authorizing them to request
the Governments to which they were accredited not to allow
any person to officiate as a chaplain of the Church of England
unless he could produce the licence of the Bishop of London
or the Bishop of Gibraltar.!
It is a real loss that no advice from him concerning Church
discipline and organization within the Diocese has come to
knowledge. From the prominent part he took in the Lambeth
Conference of 1867 it may be gathered that he was specially
qualified to deal with this subject. It was he who drew up
the Resolutions of the Committee of the Conference on the
Colenso case, which were unanimously adopted by the Bishops.
He was Chairman of the Committee on Missionary Bishoprics,
some of the Resolutions o( which refer specially to his own
* C.C.C, 1864, p. 176. t S.C.P., 1884, p. 6.
76 DIOCESE OF GIBRALTAR, 1842-1873
Diocese. Resolution VII. which urges, with respect to the
special case of Continental chaplaincies, that the various
congregations of the Anglican Communion should be under
one authority, whether of the English or American Church,
is significant. So also is Resolution XIII., if we bear in mind
that divers Societies (S.P.G., C.C.C.S. since 1839, C.M.S.,
and L.J.S. since 1829) were at work in it; "That, as a
general rule, in conformity with Church Order, all Missionaries
or Chaplains residing or engaged in the exercise of ministerial
duty in the Diocese or District of a Colonial or Missionary
Bishop, should be licensed by and subject to the authority of
the said Bishop." In concluding Resolution XVI. and with
it their Report the Committee say that " they can recommend
no scheme which interferes with the canonical relation which
subsists between a Bishop and his clergy." *
Bishop Trower gave up systematic work abroad in 1867,
and resigned the See in 1868. In 1871 he became Rector of
Ashington in Sussex, where he died on Oct. 24, 1877, and
where his body was laid to rest. An eyewitness of his death
records that "he seemed to take death as one of the appointed
duties of life, and of that day!' f His pastoral diligence, the
publication of three volumes of Devotional Comments on the
Pentateuch (1875-7), and his vigorous opposition to the
appointment of Dr. Temple as Bishop of Exeter, show that
he was able to work to the end of his life.
* Report of the Lambeth Conference, 1867, pp. 130 ff. Resolution
XVI. had special reference to the "subordination of Missionaries," and
in particular to " instructio7is received J'rotn those in authority at home."
The Committee failed to understand what was meant by these words,
t See G. D. Gazette, Feb., 1914, pp. 94-96.
CHARLES AMVAXD HARRIS, BISHOP OF GIBRALTAR, 1S0S~1873
To face p. ff
CHAPTER VII
THE EPISCOPATE OF BISHOP HARRIS, 1868-1873
( I ) Personal Notes of Bishop Harris
THE third Bishop, the Hon. Charles Amyand Harris,
was the third and youngest son of the 2nd Earl of
Malmesbury. He was born on August 4, 181 3. He was
a graduate of Oriel, and a Fellow of All Souls' 1835-1837.
His ministerial life in England was, save for his incumbency
of Rownhams in the Diocese of Winchester 185 5-1 863, spent
in the Diocese of Sarum. After a curacy at Shaftesbury he
was Rector of Wilton from 1840 to 1848, and the fine church
there was built by Lord Pembroke during his incumbency.
After a period of ill-health and his tenure of Rownhams,
he returned to his old Diocese as Vicar of Bremhill and
Archdeacon of Wilts in 1863. He was throughout his life
greatly attached to this Diocese.* He was Prebendary of
Salisbury from 1841, and one of Bishop Hamilton's ex-
amining chaplains. In 1863 the See of Gibraltar was offered
to him, but declined on account of the delicacy of his wife.
After her death he accepted it when offered again in 1868.
He was consecrated in Canterbury Cathedral on May i, 1868,
by the Archbishop of Canterbury (Dr. Longley) and the
Bishops of Winchester (Dr. Wilberforce) and Rochester
(Dr. Claughton), and Bishop Trower. The sermon was
preached by the Rev. T. T. Carter of Clewer. He was in-
stalled at Gibraltar on May 24.
The personal character of the Bishop, his zealous pastoral
* In recording the consecration of the cemetery at Galatz (Sept. 25,
1869), he writes, " The service was that used in Sarum Diocese, from
which I love to draw my Episcopal traditions." — C.C.C., 1870, p. 177.
7B DIOCESE OF GIBRALTAR, 1842-1873
instincts, charm of manner and Christian cheerfuhiess, even
playfulness, greatly endeared him in all quarters, while his
intimacy with Bishop Wilberforce and Bishop Hamilton, and
his experience as parish priest and archdeacon specially
qualified him for dealing with the needs of his Diocese, which
was far from being the " easy and popular Bishopric " of one
of his obituary notices. One who knew him well noted his
constant travel, and the minute care and close personal
interest with which he tended his flock, with the result of
" the waking up of spiritual life in many a desert place, the
winning of hearts, and the stamping of a new character on
the Episcopal office in his Diocese." He was perhaps by
temperament more able than his predecessors to bear the
limitation of a position under Letters Patent. Though he
felt, both in Gibraltar and Malta, his legal ecclesiastical
status to be " unreal," and his rights to be i&w, yet his
experience of the universal respect for his office on the part
of both clergy (including the military chaplains) and laity
was such as to make him feel that he had a " far broader
and pleasanter foundation than that of right to rest upon,"
and that such recognition afforded "opportunities of moral
influence such as no mere ' Establishment ' rank could of
itself secure." * As both earlier Bishops, he was fond of
Malta, although (as will appear) he was not resident there
for long periods, as they were. He always left it with regret
until the end of his last stay, when he suffered from " a most
depressing fever " ; and it was his prompt and sagacious
generosity which secured the land at Sliema which is now
a much valued endowment of Holy Trinity Church.
(2) Extension 0/ ike jurisdiction of the Bishop of
Gibraltar
The first extension of the jurisdiction of the Bishopric
took place during Bishop Harris' episcopate. In 1869 the
question (made possible by the wording of the Letters Patent
setting out the range of his jurisdiction) arose, whether
English congregations in Spain, other than those on the coast,
* C.C.C, 1869, pp. 6, 8.
BISHOP HARRIS, 1868-1873 79
were under his supervision or that of the Bishop of London.
It might have been thought from the F.O. Circulars of 1842
and 1866 that no such question could arise ; but the con-
gregations concerned and those in Portugal had remained
under the Bishop of London, and it was thus that the
S.P.G. provided the ministration of Confirmation in Spain
and Portugal in 1863- 1868.* But it was clearly easier for
the Bishop of Gibraltar to care for them personally, and with
them the congregations on the coast of Morocco and the
Canary Islands. The same was evident with regard to con-
gregations on the shores of the Black Sea, to some of which
the Rev. C. G. Curtis had occasionally ministered from
Constantinople ; and after his first visitation tour in which
he paid visits to these communities as Commissary for the
Bishop of London, he zealously expressed his readiness to
occept charge of them. Accordingly a F.O. Circular, issued
November 20, 1869, declared that
" the spiritual superintendence hitherto exercised by
• the Bishop of London over the ministers and congre-
gations of English Churches throughout Spain and
Portugal, on the coast of Morocco, and in the Canary
Islands as well as over the like congregations in the
Kingdom of Italy, on the shores of the Black Sea, and
on the lower Danube, shall henceforth devolve on the
Bishop of Gibraltar."
Such a circular had indeed no ecclesiastical value ; but it
secured to Bishop Harris the assistance and recognition of
the British Consuls in the quarters named, and the necessary
ecclesiastical authority was given on the consecration of
Bishop Sandford {infra, p. iii).t
How great the Eastern extension has proved will appear
later. The congregations in Roumania generally were not
included until 1892, The congregations added in Morocco
and the Canary Islands remained in the Diocese only till
1886, when they were transferred to that of Sierra Leone.
* C.C.C, 1869, p. 70.
t R., p. 60, S., 1878, p. 19; C.(2.R., Jan., 1878, pp. 361 f . , C.C.C.-,
1870, p. ij^, footnote.
So DIOCESE OF GIBRALTAR, 1842-1873
(3) Bishop Harris three Visitation Tours
The distinctive mark of Bishop Harris' episcopate on the
Diocese was left by his three Visitation Tours. He was free
from the pledge of long annual residence in Gibraltar and
Malta given by his predecessors. His own strong pastoral
bent, some knowledge of the Diocese, the conviction that it
was impossible to make Malta a real centre, the passion to
make full proof of his ministry, and a love of sight-seeing and
of travel, combined to lead him to make these tours.* The
effect on the Diocese was unspeakable. Going to places
where no English clergyman, and much less any Bishop, had
ever been before, he gathered together the few English for
prayer, Holy Communion, and Confirmation, and gave them
the joy of being under the living care and love of the Church
of England. In established chaplaincies he was able to give
the practical advice of one who had served long as a parish
priest and archdeacon, and under his influence daily prayers
and weekly Communion became the rule rather than the
exception. As has been said, he had great personal charm,
and the gift of attracting confidence and attachment ; and
he was the more readily deferred to, and his advice more
frequently sought, because he was the first to recognize the
exceptional nature of his work, and the difficulties besetting
any attempt to take a stand upon his legal position.! Thus
he gradually won his way in quarters where there had been
previously some suspicion and resentment of episcopal
authority ; and drawing communities to himself he paved
the way for Diocesan coherence without which there can be
no true Diocesan life and work. Happily he has left in the
" Visitation Notes " \ which he contributed to the Colonial
Chtirch Chronicle, long detailed accounts of these tours,
defective frequently as to precise dates, but full of light as to
the state of the communities he visited, work done, needs
discerned, and crowded with details of the past which are
* S., 1884, p. 44; 1887, p. 24.
t C.Q.R., Jan. 1878, pp. 361 f.
X There are but two entries of his Episcopate in the Bishop's Register,
and both are unimportant. See supra, p. 48 n.
BISHOP HARRIS, 1868-1873 81
most interesting to present communities. It is much to be
hoped that hereafter these Notes may be reprinted in full.
They are so illustrative of the condition of the English settle-
ments as to Church ministrations that a condensed abstract
of them is appended (see infra, pp. 95 ff.). In the course of
these tours, May 6, 186S to June 4. 1872, the Bishop visited all
the English congregations under his charge excepting those in
the Azores ; consecrated six churches (Pera, Boudjah, Corfu,
Algiers, Sulina and Genoa), and fourteen cemeteries (Algiers,
Braila, Rustchuk, Teneriffe, Grand Canary, Mogador, Saffi,
Mazagan, Casa Blanca, San Remo, Scutari, Constanza, Sulina
and Galatz). He held 83 Confirmations, at which 986 men
and 483 women were confirmed. He was actually engaged in
travel in the Diocese for 46 out of the 54 months of health
granted to him after he became Bishop, and his last tour
occupied almost two years — from August 15, 1870, until
June 5, 1872. In the course of these tours he travelled
49,903 miles.
(4) Relations with the Baste fit Churches
It will be felt at once that in a life thus consecrated to
journeyings often, and to such apostolic care of his scattered
churches, it was impossible for the Bishop to keep his hand
on the relations with the Eastern Churches, on Mission work
among Mohammedans and on the reforming movements in
Italy and Spain in the same way that Bishop Trower had
done. He was but little in England for consultation with
those interested in these matters there ; and his genius lay in
ministering to his own people. But he was far from indifferent
to the other fields of activity and influence which demand the
watchfulness of a Bishop of Gibraltar.
He kept alive the spirit of friendship with the Patriarchs
and Bishops of the Eastern Churches by interviews with them
in all his Eastern visits. He relates that at one of these the
Bishop of Zante defended the use of pictures and icons as
necessary to meet the ignorance of his flock.* At another
he was able to dispel suspicion as to certain points in the
* C.C.C., 1869, p. 86.
G
82 DIOCESE OF GIBRALTAR, 1S42-1873
Anglican Prayer Book felt by the Patriarch of Constantinople
to whom the Archbishop of Canterbury had given a copy in
Greek.* He welcomed the presence of Greek Prelates or
their representatives at Anglican Services, such as that of
the consecration of the Crimean Memorial Church on
October 22, 1868, f when the Patriarch paid the unprece-
dented compliment of sending his Vicar, the Archimandrite
of Mount Athos, and the Bishop of Pera to represent him,
or of the consecration of the Church at Boudjah ; | and
himself attended services of the Orthodox Church when
invited to do so.§ It may be noted in passing that Anglican
clergy took part in the funeral of Archbishop Chrysanthus of
Smyrna in 1869, one of them offering prayer, ||
As he was abroad at the time he was unable to take any
part in the important incident of the visit to England of
Lycurgus, Archbishop of Syra, in 1870, to consecrate the
Greek Church in Liverpool. That visit served in a remark-
able degree to deepen the growing brotherliness and mutual
understanding of the two great Churches. It was followed
by letters to the Archbishop of Canterbury from the Patriarch
of Constantinople and the Synod of Greece, to each of which
Archbishop Tait replied ; and also by letters of gratitude
from the visitor himself and the Patriarch of Jerusalem.
While in England, the Archbishop was present at the con-
secration of Bishop Mackarness (of Oxford) in St. Paul's and
Bishop Mackenzie (of Nottingham) in York Minster;, and
representatives of our Archbishops attended the consecration
of the Greek Church in Liverpool. The Bishop of Ely held
a conference with the Archbishop, each having assessors ;
and their discussion, which lasted seven hours, dealt with
" corrigenda, dispiitanda, toleranda" and touched the Sacra-
ments, the Doctrine of the Eucharist, the Priesthood, the
Marriage of Clergy, the Invocation of Saints, Prayers for the
Dead, Icons, Relics and the Seventh Council. At the con-
clusion the Archbishop said, " When I return to Greece, I will
say that the Church of England is not like other Protestant
* C.C.C, 1870, p. 176. t C.C.C, 1868, p. 444.
X C.C.C. 1869, p. 88. § C.C.C, 1871, p. 128.
II CCC 1869, p. 445-
BISHOP HARRIS, 1868-1873 83
bodies. I will say that it is a sound Catholic Church, very
like our own." Bishop Harris had the opportunity of meet-
ing the Greek Prelate at Athens on his return to the East ;
and the visit must have greatly affected the attitude of the
Orthodox Church in the Levant and Constantinople towards
our own clergy.*
In one particular the visit contributed to confer a boon on
Anglicans of which the need had long been felt. For years
past the provision of Christian burial had been a difficulty in
small colonies remote from Anglican ministrations. In 1869
(June 17) the Canterbury Lower House of Convocation had
formally expressed the hope that the Orthodox Church
would accord Christian burial to our people dying in the
East who cannot receive the ministrations of their own
Church, and would give the Eucharist to them when in
danger of death, if remote from our own clergy or on travel,
and that it would also baptize our people in similar circum-
stances of need. It declared at the same time that the
Church of England was willing to act reciprocally, as indeed
in the past, and as she considered herself as a Church bound
to do.t
In the Letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury, written
on the return of Archbishop Lycurgus, dated June 11, 1870,
the Holy Synod of Greece says that, " wishing to show some
tokens of brotherly love to the Anglican Church, and con-
curring with the most Holy Synod of the Most Holy Ecumenic
Patriarch, this Synod has notified to our reverend clergy by
letters encyclical that they show to Christians of your Con-
fession brotherly love in all things unto the utmost ; and
with regard to your dead, when an Orthodox priest of your
own chances not to be present, they count them worthy of
* Forthe account of the Archbishop's visit see C.C.C, 1870, pp. yofif.,
89 ; for the Letter of the Patriarch of C. to Archbishop of Canterbury,
dated April 30, 1870, CC.C, 1870, p. 273 ; the reply (dated Sept. 10), p. 379 ;
forthe Letter of the Synod of Greece (dated 11 June), p. 381 ; for the reply
(dated Sept. 30), p. 481 ; for Archbishop Lycurgus' farewell Letter, p. 188
for the letter of the Patriarch of Jerusalem, C.C.C, 187 1, pp. 106 f.
for valuable correspondence following the visit, CC.C, 1873, pp. 7, 51
for the Conference at Ely (Feb. 4, 1870), C.C.C, 1871, pp. 108 fif.
t CC.C, 1869, pp. 272 ff.
84 DIOCESE OF GIBRALTAR, 1842-1873
their befitting care, and of the prayers of our Church on
behalf of their souls." * The action of the Patriarch with which
the Synod thus concurred was his issuing to his Metropolitans
(in 1869) an Encyclical giving direction and appointing a
service for the burial of Anglicans in Greek cemeteries by
Greek priests on request, while if Anglican clergy are present,
" let not ours interfere in the service." t
Towards the close of Bishop Harris' Episcopate the
Hatherly incident occurred, which drew from the Patriarchate
of Constantinople a document which strikingly illustrates the
abhorrence of proselytizing of the Eastern Church. A Mr.
Stephen Hatherly had received Greek ordination at Con-
stantinople in order to minister to a few Greeks at Wolver-
hampton, and desired to increase the number of his flock.
But at the command of the Patriarch the Grand Protosyncellus
peremptorily ordered him (February 27, 1873) to abstain
" from even the idea of proselytizing a few members of the
Anglican Church." The incident gives some picture of the
light in which the Anglican Church would appear in the East
if proselytizing in any form were sanctioned by her, and is a
concrete expression of the principles of the Eastern Church.J
(5) Religious reforming Movement in Italy and Spain
Bishop Harris does not appear to have taken any active
share in guiding the reforming Movement in either Italy or
Spain, although his travel enabled him to learn much of its
progress and character. The divergence of the movement
in both countries from the catholic standard of order, which
became more marked during his episcopate, caused growing
apprehension to him and to all English Churchmen of the
time who were disposed to offer sympathy and encourage-
ment ; and he foresaw that a definite position as to the
movement would ere long be forced upon his Anglican
Diocese.
* C.C.C, 1870, pp. 381 ff.
t The whole Encyclical and the Form of Service is given : C.C.C,
1870, p. 18.
X See C.C.C, 1873, P* 4^2, where the letter is given in full, and its
significance shown.
BISHOP HARRIS, 1868-1873 85
It is true that in 1869 the leading journals of the reform-
ing spirits in Italy pressed for a Catholic reformation of the
Italian Church, and a free Catholic Italian Church recognized
by the State, and believed that such a Church would promote
a restoration of Christian unity.* But it was not so with all.
The Bishop saw in 1870 little in the movement to give hope
or satisfaction to English Churchmen. It seemed to him that
in Italy the upper classes tended to infidelity, the middle to
indifference, while the lower classes alone were attached to
the Roman Church, but in ignorance and superstition ; and
that the great majority of those who separated from her were
going off into Presbyterianism and Congregationalism. t Such
a deflection of the movement was calculated ultimately to
wreck it ; for such '* Protestantism " is utterly incompatible
with the genius of the people, and repelled Italians of in-
telligence. The disposition to " renounce Popery " so directed
led to renunciation of faith altogether. J The Bishop while
in Turin in 1871 observed the growing relaxation of discipline
among the Vaudois, and their immersion in the very indefinite
category of " Protestants." § His chaplain at Messina, the
Rev. J. C. Clay, in whom he placed much confidence, reported
in 1872 that the reforming spirits had no organization, and
no leader; that the Vaudois or Dissenters, while making
progress, had given up all idea of Church membership, and
were going into schism ; that they were in fact so many
independent congregations spread over the country, without
policy, or idea of a national Church or a national reformation.
" All that they desire is to be left to themselves ; and if they
can but have tolerance, it concerns them little how the Pope
governs in Rome." || All this was distressing indeed to the
Bishop, who clearly felt that reform must, at any price,
find root and development in the bosom of the Latin
Church.
* C.C.C, 1869, pp. 361 ff., 479 ff.
t C.C.C, 1870, p. 221.
t See a long and illustrative Report of the Committee of the U.S.
Convention on Religious Reform in Italy ; C.C.C, 1870, pp. 394 fif.
§ C.C.C, 1872, p. 126.
II Report of the Anglo-Continental Society, 1871.
S6 DIOCESE OF GIBRALTAR, 1842-1873
In Spain, the new constitution inaugurated in 1868 after
General Prim's revolution, and the widespread anarchy which
followed, and which ultimately drove King Amadeo to resign
the crown, affected both the reforming movement, and our
own Church's provision for her people. The second article
of that constitution declared that "no person shall be molested
in the territory of Spain for his religious opinions, nor for the
exercise of his particular worship, saving the respect due to
Christian morality. Nevertheless, no other ceremonies or
manifestations in public will be permitted than those of the
religion of the State, the Catholic Apostolic Roman Religion."
It is clear that the first clause of the article gave liberty of
separation from the National Church without molestation,
and promised for Englishmen liberty of worship. But it is
equally clear that the second clause imposed restrictions
calculated eventually to cause friction, and to give coun-
tenance to the demand from some quarters for complete
toleration, and in others to the practice of much petty
persecution.*
Bishop Harris was speedily confronted by the effect of
the new constitution. On his visit to Seville in June, 1870,
he found a difficulty which demanded speedy solution.
" Without any act on our part," he writes, " which can be
called proselytism, large numbers are daily detaching them-
selves from the Roman Communion, and becoming Presby-
terians, Plymouth Brethren, and, in too many cases, infidels ;
and many among such, when they become acquainted with
our Prayer Book in Spanish and see our service, prefer our
communion to all others, attend our church, seek Confirma-
tion and Communion ; while some more highly educated
would gladly, if permitted, enter the ministry. . . . Non-
interference can hardly much longer be the solution of the
problem." f Two years later, on a visit to Madrid (October,
1872) he noted that seven " Protestant services" were adver-
tised in the newspapers, and that the Protestants in Madrid
were estimated to number eight thousand, of the Presbyterian
* See T/ie Cambridge Modern History, vol. XII., pp. 258 f. ; Mey-
rick. The Church in Spai?i, pp. 444 f.
t C.C.C., 1870, p. 299.
BISHOP HARRIS, 1868-1873 87
and Congregational type.* On November 5 in the same
year at Seville he appears to have attended a " most re-
markable" Anglo-Spanish service in "a quondam Roman
Catholic Church, refitted for Protestant worship," at which
an ex-Roman Catholic priest, who preferred the English
service, officiated, wearing the surplice. The service con-
sisted of selections from the English Prayer Book. The
Holy Communion, at which thirty-seven communicated, was
according to the full English rite. No hostility was apparent.
But the Bishop adds that all seemed dependent on £1600 p.a.
of English money, and concludes, " I have seen nothing yet
in Spain or Italy to give me the idea of a real internal and
national Reformation like that of the sixteenth century." t
It seems clear that he found himself unable to co-operate
with the Reforming movement generally from the conviction
that to do so would compromise the Church of England.
But a sincere sympathy is equally apparent.
(6) Missions to Mohaimnedans and to Jews
It will be understood that, after the events of 1864 (see
SKpra, p. 70) at Constantinople, the work of the Mission to
Moslems there became more difficult. The efifort of Lord
Stratford de Redcliffe was apparently not without some
result ; for in recording the Confirmation, in September 1869,
of two converts from Islam, the Bishop writes that they had
been charged before the Grand Vizier, who ruled that they
had liberty to become Christians — " a weighty precedent." %
In the following year he confirmed three more converts, the
first-fruits of C.M.S. labour. It is to be confessed that active
Mission work became less and less part of the life of the
Crimean Memorial Church, and was resigned into the hands
of the C.M.S.
In 1869 a door was opened for work among Moslems and
Jews at the western end of the Diocese. It will be remembered
that in that year the Bishop's jurisdiction was extended to the
* C.C.C, 1872, p. 128. t Ibid.
X C.C.C, 1870, p. 176.
88 DIOCESE OF GIBRALTAR, 1842-1873
towns of Morocco west of the Straits of Gibraltar. The Rev.
J. O. Bagdon, chaplain at Gibraltar, in the same year wrote
first to the Moslem Missionary Society and then to Bishoj)
Harris, proposing to open a mission in Tangier and Morocco.
Tangier was then a town of 15,000 souls, of which 5000 were
Jews and the great majority of the rest Christians, of whom
Anglicans numbered under thirty. The lives of most of the
Christians were demoralized and vicious. Though the Latins
had a body of priests and a brotherhood, they made no
headway against Islam, as the " Mohammedan looked with
abhorrence on the Roman rites and ceremonies as simply
idolatry." It seemed as if only the Church of England could
present the faith to the Moors. But we had not (as the
Bishop's Visitation Notes show) a single priest in Morocco,
resident or itinerating. In spite of great local difficulties and
want of any support from consuls and diplomats, Mr. Bagdon
himself visited the coast towns with the Bishop's warm
encouragement. In 1870 he repeated his visit, and came to
the conclusion that nothing could be done without a know-
ledge of the vernacular and a supply of Arabic books and
tracts. In the course of the year he became a Missionary in
Morocco. But eventually the effort died away. Mr. Bagdon
became Missioner to Seamen at Constantinople. The Diocese
had not yet that corporate life and conscience which is re-
quired to follow so devoted a lead, and to-day the mission-
field of North Africa is occupied, so far as it is occupied, by
labourers who do not belong to the Church of England. The
towns of western Morocco concerned, except Tangier, are
now in the Diocese of Sierra Leone.
Of mission work among the Jews, carried on by the
L.J.S. at Tunis, Constantinople and Smyrna there are no
details which properly belong to Diocesan life. The Bishop
refers to this Society's work in his Visitation Notes ; to his
confirming a Hebrew at Constantinople and a Jewess at
Smyrna, in May, 1870, and to a visit to the schools in Tunis.
He was somewhat doubtful of the merits of the system of
education adopted, and remarked that none of the children
professed Christianity on leaving school. He regretted that
BISHOP HARRIS, 1868-1873 89
the Missionaries confined their labours so exclusively to the
Jews, and quoted, " To the Jews first, and also to the Gentiles,"
adding that he considered that their influence with the Jews
would be increased by their being- able, in addition to their
direct teaching, to show them living examples of a Christian
community growing in grace and the knowledge of Christ
under their ministry. The regret is now (1917) not in place
in the Diocese with regard to Bucharest and Tunis, where
the L.J.S. missionaries serve for the time as chaplains to
the English communities.*
(7) Foundation of the Gibraltar Diocesan Spiritual
Aid Fund
The active episcopate of Bishop Harris closed with a call
from him to the Diocese which forms a fitting bridge to its
life under the changed conditions which were to follow. The
decision of the Government in 1872 (to be dwelt on more
fully a few pages later) meant that the connection of the
Diocese of Gibraltar with the State had ended, and that the
next Bishop would not be appointed by Letters Patent. In
1873 the operation of the almost complete repeal of the
Consular Advances Act commenced, and the allowances
made under that Act began to be discontinued. It was clear
that a time was at hand when the maintenance of many
chaplaincies would be extremely difficult. Bishop Harris had
had some experience of the effect of the withdrawal of
consular aid at Naples, where it had already ceased, and
where his skill had inaugurated a new constitution and a
regime under "the voluntary system, pure and simple, had to
be tried, and Church feeling and Christian generosity to be
put fairly to the test.f There could be little doubt that
many chaplains would be placed in financial straits. But
the Diocese was as a whole quite unprepared to meet such an
* C.C.C, 1869, p. 89 ; 1871, pp. 132, 430-
t C.C.C, 1869, p. 155-
90 DIOCESE OF GIBRALTAR, 1842-1873
ordeal, for there was no coherent and corporate life binding
its communities together, and rendering them conscious of
the duty of rendering mutual aid, while the consular aid
itself had weakened self-reliance.
On his return to England after his last long Visitation tour
the Bishop established The Gibraltar Diocesan Spiritual Aid
Fund. In the paper respecting it (issued.. Midsummer, 1872),
he stated that of the 50 Anglican congregations under his
care, exclusive of those in Gibraltar and Malta, 14 received
State aid towards the stipend of the chaplain, 17 that of
Societies, while 19 depended entirely on themselves. Be-
sides these, there were many small yet not unimportant
communities unable to maintain a chaplain. He pointed out
that aid of ^20-^^50 might often serve to preserve or establish
a chaplaincy. Accordingly he called not only for donations
and subscriptions, promising ^^ 100 yearly himself, but, as for
a Diocesan Fund, he " looked to one offertory yearly from
each congregation under his spiritual supervision, and trusted
he might receive ^400 a year in addition to his own sub-
scription." Ke hoped in 1872-3 to make grants of £2^ to
Barcelona ; £^^0 to the Lower Danube ; ;^20 to Patras, to
Zante, and to Linares.* To such an appeal, an entirely
new thing in the Diocese, Bishop Harris would soon have
secured an adequate response ; but owing to his failure in
health and long illness, little at the time was done, and when
his successor took up the reins the Fund was receiving only
^99 a year. But the call to the Diocese had been made ;
and it will be seen how, though for a somewhat different end,
Bishop Sandford made it heard, and won the answer.
No one who follows Bishop Harris' ministry can doubt
that his pastoral self-forgetfulness and labours and his
Christian attractiveness served to prepare the congregations,
if preparation were needed, to acquiesce in the loss of
Letters Patent. He moved among them with the humility
and love of a Bishop of the Church of God, and so made good
his authority. Thus he won his way in Rome, where on his
first visit in 1869 he writes, " my episcopal superintendence is
* C.C.C, 1872, p. 260.
BISHOP HARRIS, 1868-1873 91
not acknowledged " but where he confirmed on request, and
noted with appreciation the "most satisfactory" state of the
Church community; on his second, in 1870, "here I dwelt
unofficially for a week ; " and noted " the same kindly respect "
and the large attendances at the Eucharist ; and of the third
(in 1872), can write, "my first visit to the Anglicans and
English as their Bishop." Certainly, State action primarily
accounted for the change ; but it was the Bishop's character
that made it welcome. In the same way at Naples, he was
able so to heal the sore which forfeited the consular aid-grant
as to receive in the new constitution of the chaplaincy the
charge of appointing the chaplain. What grieved him most
was indifference and discord, as when the disruption of the
congregation took place at Rome in 1872 — a disruption due,
he wrote, to " the old, old story of High and Low ; most in-
opportune, as attesting our inability to be at one, in the face
of the head of the Roman Church, and also as crippling by
dividing efforts to create a seemly Church in Rome." Him-
self a bond of love, he rose above pettiness, and so drew men
to himself as, when at Malta (in .1869) he disregarded the
exclusion of the Government chaplains from his jurisdiction,
to set a splendid precedent by gathering together no fewer
than ten of them with his civil chaplains for the Holy
Communion and mutual conference.*
An attack of Maltese fever in 1872 towards the end of his
tour greatly weakened the Bishop, who was never robust. It
left serious consequences, which led to a prolonged stay in
England, and ultimately to his resignation on October 11,
1873. He died at Torquay, March 16, 1874, and his body
rests in his beloved Bremhill.t
Progress of the Diocese, 1842- 1873. — The progress
of Church life in the Diocese under the Bishopric was at first
very slow and hard to see. To many it must have appeared
* C.C.C, 1869, p. 89.
t Notices in the Salisbury and Winchester Gazette, March 21, 1874 ;
the Guardian, March 25, 1874, and Diet. Nat. Biography.
92 DIOCESE OF GIBRALTAR, 1842-1873
during the Episcopate of Bishop Tomlinson that only one
hope of those who founded the Bishopric was fulfilled : that
it would maintain and advance friendly relations with the
Eastern Churches and mutual understanding. That end it
served unmistakably. But in other directions the Bishopric
at first awoke little apparent quickening in the spiritual life of
the congregations. This was due not solely to the Bishop's
protracted annual residence in Malta during the temperate
season of the year when congregations were at their full and
chaplains in residence, although, as Bishop Harris' episcopate
showed, that did account in considerable measure for the
slowness of progress. The real cause was rather that the
Bishop had to deal with a number of congregations lacking
all coherence and organization (as Dr. Biber had remarked
in 1845), and which had grown up in what has been called
"an insufficient Presbyterianism " ; * and while professedly
loyal to the Church of England were full of the congregational
spirit fostered in many cases by the working of the Consular
Advances Act. Episcopal supervision — the idea and the
thing — was in varying degrees novel, even resented and un-
desired, and had to justify itself as a living principle of the
Church ; and the first two Bishops of this period seem to
have framed and transmitted no policy of dealing with a
charge composed of such elements. In a less degree the
type of clergy by which the chaplaincies were served, and
the lack of sustained interest in England and, save for work
at Constantinople, of adequate help contributed to make
advance slow.
But changes in such matters could not be effected in a
day. Alteration in the whole body of chaplains, and in the
presentation of Anglican worship, could come about only
gradually. The person and work of a Bishop could find
appreciation and influence local separate traditions and
customs of long standing only httle by little and visit by
visit. All such educative processes require patience. But
they appear to have gone on steadily until in Bishop Harris
appeared one qualified in character and instinct to waken
them into flame. It is quite possible that he might have
* CC.C, 1864, p. 43-
BISHOP HARRIS, 1868-1873
93
effected even more than he did if he had given less time to
his tours and more to some constructive method for promoting
diocesan coherence which could be put before the chaplaincies
for consideration, and especially if he had adopted some
medium of communication by which the communities which
he visited could have learned of one another. This would
probably have resulted from the expansion of the Diocesan
Spiritual Aid Fund, had he been spared to develop it
himself.
Probably the change in Gibraltar itself during these years
was reflected in other chaplaincies. In an earlier chapter
{supra, pp. 53 ff.), notes of the conditions there in 1842 have
been collected. In 1868 Bishop Harris writes of his See-
city, " Theoretically the ecclesiastical status of the Bishop of
Gibraltar is very imperfect. But if from theory we pass to
practice, there is much to interest and encourage. In the
chaplains, military and civil, we have a body of earnest,
active clergy ; the Church services are hearty, communicants
numerous, and the schools and other institutions connected
with the Church of England well managed. Of Z^ candidates
for Confirmation, 46 were soldiers. Although the Bishop's
rights are few, my experience of the universal respect for his
office [is] such as to make me feel that I have a far broader
and pleasanter foundation than that of rigJit to rest upon." *
And any one who considers the character of the whole body
of the licensed clergy, the increased number of chaplains and
chaplaincies,! the changed attitude towards the episcopal office
* C.C.C, 1869, Jan., p. 5, C.Q.R., 1878, Jan., p. 359.
•f Particulars of the clergy officiating in the Diocese in 1842 have
been given on p. 49 f. On the death of Bishop Harris there were sixty-
five holding the Bishop's Licence, nine of whom were missionaries of the
C.M.S. and L.J.S. Fifty-seven chaplaincies were established. The
following table gives particulars. Except where stated, there was one
chaplain at each chaplaincy. There were fifteen consecrated churches
and chapels, and one consecrated church-room. These are at chap-
laincies marked t-
Gibraltar.
Malta.
Cathedral f (2)
Valletta, t
Sliema.t
Spain. Barcelona (vacant).
Cadiz, Jerez and Port
St. Mary.
94
DIOCESE OF GIBRALTAR, 1842-1873
and supervision, and the worthier churches and services, can
see the progress made during this period. A rough simile
may serve to measure what was done. We may hken a
diocese to a wheel of a great many-wheeled vehicle, in want
of which the whole runs badly. Of such a wheel the Bishop
is the axle, the centre of the wheel itself and the point of
union with the whole vehicle ; the parishes or chaplaincies are
Spain (cont.)
Linares.
Italy (cont
) Rome(2), L.J.S.(i).
Madrid {vacant).
San Remo.
Malaga (Consular
Spezzia.
Chaplain).
Turin.
Seville.
Venice.
PORTUOAI..
Lisbon.
Sicily.
Messina.
Madeira.
Palermo and Mar-
Oporto-t
sala.
France.
Antibes.
Austria.
Trieste f (Consular
Cannes ; Christ
Chaplain).
Church, t *
ROUMANIA.
Bucarest (L.J.S.).
St. Paul's (2).
Sulina t {vacant).
H. Trinity.
Greece.
Athens.t
Corsica (Ajaccio).
Corfu (Consular
Hyeres.
Chaplain).
Marseilles (Consu-
Patras,
lar Chaplain).
Syra (C.M.S.)
Mentone; West Bay
Church Room.t
(2).
Zante.
East Bay.
Turkey.
Constantinople, Pera
Nice, Holy Trinity
(Embassy).t
(2).t
Crimean Mem.
Carabacel.
Ch.t
Toulon.
Kadikeui,
Italy.
Bordighera.
C.M.S. (i)
Castellamare.
L.J.S.(i)
Florence.!
Smyrna, t (Consular
Cenoa {vacant).
Chaplain.)
Leghorn.
Bournabat.f
Milan.
Boudjah.f
Naples. t
C.M.S. (3)
Nervi.
L.J.S.(i)
Pegh.
Africa.
Algiers.
Pisa and Bagni di
Mogadon
Lucca.
Tangier {vacant).
Rapallo.
Tunis (L.J.S.).
* The consecration is, however, open to question.
BISHOP HARRIS, 1868-1873 95
the spokes ; and the diocesan spirit and coherence the rim ;
the whole being bound together by the tyre — that love which
is tJte bond of perfectness. Bishop Tomlinson found the spokes
scattered oa the ground and in need of finish and form.
Gradually he and his successors found out where they were,
and gave them shape. Bishop Harris socketed them into
the Bishopric as the axle. It remained for Bishop Sandford
to construct the rim by giving work to be done in common,
and calculated to produce that love and wider concern which
is indispensable for a wheel of the chariot of the Church.
The Visitation Toitrs of Bishop Harris
In the following condensed notes " B " = Baptisms. " H. C." is fol-
lowed by the number of communicants, " M " by the number present at
Mattins, and " E " at Evensong ; " C " by the number confirmed ; " B. G."
denotes the consecration of a Burial Ground, and " Ch. C." that of a
Church.
First Visitation Tour. May 6, 1868. — May 14, 1869. Col. Ch.
Ch)-onicIe, 1869, pp. 5-11 ; 84-90; 252-258.
May 20, Gibraltar (C. 88). Tangier (few; no chaplaincy possible).
June 8-23, Malta. Syracuse (C. 2). Naples (Ch. matters :
"least said, soonest mended"). Leghorn (C. 4). July 15 — Aug. 5,
Bagni di Lucca (not unpleasing Church). P'r.ORENCE (empty.
C. 4). Aug. 16, Venice (H. C. 8, congregation 20). Aug. 21,
Trieste (C. 4, financial status, as in too many Mediterranean
churches, most unsatisfactory). FlUME (C. 4). Ancoxa (English
clergyman, v. few people). Corfu (disestablished and disendowed).
Cephalonia (Consul reads service ; little English Chapel). Zante
(H. C. 15 ; no chaplain). Patras (^700 collected for Church ; site
granted by King). Athens (H. C. 16). Sept. 26— Oct. 29, Con-
stantinople (Crimean Mem. Ch. consecrated Oct. 22, C. 30).
Oct. 30— Nov. 14, Smyrna (Boudjah Ch. consecrated ; C. 39).
1869. Nov. 17 — Jan. 4, 1869, Malta (daily prayer and weekly H. C.
established). Tunis (L.J.S. missionaries should give less exclusive
devotion of time to Jews). Jan. 4, Syracuse (service at Consulate).
Palermo. Jan. 12, Naples (reconstruction of disestablished and
disendowed Ch. community). Rome (my episcopal superintendence
not acknowledged : kindest welcome : confirmation requested, C. 7.
Anglican community most satisfactory in Mediterranean). Genoa
(foundations of Ch. laid). San Remo (neat chapel, permanent chap-
lain, C.C.C.S.). Bordighera (C.C.C.S. chaplain ; service in small
anciently consecrated chapel attached to private house, purchased
by hotel keeper). Feb. 14, Mentone (2 churches: eastern "a
96 DIOCESE OF GIBRALTAR, 1842-1873
wretched building" ; western good. H. C. 70, C. 9). Nice (Cara*
bacel, chapel of ease to Trinity Ch. C. 12). AjACCiO (service in
hotel ; C.C.C.S. chaplain). Cap d' Antibes (service in private
house by clergyman from Nice). Cannes (Christ Church, C. 14,
H. C. 175. St. Paul's, building ; site given by Lady Oxford).
Hyeres (beautiful Ch.). Marseilles (service in room "decently
arranged " ; Consular chaplain ; Sailors' Club). Good Friday and
Easter Day, Algiers (services in vault under Gd. Boulevard ; ;^700
collected for Ch. C. 8 ; H. C. 58).
Valencia (B. 9 : no chaplain). Barcelona (most efficient chaplain ;
room for service ; C. 5). Madrid (worst appointed service and
place of worship I have met with in my Diocese). Alicante
(reverent H. C. in house of R. C. Consul). Cartagena (B. i).
Almeria. Malaga (well-organised chaplaincy ; service in Consu-
late ; Consul, Mr. Mark, invaluable ; cemetery beautiful). Seville
(in Dio. London, zealous chaplain ; service in room ; C). CADIZ
(chaplain needed for Cadiz, Jerez, and Port St. Mary). May 14,
Gibraltar. London.
Second Visitation Tour. August 23, 1869— June 30, 1870. Col. Ch.
Chronicle, 1870, pp. 174-179 ; 217-221 ; 295-300.
Liverpool, 23 Aug. 1869. Gibraltar. Sept. 6, Svra (Rev. F. A.
Hildner, German, C.M.S., missy, there 40 years ; Ch. a little room
consecrated by Bp. Tomlinson ; H. C. quarterly). Sept. 9-20, Con-
stantinople (C. 26 ; mission among seaman begun, C.C.C.S.).
Sept. 22, Galatz (joined by Rev. C. La Mothe, S.P.G. chaplain;
service in Col. Stokes' house, 50. H. C. 14, i B. 25th, B. G.). Sept. 26,
Braila (27th B. G., attendance scanty, little interest shown). Sept.
27-30, Rustchuk (could not consecrate B. G., as not enclosed).
Oct. 2, SULINA (" inaugurated " Ch., not consecrated as to be used
by all " Protestant " denominations, C. 2 ; H. C. 17 ; Oct. 3, B. G.).
Oct. 4, CONSTANZA (B. G. ; small iron Ch. M. 80, i B.). Oct. 6-13,
Constantinople. Oct. 17, Smyrna (C. 2).
Oct. 25, Marseilles. Nov. 5, Cannes (Nov. 6, inaugurated St. Paul's
Ch. ; mortgage debt on building and site forbade consecration).
Nice (C). Mentone (C). San Remo. Genoa (chaplain at
Pegli). Leghorn. Pisa (C. 5). Christmas, Florence (C. 5 ;
H. C.(3), 152).
1870. Jan. 1-7, Rome (where I dwelt unofficially for a week : same
kindly respect ; H. C. 95, 115, 38). Jan. 8-17, Naples (new Ch.
constitution working well ; C). Sorrento (arranging for S.P.G.
chaplaincy). Palermo (scheme for Ch. fairly launched). Jan. 23,
Marsala (whole resident community at M. and H. C. ; second
H. C. in Marsala in 9 years ; B. 2). Messina (service under v.
disadvantageous circumstances). Catania (chaplain needed).
BISHOP HARRIS, 1868-1873 97
Feb. II— Mar. 30, Malta ("all's well" ; Sliema has now duly col-
lated incumbent and legally secured parsonage ; C. 125 ; Ordination
of a Deacon). Mar. 27, Tripoli (Anglicans barely 20 ; B. 2 ;
C. 2 ; H. C. 7 ; cemetery consecrated by Bp. Tomlinson ; chaplain's
visits to be arranged).
Apr. 3— May 10, Gibraltar (" all's well " ; weekly service on a hulk for
seamen ; energetic chaplain). May 10, Tangier. Casa Blanca
(B. G. ; B. i). Mogador (B. G. ; B. I ; C. I ; H. C. 9). May 29,
Saffi (C. i ; H. C.4 ; congregation 10 ; B. G.) — attempt to secure
guarantees for stipend of an itinerating clergyman, to reside at
Tangier ; first visit of a clergyman to these colonies exc. Tangier.
Teneriffe (B. 2 ; C. 2 ; H. C. lo ; B. G.). Las Palmas (B. G. ;
B. 6 ; no ministrations during last 11 years). June 2, Gibraltar.
June 8-14, Cadiz (attempt to re-start chaplaincy for Cadiz, Port St.
Mary, and Jerez). Seville (C. 12 ; attitude towards Reform
movement difficult). Lisbon (now in Dio. Gib. ; C. 41 ; substantial,
well-cared for English Chapel). Oporto (C. 15 ; now in Dio. Gib. ;
chapel as in Lisbon ; Mr. Whiteley, chaplain for 46 years, still
capable, set. 76). Left Oporto for England, June 28.
Third Visitation Tour. August 15, 1870— June 5, 1872. Col. Ch.
Chronicle, 1871, pp. 126-133 ; 425-435 ; 1872, pp. 123-128 ; 254-260.
Liverpool, Aug. 15, 1870. Aug. 28, Syra. Aug. 30, Athens (met
Archbp. of Syra fresh from English visit). Patras (licensed first
chaplain ; Gk. Govt, has given site for Ch.). Sept. 13, Zante
(H. C. 18). Corfu, 12 days (Oct. 2, 1870, Ch. cons. ; old Ionian
Parliament House ; King present). Oct. 10, Trieste (C). Fiume
(C). Oct. 30, Venice (H. C. 15, in Palazzo Contarini). Milan
(" newly defined station " ; C.C.C.S. ; service in side chapel of dese-
crated Ch. ; C. II ; H. C. 55). LUGANO (Dio. London; C. 2).
Turin (service in house of Vandois pastor ; C.6 ; H. C. 15 ; newly
defined station, C.C.C.S.). San Remo, Franco-German war raging :
villas unlet ; hotels closed. Bordighera (Ch. closed). Mentone
(2 locum-tenentes). Nice (no English). Christmas Day, Cannes
(English not half of one of the 3 congregations ; Ordination of a
Deacon). Dec. 27, Marseilles.
Dec. 29 — Jan. 7, 1871, Algiers (on Jan. 4, Ch. consecrated ; B. i, C).
Jan. 7-12, Tunis (H. C. 12). Jan. 14, Cagliari, Sardinia (chap-
laincy required for lead mines and railway). Palermo (Ch. ordered.
Architect, Mr. Barker of Leicester). Jan. 29, Messina (Ch. room
now our own). Catania (chaplain now resident). • Feb. 3 — March
25, Malta (C. 102). Visit to Egypt and Syria, lasting 5 weeks.
Smyrna (C. 13, B. i). May, Constantinople (C. 36. British Embassy
recently burnt; Chapel unscathed). May 31, Varna (in "my
newly allotted territory"). RuSTCHUK (B. 2 ; B. G., " now decently
fenced and laid out "). Bucharest (service in consulate ; congre-
gation 16, H. C. 8). ConstaNZA (congregation 50). June 11,
H
DIOCESE OF GIBRALTAR, 1842-1873
Galatz (M. 56, H. C. 13). June 12, Sulina (Ch. C, June 14, as
now restricted to use of C. of E.). ODESSA (Anglican community
small ; accept an active and talented Presbyterian Minister ; not
much prospect of C. of E. chaplaincy ; service in Consulate).
NicOLAiEV (one Anglican family). Sebastopol (120 cemeteries;
2 English families ; congregation 7), POTI (Poti — Tiflis Rlwy.
maintain a chaplain for employes. When the line is completed this
chaplaincy should became permanent, and mark E. boundary of Dio.
Gibraltar). Constantinople.
)RFU (new Consular chaplain). July 30, Ancona (no service ; Angli-
cans left ; attended Waldensian service with L.J.S. missionary).
Florence (M. 22 ; H. C. 16). Bagni di Lucca. Aug. 27, Turin.
Courmaveur(C.C.C.S. ; M. 17 ; H. C. 16). Pallanza (permanent
chaplain; service in hotel; daily prayer). Baveno (S. P. G., small
but beautiful Ch. not yet consecrated). Stresa (C.C.C.S. ; service
in hotel). Villa D'Este (C.C.C.S.). Bellagio (C.C.C.S.).
Cadenabbia (S.P.G.). Sept. 24, Turin (goodly congregation,
H. C. 20). Oct. I, Nice (H. C. 22). Barcelona (C. 7). Majorca
(Consul the only Anglican). Valencia.
ct. 22, Denia (small settlement of English merchants; H. C. 8 ;
Barcelona chaplain occasionally ministers at Valencia, Denia, and
Alicante), Madrid (C. 5 ; Sunday services under circumstances
capable of great improvement). Linares (100 English). Nov. 5,
Seville (H. C. 15 ; C. 5 ; attended remarkable Anglo-Spanish
service). Cadiz (consolidating proposed joint chaplaincy). Nov.
12, Lisbon. Nov. 17 — Dec. 3, Madeira (Consular chapel ; daily
service; C. 9 ; H. C. 41). Dec. 4-14, Teneriffe (B. 3 ; C. 2 ;
marriage i ; H. C li). Dec. 12, MOGADOR (C. 3 ; M. 24 ; H. C.
15). Mazagan(E. 6 — whole Anglican community). Casa Blanca
(2 Anglicans). Dec. 21 — Jan. 31, 1872, Gibraltar (C. Jan. 4, 39 ;
Jan. 25, 31).
n. 21, Tangier (service at Legation; H. C. 15). Feb. i, Malaga
(Mr. Penrose Mark recently dead ; C. 6 ; H. C. 45 ; service in
Consulate; not inconsiderable English community). Feb. 11,
Marseilles (C. 4). Hyeres. Cannes (C. St. Paul's chancel
added by Sir R. Glass). Feb. 15, Nice (C). Mentone (C).
San Remo (C. — last 4, 35 candidates). Genoa (Ch. progressing),
Leghorn. Florence (C. 14). March 17, Rome (my first visit to
the Anglicans and English as their Bishop ; inopportune division ;
the " old, old story of High and Low " ; C. 7)- Easter Day, NAPLES
(H. C. 160 ; C. 3 ; new Ch. Constitution works well). PALERMO
(Ch. foundations being dug). Malta (seven weeks' stay; C. 125
from fleet ; 66 others ; left " in grip of a most depressing epidemic
fever "). Palermo (fever not shaken ofQ. Genoa (Ch. cons.
June 4). June 6, Left for '' regions where my spiritual supervision
comes to an end, and with it the record and Notes of my Visitation."
CHARLES \valdk(;ravp: sandford, i'.ishdp of
(ilBRALTAR, 1S74— 1!103
(PKO.M THE I'ORIKAIT 1;V MN. HEKIiliRT OLIVIEU, NOW I.\ Illl-; (lAI.I. UF
cuKi^r cHuiccH, oxford)
To/ace Jt. gg
Ill
THE EPISCOPATE OF BISHOP SAND-
FORD, 1874-1903
CHAPTER VIII
THE EPISCOPATE OF BISHOP SANDFORD, 1874-I903
(i) Character of Bishop Sand/or d's Woi'h. His
Pastoral Letters. Trcatmeyit of the Period
BISHOP SANDFORD'S Episcopate lasted thirty years.
Through this long period his calm, methodical stead-
fastness, his capacity for fixing an end, his scholarly know-
ledge as Churchman and theologian, and his living interest in
all that belonged to the current life of the Church combined
to enable him to grasp the needs of his Diocese, to strive to
meet them, whether by action or by teaching, without dis-
sipation or waste of energies, and to look beyond the moment
to a policy to be framed and pursued where a policy was
required. Thus by sustained patience and without any
ostentation he left a deep impress on his charge, to which
all too little justice has been done, and of which the Diocese
itself has been little conscious.
Happily, his work can be traced from his own records.
His Bishop's Register, indeed, is but scantily kept, and is
broken by gaps not of months but of years. But he made
ample amends for this by the remarkable series of Pastoral
Letters, addressed to the clergy and laity, which he issued
year by year from 1875 to 1903, with the exception of 1877,
in which year he suffered from an illness which laid him aside
for nearly two years. These Letters are a storehouse of
loo BISHOP SANDFORD, 1874-1903
learning on the divers questions which came before his
Diocese and the Church at large during these years, a record
of his own Episcopate, and a record also of the labours and
assistance of fellow-workers in the Diocese. They contain
also from the first Lists of the Clergy, accounts of Diocesan
Funds, and frequently papers relating to Diocesan efforts,
the work of societies, and church building. They are extra-
ordinarily full and detailed, and were apparently written
each autumn from a diary (which the present writer has not
been able to use) kept with great regularity and minuteness.
The last of the series, in which he dealt with Doctrine
and Dogma, though written in his seventy-fifth year and
dated but two months before his death, is as clear, forcible,
and strong as any of those of earlier years. From these
Letters the greater part of the following pages is drawn, and
they must ever be the prime source of the history of the
Diocese for these years, and in many matters the guide of the
Bishop's successors. It is to be regretted that very few
copies have survived. The Bishop's own bound copies have
been presented to the diocese by his sister-in-law, Mrs. E. G.
Sandford.
It has seemed best in attempting a survey of so long a
period to give first as a picture of the Bishop drawn in a
notice of him written shortly after his death by his brother,
the Ven. Ernest Grey Sandford, Archdeacon of Exeter. It
is impossible here fully to portray one who was the central
and outstanding personality in the Diocese for thirty years.
Before presenting the life of the Diocese under him, and the
policy for it which he shaped, a brief account is given of the
changes made by the withdrawal of the Letters Patent and
the Repeal of the Consular Advances Act, which materially
affected the conditions of the bishopric and the chaplaincies.
This will be followed by a view of the internal growth of the
Diocese during these years ; of the Bishop's formative work,
in the course of which as Diocesan and Ordinary he moulded
his charge into the order and standard of regular life as a
diocese of the Church of England ; of the progress in diocesan
effectiveness, seen chiefly in the initiation and advance of
THE BISHOP AND THE DIOCESE loi
work on behalf of British Seamen, in a much less degree in
the case of small communities, and also in work among
women. Reference must be made more briefly to other
matters of real importance to the life of the Diocese : the
decided action which the Bishop took in regard to gambling
establishments ; the shrinkage of directly missionary work ;
the attendance of Anglicans at Roman Catholic services ; and
the relation of Church Societies to the Diocese. Lastly,
some account will be given of the relations of the Diocese
and its Bishop with other Communions — the Orthodox
Churches of the East, and the Roman Catholic Church ; of
the position maintained with regard to proselytism, and
towards movements of religious reform in Italy and the
Peninsula, and in particular towards the Spanish Reformed
Church and the consecration of Bishop Cabrera by the Irish
Bishops in 1894.
(2) Personal Notes of Bishop Sandford
Charles Waldegrave Sandford was born on February 13,
1828. He was the second son of the Rev. John Sandford,
Vicar of ChilHngham, who was later Rector of Alvechurch in
Worcestershire, and Archdeacon of Coventry. He took a
prominent part in the foundation of the Church of England
Temperance Society in 1862. The future Bishop's grand-
father was Dr. Daniel Sandford, Bishop of Edinburgh, 1806-
1830.
Charles Sandford was educated at Rugby under Dr. Tait,
and Christ Church, Oxford, which he entered in 1847. He
took a high degree, and in 1855 was made Tutor, and in
i860 Senior Censor of the House. These ofifices he held until
1870. From 1864 till 1868 he was one of the chaplains
of Dr. Tait, Bishop of London, and from 1868 till 1873 one
of his Examining Chaplains after he became Archbishop of
Canterbury. He left Oxford in 1870 for the Rectory of
Bishopsbourne near Canterbury, a parish memorable as
having had as Rector the illustrious theologian Richard
Hooker ; and when in 1887 he made himself a permanent
home in Cannes, he named his house after his old parish.
102 BISHOP SANDFORD, 1874-1903
In 1872 he became Rural Dean of Bridge Deanery. In 1873
he was nominated to the Bishopric of Gibraltar, and v%^as con-
secrated on Sunday, February i, 1874, in Christ Church
Cathedral, Oxford, by the Archbishop of Canterbury (Dr.
Tait), his old Headmaster, the Bishops of London (Dr.
Jackson), Chester (Dr. Stubbs), Carlisle (Dr. Goodwin),
Exeter (Dr. Temple), Oxford (Dr. Mackarness), and Bishop
Parry. He was installed at Gibraltar a fortnight later,
on February 15.'^
It will be seen that until his consecration in his forty-fifth
year, his experience was chiefly academical. But his association
with Dr. Tait, first as Bishop of London and later as Arch-
bishop, added to this some insight into diocesan administra-
tion and outlook, and he was young enough to turn to the
new life with freshness and whole-hearted devotion. Though
he evidently entered it with a certain stiffness, and never
wholly divested himself of the peculiar characteristics of a
most courteous and considerate University Don, his natural
genuineness and earnestness very soon made themselves felt
and secured the appreciation of his flock, among whom he
was to labour so long. But let his brother speak of what
he was.
"The main influences of his life were three — first, his early
home, the quiet village of a midland parish. Kis father's
first curate, the father of distinguished sons, and himself
bearing an honoured name, is still with us, and recalls, 'as
though it were yesterday,' the little group of scholars — of
whom the future Bishop was one — gathered round their
mother, and from her learning their first lessons in Latin
and Greek. For that mother his reverence was lifelong.
And from that home he took not only the beginnings of the
higher trainings — the scholarly, studious habit, and that
thought for individual life, however humble, which grows so
naturally in a country parish, but also the observation and
appreciation of natural objects — the sympathy with nature
in her quieter moods and gentler forms, of which The
Christian Year is full. Like other representatives of a
generation that is passing, he made it his habit to read
* R., pp. 74ff,
THE BISHOP AND THE DIOCESE 103
Keble's poem for the day every Sunday after family prayer.
The country home also explains his care for his garden and
the love of flowers and insect life which were well known to
his friends, and followed him all through a busy life. Here,
too, was first gained the skill in cricket, football, fishing, and
jumping, which made him an athlete in days before athletics
were specialised or made professional. He was one of
Nature's athletes, and stories of wonderful feats in the Rugby
or Christ Church cricket fields and of fabulous jumps in
Christ Church meadows were long extant among his con-
temporaries, and were pleasant, if half serious, memories
to himself even in old age.
" Straight from the quiet home he went to a public school,
and at Rugby he was brought under the second chief influence
which moulded his character. For Rugby made him a
disciple of Dr. Tait, and the sagacity, the breadth, the in-
tellectual robustness of the great future Archbishop im-
pressed themselves upon the pupil, just as the conscientious
industry, the simple but cheerful earnestness of the pupil
attracted the master, and made him his faithful friend through
life. Charles Sandford was not a blind follower of any man,
but he gave the greatest proof of his admiration for Tait in
that, in his measure, he learnt to reflect some of his chief's
greatest qualities — concentration on the greater things, that
kind of moderation in judgment and breadth of view, which
are characteristic, not of timidity or want of conviction, but of
strength and grasp, and he loved him with a strong, personal
affection which made the death of the Archbishop to him an
irreparable loss.
" But it is not possible to fully understand Bishop Sand-
ford without taking account of the influence which Oxford,
and especially Christ Church, had upon him. He was a
most loyal member of the House, and he worked in it and
for it, first as undergraduate and ultimately as its Senior
Censor, for more than twenty years. His portrait was hung
during lifetime in Christ Church Hall, and he appreciated
this affectionate recognition of his services as one of the
greatest honours of his life. With the self-restraint which
was a main characteristic through life, though regularly
104 BISHOP SANDFORD, 1874-1903
playing for his College, he sacrificed his prospects of becoming
distinguished as a University athelete in order that he might
read the harder for his degree, and when he became a don
his whole time and thought were at the disposal of his
college and University. His far-sightedness and genuine
but judicious sympathy with progressive action made him
one of the chief leaders in the movement which resulted in
the present constitution of Christ Church ; and his earnest
and well-reasoned speech in the University Convocation
against the unreasonableness of penalising Professor Jowett's
laxity of view as a theologian by withholding from him his
salary as a Greek professor, did much to secure the ultimate
reversal of the policy. But while he gave he received. His
power of handling men, and of knowing instinctively the line
of action which would commend itself to English gentlemen
and their acceptance of him as a leader worthy of trust, were
due to his training at Christ Church, and to his tenure there
of positions of authority. He knew the ways of English
gentlemen, and they understood his — invaluable conditions
in such relations as exist between a Bishop of Gibraltar and
his diocese.
" But there were times when, if the occasion called, ' sweet
reasonableness ' made way for something more forcible. In
early days the sixth form boy at Rugby had given evidence
that he could speak out and act strongly when he thought
right was at stake, and the Bishop's strong protest and
resolute action against the gambling at Monaco told the
same tale. Again no voice was more fervid, no advocacy
more persistent on behalf of oppressed Armenians, or against
outrages in Macedonia. In such cases no thought of self
deterred him from speaking his mind. There was the spirit
in him, not only of a mother's gentleness, but of a father's
righteous indignation against toleration of evil.
" But the last thought is not here. The most attractive
feature in his character was its constant and mindful con-
sideration for others ; all through each stage of his long life
personal sympathy with the individual has been its chief
mark. From family, college, diocese, comes always the same
testimony ; the memories always go back to traits, great or
THE BISHOP AND THE DIOCESE 105
small, of his kindness and affection. He was not without
the wider, and perhaps higher forms of ambition, and it cost
him something to leave the larger field of central life in
England ; but having put his hand to the plough he did not
look back ; resolutely he travelled, and wrote, and worked
away from England for thirty years. And his method was
not controversy with other Churches, nor even schemes of
reunion, but the influence of gracious courtesy and kindly
affection, in the exercise of which the kindred spirit of the
wife whom he so deeply mourned was a daily inspiration and
strength. Thus he brought fellowship of feeling into the
relations with sister communities — the indispensable precursor
of any formal rapprochement — and thus he helped the some-
what disintegrated life of English residents abroad to realize
its corporate membership in the Church. The sailors in the
Mediterranean ports, and many a lonely Englishwoman felt
the touch of a kindly presence, and high and low were
sensible that the Bishop understood the instincts which
belong to sickness and sorrow. Most of all were those
conscious of his sympathy and ready help who stood closest
to him, and whose lives he helped to make. It was their
deepest thought about him, and it will be the most abiding
memory." *
Of the personal life of Bishop Sandford little can be
added to the evidence of the Pastorals. This is not a Memoir
of so fine a character, and no attempt has been made to lay
private letters under contribution. He worked with a serene
dignity and extraordinary steadiness and regularity. His
patience was to be seen in his face. He loved his people and
clergy, and was proud of them ; and this made him feel only
more keenly the pain of many "ministries of reconciliation"
which fell to his lot. Of his attachment to fellow-labourers
in the Diocese the innumerable references to them in his
Pastoral Letters throughout thirty years bear witness. These
abound in delicate and distinctive appreciations of laity and
clergy, of men and women, alike. He was greatly touched
by the gift of his portrait painted by Mr. Herbert Olivier on
* From The Guardian, Dec. 1 6, 1903 (by the kind permission of the
Editor).
io6 BISHOP SANDFORD, 1874-1903
January 31, 1899, on the eve of the twenty-fifth anniversary
of his consecration, together with an address expressing
"thankfulness to Almighty God for the marked progress that
has been made in all that pertains to the spiritual life of the
widely scattered congregations " of which he had charge. A
balance of ^300 remained when all expenses connected with
the portrait had been met ; and this sum was at his desire
invested for the benefit of the Gibraltar Mission to Seamen.
When the portrait was accepted by the Governing Body of
Christ Church, Oxford, where he had laboured for twenty
years as student, tutor, and censor, and assigned a place in
the majestic Hall of the House, he felt that a signal honour
had been conferred on him.*
The death of Mrs. Sandford on June i, 1901, was a severe
blow in his old age. How great a part she had played in the
later half of his episcopate is seen in his touching reference
to her and to the sympathy extended to him in his Pastoral
of that year. He persevered, however, in his ordinary work
during the next two winters. A serious failure of strength
which overcame him at Hyeres on March I, 1903, showed
that he had overtaxed his strength, and in October, 1903,
he informed the Diocese in his last Pastoral that "from no
desire of rest or of freedom from labour and responsibility,
but constrained by regard for the interests of the congrega-
tions committed " to him, he intended to resign his charge
into younger hands on February i, 1904 (or before, if thought
desirable), on which day he would have completed the
thirtieth year of his episcopate. Later he did this, his
resignation to take effect on the date mentioned. But he
fell on sleep at Cannes on December 8, 1903. Only two or
three days before his death he heard of the proposal that
Dr. W. E. Collins should succeed him, and the news made
him glad and thankful.! His body rests in the cemetery
there, with that of his wife. He was almost seventy-five years
of age.
He left behind him a Diocese infinitely more formed,
coherent, and effective than he found it, with a clear line of
* S., 1899, pp. 40 ff. : 1902, pp. 43 f.
t Dr. Collins' Letter to the Clergy of the Diocese, Jan. 18, 1904.
THE BISHOP AND THE DIOCESE 107
action laid down to be pursued in matters of gravest import-
ance and perplexity. His name must ever command the
profoundcst gratitude, affection, and veneration of English
Churchmen in Southern Europe, and in particular of the
seamen v/hose calling brings them into our ports.
(3) The Disestablishment of the Bishopric ; the repeal
of the Consular Advances Act ; the extension of the
jiu'isdiction of the Bishop of Gibraltar
The first chapter in the life of the Diocese of Gibraltar
closed with the death of Bishop Harris. The following pages
will show its advance in maturity and coherence under Bishop
Sand ford. But at the very opening of his episcopate it was
affected by the policy pursued by the home Government.
What that policy was is stated thus in a work of recog-
nized authority : —
" As a consequence of the decision in the Natal (Colenso)
case, the Imperial Government determined to issue
no more letters patent creating episcopal Sees ; and
v/herever throughout British dominions it had been
found practicable to carry out the principle of religious
equality by the disestablishment of churches previously
placed by law on a footing of preference, and by
refraining from any exercise of the prerogative for
the creation of ecclesiastical offices or the appoint-
ment to vacant bishoprics, this has been done." *
"Before 1873 Her Majesty's Government came to the
conclusion that the colonial churches should be dis-
connected from the State and that they would not in
future appoint by patent bishops in the colonies with
territorial jurisdiction, and accordingly laid down a rule
of practice that facilities should be granted by legisla-
tive enactment to churches thus disestablished to form
corporate bodies by which all religious matters should
be administered without the interference of the Govern-
ment, and to which all endowments, which it might
♦ Halsbiiry, EncycL, vol. XII., p. 491, note «).
io8 BISHOP SANDFORD, 1 874-1903
prove expedient to maintain, might be handed over in
trust for the use and benefit of their members, on the
condition that the Colonial Government is satisfied
that the purposes for which the money is to be applied
are not contrary to public policy, and that thenceforth
the Government would have all Church questions, in-
cluding the expediency of maintaining a bishop for the
Colony to be decided, without interference from the
Government, by the Church bodies to be formed." *
Dr. Sandford was therefore not appointed by Letters
Patent. The Queen issued a mandate (dated December 5,
1873) under the Sign Manual and Signet for his consecration
"to be a Bishop to the intent that he should exercise his
functions in one or more of Her Majesty's possessions abroad,
and should also exercise with respect to the Churches, Con-
gregations, and Clergy of the Members of the Church of
England" within limits to be referred to later "all such
functions as were formerly exercised by the Bishop of London
for the time being and afterwards by the Bishop for the time
being of Gibraltar." He was consecrated on February i, 1874;
and the Archbishop of Canterbury with the assent of the
Bishop of London " pronounced, decreed, and declared " him to
be " invested with all authority episcopal and ordinary within
the limits prescribed to the end that he may exercise within
the same limits all spiritual functions appertaining to his
office."
In material ways this affected the Bishopric. The Bishop
of Gibraltar ceased to be " a body corporate " and a " per-
petual corporation," capable of holding property, acting in
courts, and having a corporate seal. In consequence of this
the Government endowments at Gibraltar, and endowments
vested in the Bishop at Malta were now vested in bodies
of Trustees. As years passed the inability of the Bishop
to hold endowments in property, churches, and money as a
Body corporate was severely felt. It is greatly to be regretted
that a Diocesan Trust was not at once incorporated. This
was not done until December 3, 1909 (see infra, p. 190) ; and
* Halsbury, Encycl.^ vol, XI., p. 484, note (^).
THE BISHOP AND THE DIOCESE 109
even now the extension of the Trust is greatly to be desired.
But in another direction also the change was great, and was
not equally regrettable. The Bishop henceforth was selected
by the Archbishop of Canterbury, not by the Crown. This
puts him at once into a special relation with his Metropolitan.
Further, he lost all " coercion ecclesiastical " in maintaining
discipline. Although there is no record of any predecessor
exercising any "coercion ecclesiastical" or availing himself
of English courts of law, Bishop Sandford grasped the change
from the first and never regretted it. He welcomed the
freedom from " the possibly chilling shadow," to use Mr.
Gladstone's phrase,* which coercive jurisdiction derived from
the State cannot fail to cast over the relations of a Bishop
with his charge, and the return to " the basis on which the
Church of Christ rested from the first," and on which all
Colonial Churches are now content to rest — the basis of
voluntary consensual compact.f He believed that his juris-
diction being moral, voluntary and consensual, was adequately
binding on all loyal clergy and congregations of the Church
of England ; and he agreed with Bishop Feild of Newfound-
land, who had said a few years before (1866), in a Charge to his
clergy on the removal of the Letters Patent as the basis of
his episcopal authority, " On arriving in Newfoundland I
was owned and accepted by the clergy as their bishop, they
submitting to me their Licences and Letters of Orders, and
renewing the promise of canonical obedience ; this of itself
was, and is. sufficient. I wanted, and want, no other
authority. To the large majority of you the office and work
of a priest in the Church of God were committed by my hands.
From me you received authority to preach the word of
God, and to minister the Holy Sacraments in the congrega-
tion, and you cannot, I conceive, claim and maintain your
authority, or exercise your office, without a due acknowledg-
ment of the source from which they were derived, both your
office and authority — or without a like acknowledgment of
your obligations, I mean, of canonical obedience and sub-
mission. It would be very grievous to me to think that we
* Life (abr. edn.), vol. I. p. 601.
t See Ch. Q. R., Oct. 1877, P- 55-
no BISHOP SANDFORD, 1874-1903
desire any other bond of union than that of our spiritual
relationship."* More will follow on this subject later (pp.
119 ff.) ; it is sufficient to say this much here.
Closely connected with this was the loss of the Consular
and State-aided chaplaincies. In 1869 and subsequent years
the Government notified the Governors of certain colonies,
including Gibraltar, of their intention to enforce the principle
of religious equality (although in Gibraltar the State aid of
the Civil Chaplaincy has been acquiesced in on certain con-
ditions). In strict adherence to this policy all State
connection in any colony conferring a preference over other
denominations has ceased. Thus in 1873 the allowance granted
under the Consular Advances Act of 1825 in aid of chaplains
at consular stations abroad was discontinued.!
So from the very beginning of his episcopate Bishop
Sandford had to deal with the financial strain thus caused in
one mercantile chaplaincy after another. In 1874 the grants
in aid ceased at Genoa, Madeira, Nice, Lisbon, and Oporto.
Grants at Naples and the Azores had been already lost
through disputes between the congregations and chaplains.
Grants were continued awhile, in consideration of the needs
of British shipping, at Marseilles, Corfu, Malaga, and Trieste,
and in view of special conditions at Smyrna and Leghorn.
But those at Corfu and Leghorn ceased in 1881 ; that at
Smyrna in 1890; and that at Malaga about 1893; that at
Trieste in 1905 ; and that at Marseilles in 19094 In 1895
the Government allowance to the Civil Chaplain at Malta
was withdrawn.
The Bishop felt the distress thus caused acutely, and
repeatedly refers to it in his Pastoral Letters. During the
earlier years of his episcopate the Diocese had not sufficient
coherence to meet it adequately ; and at the time, the wide
and rapid withdrawal of what had been regarded as a stable
and most reliable source of income was most disconcerting.
But the call thus made on the Diocese as a whole contributed
* Tucker's Memoir of the Life and Episcopate of Edward Feild, D.D.,
pp. 220f.
t Halsbury, EncycL, vol. XL, p. 491, note [d).
% A. C. M., 1905, July, p. xiv ; 1909, May, p. xv.
THE BISHOP AND THE DIOCESE in
in the long run to develop diocesan cohesion and corporate
life by the organisation of Church work among Seamen and
the formation of the Gibraltar Mission to Seamen and later
of the Poorer Chaplaincies Aid Fund, and thus as promoting
zeal and self-help has been beneficial.*
In another direction it is to be noted that the withdrawal
of this State-aid contributed to full diocesan life. It
terminated such control as was exercised by the State
through the Consulates on the churches and chapels, and thus
left them free to pass under the jurisdiction of the Bishop as
Diocesan. This has proved a great blessing, and made possible
aclear lineas to the regulation, fittings and ornaments, etc., of
the churches to be followed by congregations, clergy and
Bishop — the laws and uses of the Church of England, of
which it will be seen that congregations were ready to avail
themselves.
The limits of the Bishop's jurisdiction are set out in the
Certificate of his Consecration. This is addressed to the
Clergy and Laity of the Church of England resident
in Gibraltar, Malta, and the dependencies of each, and also
those " resident in Spain and Portugal, and in those parts of
France and of the Empire of Austria which touch the
Mediterranean Sea, and on the coast of Morocco, and in the
island of Madeira and the Canary islands, and in the Kingdom
of Italy and in the Kingdom of Greece, and on the Sea of
Marmora and the Sea of Azov, and on the Lower Danube, and
in the islands of the Mediterranean and islands of the
Greek Archipelago." It will be observed that the limits are
as extended by the F.O. Circular of 1869 (p. 79). The exten-
sion here gives ecclesiastical sanction to what might otherwise
be regarded as a mere State regulation.
But these limits were modified considerably during this
episcopate. In 1886 (May 25) the spiritual care of our
people in Morocco outside the Straits of Gibraltar, and in
Madeira and the Canary Isles was formally transferred to
the Bishop of Sierra Leone, in order to provide him with " a
happy equipoise to the African climate." t On March 10,
* See some instructive remarks in Ch. Q. Ji., Oct., 1877, pp. 39 ff.
t S. 1886, p. 18 ; R., p. 107 ff.
112 BISHOP SANDFORD, 1874-1903
1887, jurisdiction over Cyprus was transferred to the English
Bishop in Jerusalem.* This island, not particularly specified
in the Certificate as included in " the islands of the Mediter-
ranean," had in a more special way a claim on the Bishop's
care from 1878, when it was assigned to Great Britain by
the Sultan as a "place of arms" in the Levant on certain
terms, one of which was that if Russia evacuated her then
recent Asiatic conquests the British should evacuate Cyprus.
The Bishop had done much work in it ; it possessed great
interest for him, and he parted with it with regret. On the
other hand, in 1892 the English in Rumania were included
in the Diocese.f
It is clear that the term " the congregations on the shores
of the Black Sea," used in the P.O. Circular of 1869 (see
p. 79) in prescribing the Bishop of Gibraltar's limits of
superintendence, and now used in the "Authority" granted
by the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of London,
is a loose one, especially when the vastness of the Russian
Empire is taken into account. The question must arise
whether a congregation 50 or 250 miles from the actual
seaboard is to be reckoned, for the purpose of episcopal
superintendence by the Bishop of Gibraltar, " on the shores
of the Black Sea ? " It seems right that the Bishops of
London and Gibraltar should arrange between themselves
which congregations in Southern Russia should be regarded
as claiming the latter Bishop's care, and this course has
been adopted by Bishop Collins and the present Bishop (see
zVz/r^.p. 186). There is no record of Bishop Sandford's doing so.
He took the term "on the shores of the Black Sea" to mean
strictly " on the actual sea-coast." So he regarded Odessa as
the " extreme outpost of the Diocese," and repeatedly wrote of
it as such ; j and accordingly held that the congregation at
Hughesovka, which in 1884 numbered 300 English, was out-
side his jurisdiction. But as his travels brought him face to
face with these congregations, the sight of them " distressed
and scattered, as sheep not having a shepherd," moved him
* S., 1887, p. 23 f. ; Reg., p. 109 f. t S.C.P., 1892, p. 2.
t S., 1884, pp. 34, 43 ; 1885, p. 26; 1892, p. 20; 1894, p. 9; 1900,
p. 28 ; 1902, p. 27.
THE BISHOP AND THE DIOCESE 113
with compassion, and he directed the chaplain at Odessa to
visit first one, then another. In 1880 this chaplain was to
visit eastward as far as Rostov,* and he Hcensed the Odessa
chaplains " to officiate to British residents in other towns in
the south of Russia where there is no English clergyman of
any kind." The list of towns so visited grew apace. In
1 89 1 it included Kiev, Taganrog, Hughesovka, and Rostov ;
and in 1900 it included no fewer than twenty communities,
reaching to Baku on the Caspian, which is by rail 1628 miles
from Odessa, and 580 miles east of Batoum on the shores
of the Black Seat Such a task, exceeding the power of any
one chaplain, has since been met by the establishment of
chaplaincies at Hughesovka and Baku. But it was by this
practical supervision and by personal visits that the Bishop
de facto greatly extended his eastern jurisdiction. He was
himself ready to undertake even greater responsibility, and
writes in 1887, "I have repeatedly offered to extend the area
of my supervision, and before arrangements were made for
the episcopal superintendence of English congregations in
Northern and Central Europe, I more than once offered the
late Archbishop of Canterbury and the late Bishop of London
to add those congregations to my charge, visiting them in
the summer months. But my offer was not accepted. A
few years ago the chaplains and members of the congrega-
tions at Biarritz, Pau, and other English resorts in South-
western France sent me a memorial expressing a desire to
be included in the Diocese. Though I would have willingly
acceded to their request, that project also fell to the ground." J
The Bishop's successors, while admiring his courageous zeal,
can only be thankful that it was thus disappointed.
In another direction the jurisdiction of the Bishop of
Gibraltar was extended after the disestablishment. The
Letters Patent and the Authority based on them gave the
first three Bishops episcopal and ordinary jurisdiction over
consecrated churches and chapels in Gibraltar, Malta and
their dependencies, but were silent as to jurisdiction over
* S., 1880, p. 7 ; 1881, p. 6 ; 1884, p. 34.
t S., 1900, p. 28.
X S., 1887, p. 24.
I
114 BISHOP SANDFORD, 1874-1903
churches * elsewhere, the congregations of which were under
the Bishop's spiritual supervision. Into the possible reasons
for this it is not necessary to enter. It seems from the
case of the chapel at Rome (on which see supra, pp. 45, 6y,
91), which was treated as an exceptional case in not being
under the Bishop of Gibraltar's superintendence, that in a
general way it was understood that churches and chapels
of the congregations under the Bishop of Gibraltar's super-
intendence were under his visiting care. This is implied in
the resolution passed at Nice in 1875 (see infi'a, p. 115).
But Bishop Sandford was consecrated according to the Royal
Mandate, " to the intent that he should exercise his functions
in one or more of Her Majesty's possessions abroad, and
should also exercise with respect to the Churches, Congrega-
tions, and Clergy of the members of the Church of England "
within the limits prescribed (which have been mentioned
above) all such functions as were formerly exercised by
the Bishop of London for the time being, and afterwards
by the Bishop for the time being of Gibraltar." This
makes it clear that the Bishop of Gibraltar had already
by custom exercised some episcopal functions in respect
to churches ; but this mandate and consecration puts such
exercise on a settled footing. The Bishop of London's
jurisdiction was "universally admitted and recognized in all
churches on the Continent " of congregations under his charge
as Diocesan ; f and there v^'as no distinction between his
authority as Diocesan over churches in England and that which
he exercised over his Continental churches. This consecra-
tion therefore placed the Bishop of Gibraltar's jurisdiction
over English churches and chapels within the limits of his
supervision on a clear footing as that which an English
Bishop exercises over churches within his Diocese. Further,
* Episcopal jurisdiction over all consular chapels was recommended
in Mr. Burgess' Report, after inquiry made at the desire of the Bishop of
London in 1850. See C. C. C, 1850, May, p. 436.
t So the Bishop of London formally declared in 1871 in connexion with
a Belgian case. In the case of the chapd at Rome the Bishop of London's
jurisdiction over the chapel as Diocesan was never denied, and the
Bishop of Gibraltar could have "visiied " it as Commissary for him. See
p. 67 ?i. and C. C. C, 1865, p. 185.
THE BISHOP AND THE DIOCESE 115
the termination of consular chaplaincies left the churches of
the congregations belonging to them under the Bishop of
Gibraltar's unquestioned jurisdiction.
How this extension of authority was received is -illustrated
by a resolution passed at a public meeting of British subjects
in communion with the Church of England in Nice on
January 2 and 6, 1875, held on receipt of the decision of the
Government that from and after December 31, 1874, all
connection between Holy Trinity Church and H.M.'s Govern-
ment was to terminate. It runs : "That, in conformity with
the instructions conveyed by H.M.'s Secretary of State for
Foreign Affairs to the Consul at Nice on the 20th of October,
1842, when the See of Gibraltar was first created, the Lord
Bishop of Gibraltar, and each of his successors for the time
being, shall be, and hereby is, requested and empowered
henceforth to exercise such authority over the said Church
and Chaplain as is by law vested in the Bishop of an English
Diocese!' So the " scheme for the Regulation and Govern-
ment of the English Church at Palermo," duly approved by
the Bishop (October 30, 1876), provides "That the Lord
Bishop of Gibraltar for the time being, be, and hereby is,
requested and empowered to exercise over the said Church
and its Chaplain authority similar to that vested by law in a
Bishop of the Established Church of England along with
such powers as shall be conferred on him in this deed."
Such acceptance of the Bishop's authority as Ordinary of the
Churches belonged to the general wish that the Church life
of the Diocese should correspond to that of an English
diocese ; and, indeed, only the Bishop's authority as Ordi-
nary could be a Diocesan authority to maintain in the
churches the standard of the order and use of the Church of
England. Hovv the Bishop himself regarded and presented
this part of his Episcopal and Ordinary authority will be
seen later.
CHAPTER IX
THE EPISCOPATE OF BISHOP SANDFORD {continued)
THE INTERNAL LIFE OF THE DIOCESE
(i) The formative ivork of Bishop Sajidford in
the Diocese
THE Bishop's formative work in his Diocese, carried on
without cessation during his long episcopate, may be
described as the satisfaction of the demand made twenty-
years before that the Church of England should be repre-
sented dealing with Greeks and Latins as a Church, and
refusing to be swamped in a crude Protestantism.* That
demand had original reference to the work of the Church of
England in Constantinople. But Bishop Sandford strove
to satisfy it throughout his wide-flung Diocese, and in a
wonderful degree succeeded in doing so. His firm hold on
great principles enabled him to do this ; and his insistent
and unceasing appeals to them gradually gave a form and
order to the Diocese, which permeated the minds of both
clergy and congregations. His power of clear exposition,
his unwearied repetition of what needed saying, and his
practical attention to details combined to efifect this. His
way was prepared for him by his predecessors, more par-
ticularly by Bishop Harris, who had made the person of the
Bishop a living factor in the life of the congregations. But
none of them had taught and justified his teaching in the
same precise manner. He found a general desire in the
chaplaincies to live, as far as local conditions allowed, as
English parishes under an English Diocesan. He left the
, * C.C.C., 1855, Nov., p. 177 ; Dec, p. 240.
INTERNAL LIFE OF THE DIOCESE 117
Diocese with clear teaching as to what this meant, and
with rulings and precedents which are now a constant
guide.
He consistently set forth that he was a Diocesan Bishop,
and that his charge was a "Diocese." He did not use the
word "Diocese" as implying ferritoria/ jurisdiction. His
episcopal charge was one of souls, not of places or territory.
His field of activity was confined to the members of his
own Church, who were not acknowledged by the Church or
Bishops of the country in which they resided, and in which
he was appointed to work.* Both in England and in his
Diocese he was ready to justify the Bishopric, its Bishop,
clergy, and congregations fully and patiently. Although
other lines of apology {sensu proprio) were open, he rested by
experience upon practical rather than theoretical grounds.
The Church of England was bound to see that her own
children received the ministrations of the Word and Sacra-
ments wherever they were ; and consequently as the local
churches could not and would not minister to them while
they remained loyal members of the Church of their baptism,
it was necessary and fitting that the Church of England
should do so ; and the Bishopric was the ordinary way in
which that ministry should be fulfilled. " Our chaplaincies
are established in an Episcopal form, because at home we are
Episcopalians, and not Congregationalists or Independents.
It is not the way of our Church to leave each congregation
free to do exactly what seems good in its own eyes. Our
congregations in England are subject to Episcopal super-
vision ; and it has been deemed desirable by the Church of
England that the same system should be extended to her
congregations abroad." \ The Diocese thus as a Diocese
was the Church of England's provision for her children ; and
at the same time it represented the Church of England to
and among the great communions of the Latin and Greek
Churches. He held that this representative character
belonged not to the Bishop alone, but to Bishop, Clergy,
* S., 1894, p. 28.
t S., 1878, p. 19; 1894, pp. 21, 27; S.C.P., 1892, p. 8; and esp.
C.Q.R., Jan., 1878, pp. 365 ff.
ii8 BISHOP SANDFORD, 1874-1903
Congregations, and their Churches together. Together they
form "an Epistle known and read of all men" as to our
worship, faith, and life.* Thus he exhorted his Diocese to
stand as a Diocese, part of and representative of the whole
Church of England, in a definite position towards the Latin
and Greek Churches. Of this fuller notice will be taken
later; here it is sufficient to say that towards the historic
Churches of the East he urged an attitude of brotherly
recognition, requiring the same with acknowledgment of
the validity of our Sacraments ; and he marked as the
goal of present efforts towards reunion mutual apprecia-
tion, recognition, acknowledgment of independent vocation,
and, when opportunity offered, intercommunion rather than a
rearrangement of our own confessions of faith, or assimila-
tion of our forms and ceremonies to those of the Orthodox
Church. Towards the Churches of the Roman Communion
he pressed for the same attitude, in spite of the coldness,
"or I might say hostility," displayed towards us. While
entertaining great sympathy for the movements of reform in
Portugal, Spain, Italy, and France, he declined to take part
in furthering them. To join these would be to use a liberty
accorded to us for the purpose of attacking and weakening
the Church of the land, and would be a clear act of intrusion.
While never shutting his eyes to the need of reform in
both the Greek and Roman Churches he consistently held
that it was by living up to their representative character
in faith, worship and life, that English Churchmen in the
Diocese would render the best service to both those
Churches. He was never tired of insisting that "it is by
showing what the Church of England really is, when its
principles, doctrines, and worship are exhibited in their true
colours, and not by making here and there a few stray prose-
lytes, that we shall render most effective aid to the work of
internal reformation." f
On the other hand, he never wearied of impressing upon
his clergy and congregations the fact that as sharing the
doctrines, government, and order of the Church of England
* S., 1894, p. 30 ; 1875, p. 12 ; 1878, p. 53.
t S., 1879, p. 20 ; 1880, p. 63 ; 1894, pp. 30 ff.
INTERNAL LIFE OF THE DIOCESE 119
and so " bound to maintain the rightful position of that
Church as a true and reformed part of Christ's One Catholic
and Apostolic Church at all times and with all our power,"*
they must not shrink making those principles and doctrines,
and that government and order, fully their own in practice in
every chaplaincy. Whether as to duties and responsibilities,
privileges or rights of himself as Diocesan Bishop, or of the
clergy, or of the congregations, he clearly claimed that these
were determined by the custom and principles of the Church
of England, and he looked for acknowledgment of this. He
gloried rather than otherwise in the fact that his authority
was not coercive, resting on Letters Patent, but moral,
voluntary and consensual. It was in his eyes none the less
binding on loyal Churchmen, and especially on the clergy in
virtue of their ordination pledges and acceptance of his
licence ; f and, like Bishop Feild, he desired nothing more.
He declared that it was his duty, as Bishop, to license and
visit the clergy "■ - decide as to whether a chaplaincy should
be established, a cuapel opened, or services held ; to regulate
Public Worship, both as to its order and externals ; to sanction
changes of ritual. X As the customs, rubrics, and laws of the
Church of England were to be observed in this Diocese, so it
was his duty to maintain them, as it had always been the
duty of the Bishop of Gibraltar. He held himself bound to
keep English congregations abroad in conformity with the
doctrines and ceremonial of the Church at home, and the
securing that the laws and discipline of the Church were
observed in the congregations under his supervision was
regarded by him us an important function of his office. So
he worked for reasonable rubrical conformity ; strove to set
right irregularities ; claimed that he was the proper authority
to decide questions touching the obligation and interpretation
of rubrics ; and gladly acknowledged the general readiness
displayed to seek his rulings and abide by them. He held
that by granting a licence the Bishop became in a manner
responsible for the character of the services which a licensed
* S., 1894, p. 31.
t S., 1 878,' pp. 23 f. ; 1879, p. 25 ; 1890, p. 8 ; S.C.P., 1884, p. 6.
X S., 1890, p. 8 ; 1894, p. 7 ; 1898, p. 15, 1899, P- 40 ; 1878, pp. 10, 54.
120 BISHOP SANDFORD, 1874-1903
chaplain conducts.* At the same time he held that the action
of the Bishop was regulated by the same laws, customs and
rubrics, and he could not, in order to satisfy his own personal
taste or judgment, limit any liberty which the Church gives
her ministers, nor forbid usages not positively forbidden by
the Church. In this last matter, he felt even that the Bishop
had better not advise, if he anticipated that his advice would
be disregarded.!
His clear and consistent action did much to attract the
confidence of the clergy and congregations. He required all
chaplains whether permanent or temporary, visiting clergy
and locum tenentes to be licensed. When licensed they
became responsible to him as their Ordinary for all ministry
within the Diocese, and he relied on their loyalty to their
ordination vows. He insisted that a chaplain nominated by
a Society if called away from the chaplaincy, should resign
his licence to him himself, and give him information directly,
not leaving it to the Society to do so. He pointed out that
the licence protected and secured the clergy ; and that it was
his own duty after granting the licence to uphold their rights
against improper interference. He left them the full liberty
of the Church of England, placing the matters spiritual within
their chaplaincies under their charge, and accepting for con-
firmation only candidates presented by them. He gave clear
directions as to their duty with regard to changes in ritual
and public worship. He instructed them that they repre-
sented in their charges not a Society, or Trustees, or patrons,
but the Church of England ; and pressed on them the duty
of avoiding in our Diocese the party divisions and spirit so
damaging to Church life in England. He won the clergy by
his grasp, not only of the opportunities but also of the diffi-
culties of a chaplain in South Europe and by the confidence
he placed in them, as much as by his efforts to secure their
temporal welfare, of which mention will appear later. He
could appreciate the gratuitous labour for English people of
missionaries of the London Mission to the Jews, and when
need be plead for consideration for them on the ground
* S., 1876, p. II; 1878, pp. 23 f. ; 1898, pp. 15-18,
t S., 1878, p. 24 ; 1902, p. 16.
INTERNAL LIFE OF THE DIOCESE 121
of their ignorance of English parochial life through long
devotion to their peculiar vocation.*
In the same way he won the trust of the congregations.
While he insisted that as con£frecrations of the Church of
England they were, as the clergy, bound by its doctrines,
ceremonial, customs, and discipline, and that in matters
spiritual and the conduct of public worship the responsibility
rested with the chaplain, he pointed out that he too by the
granting of the licence was bound to be their defender in
case of need. He threw all his weight against hasty and
inconsiderate changes of service or ritual, or change which he
had not, as Bishop, approved ; and demanded consideration
of the congregation in the adoption of a type of service. He
pointed out, that though conditions in the Diocese were
frequently exceptional, the principle of the Church of
England as to the disposal of Church collections was that
this should rest not with the Consul, or Trustees, or a Com-
mittee, or Chaplain alone or Churchwardens alone, but with
the Minister and Churchwardens together, with appeal in
case of any difference to the Bishop. He ever presented
the flock as having a right to the best service of the clergy,
whether as to visiting, sermons, teaching of the young,
doctrinal instruction, life, and loyalty to the Church of
England. He evidently regarded with apprehension the
control exercised over congregations by Societies which
claimed patronage in return for holcing properties, and
advised congregations to guard themselves against such
external control by vesting their properties in the National
Society (so long as that Society was willing to hold such
property) which made no such claim. And thus it is not
surprising to find questions as to the externals of public
worship referred to him ; to find the Anglican Congregation
at Nice in 1875 "requesting and empowering him and his
successors to exercise over their Church and Chaplain such
authority as is by law vested in the Bishop of an English
Diocese"; the scheme for the regulation and government of
the Church at Palermo submitted to him for approval in
* 1878, pp. 10, 21, 24 f., 54; 1890, pp. 8 f., 40; 1892, p. 15 ; 1902,
pp. II ff., 15 f., S.C.P., 1884, pp. 6 f. ; 1892, p. 8.
122 BISHOP SANDFORD, 1874-1903
1876; the Trust Deed of St. Mark's, Florence, in 1884, pro-
viding that "the Chaplain should recognize and undertake
in writing to conform to the same ecclesiastical laws and
usages as exist between Bishops and incumbents in English
Dioceses." *
It must not be supposed that the Bishop gave all such
direction in an abstract manner. On the contrary, it was
drawn out in almost every case by conditions which needed
it, and it was usually corrective of what was irregular or at
variance with the established use and order of the Church of
England. It is clear that the circumstances which drew it
from him frequently gave him much trouble. But his stead-
fast, gentle, and constant appeal to the Church of England
ultimately effected a great change in the Diocese, and its
present orderliness is mainly due to him. Our clergy and
congregations now, as a whole, know what is the standard and
rule which regulates their Church life ; and thus he gave a
formal and systematic shape to the diocesan life which
Bishop Harris had begun to evoke and made possible. To
many outside the Diocese much, if not all, of this reiterated
instruction may appear unnecessary, or commonplace. But
it was not so in the Diocese of Gibraltar, as any one will
recognize who has grasped the isolation, the history, the
conditions of our communities, and the influences and tradi-
tions of a congregational independence which had for so
long affected them.
But Bishop Sandford was not satisfied with calling on his
Diocese to conform gladly and proudly, as in duty bound, to
the order, faith and principles of the Church of England.
Had he done this and no more, he might have presented that
Church to his congregations as exercising rightly a great and
wise control, but as in some sense external to the Diocese
instead of embracing it. He guarded against this by en-
deavouring to draw the life of the Diocese into the ampler
life of the Mother Church, and to make his people realize
that the interests of the whole Church of England were truly
* S.C.P., 1884, p. 2; S., 1878, pp. 10, 34 f., 54 f., 59; 1879, P- 6;
1888, pp. 12, 13 ; 1892, pp. 7, 10, 16; 1898, p. 15 ; 1902, p. 10. Reg.,
pp. 83, 90. Nice Church Minutes, Jan. 2 and 6, 1875.
INTERNAL LIFE OF THE DIOCESE 123
theirs. From time to time, and increasingly as years passed,
he laid before them in his Annual Pastoral Letters the great
controversies and questions which moved the Church at home,
frequently at great fullness, with the pastoral concern and
wisdom of an Anglican Father in God, with the skill, the know-
ledge and the outlook of a fine scholar and theologian, and
with a beautiful directness and clearness. Thus he treated
the subjects of Evening Communion and obligation to Fasting
Reception (1893); the authority of Hoi}'- Scripture (1894);
the Encyclical of Leo XIII. and the papal attack on Anglican
Orders, and the Reply of the English Archbishops (1896);
Auricular and Private Confession (1878, and again at great
length, 1898); Discipline and Ritual (1898); Dogma and
Doctrine (1903). In 1899 he- laid before the Diocese the
Archbishop's decision as to Incense and the use of Lights
in procession, and directed that it should be recognized in the
Diocese as authoritative. In 1876, and again in 1878, he
tried to secure in the Diocese appreciation and observance of
the Day of Intercession for Foreign Missions as in England,
and in 1900 of the celebration of the Bicentenary of S.P.G.
In 1878 he communicated to the Diocese the Report of the
Lower House of Convocation on the spiritual provision re-
quired for British Seamen in Foreign ports. On the occasions
of the Lambeth Conferences of 1878, 1888, and 1897, in
which he himself took part, he strove to make his people
realize the significance and work of the Conference. He
drew their attention to Resolutions and Recommendations
which specially affected a Diocese such as his ov/n, such as
those relating to the position of English chaplains abroad
(1878), the observance of Sunday, definiteness in teaching,
the Old Catholics and other reforming bodies in Italy, Spain
and Portugal (1888) ; and he set forth in 1897, the functions,
position, and authority of the Conference, and the nature of
the Consultative Body which the Conference of that year
proposed to establish.
In correspondence with the movement at home for the
Reunion of Christendom, he gave most careful guidance (in
1895) as to the problems to be met, means to be used, and
prospects to be entertained. In 1899 he explained the fears
124 BISHOP SANDFORD, 1874-1903
raised in England by his endeavours to promote friendly
feeling and a better understanding between the Anglican and
the Orthodox Greek Churches, and treated the great points
of difference and agreement in worship and doctrine between
the two Churches. He was himself an acceptable speaker at
Church Congresses, and usually handled subjects closely con-
nected with the Diocese. But he was careful to let his Diocese
know what he said at home of it and its tasks. Thus he
printed and circulated his speeches and papers, as the speech
(in 1880) on the condition of the Greek Church, and the
relation of the Churches of the East to the Church of England ;
the paper (1884) on "Foreign chaplaincies: their episcopal
supervision, and the relation of English and American
Churches " ; the address (1885) on the attitude of the Church
with respect to movements in Foreign Churches ; the paper
(1892) on the Work of the Churchof England on the Continent.
In 1878 he contributed an article to the Chta-cJi Quarterly
Review on " English Churchmen on the Continent," tracing
the history of the Diocese, justifying the Bishopric, and
criticizing with some severity the lack of thorough church-
manship in a certain Society in points some of which have since
received attention. The article was practically a presentation
of the Diocese to the Church at home, and was of necessity
originally anonymous. But in his next Pastoral the Bishop
acknowledged to his Diocese the authorship of it, and
commended it to the study of his flock. It is to be noted,
too, that while he strove to weld his Diocese solidaire with
the home Church, his public utterances, the position which
his long tenure of the See gave him as spokesman for the
English Church in Southern Europe, and his readiness to
plead in England for special needs of the Diocese, steadily
promoted at home knowledge of the Diocese and its peculiar
conditions, life, and work.
It is possible, and indeed probable, that the bulk of the
readers of the Bishop's annual Pastoral Letters attended
chiefly to the chronicle they contain of the activities and
projects of the Diocese and their gracious acknowledgments
of services of Laity and Clergy, But the cumulative effect
of such regular teaching must have been very great on his
INTERNAL LIFE OF THE DIOCESE 125
thoughtful Churchmen, and it must have made them feci
that the problems, the tasks, the position, the counsels, the
life of the whole Church of England were theirs, and that they
were expected to have an intelligent share therein. In read-
ing those weighty instructions addressed by a Bishop of
Gibraltar to his people, the progress made by the Diocese in
Church life since 1842 and the formative worth of this long
episcopate is impressively felt. The Bishop shaped and
inspired the life of a Diocese of the Church of England.
(2) The inte7'nal groivih of the Diocese, 18 74- 1903
Advance in Diocesan coherence. — The Visitatioti
Notes of Bishop Harris give a striking picture of the want of
coherence and solidarity, and of the absence of diocesan
spirit in our Diocese when Bishop Sandford came to the See.
The response to the appeal of his predecessor for .2^400 a
year for the Diocesan Spiritual Aid Fund was actually under
;{^ioo. For a few years there was little change apparent, and
the Bishop's long illness which laid him aside for 1 877-1 878,
prevented his pressing the call. Later he followed Bishop
Harris's example, gave up all idea of long residence at Malta
or Gibraltar, and travelled incessantly.* He soon formed a
scheme of travel which he maintained during his episcopate.
He tried to visit the extreme eastern and western portions of
his jurisdiction triennially, and the centre annually or
biennially. He does not appear at any time to have con-
sidered the charge overwhelming, and indeed he was willing
(see p. 113) to take the chaplaincies of North and Central
Europe under his care. He thus rapidly gained personal
knowledge of the chaplaincies and access to homes and
hearts.
But he soon perceived and strove to remedy the want of
coherence. He wrote in 1887 : "My endeavour since I have
been Bishop has been to foster a sense of unity in the
scattered and isolated congregations under my super-
intendence, and to make them feel that they are members
* S., 1884, p. 44-
126 BISHOP SANDFORD, 1874-1903
of one Diocese, having common interests, common duties,
and a common life." He felt the self-centredness of the
chaplaincies, and their indifference to communities far
sundered from them, of which indeed they knew little or
nothing. Feeling that common action would promote
diocesan spirit he pleaded hard for the Gibraltar Diocesan
Spiritual Aid Fund. In 1879 he wrote in his Pastoral
Letter : "It is a mistake to restrict our thoughts and
sympathy to ourselves. By supporting this Diocesan Fund
you are giving a kind of unity to the Diocese. Independent
and isolated as our congregations are, they have a common
work and a common life ; and by assisting such members as
require assistance you show that you take an interest in this
common work, and are anxious to sustain this common life."
But response was so feeble that in 1881, including the
Bishop's own contribution and that of his friends at Oxford,
to whom he appealed, it failed to reach ^400, and some of
the larger and wealthier congregations abstained from thus
giving help to the general work of the Diocese.* This was
probably due to various causes : general ignorance of con-
ditions prevailing in so broken a Jurisdiction, lack of diocesan
self-reliance, and the want of an appeal which would in a
striking way touch hearts and sympathies.
The first of these causes was in some measure met by the
Bishop's regular visits and speeches, and especially by his
Pastoral Letters. These, however, from their size and cost,
probably did not obtain really universal currency ; and as
they appeared only annually, they failed to " get home " in
the peculiar way in which a cheaper and more frequent
periodical can. How many Churchpeople in an English
Diocese attend to an annual Diocesan Hand-Book ? It is
further to be borne in mind that the Diocese was accustomed
to look for " Spiritual aid " not to itself but to Societies in
England, as in earlier days the communities had looked to
Companies and State aid ; and that the growing and wealthier
Riviera communities were engrossed in building their own
churches and maintaining their own chaplaincies.
But in 1 88 1 and the following years the Bishop's growing
* S., i88i,p.3.
INTERNAL LIFE OF THE DIOCESE 127
grasp of the conditions of British Seamen led him to appeal
in the strongest way on their behalf. For awhile he did so
in the name of the Spiritual Aid Fund, and used the income
of that fund almost entirely in providing ministrations for
them.* The insistent appeal of 1883 was followed by a
great increase in both subscriptions and interest, and in 1884
"the Bishop of Gibraltar's Mission to Seamen" began to
replace the older Fund, which disappeared in 1889 in "the
Gibraltar Mission to Seamen in the Mediterranean." A
fuller account of the Mission will be given within a few pages.
It is mentioned here because it created directly and effectively
what was felt to be a diocesan cause. It appealed in a
special way to both the settled colonies, the majority of which
are resident in great ports, and also the hearts of the
Riviera communities, and so became at once, as a common
and attractive work, a bond of union. The Bishop wrote in
1887 that "The G.M.S. is the one enterprise conducted on
the principle of united action extended throughout the
Diocese." As such it has served to draw the less permanent
communities into the interest and life of the Diocese, and
weld them to the others.
A third contribution to the stimulating of diocesan spirit
and coherence was made by the Conferences of the Riviera
clergy. The first of these — the first conference of English
clergy held in South Europe — met at Mentone on April 14,
1884, when eighteen clergy were present. From that year
such conferences have been held with increasing frequency
in different centres, and the fact that from 1887 the Bishop
made his settled home at Cannes enabled him usually to be
present. These gatherings of the clergy, well attended (as
many as twenty-eight were present at Cannes in 1889), did
something more than create a spirit of brotherliness. They
served to spread knowledge of the Diocese, and to draw
together into co-operation men of different types of Church-
manship. But they were necessarily limited to the clergy of
a comparatively small area ; it was impossible to gather to
them the clergy of the far East, the West, and North
Africa ; and the laity had no share in them.
* S., 1881 p. 6.
128 BISHOP SANDFORD, 1874-1903
The first General Diocesan Conference of 1894.—
These conferences led to the first general Diocesan Confer-
ence of Clergy and Laity of 1894, which met on July 10
and II in Westminster. It opened with a Celebration of the
Holy Communion in Henry VII.'s Chapel, and the Con-
ference sat in the large Hall of the Church House. The
Secretaries were the Rev. Canon Sidebotham of St. John's,
Mentone, and the Rev. A. T. Barnett, of Bordighera. Between
50 and 60 attended, the clergy representing Gibraltar, Malta,
Oporto, Marseilles, Cannes, Nice, and Mentone, San Remo,
Bordighera, Genoa, Rome, Naples and Palermo, Algiers, and
Odessa. Among the laity were Sir Theodore Hope, General
Chamberlain, Colonel Haggarth, Mr. E. N. Rolfe, Captain
Dawson, R.N., Dr.s. Freeman, Hutchinson, Siordet, and
Ashmore Noakcs, and Mr. Dudley Smith. Besides receiving
the inaugural and closing addresses of the Bishop, the
Conference discussed the following subjects which he termed
" of vital importance to our own Church, and to the Church
at large."
1. The attitude of English Churchmen abroad towards
the Church of the country in which they are
sojourning.
2. The duty of English Churchmen on the Continent to
make manifest and maintain the true position of the
Church of England.
3. Encouragements and difficulties in the work of our
Church on the Continent.
4. The duty of our Church to our Seamen in Foreign
Ports.
It is impossible here to give a detailed account of the
Conference. The President's two addresses are printed in
his Pastoral Letter of 1894, and a full report is given in the
Anglican Church Magazine of August and September. Far
more important than its details was the fact that such a
conference was held. It is true that the representation of
Spain and the East was inadequate. But it marked a great
step taken towards attaining solidarity in the Diocese : and
the effect is described by one of the clergy present, the Rev.
INTERNAL LIFE OF THE DIOCESE 129
A. Burnell, Chaplain at Bilbao, who in the last speech of the
Conference " concluded by saying that though he been in
the Diocese fifteen years, he had never before known any
brother Chaplain. He should now return to his isolated post
with the feeling that he belonged to a corporate body, that
he was not a mere fragment and atom struggling all alone,
but that there were people who understood his difficulties and
sympathized with him." Such a result alone amply justified
the great labour and expense such a conference involved in a
Diocese like ours. But it prepared the way for something
greater — the self-regulation as a Diocese of the Church which
belongs to it of right.
Increase in number of clergy. — Of the changes in the
extent of the Diocese made during this period, mention has
been made already (p. in). In 1886 the congregations west
of Tangier, with those of Madeira and the Canary Islands
were transferred to the Diocese of Sierra Leone, and Cyprus
to the charge of the Anglican Bishop in Jerusalem in 1887.
In 1892 the care of the Roumanian Colonies was undertaken
by Bishop Sandford. He surrendered Cyprus " with extreme
regret." He had consecrated cemeteries and a church there,
maintained a chaplaincy with much difficulty, and the island
had great interest for him.* In spite of this, the number of
chaplains and cha>plaincies increased steadily. In 1875 there
were 63 licensed clergy, including nine serving in the L.J.S.
and the C.M.S. The latter Society withdrew its clergy from
Syra and Boudjah in 1881 and from Constantinople in
1878, but the number had risen in 1884 to 68, in 1894 to 72,
and in 1903 to 75. Some of these were assistant clergy,
others settled in small communities and licensed to minister to
them. Besides these settled clergy there were an increasing
number of summer and winter temporary chaplaincies, of
which the Bishop mentions 12 in 1878, and 33 in 1903.
Of the Bishop's steady drawing of these into an ordered
Diocesan life something has been already said. He carried
on the fatherly influence of Bishop Harris, and exerted
* S., 1879, p. 17 ; 1882, p. 22 ; 1884, p. 47 ; 1886, pp. 10-12 ; 1887, pp.
23 ff.
K
I30 BISHOP SANDFORD, 1874-1903
himself to raise the standard of preaching and visiting, pressing
for daily services, scrupulous care in ministration of the
Eucharist, and a seemly dignity in Church fittings and
worship. He gave minute directions concerning the service
of Confirmation, singing, the cleansing of the holy vessels.
In October, 1876, he issued very careful Letters of Enquiry to
the clergy, and received replies from 40 chaplaincies. The
text of the Letters is given in his Pastoral Letter for 1878,
together with some comments on the replies. But in 1891 he
records that these valuable records had disappeared, and
issued fresh Letters, to which replies were received from 56
chaplaincies. The text is given again, and some consideration
of the returns, but these likewise have perished.* The
recovery of these returns would throw a great light on the
state of the Diocese and of particular chaplaincies ; but at
present no trace of them can be found. The Bishop's com-
ments reveal a satisfaction with the increasing activity of the
clergy, and the building of churches ; a disappointment that
some chaplains made no returns ; that registers were care-
lessly kept ; and that many congregations were indifferent to
diocesan work ; a sense of the difficulties caused by the
smallness of resources and varieties of tenure of Church
property ; a gratitude to Societies ; and a deep appreciation
of the value of visiting and teaching, especially of children.
Parsonages. — The maintenance and welfare of the
chaplains was ever at the Bishop's heart. In particular this
appeared in his constant effort to promote the provision of
Parsonages. This he regarded as a valuable form of endow-
ment. He pressed for it insistently from 1890 onwards, and
notes gratefully in his Pastoral Letters year by year each
addition to the list. In 1903 he left fourteen in the Diocese.t
At the very close of his episcopate he received with great
satisfaction a recommendation from the Finance Committee
that Easter Offerings should be asked for, and one of his last
acts was to issue a letter commending this with much warmth
to the congregations-^ But he cared not only for the temporal
* S., 1891, pp. 14 f. ; 1892, pp. 5 f.
t S., 1890, p. 25 ; 1892, p. 6 ; 1903, p. 39. t S., 1903. PP- 38. 55- 57-
INTERNAL LIFE OF THE DIOCESE 131
welfare of the clergy. He was most anxious for their study
and knowledge. He urged on them the work of the Church
Reading Union, introduced into the Diocese the Central
Society of Sacred Study,* and set forth in liis Pastoral
Letters the subjects of study of these societies, A scholar
and student himself, he was constantly anxious that the
clergy should have a guidance in study which separation
from England made specially difficult for them.
Lay- Readers. — During these thirty 'years the ministry
of the Laity received a recognized position and much ex-
tension in the Diocese. From early days godly officials of
the Levant Company and the State had been used to hold
services and to bury the dead, and many consulates were
the centres of the religious as well as the commercial life of
chaplainless communities. Early in his episcopate Bishop
Sandford found men whom he could call Lay-helpers. But
from 1876 he gave such fellow-workers a definite status,
licensing them as Lay-Readers. The numbers grew from
three in 1876 to nine in 1884, eleven in 1894, and twenty-one
in 1903. Included in these were the managers of many
Seamen's Institutes, whose religious work the Bishop was
always anxious to keep to the front. He urged the blessing
of services held by Consuls, and gladly welcomed and
acknowledged the help of such gentlemen in preparing
Candidates for Confirmation, as that of Mr. (afterwards Sir)
Percy Sanderson at Galatz.f What the Bishop did in this
direction has proved of lasting benefit, and its worth was
strikingly shown in the course of the great war, when many
of these Lay-Readers rendered priceless service to the
Church, and to their colonies.
This is a fitting place for reference to Bishop Sandford's
reliance on the laymen of the Diocese. How great it was
appears in his words in his letter of 1878. After thanking
them for their help in such matters as church-building and
* S., 1891, p. 10 ; 1893, p. 49 ; 1894, P- 12 ; 1896, p. 57 ; 1S97, p. 43 ;
1900, p. 34 ; 1901, p. 33.
t See esp. S., 1876, p. 10 ; 1878, p. 41 ; 1893, p. 55 ; 1895, P- 46-
132 BISHOP SANDFORD, 1874-1903
the provision of clubs and homes for British Seamen, ho
writes (p. 52) : —
"Some of you I have also to thank for your assistance
in framing new constitutions for the congregations
which have been lately thrown on the voluntary system
(the reference is to the withdrawal of Consular Aid),
and in serving as members of Church-committees, and
as Churchwardens. If here and there the property
of the churches which you have built is not legally
secured, if here and there rules of ecclesiastical order
are neglected, if here and there the character of public
worship requires to be improved, I look to you for
zealous co-operation in supplying omissions, in dis-
countenancing and discouraging irregularities, in
rendering our services more hearty, more attractive,
more provocative of reverence, and in supporting the
clergy in the efforts which they are making to render
English churches abroad, so far as circumstances
admit, faithful representatives of our Church at home."
Any student of his Letters will find in them many
evidences of this reliance, and of his appreciation of services
rendered, especially in the obituary notices, though not in
these alone ; for he did not wait till his friend was dead to
express his gratitude.
Church-building. — The building, rebuilding and im-
provement of churches went on apace during these years.
It is to be remembered that in Italy until i860 and in Spain
till still later, the law of the State forbade our churches
having any ecclesiastical form, and they were therefore not
discernible externally from domestic buildings. The sketch
preserved of the church built at Nice in 1821 strikingly
illustrates this ; and in consequence many of our early
churches, though homes of prayer, did not give the aid which
the beauty of holiness renders to Divine worship. The Bishop
was always anxious that the churches and their worship
should worthily represent in dignity and beauty the spirit of
the Church of England ; his Letters are full of references to
HOLY TRINITY CHURCH. NICE
nuii.T 1S62
To face p. / ?J
INTERNAL LIFE OF THE DIOCESE 133
efforts made in this, and to success attained ; and a com-
parison of the Nice sketch with the present Holy Trinity
Church, or with our churches in Lisbon, Cannes, San Remo
(All Saints'), Genoa, Florence (Holy Trinity), Rome (All
Saints'), Palermo, and others too many to mention will show
how great those efforts and that success have been. It is
impossible to describe particularly the churches built and
consecrated during these years. The Bishop took the greatest
interest in the building of All Saints' at Rome, and personally
pleaded in England for contributions for a Church in that
city which should be really representative ; and All Saints'
itself was a great joy to him. Between 1874 and 1903 his
Letters record the consecration or dedication of twenty-one
churches during his episcopate,* and the building of ten
others which for various reasons were not consecrated.
Though most anxious that English Churches should be
erected, Bishop Sandford was not in favour of building them
unless due provision were made for their proper maintenance.
Early in his episcopate he foresaw the difficulty which would
arise if a church were built in a place which the English
ceased later to frequent, both as to its due use and main-
tenance, and the payment of rates and taxes. Accordingly
he advocated the setting apart of a Repair Fund, and even
the provision of a right of sale in certain contingencies in
any deed of conveyance vesting a church in a Society or
Trustees. Experience has shown how greatly it is to be
regretted that his advice as to the establishment of a church
* 1874 : Hyeres (the old church) ; San Remo, St. John's (old
church) ; St. Andrew's, Patras. 1883 : St. John Ev., Alassio ; H.
Trinity, Rome ; All Saints', Bordighera ; St. John Ev., Pegli. 1884 : All
Saints', San Remo ; St. Paul's, Hyeres ; Embassy Chapel, Therapia.
1886 : St. Paul's, Nicosia (Cyprus). 1887 : St. George's, Cannes. 1888 :
St. James', Bellagio. 1889: St. George's, Lisbon. 1891 : The Church
of the Ascension, Cadenabbia. 1892: St. John Ev., Grasse. 1902:
St. John Baptist's, San Remo; All Saints', Kadikeui ; St. John Ev.,
Smyrna ; All Saints', Marseilles. 1903 : St. Michael's, Beaulieu (by the
Archbishop of York under commission). In addition, the following were
built, but not consecrated: — 1874: Tunis (old church); Bilbao. 1881 :
H. Trinity, Ajaccio ; H. Trinity, Cannes. 1885 : All Saints', Rome.
1889: St. George's, Venice ; All Saints', Costebelle. 1901 : St, George's,
Tunis ; St. John Ev., St. Raphael.
134 BISHOP SANDFORD, 1874-1903
maintenance fund for every church on its erection was not
followed.*
As far as is known twenty-one burial grounds were con-
secrated in the Diocese during Bishop Sandford's Episcopate,
and one shortly after his death, f
(3) Work on behalf of Bjdtish Seamen
The Gibraltar Mission to Seamen : character ;
growth ; effect on the Diocese. — In no direction was
progress in diocesan effectiveness more apparent during
this episcopate than in the care for seamen. Such care had
been recognized as belonging to all early chaplaincies, and
one main object in the State-aid given to them was to provide
it.l The large number of seamen requiring ministrations was
* S., 1878, p. 34 ; 1894, p. 8.
t Burial-grounds consecrated by Bishop Sandford.
1875. Smyrna (S., 1875, P- 9)-
1876. Bournabat (S., 1875, p. 9 ; 1895, p. 7).
1882. Cyprus: Larnaca ; Nicosia; Polymedia Camp (S., 1882,
p. 22).
1882-3. Jerez (S., 1883, p. 20).
1884. Cathcart's Hill, Sebastopol (S. 1884, pp. 37 flf.).
Hughesovka (S., 1884, p. 42).
1885-6. Bordighera (S., 1886, p. 7).
1886. Varosia, Cyprus (S., 1886, p. 11).
1888. Odessa— by the Archbishop of Odessa (S„ 1888, p. 38).
1889. Bilbao (S., 1890, p. 12).
Valencia (S., 1890, p. 18).
1890. Alassio (addition) (S., 1890, p. 27).
1893, May 8. Addition to Naval Cemetery, Bighi, Malta (S., 1893,
p. 48 ; R., p. 135).
May 17. Naples : new cemetery (S., 1893, p. 48 ; R., pp. 126 fif.).
1894, April II. Rapallo (S., 1894, p. 18 ; R., p. 129).
November 29. Marsala, Cemetery and Mausoleum (S., 1895,
p. 32 ; R., p. 133).
1901. Malta, Royal Naval Cemetery (S., 1901, pp. 22 f.).
Gozo, Military Cemetery (S., 1901, pp. 22 f.)
1902. Bournabat (addition), (S., 1902, p. 21).
1903. December 26. Bordighera (addition) ; by the Archbishop of
York (R., pp. 154 ff.)-
\ See supra, pp. 29, no, and S., 1876, p. 23.
INTERNAL LIFE OF THE DIOCESE 135
the reason why consular aid was continued longer to the
chaplaincies at Marseilles, Corfu, Smyrna, Leghorn, Malaga,
and Trieste than to others. The repeal of the Consular
Advances Act forced the care of Seamen on the attention
of Bishop Sandford at the very opening of his episcopate, and
he referred briefly to it in his first Pastoral Letter of 1875.
Writing of the loss sustained through the withdrawal of the
Foreign Office grants to consular chaplains, he adds, " If in
any . . . parts of my Diocese there is work to be done
amongst seamen, let me remind you that there are two
excellent Societies which are always ready to give assistance
in such work, the St. Andrew's Waterside Church Mission,
and the Missions to Seamen." In the course of the next
year the Bishop found that there was indeed much need for
such work ; and in 1876 he wrote at much greater length of
the aims and activities of these two Church societies, of the
national importance of the care of our seamen, and the need
for it. In the outlook which he then took of the develop-
ment of such care he emphasized certain points ; that {a) it
must accord with the system of the Church of England, and
be an integral part of the duty of the chaplain on the spot ;
that {b) the interest and responsibility must be localized ;
and that {c) the conditions of the seamen, and the peculiar
temptations besetting them in foreign ports require some-
thing more than visits of the clergy to the ships, invitations
to Divine service, ministrations in church, warning and
counsel, and that " Homes " or " Institutes " were necessary,
in which means of pure recreation, rest, refreshment, and
food if required, opportunities of writing and receiving letters
and reading newspapers should offer a real counter-attraction
to the allurements of drinking, impurity and profligacy. It
is remarkable that thus early the Bishop outlined the three
principles which have characterized the development of work
on behalf of seamen in the Diocese — the principles of vital
connection with the Church and chaplains, local management,
and the establishment of Institutes. Both the Societies to
which he looked were Church of England Societies. Both
worked mainly by providing Chaplains, Bible-readers, and
pure literature, and both had discovered that though such
t36 BISHOP SANDFORD, 1874-1903
provision was necessary, it was not by itself adequate. Con-
sequently the provision of Homes for Seamen had already
advanced in England, and even in the Mediterranean a
beginning had been made by the opening of a Home at
Naples in 1875 through the zeal of Mr. Rolfe, the Consul,
and of a Sailors' Club at Marseilles, to the maintenance
of which liberal aid was given by the English in Cannes.*
In 1876 the growing recognition of the importance of
the subject led to the formation of a Committee of the
Lower House of the Convocation of Canterbury, the Bishop-
Suffragan of Nottingham being chairman, to consider the
whole question of work among British seamen. Directly he
recovered from his illness of 1877-8, and before he was
able to travel, Bishop Sandford proceeded, in co-operation
with that Committee, to make inquiries of his clergy as to
the following points : — the spiritual needs of British seamen
in ports known to them ; efforts already made to minister
to them spiritually on shipboard while in foreign ports ;
encouragement given to them to attend Divine Service when
on shore ; other means adopted or desirable to serve them
spiritually when on duty abroad. In these inquiries the
limitation to spiritual ministrations is observable, and also
the absence of any explicit reference to arousing local interest
or support.
For a few years no real advance was perceptible. Grants
were made to a few port-chaplaincies from the Gibraltar
Diocesan Spiritual Aid Fund with a view to ministrations to
seamen, and that Fund increasingly centred its interest upon
such chaplaincies. But in spite of this it received little sup-
port. In 1 88 1-2 after a most urgent call from the Bishop,
the Fund received from the Diocese (apart from the Bishop's
own contribution) under ;!^300, and the grants made to
Barcelona, Seville, Bilbao, Athens, Patras and Constanti-
nople, the Danubian Ports and Odessa amounted to only
£2'jo in all.
But in 1882 the Bishop, whose travel had now brought
the urgency of the case to his heart, issued an appeal which
awoke the Diocese. He obtained from the Commercial
* S., 1875, p. 3 ; 1876, pp. 23 ff. ; 1878, p. 40.
INTERNAL LIFE OF THE DIOCESE 137
Department of the Board of Trade a Table showing the
extent of British shipping at sixty ports within the Diocese,
from Lisbon and Oporto on the West to Batoum and
Novorossisk on the East. This he published in full in his
Letter of that year, together with a description of the life in
port and the needs of seamen, and called for generous
help to meet those needs. In particular, he demanded the
establishment of Sailors' Homes and Institutes, as well as
the provision of the spiritual ministrations of the clergy. He
acknowledged gratefully what was being done in the latter
direction by various societies which maintained or assisted in
the maintenance of chaplains in the ports ; the St. Andrew's
Waterside Church Mission, Missions to Seamen, the Colonial
and Continental Church Society, and the S.P.G, These
expended in all in 1882 no less than ^^141 5, drawn entirely
from outside the Diocese, in this way. But it is clear that
unless a chaplain at a port had the care of seamen really at
heart, and had special gifts and aptitude for ministering to
them, it is unreal to call him a chaplain to seamen ; while if
he be truly such a chaplain, he can do little indeed without
an Institute which seamen will frequent, and which is nearer
the quays than our churches are. Besides thus appealing to
the Diocese, the Bishop turned for help to the mercantile
shipping communities at Hull and Liverpool, both of which
were especially interested in trade to Mediterranean and
Black Sea ports. At first he made no proposal to start a
Diocesan Mission and Fund, and contemplated continuing to
work through the Diocesan Spiritual Aid Fund.
The response was instantaneous. In Liverpool "the
Mersey Mission to Mediterranean Seamen " was formed, and
until the Gibraltar Mission to Seamen was well launched,
continued to give invaluable assistance. The income of the
Spiritual Aid Fund rose at a bound to ;^I323, and Branches
of "The Gibraltar Mission to Seamen" in connexion with it
were formed at Cannes, Algiers, and Nice. The provision of
Institutes, Homes and Sailors' Rests proceeded apace. In
1S80 there were only four Homes for Seamen on the
whole of the Continent. But in 1883 there were seven in
our Diocese — at Naples, Bilbao (1882), Gibraltar, Malta,
138 BISHOP SANDFORD, 1874-1903
Marseilles, Lisbon, and Constantinople : and thenceforth the
Bishop was able in his Letters to announce the opening
of others at Odessa (1884), Genoa, Savona, Messina, and
Palermo (1884-5), Trieste {1888), Seville and Venice (1889),
Piraeus (i 891), Barcelona (1892), Algiers (1893), Fiume, Nice,
and Cannes (1898). Some of these were at first of an
exceedingly modest character, and one or two have since
been closed ; but the movement thus initiated has gone
steadily forward. It has enlisted much generous help from
residents in the ports ; has given to zealous clergy great
opportunities of service ; and has been immensely appre-
ciated by vast numbers of seamen, who have found friends
in the managers and their wives, and veritable homes in the
Institutes.
The Mission rapidly became a Diocesan Mission. The
assistance of outside Societies gradually diminished as being
less needed, and the maintenance and development of the
work was carried on within the Diocese, The St. Andrews
Waterside Church Mission, which spent in 1 879-1 880 £Z7Z
in our ports, spent in 1901-2 £so\ the Mission to Seamen
gave in grants in 1892-3 ;^427 ; in 1901-2 ;^2i8 ; and
its last grant was resigned in 1912. The Mersey Mission
raised in 1882-3 ^411, and had passed away in 1902. The
grants made by the C.C.C.S. and the S.P.G. for Seamen's
work gradually ceased, and the chaplains are now paid by
the G.M.S. for their ministry to seamen. The Gibraltar
Diocesa?i Spiritual Aid Fund wd,s xczonstmcied in 1882, and
in 1889 transferred its balance to the Gibraltar Missio7i to
Seamen in the Mediterranean, which issued from that year
its own Annual Reports. At first the Bishop himself had
acted as Secretary and Treasurer for all seamen's work ;
but in 1885 Canon Sidebotham formally took his place as
Diocesan Secretary, an office which he held until his death
in 1901,* when he was succeeded by Canon Barnett; and in
1890 Mr. Dudley Smith became Treasurer. As an organ for
binding together the work of the Mission and its Institutes,
the Quarterly Paper was started in 1895, and has achieved
* For a notice of his great 'services to the G.M.S. see S., 1901,
pp. 8 ff.
INTERNAL LIFE OF THE DIOCESE 139
considerable popularity under the editorship of the Rev. (later
Canon) J. T. Christie.
If the routine work of the Mission devolved on the local
clergy, managers, committees, and the communities in the
ports, which from the iirst found rather more than half the
required funds for the Institutes under the incentive furnished
by the actual sight and first-hand knowledge of the needs of
British seamen, the task and privilege of supplying the rest
of the means required fell on other colonies to whom the
Bishop appealed, and more especially on those on the
Riviera. Here numerous local "Branches" of the G.M.S.
were gradually formed. Interest v/as sustained by the
incessant labours of the Bishop himself, and aid given by
both subscriptions and collections. The Bishop asked for
one annual collection in every church in the Diocese, but
in this met with many disappointments. Many friends
organized also working parties and sales. How the appeal
touched the hearts of the Riviera communities may be seen
from the fact that the total subscribed by them gradually
rose, with some fluctuations, until in 1902-3 it amounted
to ;^I3I5 out of the total subscribed by the Diocese (apart
from local subscriptions to particular Institutes) of ^^1587.
Thus, although at the Bishop's death, there was still much
indeed to be done, yet he did a great work in thus promoting
ministrations to his vast " floating flock," and in creating a
bond of common work which has contributed directly more
than anything else to diocesan spirit and coherence. In
writing of the Bishop's work in knitting together the whole
jurisdiction of his See, Dr. Collins singled out (in his letter
to the clergy before his consecration *) the agency of the
Gibraltar Mission to Seamen as contributing to this, and
described the foundation of the G.M.S. as being "an act of
spiritual genius." And he based it during his long super-
intendence of it on the sure foundations of responsible local
interest and management, universal diocesan sympathy and
support, a capable central committee, a distinct Church
character, and a conception of ministration which embraced
the body, mind, and spirit of the seaman.
* Mason, Life of Bishop W. E. Collins^ p. 69.
140 BISHOP SANDFORD, 1874-1903
It may be asked what position this Mission, under the
direction of Bishop Sandford and his fellow-workers, assumed
to other organizations working for the benefit of seamen, and
in particular to Presbyterian and undenominational efforts
which were called out about this time. The ministrations of
the chaplains were offered freely to all, and the Institutes
were open to all seamen. Their managers have always been
ready to give all assistance to seamen not belonging to the
Church of England who desire the services of their own
ministers or priests, and no compulsion has been exercised
on any seamen to attend any particular Divine Service.
Hence the G.M.S. has always been able to appeal for
universal support and co-operation, and has indeed received
it both in the port communities and others. But as an
integral part of the life and work of a Diocese of the Church,
and as everywhere vitally connected with chaplaincies of the
Church of England, Bishop Sandford felt that it was impos-
sible for it to assume either an undenominational or merely
philanthropic character, and that to share control of its
Institutes or agencies with other bodies would compromise
its character and invite friction. He therefore stated plainly
to his people* that in his judgment Pre.sbyterian and unde-
nominational work for seamen should be carried on in all
friendliness with the G.M.S., but independently. Experience
has shown the wisdom of his judgment; and the G.M.S. has
pursued a policy of abstaining from creating competition.
The vastness of the field and of the needs which are still to
be met, and the kindly co-operation of all religious bodies in
the matter, makes this clear policy perfectly attainable.
(4) Pastoral care of small scatte^'ed Comnmnities
In another direction the Bishop was much less successful
in meeting a great diocesan need. Indeed, his labours did
scarcely more than serve to reveal it ; and as yet, though
somewhat better realized, it is a task to be fulfilled.
Hitherto, our attention had been drawn in the main to
British mercantile communities large enough to employ a
* .S., 1893, p. 59.
INTERNAL LIFE OF THE DIOCESE 141
chaplain, and almost exclusively to those in great seaports.
But, besides these, there have been from the sixteenth century
much smaller mercantile colonies and establishments settled
in South Europe from the east to the west, the number of
which was ever steadily growing. From the sixteenth century
these were chiefly in Spain and the islands of the Ltjvant. In
later years they have multiplied in Roumania, South Russia,
and the Caucasus. Many of these are far distant from the
nearest settled chaplaincy ; and in times when travel was diffi-
cult, slow, and costly they were for long years without pastoral
ministrations of any kind. They have always consisted of a
peculiarly fine type of Englishmen and Scotchmen, engineers,
accountants, and managers of large commercial enterprises.
This class comprised many settled families, whose children
often married into native families. Occasionally for a time
considerable English labour was engaged in railway con-
struction in the Diocese, as in the building of the S. Sicilian,
the Sardinian and the Poti — Tiflis lines.
The travels and Visitation Notes of Bishop Harris show
how many of these communities he visited, and their spiritual
destitution. But these notes appeared in an English peri-
odical which represented the life and happenings of the whole
Colonial Church, and it is improbable that any but a handful
of people in the Diocese of Gibraltar ever saw them. What
result followed in the way of providing any ministrations for
such colonists through the agency of the S.P.G. and C.C.C.S.
was due to the Bishop's personal call on these Societies
rather than to any diocesan appeal. It was left for Bishop
Sandford through his Pastoral Letters to put the case before
his people.
The spiritual destitution of these colonies arose from
various causes. The Church at large, and the Diocese in
particular did not know of them. They were unable to afford
chaplains themselves. Distance prevented combined action,
and there was much indifference. There was a constant
fluctuation in numbers ; in some cases communities shrank
almost to vanishing point from trade causes. This was the
case at Cadiz, Puerto S. Maria, and Denia in Spain. These
colonies have now practically disappeared. At Linares there
142 BISHOP SANDFORD, 1874-1903
was a colony of 100 in 1871, of 250 in 1890 ; it has since
fallen to under 40. At Syra in the ^gean there was a
considerable colony from 1820. From 1829-1883 a C.M.S.
missionary served there, and in 1884 they numbered 70.
Here Bishop Tomlinson consecrated a little room as a chapel.
But the colony gradually migrated to the Piraeus ; and in
1902, there having been no chaplain for nearly 20 years the
" Church " was sold for £100, the interest of which is now
used to keep the cemetery in order. At Constanza there
was a congregation of 80 in 1896, from which year it
gradually dwindled. Causes other than those of trade
reduced other colonies: the great cholera epidemic in 191 1
broke up that of Spezia, and the earthquake of 1908 that of
Messina, both of which had been considerable chaplaincies
previously. Regular ministrations were difficult in sotne
places owing to paucity of Anglicans. Thus at Odessa in
1 87 1 Bishop Harris found that the majority of the colony
were Presbyterians, with an active and talented pastor whose
ministrations satisfied the few Anglicans ; and at Linares in
1883 the colony had become so predominantly Wesleyan that
the chaplaincy was given up and it was intimated to Bishop
Sandford that his presence would not be welcome.* In some
cases the withdrawal of the Consular aid practically ended
the chaplaincy, as at Patras ; in others shrinkage in numbers
and poverty combined, as at Turin in 1901.
Meanwhile fresh colonies were being formed, as those
which gathered round the dockyards at Cartagena, the
Spanish mines, the oil-fields of Roumania and Baku, and
industrial centres in South Russia, such as the coal and iron
works at Hughesovka.
Bishop Sandford and his predecessor had no one clear
policy of meeting the needs of these shrinking and de-
veloping scattered colonies. In some cases there were
obvious quarters to which application could be made. Thus
pressure on the Foreign Office secured a chaplaincy at the
Legation (later Embassy) at Madrid in 1868 and again in
1875. Sometimes missionaries of the L.J.S. and C.M.S.
were able to minister with some acceptance ; but, as Bishop
* S., 1884, p. 5.
INTERNAL LIFE OF THE DIOCESE 143
Sandford wrote, their peculiar ministerial experience, and the
fact that in some cases they were not Englishmen,* some-
what unfitted them to serve English congregations. It was
often difficult for them to leave the scene of their labour.
Elsewhere the attempt was made to group colonies under a
joint chaplaincy, as Bishop Harris and Bishop Sandford both
tried to do in the case of Jerez and neighbouring colonies,
and of those of the West Black Sea and the Danubian
Ports. But none of such attempts succeeded for any length
of time. Bishop Sandford's usual course was to appeal to
either the S.P.G. or C.C.C.S. as he learnt of a need. But
though both Societies made response in several cases, it was
short-lived ; apparently the cost, the smallness of congrega-
tions, and the difficulty of providing really suitable clergy
combined to terminate most chaplaincies so opened. An
itinerating chaplaincy was tried in the West Black Sea
colonies with Constantinople as its base, and this Canon
Curtis from 1 862-1 868 t and later the Rev. C. La Mothe
served with considerable success ; but after them the work
dropped. Bishop Sandford attempted to develop such
itinerating chaplaincies in Spain and Russia with Barcelona
and Odessa as bases, the former to minister to the colonies
on the east coast of Spain, the other those of South Russia
and the Caucasus. But experience showed that a community
is reluctant to share to any real extent with others a chap-
lain whom it can maintain by itself, and that what the
Bishop proposed in Russia — that besides serving the Colony
at Odessa which numbered 300 in 1891, the chaplain should
visit 20 others scattered between Kieff, 350 miles north, and
Baku, 1628 miles to the east — was altogether impracticable.
The only real solution of the problem appears to be the
maintenance of a certain number of itinerating clergy sup-
ported in large measure by the Diocese, who shall not merely
pay brief" visits," but make regularly at appointed centres
a stay long enough to gain personal knowledge of our
people, win such trust as will make individual help and
influence possible, hold the services of the Church, give in-
struction to candidates for Confirmation, and stimulate godly
* S.C.P., 1892, p.'s. t S., 1896, p. 66.
144 BISHOP SANDFORD, 1874-1903
laymen to minister as lay-readers in their own absences, and
who shall be so regarded as chaplains within a district rather
than of any one community. But though Bishop Sandford
caught sight of this, and did indeed (in 1880) appeal to the
Diocese to do what Societies could not for want of funds, the
overwhelming and attractive cause of the seamen prevented
his being able to give to this problem the prominence it
demanded. The Spiritual Aid Fund, which was to have met
the need according to Bishop Harris' original aim (see p. 90)
failed, as we have seen, to do so, and was diverted to the
channel of seamen's work ; and the spiritual starvation of
these communities will continue until the Diocese is stirred
into unselfish concern for them, and the Church can rise
above regard for small numbers to consider the worth and
claims of these scattered sheep, who are indeed an open book
on English manners, faith, trade, and homes to those among
whom they dwell.
(5) Care of Women \ the Girls Friendly Society
One other section of his flock was a most constant object
of concern to Bishop Sandford. Very few at home realize how
many Enghsh women there are in the Diocese of Gibraltar
earning an honourable maintenance as nurses, maids, gover-
nesses, and teachers of English. Those best known to
English people at home are the maids in English villas and
families in the Riviera. But representatives of the other
classes are found everywhere else, especially in the Peninsula,
Greece, Roumania, and, in large numbers, in Russia; and
beside these, there have been for long years many students of
operatic music and singing at Milan. Those in the Peninsula
are generally members of the Roman Catholic Communion ;
and save in most exceptional cases, no others are likely for
long to find congenial homes in Spain. Nurses and resident
governesses predominate in Athens ; in Russia the majority
are ladies who give lessons in English. These ladies are
characterized by initiative, self-reliance, womanly dignity,
industry and a cheerful patience under circumstances fre-
quently of privation and loneliness ; and play everywhere a
INTERNAL LIFE OF THE DIOCESE 145
great part in the presentation abroad of English woman-
hood.
It will be readily understood that such women stand
greatly in need of protection, guidance, and friendship, and such
information as will prevent their entering unprincipled families,
placing themselves in positions which may compromise them,
contracting marriages not recognized by the law of the land,
as well as of the ministrations of their Church and a steady
influence which shall help them to maintain the Christian
standard of purity and holiness. Bishop Sandford was from
the beginning of his episcopate awake to their presence and
needs, and in particular to those of Englishwomen in Milan,
and wrote of it in his Pastoral of 1876 (p. 32 f.). On
January i, 1875 the Girls' Friendly Society had been started
as the outcome of a meeting (in 1874) at Lambeth Palace to
consider a scheme due to Mrs. Townsend, and Bishop Sand-
ford at once discerned in the new Society and its noble
purpose of linking together women of all ages and ranks for
mutual help, sympathy, and prayer, for the promotion of the
ideal of purity, and for spiritual and moral influence, under
the government and life of the Church of England, an
instrument ready to hand for exercising the Church's care of
her daughters in South Europe. He brought it before the
Diocese in his Letter of 1878, and took every opportunity of
urging its worth in all his Pastorals, at Conferences of the
Clergy, and in his Church Congress Paper of 1892. He
realized that the Society depended largely on the co-operation
of the chaplains, and pleaded earnestly in his Pastoral of
1890 that this should be given. Branches were formed in the
Diocese from 1878, and the Society was fully organized in it
on June 29, 1888, with Mrs. Sandford as President. The
Society found an indefatigable leader in Mrs. Sandford, who
travelled with her husband from 1886 until her death in 1901,
and spoke and worked everywhere for the G.F.S. as the
Bishop did for the G.M.S. In his touching acknowledg-
ment of the wide-spread sympathy extended to him at her
death, the Bishop dwells at length on her inspiring influence
among women and her devotion to the G.F.S. During the
short months of labour that remained to him after her death
L
146 BISHOP SANDFORD, 1874-1903
he gave addresses to the local Branches as he visited the
chaplaincies as she had been used to do. In 1901 there were
branches at Gibraltar and Malta, Lisbon and Oporto in
Portugal, Madrid in Spain, Cannes (1878), Marseilles (1878),
Nice (1878), in France, Bordighera, Florence, Genoa (1878),
Milan (1890), Rome (1878) and Turin (1890) in Italy, at
Palermo in Sicily, at Trieste (1895) in Austro-Hungary, at
Constantinople and Smyrna (1898), in Roumania, and at
Odessa (1891) in Russia. Besides its regularly formed
Branches the Society had in 1901 Members, Associates or
Referees in twenty-five towns within the Diocese besides
those mentioned above.*
It is almost needless to say, in connection with women's
work, that the Bishop appreciated greatly the bond of
affectionate intercourse and comfort afforded to invalids by
the Society of Watchers and Workers. He brought it
before the notice of the Clerical Conference in 1889.
(6) Attitude towards gainbling estab/iskinents, in
partic7ilar to that at Monte Carlo
It remains to notice another matter, that of gambling
establishments on the Riviera, and in particular that at Monte
Carlo. These gravely affect the life of our English com-
munities in the centre of the Diocese, and with regard to them
Bishop Sandford held the strongest views, and adopted a course
of action which he laid before all. It is unnecessary here to
describe either the spread of the gambling spirit, the estab-
lishments mentioned, or the temptations (which include that
to immorality) and unspeakable miseries attendant on them.
* These are — in Spain : Barcelona, Bilbao, and Malaga ; in France,
Costebelle, Hyeres, Mentone, and Nice ; in Corsica : Ajaccio ; in
Italy : Alassio, Bologna, Leghorn, Naples, San Remo, and Venice ; in
AuSTRO-HuNGARY : Fiume ; in Greece : Athens, Corfu ; in Russia :
Batoum, Hughesovka, Nicolaiefif, RostofF, and Taganrog; in N. Africa :
Algiers, Tangier, and Tunis. The dates given above are those of the
foundation of the branch where known. See in particular S., 1878, p.
42 ; 1889, p. 10 ; 1890, p. 27 ; 1892, p. 21 ; 1901, pp. 15 ti., 28 ff. ; 1902,
pp. 23, 26,31 f. ; 1903, p. 36 ; S.C.P. 1892, p. 4. See also The Story of
the Girl^ Friendly Society^ by A, L. Money (1913), pp. 30 ff.
INTERNAL LIFE OF THE DIOCESE 147
These are too well known to all conversant with South
Europe.
Early in 1875 the Bishop addressed a letter on the subject
to his chaplains on the Western Riviera. This letter was
read in every church. It was read also by the Ministers of
the Scotch Presbyterians ; and sermons of a like character
were preached in concert with it by the French and Gernnan
Pastors, and in many Roman Catholic Churches with the
express approval of the Bishop of Nice. " In fact," writes
the Bishop, " all the Christian Churches of the Riviera, from
Marseilles to Genoa, condemned with one consentient voice
the establishment at Monte Carlo as a curse to the neigh-
bourhood, a scandal to our Christian Religion, and a disgrace
to the civilization and culture of the age."
The protest thus made was not that of religion alone. In
1876 the inhabitants of Nice, Cannes, and Mentone addressed
a letter to the French Senators and Deputies calling their
attention to the injury, both moral and material, which the
gambling establishment was causing. They urged that the
suppression of public gambling at Baden-Baden, Spa,
Hamburg, and Aix-la-Chapelle had increased material pros-
perity, and that similar suppression at Monte Carlo would
have the same effect at Nice ; and they declared their intention
of working for this end, hoping for the concurrence of those
whom they addressed.
Hereupon, in 1876, the Bishop laid the matter before the
eyes and conscience of the Diocese, and called for aid in
forming a healthy and righteous public opinion on the subject
of gambling, and in drawing aside the veil which hides its
guilt and deformity.
Between 1880 and 1882 the most strenuous efforts were
made to combat the evil. An International Committee
was formed in London, the President of which was received
by the King of Italy, who expressed his sympathy. The
matter was brought before the Italian Parliament, and the
Minister for Foreign Affairs offered on the part of Italy to
co-operate with other Governments for the suppression of
the establishment at Monte Carlo. The President was received
also by M. de Freycinet, who approved of the question being
148 BISHOP SANDFORD, 1S74-1903
brought before the French Chambers, and in due course the
necessary petitions were presented to the French Senate and
Chamber of Deputies. Local committees were formed at
Nice, Cannes, Mentone, Genoa, and Marseilles, and also in
Rome and Berlin, and the cause was taken up by almost 100
newspapers, English and Continental. In 1882 the Bishop
addressed a second Letter to his congregations, calling for
sustained effort to secure effective action on the part of
Public Authority.
All, however, proved fruitless ; and in 1889 Bishop
Sandford informed the Diocese that the protest had died
away, and that the number of those resorting to Monte Carlo
was on the increase. It remained for the Church of England
to give such wise and faithful guidance to her people as the
evil demanded. It is to be borne in mind that beside those
frequenting Monte Carlo for the purpose of gambling, there
had been for years a certain number of residents and visitors
to whom the place had been medically recommended as a
health and convalescence resort.
Requests were repeatedly made to the Bishop to establish
an ordinary chaplaincy at Monte Carlo, and to join in a
project for building a church. He always refused to do this.
It seemed to him that to do so would be to give some
guarantee to his countrymen of his approval of Monte Carlo
as a fit and safe place of residence for them, and that a
church and chaplaincy would have the effect of " decoying
many to the spot, giving it a false semblance of respec-
tability," setting minds and consciences at rest, and deadening
sense of peril. He was perfectly prepared to give a hearty
support to a temporary Mission or crusade against the evils
of the place, if such a step were taken by the Ecclesiastical
Rulers of the National {i,e. R.C.) Church. It was, however,
clear that such a crusade would be prohibited locally. But
in 1888 a church was actually built at Monte Carlo without
his sanction, and services held. The Bishop was not asked
to consecrate it. He found himself, as he told the Clerical
Conference at Cannes in 1889 (at which twenty-nine chaplains
were present, and the matter came under discussion), and
later the whole Diocese, faced by a choice of two evils. If
INTERNAL LIFE OF THE DIOCESE I49
he recognized the chaplaincy it would be regarded as his
withdrawal of the one standing protest which he was able
to make, and had made for so long ; if he did not, he would
appear indifferent to the spiritual welfare of the English
there. He held that the decision rested with himself alone,
and at the moment reserved his judgment. From the fact
that in the Diocesan List of his Pastoral of 1893 the
chaplaincy at Monaco finds a place, and the patronage is
stated to belong to S.P.G. it is to be assumed that he recog-
nized it and licensed the chaplain. It is believed that he
never in person visited Monte Carlo.
Whatever view be taken of his action as to the chaplaincy,
none can doubt the wisdom and courage of his long and
open protest against the scourge of this lovely and popular
region, and against the silence and timidity as to it which
prevails.* The scourge is not, alas, limited to the Riviera ;
and it is to be hoped that the English chaplaincies every-
where may by wise witness and work warn our people of the
spiritual and temporal peril, and the social cruelty and wrong
of a practice which wrecks a thousand homes and lives for
one which it may appear for a moment to benefit, and may
save, and, if need be, deliver them from it.
It is impossible to do more than touch briefly on certain
other points of interest in the life of the Diocese during
this period and the work of the Bishop. Some there are of
real and still present importance.
(7) Shrinkage of Missionary Work in the Diocese
One of these was the slow shrinkage of the missionary
work of the Church within the Diocese. It will be re-
membered that a mission to Mohammedans was an integral
part of the purpose of the Crimean Memorial Church at
* S. 1876, pp. 15 ff. 1889, pp. 6 ff. "Monaco : A Pastoral Letter to
the Clergy and Congregations of British Churches along the Western
Riviera. 1876." " Monte Carlo : A Letter to the Congregations oj
British Churches along the Western Riviera. 1882." " The Sin of
Gambling^'' a Sermon preached in Christ Church, Cannes. 1892. Words
of Counsel to English Churchmeti Abroad, pp. 150 ff.
ISO BISHOP SANDFORD, 1874-1903
Constantinople. After the troubles of 1864 the missionary
element in the character of that church fell rapidly out of
sight, and in 1880 the congregation were informed that they
must be prepared to take on themselves some considerable
portion of the maintenance of the chaplain whose work had
long ceased to be of a directly missionary character, and who
had come, in fact, to be the parish priest of the English in the
city who did not avail themselves of the ministrations of the
Embassy chaplain. The Church Missionary Society, whose
presence at Constantinople, Smyrna, and Syra was a witness
among us to the Church's duty to Islam, withdrew its
missionaries in 1880 from the last two stations,* and from
that time all direct mission work of our Church to Moham-
medans ceased in the Diocese. Of our failure to enter on
the field in North Africa we have spoken already (p. 88).
To the devoted work of missionaries to the Jews of the L.J.S.,
Bishop Sandford often refers. But save for the interest of
a few personal friends of missionaries at the stations of the
Society, there has been no sense in the Diocese of our debt
to our Lord's people. The Bishop tried to kindle zeal for
S.P.G., pressing for the observance of the annual Day of
Intercession, and noting thankfully how it was kept at
Linares in 1875,! and also for the celebration of the Bi-
centenary of 1901. But it is to be confessed that mission
work among the Jews and the heathen became conspicuously
absent from the concern of the Diocese — an absence surely
to be made good hereafter, for without it no Christian Diocese
can live its true life in the Church.
(8) Attendance of Anglicans at Ro}nan Catholic Services
Another was the fact that so many English, and especially
Anglican clergy, visiting South Europe, instead of availing
themselves to the utmost of the ministrations of their own
Church on Sunday, and giving support to the Diocese, its
churches, congregation and clergy in this way with all their
might, attended the services of the Roman Church, perhaps
after being present at the Eucharist of their own Church,
* S., i88i,p. 4. * t S., 1876, p. 35.
INTERNAL LIFE OF THE DIOCESE 151
and sometimes (in the case of clergy) after assisting the
chaplain in it. This caused constant distress to the Bishop,
and difficulty to the Chaplains. The Bishop readily acknow-
ledged that it was desirable that Englishmen should gain
information and learn by personal observation what the
ritual and teaching of the Roman Church actually is, especially
in Spain. But he felt that the practice of attending Roman
services in a place where there is an English Church and
licensed ministrations was indefensible. He believed that it
discouraged our clergy, and scandalized the laity ; that it
compromised the dignity, the honour, and the claims of our
Church ; that to Roman Catholics it appeared an act of
inconsistency and disloyalty, and seemed to imply misgiving
as to the right of our Church to minister to her own children
in lands in which the local Church refuses to acknowledge
them, or communicate them, or even to accord them Christian
burial. The Bishop did not believe that such action tended
to reunion or to the lessening of the estrangement between
the two great Communions ; and he expected it to lead to
the imitation in England of ceremonial, gestures, and even
doctrine alien to the character and restraint of the Church of
England, and likely to offend and irritate a sober-minded
Anglican. It is to be remembered in this that the Bishop's
extraordinarily long and varied experience of all affecting
the religious life of Englishmen on the continent gave him
especial claim to be heard ; few indeed of those who may
criticize him could speak from his knowledge of the practice
and its consequences. The present writer ventures to take
the opportunity of endorsing the worth and the warning of
his words. He has known and felt the effects produced on
both chaplains and laity of which Bishop Sandford wrote
and preached in his Diocese, and spoke openly in England.*
Much more thoughtfulness in the matter, and more openly
confessed loyalty to the Church of their baptism, is due on
the part of visitors and travellers.
* See S., 1876, p. 14 ; 1S94, pp. 22, 36, 38. S.C.P., 1892, p. 10.
Words of Counsel to English Churchmen Abroad^ Sermons iv. and
xxiii.
152 BISHOP SANDFORD, 1874-1903
{9) The Diocese and Church Societies
A third was the outcome of the activity of Societies in
the Diocese. No reader of these pages can have failed to
recognize the indebtedness of the life of our Church in South
Europe to such Societies as the Society for the Propagation
of the Gospel, the Colonial and Continental Church Society,
the London Jews' Society, the Missions to Seamen, the St.
Andrew's Waterside Church Mission, The Society for Pro-
moting Christian Knowledge, the Church Missionary Society.
It is indeed difficult to imagine how that life could have been
fostered in the earlier days without their work, and the Bishop
was always ready to appeal to them, and gratefully to
acknowledge aid received. At the same time he discerned
in some cases that trouble must arise if Societies directed by
committees in England attempted to claim or exercise a
control over churches, congregations, or chaplains in return
for service rendered, or if they gave their assistance in a way
calculated to impair the right relation in which clergy and
congregations stand to their Diocesan, or to fetter their
due and rightful liberty and responsible independence. He
feared that the action of Societies might reproduce in his
Diocese, in the face of the Roman Catholic Church, that
party spirit which is so deplorable a blot on Church life
in England. The danger had been foreseen long before, and
had been voiced as early as 1869 in the Colonial Church
Chronicle by a writer who had much at heart the independ-
ence of the growing colonial Episcopate.*
At the beginning of his occupation of the See, Bishop
Sandford wrote with the utmost plainness of the action of
one Society's clergy as compromising the position of the
Church of England ; and early and late in his episcopate he
found it necessary to remind his clergy that they ministered
as representing the Church of England, and not Societies,
Patrons, Trustees, or individuals. He constantly called on
them to avoid all hurtful contrasts as to ceremonial and use
between neighbouring English churches, and to use their
endeavours to banish party-spirit. He felt that that spirit
* The Episcopate and the Societies, C.C.C,, 1869, pp. 369 ff. ; 481 ff.
INTERNAL LIFE OF THE DIOCESE 153
destroyed the restfulness which many English people sought
in their sojourn abroad, and that the services should be such
that all reasonable Churchmen should be able to enjoy them
without irritation. Lastly he urged that the idea should not
be given to observant and unfriendly foreign critics that the
Church of England was a divided house. It is much to be
regretted that there was not from the first a Diocesan Office
in England through which the Bishop could have engaged
his own clergy as need arose, attaching them firmly to him-
self as Diocesan, and so securing a liberal uniformity and
creating in all chaplains and chaplaincies a strong diocesan
spirit rather than that which is inseparable from a chaplaincy
attached to a Society however admirable.*
* See S., 187S, p. 35; 1881, p. 7; 1902, pp. 15, 17; Ch. Q.R.,
January, 1878, p. 369 ff.
CHAPTER X
THE EPISCOPATE OF BISHOP SANDFORD (continued)
THE RELATIONS OF THE DIOCESE AND BISHOP OF
GIBRALTAR WITH OTHER COMMUNIONS ; THE
ATTITUDE ADOPTED TOWARDS PROSELYTISM AND
MOVEMENTS OF RELIGIOUS REFORM IN ITALY
AND THE PENINSULA
(i) Relations with the Orthodox Churches of the East
TT will be remembered that one of the main objects in the
establishment of the Bishopric of Gibraltar was the
advancement of a better understanding and of friendly rela-
tions with the ancient Churches of the East. To no Bishop
could such a charge have been more congenial than to Bishop
Sandford ; and few so fitted for it by knowledge, tempera-
ment, and Catholic mind have had the opportunities which
his long episcopate afforded him of fulfilling it. This aim of
his bishopric was ever with him, and he sought incessantly
to discharge it. Both to Church people in England and to
his own Diocese he endeavoured to give the benefit of the
knowledge of these Churches which he amassed during thirty
years ; and if the Diocese of Gibraltar has now a definite
idea of the attitude of the Church of England towards these
Churches, it is due beyond all else to his long and patient
teaching. Gifted with an exceedingly clear mind, and powers
of direct and simple exposition, and himself inflexibly loyal to
the Church of England as Catholic and Reformed, he was
unusually qualified both to do justice to these Churches, and
also to grasp the difficulties to be overcome before the goal
of reunion with them is within reach, and which minds less
widely informed and less well balanced frequently ignore.
It is an irreparable loss that he never attempted a treatise on
the Churches of the East, and the conditions of reunion with
'J'o/rlCf />. I^f
AT. I, SAINTS' CHL'KCH. ROMK
KLIl-T l832 — 1807
RELATIONS WITH OTHER CHURCHES i55
them ; and it is impossible in the space here available to do
justice to the teaching and counsel he gave his Diocese in the
series of his Pastoral Letters, It was on this subject and on
the care of British seamen that he appears to have most
consciously focussed his attention and eiiforts as Bishop.
Bishop J. Wordsworth acknowledged with gratitude his
" quiet, steady, unselfish work " ; and names him particularly
as one to whom our Church owes very much in her relations
with the Eastern Patriarchates.*
How laboriously he sought to learn of the ancient
Churches of the East, and to advance understanding with
them may be realized from the fact that he never lost an
opportunity of intercourse with their heads, of explaining the
character of the Church of England, and rendering and
welcoming acts of courteous recognition. He records no
fewer than forty-five interviews : with the Oecumenical
Patriarch, six ; the Armenian Patriarch, five ; the Patriarch
of Jerusalem ; the Metropolitans of the Coptic, Cypriote,
Roumanian, and Servian Churches ; the Armenian Arch-
bishop at Constantinople ; the Archbishops of Athens,
Corfu, Kherson, Patras, and Smyrna ; the Bishop of Buca-
rest ; the Syrian Bishop at Jerusalem ; the Archimandrite
at Tunis ; and the Bulgarian Exarch. These interviews were
no mere exchange of verbal courtesies. In that with the
CEcumenical Patriarch in 1897, for example, he discussed the
political aspect of the Bulgarian separation, the Old Catholic
movement, and the education and the function of the clergy.
From words that fell from the Patriarch's lips the Bishop
gathered that even he supposed, or pretended to suppose, that
the Church of England was called into existence at the time
of the Reformation, and was the recognized head of all
Protestant sects scattered over Christendom. The Bishop
strove, with some doubts of his success, to assure His Holiness
that the Church of England was reformed, not born, at the
Reformation, and that she could count almost as many grey
hairs as her venerable and orthodox Sister of Constanti-
nople ; that " Anglican " was not a term convertible with
* Lecture on The Church of England and the Eastern Patriarchates
(1898), p. 3.
156 BISHOP SANDFORD, 1874-1903
" Protestant," and that the Church of England made no claim
to headship of all " Protestant " congregations. He discussed
further with the Patriarch the sanction of mutual ministrations,
which he regarded rather of necessity than of charity, while
Bishop Sandford maintained that he himself had rendered
them " altogether for charity's sake, and in no wise of
necessity." * The Bishop records the extreme caution and
wariness with which His Holiness spoke throughout. It will
be clear that such interviews, many of which the Bishop
describes as fully as that referred to above, could not but be
most fruitful.! The invariable subject at such conversations
was that of unity j and the Bishop relates on several occasions
the satisfaction expressed at the fact that the Church of
England set her face against proselytising, and retained
primitive Order and the threefold Ministry. It was due to
these frequent interviews with the heads of so many Churches
that the Bishop was able to grasp the national side of the
Eastern Churches, their differences in many matters of ritual,
doctrine, and discipline ; the fact that reunion demands some-
thing much more than revision of formularies and assimilation
of ceremonial, and that it cannot involve on the part of any
national Church a surrender of its freedom or of its individu-
ality.t
The open intercourse between the two Churches was seen
by all in such incidents as the following. When the Consul-
General at Patras died in 1874, the local Greek ecclesiastics
were present at the funeral. When the venerable C.M.S.
missionary at Syra, the Rev. F. Hildner, died in 1883, the
Greek Archbishop not only lent his Cathedral for the funeral,
but attended it himself, gave an address, and the blessing. In
1875, at the consecration of the English cemetery at Smyrna,
the Archbishop gave an address on unity. The Archbishop
of Cyprus attended the consecration of St. Paul's, Nicosia, in
1886 ; the Greek Archbishop and Armenian ecclesiastics the
* S., 1880, pp. 27, 53 ff. (speech at the Church Congress, Sept. 28,
1880).
t See especially those with the Armenian Patriarch Nerses, described
S., 1880, pp. 35 ff. ; and the Bulgarian Exarch, S., 1880, pp. 30 fif.
1 S., 1902, pp. 33 ff.
RELATIONS WITH OTHER CHURCHES 157
laying of the foundation stone of St. John's, Smyrna, in 1898,
and the consecration of the church four years later ; and the
Archbishop of Calcedon attended the consecration of All
Saints', Kadikeui, in 1902, when he invited Bishop Sandford
to a similar service of his own Church. The Bishop refers
more than once to the promise of the Archbishop of Patras
to baptize, bury, and communicate at death, our people, and
to the fulfilment of the promise.*
The following extract from his Pastoral of 1899 embodies
the mature experience thus placed before the Diocese : —
" There are members of our Church who regard the efforts
which I and others have been making during recent
years to promote friendly feelings, and to produce a
better understanding between ourselves and our
brethren of the Orthodox Communion with distrust
and alarm. They are afraid apparently that such
efforts may betray our Church into a compromise of
principle and truth. All such fears I believe to be
groundless. Though I am anxious that our Church
should win the respect and affection of our brethren in
the East, I am not blind to the differences which
separate us, and I should never think of proposing
that these differences, or any one of them, should be
removed by compromise. It is impos.sible to attend
the religious services of our Eastern brethren, or to
read their published offices of devotion without seeing
that the differences between them and us are many
and great. They differ from us in their modes of
thought and expression. They differ from us in the
multiplicity and length of their offices. Their daily
services are marked by an excessive variety of detail ;
nearly every day has its special saint. The time
required of the parish priests to master the numerous
office books is said to be so large that little or none is
left for other studies. They differ from us in their
numerous festivals and their many and rigorous fasts.
They differ from us in their manner of administering
baptism, and in the time and manner of administering
* S., 1880, p. 27 ; 1895, p. 21 ; 1899, pp. 33, 37 ; 1902, p. 19.
158 BISHOP SANDFORD. 1874-1903
confirmation. A distinguishing characteristic of our
worship is its dignified simplicity. Their worship, on
the other hand, is very elaborate, complicated, and
laden with symbolism. But our Eastern brethren
differ from us in other and more important matters.
Apart from the disputed clause inserted by the Latin
Church in the Creed of Constantinople, regarding the
procession of the Holy Spirit, which was the principal
cause of the rupture between Eastern and Western
Christendom, it needs only a slight acquaintance with
their authorised offices of public worship, or with
their manuals of private devotion, to perceive that their
teaching differs from the teaching of our own
Book of Common Prayer on not a few matters of the
gravest moment, such as the nature of the Eucharistic
Presence, the cultus of the Blessed Virgin, the invoca-
tion and intercession of Saints, the reverence paid to
Icons. The'^e differences were noticed in the Report
of the Committee appointed to consider the relation of
the Anglican Communion to the Eastern Churches, at
the Conference of Anglican Bishops held at Lambeth
in 1888.
" But if there is much in which the two Communions
differ, we remember with thankfulness that there is
much more in which we agree. We agree in requiring
that all doctrines should be brought to the test of the
Holy Scriptures ; in assigning to the Holy Scriptures
an authority above the writings of the Fathers and
above the traditions of the Church. Both Com-
munions have the same Apostolic Orders. Both have
a married parochial clergy. Both recognize the
princif)le of national, independent, self-governed
Churches. Both reject Papal pretensions to supre-
macy. Like the Church of England, the Orthodox
Church is neither exclusive nor aggressive. It makes
no claim to be the whole Church of Christ ; and
infallibility it neither claims for itself, nor concedes to
others. Like ourselves it rejects the Roman doctrines
of Purgatory, and of the Immaculate Conception, and
RELATIONS WITH OTHER CHURCHES 159
other Roman dogmas, which not only go beyond, but,
as we both maintain, contradict the plain teaching of
Holy Scripture. Moreover, our Rulers are desirous
that friendly relations should be established between
the two Churches. Whenever we pay them official
visits they receive us with courtesy and friendly regard,
and treat us as brethren.
" But in existent circumstances projects of union are
Utopian. In the interests of truth we cannot alter our
teaching on such vital questions as those which I have
just named. Neither can we alter our distinctive
usages of worship. The multiplicity, length, and
elaborate nature of their offices would be wearisome
and distasteful to a congregation of Englishmen, And
if we cannot change, stili less can we expect any
change on the part of our Oriental brethren, who are
inflexibly conservative, and rigid in their adherence to
old types and paths. But while our differences are
too many and too great for union, there need be no
antagonism between the two Churches, there need be
no aggression or encroachment on the part of either.
No ; there may, and there ought to be, mutual appreci-
ation and respect, mutual acknowledgment of each
other's independent position, province, and work ;
there may, and ought to be mutual sympathy ; there
may, and ought to be co-operation in many things,
and especially in enterprises literary and educa-
tional. We can, and ought, to bring the two
Churches to a fuller knowledge of each other, by
social and official intercourse, by friendly discussion,
correspondence, and by publications giving informa-
tion in regard to each other's history, orders, teaching
and worship. Then there might be a general
agreement, such as already exists here and there in
Greece, that we should visit each other's sick, and
administer to them the privileges and consolations
of religion, in case either of us should have no pastor
of our own at hand, and to bury each other's dead.
Mutual recognition such as this has been my thought
i6o BISHOP SANDFORD, 1874-1903
and aim in the intercourse which from time to time
during the last quarter of a century I have had the
privilege and pleasure of holding with my brethren in
the East ; and in prosecuting this aim I have considered
myself to be fulfilling one of the special purposes for
which the Bishopric of Gibraltar was established, as
set forth in the Lambeth Declaration of 1841."
The Bishop never disguised his conviction that there were
two necessary preliminaries to Reunion : Reform within the
Eastern Churches and improved education of the clergy and
other members, with more general diffusion of knowledge.
Of these he spoke frequently and plainly ; and it was a
constant satisfaction to him that the need of both reform and
education were acknowledged by representatives of those
Churches. But he urged that the advice of the Lambeth
Conference of 1888 should be strictly followed: that the
Church of England should direct her counsels and efforts to
the encouragement of internal reformation in the Eastern
Churches, not to the drawing of individuals away from their
own communion, and that when men were found craving
fuller light and stronger spiritual life they should be advised
to remain in the Church of their baptism, and so to become
centres of enlightenment to their own people. He thus
pressed for a great patience : " the mists of ages are not to
be scattered in a day. Progress is slow in the East. An
intense conservatism retains the usages of olden time with
tenacious, reverential and loving grasp." The ideal he ever
set before his Diocese was that of an intercommunion of
national Churches, all independent and self-governed, all
free to retain their distinctive forms and usages, the con-
ditions of inter-communion being those of the Lambeth
Quadrilateral of 1888.* It will be felt at once that such a
view of the Eastern Churches involved a firm opposition to
proselytism, as will appear later.
* See, e.g., S., 1880, pp. 58, 63 ; 1888, pp. 16 ff. Lambeth Conference,
1888, Resolutions 11 and 17. As an example of Eastern rigidity and
conservatism the Bishop refers in 1895 (S., 1895, pp. 18 f.) to the disap-
pointment of the high hopes excited by the Bonn Conference of 1875, ^o
which he had given ardent expression (S., 1875, P- ")•
RELATIONS WITH OTHER CHURCHES i6i
Relations with the Roman Catholic Church. —
Here the Bishop and his Diocese had to face an entirely
different spirit from that of the Eastern Churches — a spirit
not only of coldness, but even of hostility. The present
writer has failed to discover in the whole series of Pastorals
from 1875-1903 a reference to a single interview with a Roman
ecclesiastic ; and it is impossible to imagine Bishop Sandford
as slow to seize an opportunity for such conference had it
been ever open to him. He contrasted the position assumed
by the Greek Church with that of the Roman which " not
only arrogantly rejects our communion, but, by the system
of proselytising which it adopts, sows seeds of discord and
schism in our congregations, and in our households." * The
Papal Letter of Leo XIII. of June, 1896, led him to set
before his people, in his Pastoral of that year, the significance,
the character and the worth of that Letter. He realized that
it closed the door for the present to all hope of reunion with
the Roman Church. He believed that the Roman Pontiff
failed to understand that the English Church was as resolutely
determined in the present day as three centuries ago " to
stand fast in the liberty with which Christ hath made us
free," and that his Letter dispelled the ideas of some
members of our Church in regard to the intentions of Rome.
He writes : —
" It seems to have been supposed by some persons that if
only they could lessen by their teaching and ritual the
distance between ourselves and that Church, she in
return would grant such relaxation of discipline and
dogma as would render proposals of reunion palatable
to the English people. It is strange that any one
acquainted with the history and character of the
Roman Church could have imagined this possible.
Until Rome renounces her pretentions to infallibility,
she cannot retrace her steps, she cannot make conces-
sions, she cannot condescend to compromise. The
adoption of such a course would be to make confession
of error, to stultify herself, to cut the ground from
under her own feet. Those sanguine spirits who
* S., 1880, p. 63 ; 1894, p. 34.
M
i62 BISHOP SANDFORD, 1874-1903
thought that she might be induced by the prospect of
recovering the English Church and people to her fold,
to modify the inflexibility of her attitude, have now
learnt that they have been feeding on false hopes.
They have been plainly and authoritatively told that
in this world of growth, progress, and change Rome
remains unchanged. She speaks with her ancient
voice. Though the voice is softened to suit a softer
age, yet the spirit and the substance of her words are
as narrow, haughty, self-asserting and intolerant as
ever. She abates no jot or tittle of her old preten-
sions. So far from modifying them, she claims more
than was conceded to her in the darkest, most un-
critical, most submissive ages. Only on the condition
of complete and unquestioning acceptance not only of
the primacy, but of the absolute supremacy of the
Roman Pontiff, will she receive churches or individuals
into union. Apart from absorption reunion is shown
to be impossible.
" It must not be supposed that we repudiate the claims of
Rome, simply because we will not part with our
independence. We have other and stronger reasons.
We repudiate them because we are dissatisfied with
Rome's title-deeds."
After a protracted discussion of those title-deeds the
Bishop declared to the Diocese that one clear path of duty
is to hold to our distinctive views of revealed truth, and
he laid before his flock the antiquity and the worth of the
independence of our Church.
A few months later appeared the Papal Bull on Anglican
orders which pronounced them ." absolutely null and utterly
void." The Bishop at once, even before the English Arch-
bishops issued their Answer, dealt with it and the grounds for
its decision, in which the Pope " in overthrowing our Orders,
overthrows all his own, and pronounces sentence on his own
Church." * He declared to his Diocese that
* Answer of the Archbishops of E tig I and to the Apostolic Letter of
Pope Leo XIIL 07i English Ordinations^ 1897.
FOREIGN REFORMING MOVEMENTS 163
"Though the Bull is nominally a decision against the
validity of Anglican orders, it really is a decision in
their favour, inasmuch as the only grounds on which
they are challenged are seen to be untenable ; that as
the historical position of the Anglican Church has
been left unassailed that position is unassailable. At
one with the primitive Church by succession of
apostolic doctrine we are also at one by succession of
apostolic order." *
It is unnecessary to add more evidence of the attitude of
independence which the Bishop, and with him his Diocese as
a Diocese of the Church of England, thus assumed towards
the Church of Rome, it is indeed a matter for thankfulness
that in 1896 the See was occupied by one so qualified, so
experienced, and so prompt to give his guidance. It is
important that his position and whole attitude should be
recognized, because it makes more striking his standing with
regard to proselytism and to movements of reform in the West,
and more particularly to that in the Peninsula, which during
his episcopate reached a point which called for gravest
attention and his plainest direction to the Diocese.
{2) Attihide tozvards Proselytism, and towards Move-
ments of Reform in Italy and the Peninsula.
The Spanish Reformed Chtrch
It was of unspeakable advantage to the Church of
England and the Diocese of Gibraltar that the Bishopric was
held so. long, and at such a time, by one who saw and main-
tained so unswervingly a clear line of action in regard to
these most difficult matters, and who so fully instructed his
people in it. If his predecessors had followed the same
line, as was indeed the fact, though Bishop Harris did so with
occasional perplexity and apparently even misgiving, none
of them committed himself to it so -whole-heartedly, unre-
servedly and openly as Bishop Sandford, or laid it down as
the policy of the Diocese with the same persistent reiteration
* S., 1896, pp. 1-56.
164 BISHOP SANDFORD, 1874-1903
and reasoned vindication, both in the Diocese and in England
in terms which none could mistake.
From the opening to the end of his episcopate he set
his face against proselytism, direct or indirect, in all forms.
To detach members of the Greek and Roman Churches from
the Churches of their baptism he held to be inconsistent
with the principles of the Church of England ever since the
Reformation ; to be a mistaken policy ; to be a direct
hindrance to internal reform ; to be an act of intrusion and
schism ; to be a violation and outrage of the courtesy in-
creasingly accorded to the Church of England ; the creation
of fresh wounds in Christendom instead of healing the old.
This he declares in his Pastoral Letters from first to last.
In the East this position was warmly welcomed, and ever
more and more realized and appreciated. The Eastern
Churches do not countenance proselytism. The Bishop dis-
cerned how strong a bond between the Anglican and Eastern
Churches this identity of principle forges when in 1880 at
Constantinople he had access to documents revealing the
inner life of the Eastern Churches and found them writhing
under schism promoted by the aggressive proselytism of
Rome in the Churches of the Chaldean Christians at Mosul,
of the Syrian Jacobites, of the Gregorian Armenians, of the
Catholic Armenians, of the Bulgarians in the province of
Saloniki, of the Greek or Orthodox Christians of Bosnia
and Herzegovina. He found the Vatican intriguing secretly
at Embassies, directly by Missions, and even with the
Turkish Government, which was only too glad to abet it in
its policy of disintegrating and then absorbing these ancient
and hitherto independent communities, and anxious to
relieve itself of embarrassment by the suppression of these
free and troublesome Churches.* What difificulty the Bishop
had in the East did not lie in inducing members of the
Church of P^ngland to follow his lead ; for, though there may
have been rare sporadic cases of proselytizing by Anglicans
in the past, the\^ had never received authoritative approval,
and were altogether too few to make any deep impression ;
an! there never t as been any body of Anglicans who
* S., 1880, p. 55 (speech at Church Congress, Sept. 28, 1880).
FOREIGN REFORMING MOVEMENTS 165
seriously favoured or attempted proselytism in the eastern
portion of the Diocese. But it lay rather in dissociating in
the eyes of the Churches of the East the Anglican Church
from the action of " Protestant " bodies, and in particular of
American Missionaries, who together with self-denying
efforts to promote education, relieve distress, and advance
freedom and civilization, followed a policy which " left their
proselytes in the cold, forlorn, isolated position of Christians
without a Church." * In this he practically succeeded, and
received frequently the thanks of the leading Orthodox
Ecclesiastics ; and it is noteworthy that at Athens, where
the Greek Metropolitan had expressly recognized the non-
proselytizing policy of the Anglican Church in 1890, during
the riots caused by suspicion of proselytism in 1892, the
English chaplain was unmolested in his work. It is to be
recorded that the absence of proselytism in Dr. Hill's famous
school in this city secured it esteem and popularity with the
people, and Bishop Sandford's hearty commendation. |
In the central and western portions of the Diocese, the
case was materially different, and the perplexity of the
problem far greater. Both in Italy and in the Peninsula, in
Spain and Portugal alike, the agencies working to promote
reformation were many ; they enlisted the sympathy and
co-operation of a considerable body of deeply religious
English people, who were keenly alive to the need of reform,
and the concrete abuses in the Roman Church which were
ever before their own eyes, but who yet lacked both the
sense of catholicity and order, and the wide outlook and
estimate of consequences required for a sober and balanced
judgment. These were supported by a section of church-
people in England, who were ready to adopt Roman methods
against Rome, and to back up that policy by financial aid.
Such sympathy and co-operation was not limited to the laity.
The Bishop, who felt strongly the great importance of the
licensed clergy of the Diocese as being both representative
and interpretative of the Church of England and not of
* S., 1880, p. 54.
+ S., 1895, p. 25 ; 1890, p. 33 ; 1892, p. 25 ; 1880, p. 42 ; 1882, p. 33.
i66 BISHOP SANDFORD, 1874-1903
Trustees, Societies, patrons, or parties, and held that the
granting his h'cence laid on the Bishop in some measure
responsibility for their ministrations as clergy, found it neces-
sary in 187S to refer to the active part taken by licensed
clergy, disavowing it on behalf of the Church of England
and himself as not covered by the terms of the licence
granted to them ; and did so again in 1890 with particular
reference to Sicily and Portugal.* In the reforming agencies
referred to the liberty of worship allowed was abused, and
degenerating into licence ; the established religion and
Church were frequently insulted, and distrust of the Roman
priesthood tended to take the form of venomous and
aggressive atheism. The movements of reform were not
co-ordinated, and very diverse in character. In Italy, beside
the recognized Waldensian Church, there were six bodies
calling tiiemselves " Reformed Churches " — the Wesleyans ;
the Apostolical Baptist Christian Union, the Church of the
Brothers, the Episcopal Methodist Church, and the Catholic
National Church of Italy, all having preachers of their own,
and separate places of worship.f
No one felt more deeply than Bishop Sandford himself
the need of reform within the Roman Communion. To him,
in 1880, the very position of Christianity in South Europe
seemed' critical. He saw Vaticanism retaining its hold on
the ignorant and credulous, while the manly and thoughtful
were falling away into scepticism, and the masses drifting
into indififerentism.J He was fully awake to the errors of
faith and practice in the Roman Church, and to the fact that
the claim to infallibility blocked the way to internal reform
on the part of that Church herself. The objects and cha-
racter of the Anglo-Continental Society greatly appealed to
him, as calculated to advance some measure of internal
reform without anything which savoured of proselytism and
intrusion, and he commended it warmly to the attention of
the Diocese.§ Thus, especially in the earlier years of his
* S., 1878, pp. 20, 21, 24 ; 1890, p. 9 ; 1895, pp. 25 f. ; 1902, p, 15.
+ S., 1897, p. 33.
I S., 1880, p. ,64; and Church Congress, Sept. 29, 1880.
§ S., 1875, p. 13.
FOREIGN REFORMING MOVEMENTS 167
episcopate, he was disposed to stretch his sympathy to the
utmost, so far as he could do so in the case of isolated con-
gregations appeahng for assistance consistently with loyalty
to the catholic principles of the Church of England.
But he saw no substantial ground for hope save in the
revival of national and independent Churches, scriptural in
their doctrine, apostolic and primitive in their discipline and
forms of worship ; * and with him the real question was,
How are such churches to be revived ? Nothing exotic
would meet the need ; and what was exotic would but add
to disturbance and unsettlement. He was unable to see in
Italy any evidence of a general and progressive national
movement ; such movement as there was appeared to be
a protest against the discipline and politics rather than against
the doctrine of Rome.f At one time he hoped that the Old
Catholics would form a body round which reviving national
churches would gather, and with which the Church of
England could establish communion. But by 1888 the
small progress they made, the little hold they had on national
heart and life, and the uncertainty regarding the doctrinal
position which they would ultimately take, together with the
conflicting views entertained of that movement by English
Churchmen made him pause, and he believed that the
Lambeth Conference had acted wisely in deciding that the
time was not yet come for any direct alliance with the Old
Catholics, and that a continuance of friendly sympathy,
intercourse, and counsel, with the offer of admission to our
services when they had none of their own would meet present
demands. He therefore came to the determination to con-
fine himself exclusively to his appointed work of ministering
to members of his own Communion, and not to interfere
with the Churches of the countries in which he laboured ;
and to this course he resolutely adhered, defending it both
in the Diocese and in England, and claiming that in this
he was in agreement with the spirit of the Church of
England as expressed in the Resolutions of the Lambeth
Conference.^
* S., 1880, p. 64. t S., 1888, p. 22.
1 S., 1888, pp. 20, 21 ; S.C.P., 1885 {The Attitude of the Church of
i68 BISHOP SANDFORD, 1874-1903
In Spain and Portugal the course of the reforming
movement proved the cause of the gravest concern to the
Bishop ; and not only for the guidance of the Diocese as a
whole, but in a special degree for that of the numerous
English colonies in the Peninsula, the largest and most
influential of which are at Oporto and Lisbon, he was obliged
to treat the matter with great frequency, fullness and plain-
ness. In his Pastoral Letters of 1878, 1880, 1888, and 1894
he brought out for his own people the critical points of the
movement, and assumed a definite position, a step which
Bishop Harris had foreseen in 1870 would be forced upon the
Diocese (see sitpra, p. 86). At the Church Congresses of
1880 and 1885 he laid before the home Church a firm and
fearless statement of that position which nothing that trans-
pired subsequently induced him to modify or abandon.
On succeeding to the See Bishop Sandford found that the
movement had developed beyond the stage described by his
predecessor. A considerable body of priests and laymen,
despairing of an internal reformation, had, in 1868, formed
themselves into an independent society which they entitled
the " Spanish and Portuguese Reformed Episcopal Church "
— episcopal at the time only in principle and aspiration.
They had seen the evils of Congregationalism, and sought
reform on a primitive and episcopal model. They were
under the direction of an English Society, the " Spanish and
Portuguese Church Missions." In 1878 they consisted of
nine congregations, with four ordained ministers, formerly
priests of the Roman Catholic Church.
This body more than once requested Bishop Sandford to
take it under his charge. In spite of great sympathy, he
was unable to do so. He was conscious that he had neither
the indispensable acquaintance with the Spanish and Portu-
guese character and language, nor the time at command
which would be required to make himself master of all the
circumstances. But more especially he felt that to do so
would be to exceed the terms of his commission, which was
strictly limited to " British Churches, Congregations, and
Ent^la^id with respect to movements in Foreign Churches) ; Lambeth
Conference, 1888, Res. 15, esp. (D.) ; 1S97, Res, 28, 29, and esp. 3?.
FOREIGN REFORMING MOVEMENTS 169
Clergy of the Church of England." Consequently, in the
spring of 1878 these congregations and their priests addressed
a memorial to the Archbishops and Bishops of the Church
of England, praying them to consecrate a Bishop to preside
over them, chosen, if possible, from the ranks of the English
clergy, acquainted with the character of the people of the
Peninsula, and able to speak both Spanish and Portuguese.
The English Bishops, realizing the gravity of the request,
submitted it to the Conference of Anglican Bishops sitting
at Lambeth, and it was referred by them to a Committee
which considered with it the proposed extension of the
Episcopate to Mexico by the American Church. This Com-
mittee in their Report expressed a hearty sympathy with the
Memoriahsts in the difficulties of their position, but did not
go beyond suggesting that the Bishop to be consecrated
by the American Church for Mexico should visit the
Peninsula, and '* render such assistance at this stage of the
movement as may seem to him practicable and advisable." *
Bishop Sandford viewed the situation with growing appre-
hension. The whole matter was in his eyes grave and solemn,
and called for extreme caution. Some urged that the Church
of England should accede to the request, sheltering themselves
behind the words of St. Cyprian, who affirmed that " there is
but one Episcopate, held in common by all Bishops, and
possessed in full by every individual Bishop," t and pressed
* The La7tibeth Conferences of 1867, 1878, 1888, p. 179 ; Report of
the Committee on the Position of Anglicatt Chaplains and Chaplaincies
on the Continent of Europe and elsewhere.
t Episcopatus Jinus est cuius a singulis in solidum pars tenetur.
Cypr., Z?^ Unitate, c. 5. Whereon Archbishop Benson: the "tangible
bond of the Church's unity is her one united episcopate, an Apostleship
universal yet only one — the authority of every bishop perfect in itself, yet
not forming with all the others a mere agglomeration of powers, but
being a tenure upon a totality, like that of a shareholder in some joint
property" {Cyprian; his Life, his Times, his Work, p. 182, ed. 1897).
This famous maxim is treated by Bishop J. Wordsworth in The
Ministry of Grace, pp. 133, 173 fif. He renders it ''The Episcopate is
one, and all Bishops are full partners in it, with joint and several
responsibility." He regards it as bearing on the rights of a Bishop in
other communities than his own ; as a necessary condition of unity ; as
reminding each Bishop of his relation to the whole body, stimulating
J70 BISHOP SANDFORD, 1874-1903
these famous words to mean that every individual Bishop has
extra-diocesan, extra-provincial powers — that every individual
Bishop is a universal Bishop, free and even in duty bound to
exercise his powers in every corner of the world, if the welfare
of souls demanded it. The Bishop freely acknowledged that
Christian Bishops in early days had acted on this principle,
when necessity compelled. But he urged as of equal authority
and of very different purport the other principle or canon, that
no Bishop or priest shall exercise his functions in the diocese
of a foreign Bishop without his consent ; * and that to justify
him to self-restraint and common action alike, and, in cases of emergency,
as inspiring him with courage to intervene in a neighbounng Diocese or
community which needs admonition. After giving illustrations of such
intervention, " It seems to me," he writes, " to justify a Bishop in ventur-
ing to act in other Dioceses than his own, in cases where he has reason
to believe that the general approval of the Church will follow what he
has done, not where he acts in an arbitrary and singular manner." He
continues, with reference to this special case : " The duty of Bishops in
the present divided state of the Church is not so easy to define as it
might have been under other circumstances. As far as I can judge,
where any of ourselves are asked to interfere (as our Bishops may be
asked, by a body of reformed Christians on the Continent), a single
Archbishop or Bishop should not intervene without previous consultation
with the other Bishops of the province to which he belongs, and without
reasonable expectation that the whole communion will approve. It does
not belong to my subject to inquire how far authority was actually given
by the Synod or the Bishops of the Church of Ireland for the conse-
cration of Bishop Cabrera, but I mention that as an illustration of the
kind of difficult problem which may arise. If such authority were
actually given by resolution of the Bishops of a province, it would make
such an act, in my opinion, much more regular than if it were not given.
If the authorization were merely one of silent acquiescence or abstinence
from overt disapproval, it would, without any manner of doubt, be more
difficult to uphold what was done. Bishops surely ought to act together
and to have the courage either to approve or to disapprove of each
other's action in difficult cases. They ought also to act as representing
the conscience of the whole communion, not merely with reference to
local sympathies."
* See Canon 2 of the Second General Council of Constantinople :
" save on invitation Bishops shall not go outside their own Dioceses for
the purpose of ordination or any othier ecclesiastical administration."
Dtocese here signifies an aggregate of provinces, patriarchates or ex-
archates. See Bright, The Canons of the First Four General Cotcndls
ivith Notes (ed. 2), pp. 101-106, and Bingham, Antiq., bk. ix. c. i.
FOREIGN REFORMING MOVEMENTS 171
a return to the earlier precedent two things were essential —
that the circumstances should be exceptional, and should be
pronounced to be exceptional by an authority competent to
make such a pronouncement. He declared that unrestricted
exercise of the earlier precedent would end all order and
discipline within the Church ; and much as he felt that the
circumstances were exceptional, he failed to find them
declared so by any authority he judged competent.*
Between 1878 and 1888, in which year the Third Lambeth
Conference met, Bishop Sandford learnt more of the movement
and its character. In 1888 he believed there were 10,000
" Protestants " in Spain, of whom 7000 were Presbyterians.
He became increasingly convinced that the movement was in
no sense a national movement, like our own Reformation ;
that its progress was slow ; that it was confined to the lower
and uneducated classes, and was dependent in large measure
upon foreign money.
Meanwhile the Irish Bishops had proceeded to consider
the application for a Bishop brought before the Conference
of 1878 ; and though somewhat cautiously, moved in the
direction of acceding to it. But before doing so, they waited
for the further deliberation of the Conference of 1888 on the
subject. In due time that Conference again took the appli-
cation in hand. The Committee appointed with reference
to this and cognate subjects concluded their Report on this
matter with these words : —
" We feel it our duty to express the opinion that the
consecration, by Bishops of our Communion, of a
Bishop, to exercise his functions in a foreign country,
within the limits of an ancient territorial jurisdiction
and over the natives of that country, is a step of the
gravest importance and fraught with enduring con-
sequences, the issues of which cannot be foreseen.
§§ 3, 4. Also the 36th (so called) Apostolic Canon, which directs that
" no Bishop shall presume to hold ordinations outside his own bounds
for cities and districts not subject to him." (See Hefele, History of
Christian Councils to A.D. 325 [tr. by W. R. Clark], pp. 449 ff., for an
account of these Canons. For the 36th, see p. 472.)
* S., 1880, pp. 60 fif.
1/2 BISHOP SANDFORD, 1874-1903
Whilst the rights of Bishops of the Cathoh'c Church
to interpose under conditions of extreme necessity has
always been acknowledged, we deprecate any action
that does not carefully regard primitive and established
principles of jurisdiction and the interests of the whole
Anglican Communion." *
It is worth record that that Committee included Bishop
Sandford and four Irish Bishops — the Archbishop of Dublin,
and the Bishops of Cashel, Cork, and Derry.
The following Resolutions were passed by the Conference,
neinine contradicente : —
" That, with regard to the reformers in Italy, France, Spain,
and Portugal, struggling to free themselves from the
burden of unlawful terms of communion, we trust that
they may be enabled to adopt such sound forms of
doctrine and discipline, and to secure such Catholic
organization as will permit us to give them a fuller
recognition."
" That, without desiring to interfere with the rights of
Bishops in the Catholic Church to interpose in cases
of extreme necessity, we deprecate any action that
does not regard primitive and established principles
of jurisdiction and the interests of the whole Anglican
Communion." t
These Resolutions, together with the Report of the Com-
mittee, the Bishop laid before his Diocese in his Pastoral of
that year. He expressed his sense that the step sought
required "conditions of extreme necessity," and the full and
deliberate approval of the Church to which the Bishop acting
in response to the prayer belonged. In spite of the errors of
the Roman Church, he held that that Church, having a valid
ministry and administering true though imperfect sacraments,
had not forfeited her right to be treated as a Christian Church
having jurisdiction within her own territory. He therefore
concluded that the conditions were not " of extreme necessity."
It was also clear that the Church of England had not given
authoritative approval of the consecration desired. He pointed
* The Lambeth Conferences, 1867, 1878, 1888, p. 345.
t The Lambeth Conferences, pp. 282 f. [Res. 15 (D), (E).]
FOREIGN REFORMING MOVEMENTS 173
out that to accede to the memorial involved the obligation to
go much further, and to send missions under missionary
Bishops to re-convert South Europe, and restore it to Chris-
tianity. He summed up the case for his people as follows : —
"From regard to 'those interests of the whole Anglican
Communion,' to which the Bishops refer in their Reso-
lution, and for the sake of order and ultimate peace, it
is to be hoped that no such action as the Bishops
deprecate will be taken by any portion of our Church.
A departure from that policy which ever since the
Reformation we have consistently followed, of not
interfering in the concerns of foreign Christian Com-
munions, would plunge us into a sea of new difficulties.
It would weaken our protest against Roman aggres-
sion. It would involve the abandonment of our unique
position, on which ardent hopes have been fixed, that
our Church might one day be the means of restoring
unity to Christendom, It would produce internal
divisions amongst our own people, wound the hearts
of very many, and frustrate those hopes which of late
years we have been entertaining that the different
parties within our Church were being brought into
closer accord. The Church of England has a great
and important part to play in healing the divisions of
Christ's people. Members of the Church of Rome
have themselves proclaimed their belief that she is
the only possible intermediary in bringing together
Protestants and Catholics. But this part of peace-
maker she can only play by loyal and resolute
adherence to her own position and principles, to her
own doctrine and discipline, and to her own historical
policy of not intruding as an active propagandist
within the province of other Christian Churches." *
The Irish Episcopate proceeded undeterred. It is not
part of the purpose of the present writer to dwell on the
course followed, in which the Bishops were not absolutely
unanimous, or on the character of the provisions secured in
the constitutions of the Spanish and Lusitanian Churche:;.
* S., 1888, pp. 26, 27.
174 BISHOP SANDFORD, 1874-1903
The result was that the Archbishop of Dublin (Lord Plunket),
assisted by the Bishops of Down (Dr. Welland) and Clogher
(Dr. Stack), using the Irish form of consecration, on Sep-
tember 23, 1894, consecrated in Madrid, as Bishop of the
" Spanish Reformed Church," the Reverend Don Juan Bautista
Cabrera.* They did not consecrate a Bishop for the Lusi-
tanian (Portuguese) Reformed congregations, and have not
done so since.
Bishop Sandford had a few months before, in his Address
to his Diocesan Conference in July (see supi-a, p. 128), dealt
once more with the matter, declining to be any party to such
an act of intrusion as he believed the consecration would be,
and declaring his intention of maintaining his consistent
position of sympathetic aloofness.! Three years later the
Lambeth Conference of 1897 passed the following Resolution
(No. 32) :—
" That we repeat the expressions of sympathy (contained
in the Report of the Lambeth Conference of 1888)
with the brave and earnest men of France, Italy,
Spain, and Portugal who have been driven to free
themselves from the burden of unlawful terms of
Communion imposed by the Church of Rome ; and
continue to watch these movements with deep and
anxious interest, praying that they may be blessed
and guided by Almighty God."
In his Pastoral of 1897 Bishop Sandford referred to the
matter for the last time, setting forth once more his own
attitude of non-interference, and expressing his anxiety that
his chaplains and congregations should make it their own.
It must in fairness be stated that at the same time he left
them free to take that course which their own conscience and
reason prescribed, while disclaiming, as has been said, on the
part of the Church of England and himself all responsibility
for acts of the clergy which went beyond the express terms
of the Licence granted them. Some accordingly departed
from his position, notably the Rev. T. G. P. Pope, chaplain at
* Bishop Cabrera died, aged 78, May 18, 1916. See The Guardian^
May 25, 1916.
t S., 1894, p. 35-
FOREIGN REFORMING MOVEMENTS 175
Lisbon 1867- 1902. Dr. Pope co-operated actively with the
Portuguese reformers ia developing their organization and
compiling their Prayer Book, and was practically their head,
though more than once he declined to be their Bishop. But
he never forfeited the regard of Bishop Sandford, as is seen in
the generous notice of his life and character which appeared
in the Pastoral of 1902 (pp. 36-39).
It may be asked, in what way did the Bishop, pursuing
this policy of sympathetic aloofness, expect the Church of
England to make her due contribution as a Catholic Apos-
tohc and Reformed Church, towards the building up of
National Reformed Churches in Italy and the Peninsula ?
The reply is, by such a presentation in those countries of
her own principles of faith, life, and worship as will serve as
a guide and encouragement to any movement which is truly
native and national, and by readiness to place her experience
and knowledge at the command of those who seek it. And
few in the Diocese will now doubt his wisdom and foresight.
Although to those English whose concern in such matters
is but languid and superficial, the immense labour spent by
the Bishop in them may have appeared unnecessary, there
can be no doubt that to the great majority of his flock he
rendered infinite service ; and his labour in persistently in-
forming his Diocese, and treating it as really and deeply
involved, as solidaire with the Church of England, in the
determination of a question which far exceeded the interests
of particular chaplaincies and the current hour, did much
almost insensibly to mature the corporate life of the Diocese,
to enlarge its horizon, and to advance its cohesion.
IV
THE EPISCOPATE OF BISHOP COLLINS,
1904-19 1 1
CHAPTER XI
THE PROGRESS OF DIOCESAN LIFE
Bishop Collins : Personal Notes
WILLIAM EDWARD COLLINS was the second son
of Joseph Henry Collins, a mining engineer, and
was born on February 18, 1867. His father's work took him
in 1 88 1 into Spain for an appointment at Rio Tinto, and the
future Bishop spent some years there with his parents, and
so acquired a knowledge of Spanish which in after years
proved of great service to him. Later he entered a lawyer's
office in London, where the experience gained contributed to
the form and precision with which when required he drew up
formal documents. In October, 1884, he entered Selwyn
College, Cambridge, and after graduating in mathematics,
threw himself into historical studies, won the Lightfoot
Scholarship in 1889. and one of the Prince Consort Prizes
in 1890. After ordination in that year, and a period of work
on the staff of All Hallows', Barking, he returned to Cambridge
in 1 891 as Lecturer in History at Selwyn and St. John's
Colleges. Two years later he was appointed Professor of
Ecclesiastical History at King's College, London, This post
he held until his nomination to the See of Gibraltar in 1903.
He was consecrated on St. Paul's Day, 1904, in Westminster
Abbey by the Archbishop of Canterbury (Dr. Davidson),
assisted by the Bishops of London (Dr. Winnington-Ingram),
WIl.l.lAM IDWAKI) COLLINS. LLSHOP OK ( ;II;KALTAR, ]'.i04— I'.']]
To/acc p. lyb
PROGRESS OF DIOCESAN LIFE 177
Salisbury (Dr. Wordsworth), Bristol (Dr. Forrest Browne),
St. Alban's (Dr. Jacob), Newcastle (Dr. Lloyd), Colchester
(Dr. Blomfield). Bishop Webb and Bishop Montgomery. The
sermon was preached by the friend to whom he owed so
much, Dr. A. J. Mason. He was then thirty-six years of
age, and had already taken the degree of D.D. at Cambridge.
On the day following, his marriage with Miss Mary Brewin
Sterland crowned a long friendship. He was enthroned at
Gibraltar on February 7, 1904.
In spite of continuous delicacy, for he suffered from
weakness of the heart from undergraduate days, and was
ever " an eager and undaunted spirit housed in a frail taber-
nacle," his extraordinary diligence, omnivorous reading,
exceptional power of memory, clear-sightedness, self-reliance,
and facility and readiness in expressing himself, had already
drawn him into a prominent place in English Church life.
He had much to do with the formation and growth of the
Church Historical Society, and was Vice-President of it for
ten years (1895-1904), during which his own contributions to
its output were of great variety and value. As a member of
the Committee of the Dictionary of National Biography, and
as Departmental Editor of the articles on Religion of the addi-
tional volumes of the " Encyclopaedia Britannica" (1899), as an
investigator and expert consulted and trusted by Archbishops
Temple and Maclagan in the Hearingand Judgment concern-
ing processional Lights and Incense of 1899, and as a writer
and reviewer on multifarious subjects of historical and liturgical
importance, he made his mark rapidly and securely. But he
was far more than an ardent scholar. The pastoral instinct
was exceedingly strong in him ; and illness and the know-
ledge of his own frailty gave him peculiar ministerial tender-
ness and understanding. At King's College he was indeed
pastor as much as professor. As early as 1895 he was called
to Cairo to conduct Holy Week devotions. In the winter of
1901, on the invitation of Archbishop Nuttall of Jamaica, he
carried out a mission in the West Indies with remarkable
power ; and soon after his consecration, in fulfilment of a
promise made before his nomination to the Bishopric, he took
N
178 BISHOP COLLINS, 1904-1911
part in the Mission of Help to South Africa. From 1893 he
shared the work of the Society of Watchers and Workers as
Chaplain of a Watch. But it is impossible here to do more
than thus indicate the two sides of this gifted personality.
He was at once historical scholar and fervent shepherd of
souls. The full picture of him must be sought in the memoir
written by his friend of many years, Dr. Mason.* Of the
many briefer reviews of his life and work, that in the Selwyn
College Calendar, 191 1, from the pen of his friend and
chaplain, the Rev. A. L. Brown, then tutor of the College, is
based on a long intimacy.
While the store of knowledge and experience amassed by
the Bishop during his earlier years was, as will appear, of
infinite service to his Diocese, the assured position he had
attained in Church life at home affected his work abroad to
an appreciable degree. It was impossible for him to divest
himself of the responsibilities it laid on him. Restlessly
active in mind and spirit, and constitutionally almost incapable
of declining a request for aid or the investigation of a matter
referred to him, he strove to meet the calls of his Diocese and
of the home Church at once. Thus his episcopal work abroad
was broken by many hasty journeys to England. It may be
noted that in his travel he took little trouble to husband his
scanty strength. His " holidays " were occupied by laborious
research. In the Pan-Anglican Conference of 1908, and the
Lambeth Conference which followed it, he took a prominent
share. In the former he was Chairman of Section F, which
dealt with the Anglican Communion ; and he conducted it
with such conspicuous ability, learning, and decision as made
that section perhaps the outstanding feature of the Congress,
and his chairmanship the most marked success of his public
life, and the high-water mark of his powcrs.f In the Lam-
beth Conference he gave immense labour to the work of
* Life of William Edward Collins, Bishop of Gibraltar, by Arthur
James Mason, D.D., 1912.
+ The Bishop pressed the importance of the Pan-Anglican Congress
on the attention of his Diocese. The Diocesan Offering of ^572 (of
which £y]<^ was devoted to the General Fund, and;{^i93 was ear-marked)
came from forty-two chaplaincies. A. CM., 1908. Sept., p. xv.
PROGRESS OF DIOCESAN LIFE 179
Committees, and shared the task of drafting the Encyclical.
But all this was a severe strain on his physical strength, which
had been taxed during the previous winter by his journey
into Kurdistan ; and in the background was the serious
illness of Mrs. Collins, who died in July, 1909. When he
resumed Diocesan work in the winter of 1908 he was already
enfeebled, and in a weak state of health he contracted a septic
throat during or immediately after his ministry at Messina on
the occasion of the great earthquake of December 28. This
gradually developed into consumption of the throat, which in
the course of 1910 rendered him unable to speak save in a
whisper. With a marvellous courage he worked to the end,
visiting colonies and chaplaincies in the Peninsula, Malta, and
the Mediterranean in the winter of 1910-1911. At the very
last he held two confirmations (to which he had to be carried)
at Constantinople on March 13, 191 1, writing on March 21a
long Pastoral of Peace to the congregation of the Crimean
Memorial Church, and insisting on sailing for Smyrna on
March 23. He died early on the 24th, before the vessel
entered the port. He was but forty-four years of age. His
body was laid to rest on March 27 in the crypt of St. John
the Evangelist's Church. The Greek Archbishop, who gave
an address and the Blessing, the Greek Bishop of Tralles, the
Armenian Bishop, and representatives of the French, German,
and American congregations were present. He left a deep
and unique impression on all who came within the range of
his influence, whether as student, administrator, traveller,
preacher or saint.
An episcopate of seven years soon passes, and the great
war has removed from the Diocese many of those who knew
the Bishop and cherished his memory. In order that those
who come after may know from those who lived near him
what manner of man he was, and may have some clear
pictures to keep fresh our recollection of him, three portraits
of him are given. The first is from the pen of his life-long
friend Dr. Mason ; the second from that of the Bishop of
Wakefield, in which he is seen in the Lambeth Conference
at the height of his powers ; the last, that of the Archbishop
i8o BISHOP COLLINS, 1904-1911
of Canterbury, bears testimony to the mark he left on the
Church of his day.
I
" Bishop Collins was indeed a man of many sides. He
might, from one point of view, be considered as almost a
chronic invalid, with occasional accesses of illness which cut
him off for longer or shorter periods from public work. He
made no concealment of his illnesses, though he made no
parade of them. The sympathy which they drew out from
others he received with unaffected gratitude, and repaid with
an unmeasured outflow of affection. He came to be on terms
of great intimacy with many different sets of people. But
these intimacies were marked not only by an unreserved dis-
closure of his own heart ; they were marked by two other
things. One was an entire reticence about his relations with
other people. He never gave away the confidence reposed
in him, and some of his closest friends never knew of similar
friendships which he had formed elsewhere. He was reserved
even to secretiveness with regard to them. The second thing
which marked these relationships was that with all their
tenderness there lay at the bottom of them that element of
.severity, that constant demand of moral effort, which cannot
be absent from Christian sanctity.
"I have greatly failed in the task which I set myself, if
the reader of these pages fails to see in Bishop Collins, along-
side of an almost woman-like power of attachment, the
character of a strong man. His intellect was a strong man's
intellect. He had a vigorous grasp of principles, and at the
same time a most remarkable faculty for amassing and master-
ing detailed information. He saw the meaning of a problem
swiftly, and he was not contented until he had strenuously
examined and co-ordinated the facts which gave the clue to
the solution. His was no second-hand learning, no unverified
acceptance of other men's opinions. Yet the students passion
was never allowed to become predominant in him. These
pages mention a warning sent to him in early life not to let
liis ' absorbing intellectual interests encroach ' upon his
' spiritual and pastoral life.' If the warning was needed, it
PROGRESS OF DIOCESAN LIFE iSl
was heeded. One who knew him well wrote after his death,
to draw this as the main lesson from his Hfe — 'the grace by
which he made the intellect subserve the spirit, counting as
nought the things of the former, where they failed to make
clearer and more attainable the things of the latter.' ' In that
missionary life,' this writer says, ' the old pursuits of reading
and research, writing and deep thinking, were renounced,
cheerfully sacrificed to the routine and demands of his
enormous diocese ; but when he became persuaded that such
was the will of God, he turned his back on the life which
offered these dear delights with the cheeriness and whole-
heartedness which he himself would have called — in another
— " playing the game." ' We have often heard of a sacrifizio
dell' ititelletto : in this case it was a sacrifice which contained
nothing that was not admirable.
" Next to this steady concentration of aim, the most marked
characteristic of the man was his physical and moral courage.
A letter from a layman, who was one of his best friends,
lies before me. The writer says : ' The two features of his
character must always be the breadth of his mind and his
extraordinary personal courage, both rooted in a simple and
unassuming confidence in the Almighty's decrees. Whatever
it was to be, it must be right : one only goal in front of him
— to make for it regardless of all, whether on the right hand
or the left, so long as the object aimed at was reached.'
The courage of which this friend speaks was not shown only
in crises of imminent danger, but in the way in which the
Bishop at the last deliberately took his life in his hand, and
travelled and laboured and ministered when any one else
would have retired to the sick-room." (Dr. Mason's Life,
pp. V. ff.)
II
" No one who was at the Lambeth Conference in 1908
could fail to be vividly impressed by the personality of Bishop
Collins, of Gibraltar. Those of us who knew him well were
not wholly taken by surprise, but to many he seemed to
come quite as a revelation. . . . Slight, almost frail, with his
pale and delicate features, high forehead and clear eyes, he
i82 BISHOP COLLINS, 1904-1911
seemed the last man to sway an assembly of the unique kind,
which comprised men of independent minds — tot reguli, as
Archbishop Benson used to call them — accustomed to rule
and to express themselves with decision. Yet the moment
he rose to speak, and that clear, penetrating voice began, we
all felt that a master mind had been at work, and the subject
assumed a new importance.
" What struck me most of all, perhaps, was the sure-footed
way in which he intervened in so many problems, some of
them of a difficult and intricate character. His knowledge
was as astonishing in its variety and range as it was accurate
in detail. Facts, dates, names of less known writers, customs
of many lands, came pouring out upon some particular point,
as if from an erudite article in an encyclopaedia, leaving the
shorthand writer almost breathless in pursuit. And this re-
markable and ready information was matched by a singularly
clear and ripe judgment. When the conclusion was reached,
you felt as if the last word on the subject had been said, and
were not surprised to find that he had powerfully influenced
the final resolution or report in question.
"And this sureness of knowledge and judgment was
coupled with a lofty conception and a dignified yet humble
spirit, that held us at times quite spellbound with admiration.
Whether he was laying down great principles or precedents,
or surveying present conditions with profound insight and
sympathy, there was the same decisiveness and quiet con-
fidence, against which there seemed no appeal. And with
all this quietness there was a suppressed fire in him, which
was ready to blaze forth against any unrealities or fantastic
theories, and he could be uncompromising, inexorable, and
stern in the face of errors. He was extraordinarily clear in
his vision of the Church of England, as combining liberty
with order, and progress with fidelity to Apostolic faith and
discipline. He saw her, as Bishop Lightfoot had done, as
the potential mediator between great communions, the rally-
ing point for different standards of faith. As such he fought
for liberty of custom for her where some would have feared
to concede it, while, on the other hand, he would not sur-
render one single part of the heritage he believed she
PROGRESS OF DIOCESAN LIFE 183
was intended to guard in the expression of her faith and
worship,
" This is, I fear, a poor account of the impression left on
my own mind by this remarkable man. But it would be in-
complete without one more touch which gave distinction and
grace to all that he said, namely, the evident spirit of prayer
and nearness to God which breathed through it all. His was
a big soul in a delicate frame, a brave, undaunted spirit
betraying itself every moment under unusual limitations of
bodily strength. The Church has lost in him a saint, a
scholar, and a theologian, of a type which perhaps only our
own Church produces, and that only once in a generation."
(Dr. Mason's Life, pp. 135, 136.)
Ill
" When eight years ago it fell to me to nominate for that
strange Diocese and jurisdiction a man who might be con-
secrated Bishop, I felt that it was in direct answer to many
prayers that we were guided to make choice of the original
scholar and thinker and man of God, whose fragile emaciated
body was with such pathos and significance laid to rest last
spring at Smyrna after seven short years of undaunted toil.
That life has been, as we already see, of abundant good in its
effect upon our Church's relations with Christian Churches
old and new from the rock of Gibraltar to the Golden Horn,
or the Balkan towns, or the mountains of Kurdistan. The
tireless energy of his apostolic ministry enabled him ' in
journeyings often, in perils in the city, in perils in the sea, in
weariness and painfulness, in watchings often,' to utilize every-
where the extraordinary range of his varied literary and
ecclesiastical knowledge and the forcefulness of his eager
personality. He has left a quite distinctive mark as student,
administrator, traveller, preacher, saint, upon the Church life
of his time." (Archbishop of Canterbury, The Character atid
Call of tJie Chiirdi of England, p. 13.)
Progress of Diocesan Life, 1904-1911. — The cha-
racter of the progress made in diocesan life during Bishop
Collins' episcopate would have been impossible without the
184 BISHOP COLLINS, 1904-1911
long labour of Bishop Sandford, and is an eloquent testimony
to it. It lay not so much in the initiation of fresh operation as
in the guidance of the heightened Church life of the Diocese
on clear and accepted principles. It will be readily appre-
ciated that as the spirit of both congregations and the body
of clergy became more decidedly that of a Diocese of the
Church of England, many questions were bound to arise which
called for Episcopal formative direction and decision as to the
internal life and conduct of the Diocese and chaplaincies.
The diocese was blessed indeed in having at this particular
point in its history a Bishop so qualified and ready to decide
in such matters with knowledge and authority ; and in the
development of orderly Church life, the laying down of guid-
ing precedents and the consequently greater appreciation of
the position, authority, and responsibility of the Bishop con-
sists the lasting benefit and mark of his masterly hand within
the Diocese. It is in this respect that his episcopate consti-
tuted a real advance made towards diocesan maturity and
independence.
The Bishop's temperament, his broken health, and his
large interests in England necessarily made his method of
diocesan work different from that of his predecessor. It has
been said that he darted to and fro to meet needs without
delay, rather than allow them to wait until his programme
brought him to the spot. He issued no such Pastoral Letters
as Bishop Sandford's ; indeed, it is doubtful if he possessed
the series, or even knew of it. He made use of The Anglican
ChurcJi Magazine as his usual medium of communication
with the Diocese, and in its pages appeared his directions and
plans for travel, and in particular the narrative of the journey
to Kurdistan, which was later reprinted with some additions
for private circulation. But he made ample amends, so far
as the history of the Diocese goes, by the exact and minute
Bishop's Register which he kept. This contains the record
of all his episcopal acts, including not only that of licences
issued, confirmations, consecrations of churches and burial
grounds (often accompanied by precise descriptions of sites),
but also of rulings given, letters of direction and admonition,
and notes " ad rei niemoriam " of matters of diocesan
PROGRESS OF DIOCESAN LIFE 185
importance. This Register makes a great contribution to
the possibility of continuity of episcopal policy and action.
(a) Extension of preceding work. The progress of
ordinary diocesan work continued uninterrupted. Many
chaplaincies attained more settled life. Six churches : St.
George's, Barcelona* (May 7, 1905), St. Andrew's, Tangier!
(December 3, 1905), St. George's, Venice (April 23, 1906),
St. John the Evangelist's, St. Raphael (February 2, 1907),
All Saints', Milan | (October 24, 1909), and Holy Trinity,
Algiers § (November 14, 1909), and ten Burial-grounds || were
consecrated. It would serve no useful purpose now to relate
the difficulties and opposition which attended the building
and consecration of the first of these churches, owing to
Spanish prejudice and state law, especially as that law is now
modified ; but the record of them in the pages of the
Aiiglican Church Magazine*^ is a striking testimony to the
* The C.C.C.S. was to be the trustees for and the legal owners of
this church, C. Reg., 80.
+ H.M. Government is the responsible owner of this church and its
churchyard, C. Reg., 169.
I The patronage of this church was transferred by the Bishop of
London to the Bishop of Gibraltar in 1905. The church and land on
which it stands was conveyed to the Bishopric of London on behalf of
the Bishop of Gibraltar for the time being, to be held in trust. C. Reg.,
713 ; A. CM., 1906, January, p. xiv.
§ The site of this church was made over by deed of gift from the
French Government to the Association de la Colonie Anglaise as repre-
sented by the Conseil (f Administration for Church purposes, in the place
of the portion of land on which the former church stood. C. Reg., 722.
II These are Genoa (March 27, 1904) ; Corfu (November 26, 1904);
Pieta (Military), Malta (February 25, 1905); Alicante (October 12,
1905); Tangier (December 3, 1905); Hughesovka (May 28, 1906);
Bucarest (June 25, 1906); Madalena Road, Malta (February 14, 1908);
Almeria (April 30, 1908) ; Villagarcia (October 20, 1910).
t See A.C.M., 1903, pp. 45 ff-. 73, 96; 1904, P- 45; 1910, P- 74-
The change of law referred to was that affected by the Royal Order of
June 10, 1 910, which provided that it is to be understood that external
signs indicating edifices, ceremonies, rites, uses or customs of forms of
worship different from that of the religion of the State do not constitute
"public manifestations" and are therefore authorized. In consequence
of the earlier law two crosses on St. George's Church were removed by
Bishop Collins on the day before its consecration. It has not yet been
deemed expedient to replace them.
i86 BISHOP COLLINS.. 1904-1911
perseverance and patience of the British colony in Barcelona.
Hopes of Churches in Madrid and Bucarest were born.
Parsonages were provided for both churches at Mentone, and,
through the generosity of Mr. C. H. Lowe, at Marseilles.
The indefiniteness as to the limits of the Bishop of Gibraltar's
jurisdiction over Anglican communities in Russia, arising
from the vagueness of the term " on the shores of the Black
Sea and the Sea of Azov," was removed by an agreement
come to with the Bishop of London that the communities at
Kiev on the north and Baku on the Caspian should be re-
garded as under the Bishop of Gibraltar. This added the
chaplaincies of Hughesovka and Baku to our Diocese.* It
is worth record that the resignation of the chaplain at Trieste
in 1905 and the death of the chaplain at Marseilles in 1909
ended the Consular Chaplaincies in these ports and in the
Diocese.f The maintenance of these chaplaincies has since
rested on the congregations alone. The chaplaincy at
Messina, one of our oldest (see p. 21), came to an end with
the death of the chaplain and the destruction of the church-
room and of the prosperous Sailors' Home in the earthquake
of December 28, 1908,! and it has not yet been possible to
revive it.
* " It has now been settled, as between the Bishops of London and
Gibraltar, that the south of Russia as far as Kiev falls within the juris-
diction of the latter. The chaplaincy of Hughesovka therefore now
comes within the jurisdiction of Gibraltar." Bishop Collins, A. CM.,
March, 1905, p. xvi. "In consequence of a settlement of jurisdiction
over Anglicans in Russia, the chaplaincy at Baku comes within the
jurisdiction of Gibraltar," ib., May, 1905, p. xiv. Both settlements have
been confirmed by the present Bishop of Gibraltar.
t A.C.Jlf., 1905, July, p. xiv ; 1909, May, p. xv.
J In this disaster not less than 60,000 persons perished, including
60 of the British community of 130, among whom were the chaplain, his
wife and family. The Bishop had held service at Messina only a week
previously, and hurried from Malta to give what aid he could. His
manuscript list of the British who perished is in the possession of the
present writer. An account of his labours on this occasion is given
in Dr. Mason's Lzfe, pp. 137 ff., and in the A. CM. The Messina
Earthquake Fund received ;^634 from the Diocese, of which .;^204 was
earmarked for provision of church services for the English survivors
settled in Catania. Later, ;^5oo was given from the British Earthquake
Relief Fund to help to replace the Sailors' Home and Institute. Both
PROGRESS OF DIOCESAN LIFE 1S7
The work of the Gibraltar Mission to Seamen was fully
maintained. In 1903 a writer, not of the Diocese, described
it as " a thoroughly organized and business-like work, which
is regarded as a primary diocesan duty." It found in the
Bishop an enthusiastic advocate. Mis readiness to travel by
any boat, tramp or liner, that was available, enabled him to
gain first-hand knowledge of conditions of seamen's life ; and
his speech at Nice in 1907 is one of the fullest expositions
we have of the need, the character, and the end of the G.M.S.
The annual income reached ;£'2000 in 1905 ; and the raising
of the Safidford Endoivment Fund to £ioco, and the noble
gift of Mr. C. H. Lowe greatly augmented its resources. Mr.
Lowe, a friend of seamen for sixty years and for twenty
years connected with the G.M.S., gave, in 1905, land at Bor-
dighera valued at ;^ 12,000 to be sold, the proceeds to be
invested for the G.M.S. and the Chaplaincies Sustentation
Fund, which was opened in that year. He died in 1909. At
the end of his episcopate the Bishop discerned the need of an
Institute at Nicolaiefif on the Bug in South Rus'^ia, and the pro-
vision of one was v/armly taken up by the Diocese after his
death. The great war has, however, caused the postpone-
ment of actual building, for which a sum of ;!^2000 is now in
hand.*
{b) The Diocesan Conference and Synod of 1905.
All this, however, was but the natural sequel of earlier
history. But in other directions fresh steps forward of
Diocesan organization and effectiveness were made.
The first of these, the holding of a Diocesan Conference,
and Synod of Clergy at Westminster, on July 11-14, 1905,
was the chief event of the life of the Diocese during these
years. This was not an absolutely new thing, for eleven
years previously (sec pp. 127 f.) Bishop Sandford had held
these sums (now increased) are now in the keeping of the Diocesan
Trust, and it is hoped in time to carry out the purposes for which they
were given. See A. CM., 1909, March, pp. 40 ft. ; May, p. xvi ; July,
p. xiv.
* A.C.M., 1903, p. 116; 1907, May, pp. 51 ff. ; 1905, Nov., p. 177 ;
1909, May, p. 85. See also Report of G. M.S., 1905, pp. 9, 46.
i88 BISHOP COLLINS, 1904-1911
such a Conference. Of this earlier Conference Bishop Colh'ns
spoke as "a gathering held only on a small scale and in a
tentative way." It would seem that he was not aware that
almost as many attended the former Conference as the latter,
and he had, perhaps, not seen Bishop Sandford's account of
it. But on the former occasion there was no Synod of Clergy,
which was in Bishop Collins' eyes a very noteworthy part of
the event.
It will be well to emphasize the importance of the Con-
ference and Synod. In this Diocese, excepting in the case
of chaplains in the Riviera from Marseilles to Genoa,
great distances separate chaplaincies and clergy — the chap-
lain at Baku is by rail more than 4500 miles distant from
his brother-chaplain at Lisbon — and intercourse in which
there is exchange of experience and taking of counsel
together is both rare and expensive. Many chaplains are as
it were at the ends of the ribs of a fan, and can meet only at
the handle. Moreover, until 19 12 the Diocese had no organ
of its own through which could be spread general information
about chaplaincies and communities differing widely as to
conditions and needs, and about questions concerning the
welfare of all. The circulation of Bishop Sandford's Pastoral
Letters was small, and the Anglican Church Magazine was,
in the main, the organ of the chaplaincies of North and Central
Europe. It was issued only in alternate months, and though
ably edited, was never generally read in this Diocese though
supplied to clergy and churchwardens. Thus anything like
a corporate deliberation or expression of opinion is at all
times a matter of extreme difficulty with us.
How helpful conference is among us has been shown in
the annual meetings of clergy of the Riviera, which had
now become a settled institution in that part of the Diocese,
and were usually attended by twenty to twenty-five clergy.
These, however, are of clergy alone, and those drawn from
chaplaincies not differing greatly in character ; and it is
acknowledged that the judgment and co-operation of the
laity in deliberations regarding the life and management of
the Diocese is indispensable for welfare. It is quite possible
for the Bishop of Gibraltar to be in close and constant
PROGRESS OF DIOCESAN LIFE 189
communication with leading laity and clergy of every
chaplaincy and colony : the crux is to provide for their
mutual knowledge and meeting together. This cannot often
be ; the only centre is London, where " the ribs of the fan "
really meet. The importance of the Conferences of 1894 and
1905 was that this took place ; and the distinctive mark of
that of 1905 was that the clergy met the Bishop in Synod ;
the benefit was that on many points, to be referred to later,
direction was given, after deliberation, by the Bishop ; and
the significance was the evidence of advance of the Diocese
in maturity of life, coherence, and corporate action.
Of the matters considered at the Conference, the greater
number concerned the internal economy and life of the
chaplaincies. These, though of great importance to those
working in the Diocese, may be of less interest to others, and
it seems better to present them separately in some detail.
But one subject came under deliberation which has to do
with the growth of what may be called the working effective-
ness of diocesan life, and this will be rightly dealt with here.
It was the maintenance of poorer chaplaincies, and the
provision of the ministrations of the Church for communities
too small to support chaplaincies and scattered over great
areas.
(c) Foundation of the Chaplaincies Sustentation
Fund. — With regard to this, matters stood where Bishop
Sandford left them (see supra, p. 144). In particular, the
urgent need of colonies in Spain and South Russia, and on
the Danube, were felt. A proposal was made to enlarge the
scope of the Gibraltar Mission to Seamen so as to embrace
the maintenance of the inland-chaplaincies required. It was
commonly known that Bishop Sandford had used the funds of
the Mission under stress, as a temporary expedient, for such
a purpose. But it was urged that such an extension would
destroy the unique and distinctive claim and appeal of the
Mission, and ultimately it was unanimously determined to
proceed to form a Chaplaincies Sustentation Fund to meet
the need, and to confine the scope and funds of the G.M.S.
to seamen's work. The Bishop accordingly nominated a
Committee which set to work at once. Hence arose the
190 BISHOP COLLINS, 1904-1911
fund known as The Poorer Chaplaincies Aid Fund, for which
part of the benefit of the gift of Mr. Lowe, who was a
member of the Conference, is available. This fund received
about £700 in the course of the next three years, and
has since obtained larger support as it has become better
known. But the Bishop's occupation in other things, and
his failing health, the superior attractiveness of sailors'
work, ignorance of the spiritual condition and destitution of
the colonies considered, have prevented it from having the
support it required to effect its primary ends. It has
rendered much aid to existing chaplaincies by grants to
Clergy, Church and Parsonage Funds, and for meeting of
special urgent calls, and has relieved the G.M.S. of certain
expenditure which did not rightly fall within the scope of
that mission. It has also from time to time met small
expenses of clergy visiting remote colonies. It assisted in
founding a chaplaincy for the Danubian ports in the autumn
of 1905. But, owing largely to want of funds, this chaplaincy
had to be suspended two years later, and since then there has
been no chaplain to serve the Church at Sulina.* It has there-
fore so far failed to attain its first and chief object — the pro-
vision of regular ministrations to the smaller British colonies
scattered throughout Spain, Roumania, and South Russia.f
(d) The Gibraltar Diocesan Trust.— An important
new departure in diocesan organization was made in the
constitution and registration on December 3, 1909, of the
Gibraltar Diocesan Trust. This was formed under the
Companies {Consolidation) Act of 1908 as a company limited
by guarantee with a registered office situate {xi England. It
was intended to meet the felt and acknowledged difficulties
and dangers connected with the tenure of Church property
on the Continent and the holding and administration of
Diocesan capital funds. Grave questions had arisen in
France in recent years upon the legal position and secure
titles of even some of our corporate and trust properties.
Individual cases of insecurity owing to breaks in continuity
of ownership through death or bankruptcy, the loss of records
* A.C.M., 1905, Nov., p. xiv ; 1907, Nov., p. xxii.
t See, further, vt/>n, pp. 224 ff.
PROGRESS OF DIOCESAN LIFE 191
and deeds or flaws in conveyances, may indeed be confirmed
by the formation of corporations in strict accordance with
XhQ leges loci ; but the floating order of Church officers on
the Continent, and the consequent lax administration of
properties in which no one has a special individual interest
makes any systematic rearrangement of this sort highly
problematical. The constitution of the Bishop of Gibraltar as
a corporation sole under the Letters Patent of 1842 met many
of the difficulties which faced the disestablished Bishopric ; *
and the withdrawal of the Letters Patent left in our Diocese
as bodies legally able to hold properties, beside local legally
constituted associations, the Bishop of London and certain
Societies, such as the National Society, the S.P.G., and the
C.C.C.S. But it is clear that after the formation of the Bishopric
of Gibraltar the Bishop of London as a corporation sole would
look to be relieved of the burden of holding in trust properties
in our Diocese. Moreover, though the National Society, so
long as it acted as such a trustee, did not require the right of
presentation to a chaplaincy as a condition of accepting the
holding of a church in trust, and so was recommended by
Bishop Sandford as the best body in which churches should be
vested {slip ra, p. 121), the other two Societies named did so,
and this involves some surrender (too little appreciated at
the moment) of diocesan and local freedom of action as a
price paid for service rendered.
But provision for the holding of property in sites, churches
and church buildings, such as seamen's Institutes was not
alone required. The large gift of Mr. Lowe, already referred
to, in 1905, and the handing to the Bishop of sums of money
collected after the Messina earthquake for the revival of sea-
men's work at Messina and church ministrations at Catania
showed the need of a Trust which should hold and administer
such gifts, and also bequests. And all experience shows that
the changes and chances of particular chaplaincies would
render a Diocesan Trust which could receive and invest
capital sums belonging to chaplaincies, hold the securities,
and pay the incoiue regularly to local churchwardens and
treasurers, a very great boon.
* See supra, pp. 43, 108.
192 BISHOP COLLINS, 1904-191 1
Hence after much labour and with immense care the
Trust was constituted with large powers and scope. " We
have in it,'" wrote the Bishop, "a body which is capable of
holding in trust, safely and without undue expense. Church
property of all kinds, on behalf either of this Jurisdiction of
Gibraltar as a whole, or of particular chaplaincies." It at
once took in charge the proceeds of Mr. Lowe's gift and the
parsonage at Marseilles due to the same generous church-
man's munificence. Within a year it held diocesan securities
to the amount of over ;^2 1,000 — now (1916) ;^26,ooo. The
Trust is not yet registered as a corporation capable of holding
property in any continental country excepting France ; but it
is intended that this shall be done as soon as is possible and
the expense involved can be met. It is believed that as the
chaplaincies gain more adequate knowledge of it, its great
serviceableness will be realized and larger use made of it.
Divers incidents in the course of the great war have illustrated
its worth.*
{e) The Deanery of Gibraltar. — Two additions to the
dignity and the official staff and structure of the Diocese
made by Bishop Collins require record.
The first of these was the inauguration of the Deanery of
Gibraltar. The civil chaplain at Gibraltar, nominated by the
Crown, has been an archdeacon since and even before 1842,
and the Ven. D. S. Govett had filled the double office since
1882. On November 19, 1905, the Bishop by a Deed of
Inauguration constituted him Dean of Gibraltar "with the
advice and consent of Our Synod of Clergy holden in the
private chapel of the Dean of Westminster on Friday, July
14, 1905, and with the sanction of the most Reverend Lord
Randall, by Divine Providence Lord Archbishop of Canter-
bury, and with the approbation of His Excellency Sir F, W.
Forestier Walker, Governor of Gibraltar." This left the
situation in Gibraltar rather strange at the time, for the Civil
* See A. CM., 1910, March, pp. 22, 33 ff. (where the objects of the
Trust as set out in the Memorandum of Association are given), xiv. Also
1910, Sept., p. 120. Also G.D. Gazette., 1912-13, pp. 73a, 133a ; 1913-14,
p. 20.
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PROGRESS OF i3I0CESAN LIFE 193
chaplain was nominated by the Secretary of State, while the
appointment of the Dean rested with the Bishop. But in
1907 it was settled that the civil chaplain should be nominated
by the Bishop of Gibraltar after consultation with the
Governor ; and thus the chaplaincy was merged in the
Deanery.*
St. Paul's Church, Valletta, made a Collegiate
Church. — The other was the inauguration of St. Paul's
Church, Valletta, as a Collegiate Church by the promulgation
of Statutes dated January i, 1911.
It has been recorded that the Church had been originally
intended to be a second cathedral for the Bishops of Gibraltar,
and it had been so described since the foundation of the See.
The description of it as " The Collegiate Church of St. Paul "
had also been in common use, though until a Collegiate Body
was attached to it the term had been felt to be meaningless
(see supra, p. 55). The Bishop, with the assistance of his
chaplain in England, the Rev. A. L. Brown, drew up
statutes, and constituted the long-intended Collegiate Body —
" saving always the rights and privileges of the Cathedral
Church of the Holy Trinity at Gibraltar as the Mother
Church of the Diocese and in all other ways," and with due
safeguards of the rights of the vestry and the congregation.
When complete the College was to consist of the Dean (who
is the Bishop for the time being), the Chancellor (who is
senior Canon), and four other Canons, with four lay members.
At the inauguration only the Dean, the Chancellor (the Rev.
A. F. Newton) and one other Canon (the Rev. H. J. Shaw)
were installed.
The Bishop regarded his action as the sowing of a seed.
He hoped that one effect of it would be to make Malta a
centre of diocesan life again, and to bmd the members of
the College by a real and permanent link with St. Paul's.
Ultimately, too, he thought that the provision of such a centre
might have other effects. "The vexed question of the
episcopal oversight of our people in and about Europe may
some day be met by a redistribution of regions, and a division
* A.C.M.y 1906, Jan., pp. 21, xiii ; 1907, Sept., p. xiii. C. Reg. 371.
O
194 BISHOP COLLINS, 1904-1911
by a line running north and south instead of east and west.
In such a case there would be already two strong centres of
English Church life available, both within the British Empire
at Gibraltar and Malta." *
The elaborate statutes are a striking evidence of the
Bishop's legal powers and capacity of drafting, and of his
determination, especially when his illness of 19 10 and
extreme weakness at the time of the inauguration (within
three months of his death) is realized. Some of the provisions
are so exacting as to be difficult of fulfilment. The Canon-
ries are of real value as enabling the Bishop to make some
recognition of clergy within the Diocese. They are tenable
by clergy only while actually serving in it. No lay-members
of the College have yet been installed. The number of
clerical canons has since been completed by the appointment
of Canons F. C. Whitehouse (191 1), A. A. Knollys (1913)
and T. F. Buckton (1916).
* A.C.M., 191 1, March, pp. 50, xiii. f.
CHAPTER XII
THE EPISCOPATE OF BISHOP COLLINS {continued)
THE DIOCESAN CONFERENCE AND SYNOD OF CLERGY,
1905
THE conference of July 11-14, 1905, was arranged by a
committee of 21, of whom 6 were laymen. The number
summoned to it was 118. Of these 10 clergy (including the
Secretaries of S.P.G. and C.C.C.S.) and 8 laymen, one of
whom was Dr. Wickham Legg, were nominated by the
Bishop; 3 were the Bishop's chaplains; 53 clergy and 44
laymen were elected representatives of chaplaincies. The
Hon. Secretary was the Rev. R. W. Goodall. The largest
attendance was 69, the lowest 57, the average 61. The Con-
ference held four sessions. A full report was issued.
The subjects discussed were (i) Diocesan Sustentation of
Poorer Chaplaincies ; (2) Relations with other Christian
bodies ; (3) Organization and Internal Economy of Chap-
laincies ; (4) The Services of the Church Abroad. Of the
discusssions on the first of these some account has already
been given. Noteworthy points of the second will be most
conveniently given later. The discussions on the two other
subjects dealt with matters affecting intimately the life and
work of the Diocese.
(i) Organization and Internal Economy of Chaplaincies
The Organization and Internal Economy of Chap-
laincies. — In regard to the internal economy of chaplaincies,
though no resolution was proposed, the discussion was of
the highest value, as it gave opportunity of bringing forward
questions generally felt, and enabled the President to give
196 BISHOP COLLINS, 1904-1911
direction and guidance. Many of these questions arose
entirely from tiie growth of our chaplaincies and the develop-
ment of " season " chaplaincies, and could not have arisen in
the earlier days of the Diocese. Foremost among them was
the relation of chaplains and chaplaincies to Societies and
other bodies of Trustees which had fostered chaplaincies, in
which churches are vested, and which now in divers ways
and degrees controlled them as to the character of services,
finances, and general management.
(a) Chaplaincies and Societies. — It is natural for a
congregation and a chaplain owing much to a Society to
rely on it and to defer to it. The tendency to regard the
attachment to the Society as more living than that to the
Diocese can well be understood. It is equally easy for a
Society, conscious of having rendered service, to look for
control as a kind of recompense, even as a right, and think of
such control as one of its duties and even objects. It may
overlook the facts that growth to maturity involves independ-
ence and responsibility, that only due independence and
action can develop responsible interest, that control may be
exercised in such a way as to impair self-reliance and exer-
tion, that the Diocese is the body to which all congregations
essentially belong, and that the Bishop is the Ordinary of
congregations, clergy, and churches alike. The dangers
attending the benevolent action of Societies had been fore-
seen as early as 1869, and questions arising from it had
frequently called for notice and action by Bishop Sandford ; *
but they had not been so plainly and directly brought forward
as at this conference. It is clearly the duty of Societies such
as S.P.G. and C.C.C.S. within the Church of England so to
render their service to a Diocese and congregations as to
enable Diocesan life to attain maturity, independence, and
responsibility as soon as possible ; to promote the recognition
and exercise of episcopal authority ; and to avoid the distress
which is caused within a growing body when a beneficent
hand " from outside " seeks to establish an obligation and to
practice a control as a consequence of assistance given. The
happiest and proudest day for such Societies of the Church
* See supra, pp. 1 52 f.
CONFERENCE AND SYNOD, 1905 I97
of England is when a Bishop, clergy, and congregations can
judge themselves able, with grateful acknowledgment of help
received, to declare the intention of standing and working on
their own feet and of administering and regulating their, own
life and resources, and so to release for action elsewhere the
means which have contributed to their own growth. This
is the truest and the lasting justification of such great Church
Societies.
The chief points of control exercised by Societies on
which the discussion turned were those of the services of the
Church and the disposal of collections, together with the
general control of chaplains. The Bishop's counsel was on
the following lines. Our chaplaincies are chaplaincies of the
Church of England, subject to the law of the Church, and
things must not be done in them which are inconsistent with
it. It was his duty to judge, as well as he could, whether
anything done was disloyal to the Church. That was part
of his work as Bishop, and he intended to do it. He had no
intention whatever as to " Society Chaplaincies " that the
regulations which they had thought good to make, and which
had been accepted by the Bishop, should be infringed in any
way. Such regulations made with the Bishop's sanction,
he would see were carried out. But there was one thing
that he was determined to secure : that it should be recog-
nized that all alike were chaplaincies under the episcopal
jurisdiction of the Bishop of Gibraltar, and that the link
which united them one to another should be closer than the
link which united them to any Society. He was determined
that there should be no such thing as putting the Bishop's
office into commission, and no undue interference by any
home agency with the free development of any chaplaincy.
One of the speakers "ventured to say that, because a
church was held in trust by a Society or body of Trustees
it did not entitle those so holding it to interfere with the
manner in which the services were to be conducted or with
the chaplain in his capacity as a priest. A Society or
Trustees would, of course, appoint as chaplain one who
would be likely to conduct the services in accordance with
their own ideas, and was suitable in other respects ; but that
198 BISHOP COLLINS, 1904-1911
being once done, the chaplain should be left alone, as the
incumbent of an English parish. Spiritual authority over
him belonged to the Bishop alone, and the attempt to exercise
it by others led to ill feeling and party-spirit." Another
urged that it was most desirable that some steps should be
taken with regard to the possibility that chaplaincies able
to support themselves should be freed from the control of
Societies, and declared that he knew of many cases in which
the condition of the chaplaincy had been changed, and the
Church tone had suffered, and even the lex loci been defied
by some iron constitution of the Society.
On these points the Bishop's view was that the Diocese
had a right * to look to S.P.G. and C.C.C.S. to do all they
could to help to support chaplaincies in places where the
chaplain could not locally be supported ; but that it did not
seem to be any part of their duty to retain connexion with a
chaplaincy which is in a self-supporting condition, and that
such chaplaincies should be allowed as soon as possible to
stand by themselves. He was aware that in the case of
chaplaincies in which the English Church is under a Society
there was a tendency on the part of the Society to regard
everything as within its control. But he held that the Society
was owner of the property, but not more than that ; and
that questions regarding {e.g?) the Holy Communion and
the time of services were matters for the chaplain and the
Bishop, and not for any Society, and that local questions
concerned the people, the Bishop, and the chaplain.f
{U) Control and Disposal of Church Collections. —
The question of the control and disposal of Church Collec-
tions involved reference to the responsibility and position
of churchwardens and church committees or councils.
Churchwardens have been appointed since 1634 (see p. 25)
in our mercantile chaplaincies, primarily to deal with matters
* The Bishop's words appear to be based on the fact that such help
is one of the declared objects of both Societies, and that both hold and
receive money from Church people for this purpose.
t It will be seen that Bishop Collins' judgment as to the position of
patrons in whom churches are vested repeats that of Bishop Sandford
(see p. 120) ; and it is to be recorded that the Bishop of London as such
a patron acts strictly in accordance with it.
CONFERENCE AND SYNOD, 1905 199
financial and to make reports when necessary to the Bishop,
but necessarily without the civil duties devolving upon
churchwardens in England. Church Councils followed much
later. Their primary object was to safeguard the property
of the chaplaincies, not to manage the affairs of the con-
gregation. As the Diocese came more into touch with Church
life at home, and Societies entered the field, and as wealthy
congregations gathered in the Riviera and Italy, it soon
followed that Societies attempted to annex for their work
(and especially to meet the cost of chaplaincies) or to dis-
pose of the collections made in churches of which they were
patrons and in " season chaplaincies." And representatives of
innumerable good causes endeavoured to secure a hearing
and funds in chaplaincies and churches as if they were
" unworked goldfields from which they had a right to draw
supplies," and put pressure on chaplains and churchwardens
to give facilities for their doing so. In this matter in par-
ticular definite guidance was required, and the hands of
churchwardens needed strengthening.
Churchwardens. — In speaking of churchwardens Mr.
C. H. Lowe said that the office was " God's work, and not
man's," and that the disposal of alms collected, as of money
given to God, was a matter which called for the really
prayerful care of the congregation. The Bishop endorsed
this, and distinguished the function of churchwardens from
that of a council. He laid down that the churchwarden is a
spiritual officer, the recognized representative of the people
in spiritual things, whom, as such, the church committee
never could, and never ought to supersede.* Churchwardens,
* The Bishop was frequently called on to lay down the functions of
churchwardens. This he did as follows : — (i) The churchwardens have
the entire charge of the church during the time of divine service, and are
responsible for the seating of the congregation and the preservation of
good order. (2) They are to render all possible assistance to the chaplain
in the performance of his duties, and especially when, on his first arrival,
he is of necessity ignorant of persons and things. (3) It is their duty to
report to the Bishop anything in the moral conduct of the chaplain or the
porformance of his duties which renders such report necessary, and to
bring to his knowledge anything of importance in the general state of the
congregation or chaplaincy. (4) They have charge of the funds, are to
^00 BISHOP COLLINS, 1904-191 1
as authorized officers, represent the people to the Bishop, with
whom he deals as such, and whom he accepts also as his own
officers. As in England, they do not, not even the warden
whom the chaplain appoints, represent the chaplain ; *' if the
chaplain cannot represent himself, he will never be re-
presented " ; and it is the duty of the chaplain so to exercise
his office of choosing a churchwarden as to secure the repre-
sentation and protection of a minority, and so to try to secure
the good of all. The church committee deals with external,
not spiritual, things, and with local concerns, with which
bodies such as Societies or Trustees in England have no right
to meddle. But no power could be recognized as residing in
a church committee which declined responsibility for finance.
As to the disposal of church collections Bishop Sandford
had long before directed the Diocese that the principle of the
Prayer Book should be observed, viz. that their disposal
rested with the chaplain and churchwardens on consultation,
with appeal to the Bishop in case of difference. This was
assumed at the Conference. One, who spoke from great
experience, said, " The churchwardens will naturally be
consulted by the chaplain as to how collections are to be
applied." But it was the pressure from outside to obtain col-
lections that the Conference specially felt. " I fail to see," said
the speaker just referred to, " on what principle it is assumed
that the churchwardens, or perhaps the trustees,* have the
post the amount of the collections, Sunday by Sunday, to distribute them
in accordance with the plan laid down ; and to render a yearly account.
Churchwardens have no power whatever in regulating the services in the
church or chapel. This remains entirely in the hands of the chaplain,
subject to the provisions (i) that the general character of the services is
not to be changed by individual chaplains, and (2) that an aggrieved
person has always the right of appeal to the Bishop on the subject.
* It is not possible to grasp the point of the speaker's words without
reference to the " Regulations " of the Societies regarding collections in
the season chaplaincies. That of S.P.G. is, " Chaplains are requested to
note that (except in special cases by the express vote of the Society) the
whole of all the offertories and collections at the Season Chaplaincies is
for the Society's Continental Chaplaincies Special Fund." The corre-
sponding regulation of C.C.C.S. is even more stringent, and is regarded
as "Private" by the Society. In justice to both Societies it must
be remembered that they undertook linancial responsibility for the
CONFERENCE AND SYNOD, 1905 201
sole right to dispose of the alms collected in church." No
such principle is indeed adducible, nor did any of the repre-
sentatives of Trustees or Societies who were members of the
Conference attempt to adduce one. The Bishop spoke
clearly on the subject of " outside collections." Some such
collections — for Foreign Missions, for Diocesan work sucli
as the Gibraltar Mission to Seamen and the new Chap-
laincies Sustentation Fund, the Sick and Poor, there should
always be ; "I must hold that the chaplaincy that gives
money to no purpose whatever but its own affairs has not
learnt the rudiments of the Gospel of Jesus Christ." But
with regard to money-collecting campaigns, he declared he
would allow no one to make collections in Riviera Churches
without his express permission as Bishop (meaning that
preaching by deputations with collections in view required
his licence) ; and it may be added that consistently with this
he refused in 1908 to sanction a preaching and collecting
tour for which his permission was sought by the secretary of
a Society.
The whole discussion greatly upheld the right of our
congregations through their representatives, the church-
wardens, with the chaplains, to control the disposal of the
collections, and assured them that in cases of difficulty the
Bishop would be ready to give his decision.
chaplaincies, and that in many season chaplaincies the migratory
character of the congregation made it difficult to appoint churchwardens.
The present Bishop has not been requested to sanction the " Regu-
lation " of S.P.G., and has declined to sanction that of the C.C.C.S. on
several grounds — as being inconsistent with the principle that the con-
gregation shall have a real share in the disposal of their oflerings ; as
calculated to drive the Diocese out of the sight and interest of the
congregation ; as unnecessary, as the Society collects and holds funds
contributed for the purpose of meeting the cost of such ministrations ;
and on the ground that he cannot authorize as " private '" a direction to
chaplains to dispose in a certain way of offerings made by the congre-
gation in public worship without consulting them, which he believes is
calculated to check generous giving and cause friction and resentment.
These "Regulations'' therefore have no episcopal sanction in the
Diocese.
202 BISHOP COLLINS, 1904-1911
(2) The Services of the Church abroad ; special con-
ditions of the Diocese
In considering the discussion concerning The Services of
the Church abroad, it is to be borne in mind that the need for
it arose from the special conditions of the Diocese. These
differ largely from those of English parochial life, and demand
a real and free exercise of episcopal regulative control. Save
at Cannes, Mentone, San Remo, Florence, Rome, Constanti-
nople, and in Malta there is in our chaplaincies but one
chaplain and one church for congregations including wor-
shippers of all varieties of Church sympathies, custom, and
needs. Conditions of distances, usual local arrangement of
life, temperature, hotel life and travel, and the presence of a
greater proportion of invalids and elderly persons than in
most English congregations, materially affect the ministra-
tions of the clergy. It may be noted also that our services
have a special function of witness to members of other
Churches to fulfil, which does not rest on services in England
to the same degree. And further, the wide extent of the
Jurisdiction involves that chaplains frequently find it a slow
or difficult matter to obtain the Bishop's advice when in
perplexity.
Points such as these were brought forward in the course
of the discussion. The most important contribution to it
was made by the Rev. C. E. Plumb, then chaplain of St.
Paul's, Cannes (now Bishop of St. Andrews). He said
that the real difficulty was to justify the casual and un-
systematic way in which the religious needs of our brethren
abroad were in the past provided for; that our services
should be regarded as representative of the Anglican claim
to Catholicity,* both in their witness to other Christian
It will be remembered how frequently previous Bishops of Gibraltar
urged this, and how deeply they felt it. In this connexion the words
used by Bishop Collins a month before the Conference when (June 4,
1905) he was presented with a Cope and Mitre as a Diocesan gift, may
be quoted. He said that he " accepted the gift the more gladly because
It was now generally recognized that the wearing of the full episcopal
dress was in no sense of the nature of a partisan manifesto, but simply
CONFERENCE AND SYNOD, 1905 203
bodies and in their obligation on our own people ; witnessing,
on the one hand, to our desire for the unity of Christendom,
and, on the other, to our faithfulness to our own heritage in
the Catholic Church. We had acquiesced, no doubt for a
time, in a system of pure Congregationalism, involving
methods which ignored the rightful claims of other Churches,
and provided services which appealed only to a few of our
own people. But this is no longer so. The corporate respon-
sibility of the Church for our services is recognized by proper
authority. Our clergy hold the licence of a Bishop to whom
they are responsible. We have no more right than our
brethren at home to break or ignore clear and unambiguous
directions ; but in all matters of ambiguity we may well ask
for the Bishop's guidance as to the limits of our liberty of
interpretation, and the applicability of certain rubrics to our
work. There certainly are conditions in our work which
were never contemplated by the Prayer Book itself, and to
which its rubrics cannot apply ; and we clearly need to ask
the Bishop to whom we are responsible whether the rubrics
in question apply to us at all. Earlier in the Conference
Canon Wollaston had entered a protest against "outside
hands " attempting to regulate ministrations, and added,
" there is always an appeal to the Bishop, who can, if he
thinks fit, withdraw his licence, or at any rate remonstrate
with a chaplain who has done something unwise or likely to
cause offence. But lay control is inadmissible in an epis-
copal church."
No one was more ready than Bishop Collins to recognize
the special conditions of his Diocese. " There is really and
truly an exceptional element about a great deal of the work
abroad. Extraordinary circumstances require extraordinary
the natural thing to do in distinguished places and on great occasions.
And nowhere was it so fitting and right that it should be worn as by the
Enghsh Bishop in charge of the Anglican congregations in Southern
Europe, where it was desirable that we should show our fellowship with
the Churches of the countries in which we were living, and make it clear
that we claim for our bishops the very same episcopal character that we
have always claimed, as well now in the days when there was no breach
of communion between the Continental Churches and our own." —
A.C.M., 1905, July, p. xiii.
204 BISHOP COLLINS, 1904-191 1
action." In a place (e.g.) where all were dissenters and asked
for a service, it could not be said to be the primary duty of a
chaplain to conform strictly to the liturgical terms of the
Prayer Book, But, on the other hand, he knew the obliga-
tions resting on the licensed clergy, as subject to the law of
the Church, and bound by their oaths and declarations made
at Ordination and on receiving their licences. In cases of an
exceptional character he laid down that a chaplain would
frequently have to act as Ordinary, but as Ordinary of
CJmrch Law, not as Extraordinary, remembering on his
conscience and on his oaths of canonical obedience that he
do this faithfully, and that account of it should be given
to the Bishop afterwards. With such matters it was his own
office as Bishop to deal. They concerned the chaplains and
the Bishop, and not any outside body, such as a Society ; the
directions which such a body might give or views it might
hold did not concern the Conference.*
* On many points the Bishop gave directions in cases of exceptional
character. The most noteworthy was his dealing with the frequent
difificulty of communicating the sick. He sanctioned and authorized
(December 10, 1909) the Reservation of the Eucharist for the Com-
munion of the Sick in a small safe to be built into the wall of the Mortuary
Chapel adjoining St. Paul's Church at Cannes, to the north side of the
Altar : with the proviso that it is to be reserved in both kinds, to be
renewed at least once a week at the time of some ordinary Celebration,
and to be used for the purpose of the Communion of the Sick solely and
exclusively ; and further that this Reservation for the Sick is not to
be made a pretext for depriving any sick person who shall desire it of a
private Celebration, except in extreme cases in which this could not
be arranged without grave irregularity.
This is the best place to record the guidance he gave as to the situa-
tion created by the passing of the " Deceased Wife's Sister's Act " in
1907. He dealt with this in a Pastoral Letter, "distinguished by its
extraordinary acuteness and grasp." After declaring that the Church's
law remained unchanged, and setting out the difference in regulations as
to marriage in force in different parts of the jurisdiction, he directed the
civil chaplains in Gibraltar and Malta, and chaplains in Russia, neither
to celebrate such unions nor to suffer them to be celebrated in their
churches, and that elsewhere benediction of such unions should neither be
given nor allowed in our churches. He then directed that persons
civilly married under the provisions of the Act were not to be repelled
from Holy Communion on that ground alone ; and that all cases were to
be reported to the Bishop. Connected herewith was his direction as to
CONFERENCE AND SYNOD, 1905 205
The Rubrical Requirement as to the Number of
Communicants. — One such matter in particular was dis-
cussed — the rubrical requirement as to the number of com-
municants. In the discussion Dr. VVickham Legg said, with
reference to dispensing with this requirement, " I would
venture to think that it is a very important rule indeed
that the Eucharist can only be celebrated in an assembly,
and that that assembly cannot consist of less than three
persons. I believe that when the Church of England put
this rule at the end of the Holy Communion Service in
the Prayer Book, it was really following the ancient rule,
which, I believe, did prevail over the whole of Christendom.
Whether it would be possible to dispense in certain circum-
stances with that rubric is a matter which is not for me to
discuss. But I think that before the question is raised, or
before it is put before authority whether it should be dis-
pensed or not, the fact that it is, or was the rule all over the
Christian world that the Eucharist must be celebrated in an
assembly of two at the very least should be put before the
conscience of the Church." On this the Bishop, after en-
dorsing Dr. Legg's plain statement of the guiding principle
in the matter, said, " My own opinion, without any doubt
at all, is that the rubric which speaks of four, or three at
least, in a parish of only twenty persons [of discretion to
receive the Communion], really meant that where a parish
contained more there were to be a great many more com-
municants. I think that that was the idea with which the
rubric was made. But, however that may be, there is no
question at all about the principle that the Eucharist was
intended to be celebrated in an assembly of communicants.
But, on the other hand, it does not of necessity mean that
every member of the assembly will communicate on that
particular occasion. It is not justifiable, if there is an
assembly present, and there are two, or even only one who
Banns of Marriage — that the Blessing of marriages should be only after
calling of Banns (which is primarily not statutory but canonical) in order
to prevent the use of the service of the Church in cases in which it would
be unfitting. (The Pastoral is given in A.C.M., 1907, November,pp. xiii. ff.
See also re Banns, A. CM., 1909, May, p. xiv.)
2o6 BISHOP COLLINS, 1904-1911
is going to communicate, to refuse to celebrate ; especially
under the exceptional circumstances with which many of us
have to deal. But I wish that more of us would teach our
people about Spiritual Communion, and call their attention
to the third Rubric at the end of the Office for the Com-
munion of the Sick." *
* The Bishop was requested to give his counsel as to the observance
of rubrics to the Riviera Clerical Society in December, 1907. In response
he said " that primarily, at any rate, rubrics were not so much a direction
to the minister, as a statement of what, as a matter of fact, was done
next. They were, really, memoranda for those who had to perform the
service. There were rubrics in the ancient liturgies ; but when they
were first formulated they were not incorporated into the text, but formed
a book by themselves— an Ordo or the like. Subsequently they were
introduced into the service-books, in the shape of rubrics as we know
them. In their origin, then, they were purely explanatory ; the proper
way of giving directions being by canon. By degrees they came to have
a directive force, and for us they had acquired further importance, in-
asmuch as, with the Prayer Book, they were imposed by authority, and,
again, as a Schedule of an Act of Parliament. When the primitive
character of rubrics, however, was borne in mind, it was obvious that
some of them could not be observed, not because we desired to be law-
less, but because, as a matter of fact, they had ceased to represent the
practice of the Church. The test, however, of observance or non-observ-
ance must always be, (i) What was really expedient? (2) What was
true to type.'' The Bishop then turned to some particular cases, {a)
With regard to the number of communicants which would justify a priest
in celebrating, he ought not to refuse to proceed with the office if even
a single person were present. Hardly anybody, indeed, at the present
day observed the rubric in its original sense ; for in visitation articles of
the seventeenth century the clergy were sometimes asked whether they
required the presence of three or four persons in a parish of twenty, or
more in proportion ; thus showing that it was intended to secure a really
large proportion of parishioners at every Eucharist. But, nevertheless,
we should remember that the Eucharist ought to be celebrated in an
assembly, and therefore were bound to do our utmost to secure more
communicants than one ; or failing that, to secure the presence of .others
of the faithful to join in worship, even if not communicating, {b) With
regard to shortened services, the Shortened Service Act was no justi-
fication for many of the abbreviations which were made nowadays, for
it referred only to services on week-days, and to additional services on
Sundays. The great principle to be kept in view was that the abbrevia-
tion should be made without mutilating the service in its essential
character" {A.C.M., January, 1908, p. 26).
CONFERENCE AND SYNOD, 1905 207
(3) The Synod of Clergy
The Conference was followed by a Synod of Clergy
holding the Bishop's Licence. The proceedings were private.
The Bishop propounded matters on which he wished to con-
sult the clergy, but directed them that they were assembled
not to debate, but to vote, and that his action was not bound
by their opinion. His " Book dealing with the Synod,"
preserved in the Bishop's records at Malta, which he mentions
in his Register, has disappeared. He states in the Register
that certain directions with regard to the admission to the
Eucharist of persons not communicants (presumably those
issued in 1904: see infra, p. 215) were promulged. It
was agreed that it was desirable that the Bishop should
make a Dean of Gibraltar, and that it was undesirable that
the " Lincoln Judgement " should be officially promulgated
as in force within the Diocese. The Bishop was delighted
with the Synod. He had held a Synod, and had taught his
clergy what the functions of a Synod are.*
The Bishop hoped to hold such Conferences and Synods
regularly, but pressure of events and his own ill-health,
causing repeated postponement, prevented this — to the great
loss of the Diocese. Much as such assemblies are needed
in other Dioceses, the range of this Jurisdiction makes them
almost imperative with us, for the determination of corporate
action, and equally for the heartening and welding together
of the whole. The results of the Conference of 1905 were
unmistakable. It strengthened the coherence and solidarity
of the Diocese, and its spirit of due independence ; it drew
from the Bishop guidance on many points ; it gave clergy
and laity together an opportunity of responsible self-ex-
pression ; it increased confidence in the Bishop and his office
as chief Pastor and Ordinary ; and it was the foreshadowing
of a more complete diocesan administration. The Synod
was a testimony to the clergy of the confidence placed in
them by the Bishop, and of his sense of the worth of their
judgment and counsel.f To any reader who will contrast
July 11-14, 1905, with the pictures drawn above of 1842-1873
the growth of the Diocese will be indeed striking.
* C. Reg., 114; Selwyn College Calendar (191 1), pp. 68 f.
t See A.C.M., 1905, September, p, 123.
CHAPTER XIII
THE EPISCOPATE OF BISHOP COLLINS (concluded)
RELATIONS WITH OTHER CHURCHES AND RELIGIOUS
BODIES
(i) The Eastern Chivches
THERE was probably no part of his charge as Bishop of
Gibraltar that appealed more to Bishop Collins than
the maintenance and furthering of friendly relations with the
Churches of the East. It was congenial to his temperament,
and he entered into it with zest. His wide learning and
adaptability to the demands of the hour enabled him to
move in it with a confidence which others less well equipped
and self-reliant must perforce envy. The Report for 1910
of the Eastern Church Association spoke of him as *' an
ideal Bishop to represent the Church of England." " We
could always feel that in his hands nothing would be done
which would in the least compromise the Catholic position
of the Church of England, while his grasp of the things
essential and his intense sympathy made it possible for him
to go a long way in meeting the Eastern Church."
The methods by which friendliness with these Churches
is to be advanced do not vary much from decade to decade.
The Bishop used them to the full — the interviews with
leading Ecclesiastics, presence at services, and the constant
exhibition of respect and sympathy. Thus, in October, 1904,
he visited the Patriarch Joachim III. at Constantinople, and
the Greek Archbishop at Smyrna ; in 1906 he visited the
Patriarch again and also the Armenian Patriarch, and at
Tiflis the Armenian Archbishop and the Georgian Exarch.
Of his interview with the CEcumenical Patriarch in 1906 he
RELATIONS WITH OTHER CHURCHES 209
has left a full record, which illustrates what can be done at
such a meeting. The sufferings of the Greek Christians in
Macedonia and affairs in Bulgaria made the times exceed-
ingly anxious for the Patriarch, and he appears to have
doubted whether the English Church and people adequately-
grasped the situation. The Bishop assured him of the
reality of the sympathy of English churchpeople, but strove
to impress on him that without fuller information it was
impossible for the case to be properly appreciated in England,
and also that the Church of England could not enter into
the political movements connected with the distress. The
Bishop, it may here be noted, was well aware that the
readiness of the Eastern Churches in non-Christian lands to
cultivate friendly relations with the Church of England is
not entirely free from motives of political interest. A sig-
nificant act of friendliness a few days after this visit showed
how the presence and work of the Bishop of Gibraltar is
regarded in the East. On September 23 the Bishop ordained
to the Diaconate, Mr. Charles H. Hughes of Fiume in the
Crimean Memorial Church. Both Patriarchs sent their
representatives to the service.
(a) The Bishop's journey to Kurdistan. — The
journey to Kurdistan in 1907 took the Bishop beyond the
limits of his jurisdiction, and strengthened the living touch
of our Church with Eastern Christendom. In it he visited
the aged Catholicos of the Armenians at Etchmiadzin, to
whom he bore a letter of introduction from the Archbishop
of Canterbury. The Catholicos, aged Sy, was even then ill,
and died a few days later. He then pressed on through
hardship and inclement weather by Van to Oudshanis to see
the work of the Archbishop's Mission to the East Syrian
Christians. He spent only two days with Mar Shimun and
the Mission. But the visit of an English Bishop to the
Head of the down-trodden Church which had appealed to
the Church of England for help and instruction took to it
at the very least a great expression of sympathy and
encouragement, and the Bishop himself must have learnt
much from it.*
* For the Bishop's account of the jouniey s^:'e /I. CM., 1900. January,
i'
2IO BISHOP COLLINS, 1904-1911
Marash and Ain-tab. — At some later date the Bishop
received an appeal for aid in educational matters from Marash
and Aintab (N.E. of Alexandretta), and entered into much
correspondence on the subject. The case was complicated
by the presence of American educational institutions there ;
and a personal visit was necessary before anything could be
seriously planned. This the Bishop was never able to under-
take ; and indeed the matter lies rather within the care of
the English Bishop in Jerusalem and the Mission under his
charge. But to Bishop Collins the opening was evidently very
attractive. He was also full of sympathy when in 1906 the
CEcumenical Patriarch expressed to him the desire that some
English students might be sent to prepare for the ministry in
the Theological School at Halki, in order that some among
us might know the Orthodox Church from within. This led
to the residence there of Mr. P. R. B. Brown (later a member
of the Archbishop's Mission to the Assyrians), who studied
for about a year as the guest of the Patriarch.
(d) The Lambeth Conference of 1908. — Behind the
Bishop of Gibraltar in all such efforts of reconciliation stands
the Church of England. The mind of the Anglican Com-
munion was shown afresh in the Lambeth Conference of
1908. In this, as has been said, Bishop Collins took a leading
part ; and he was a member of the Committee, of which
Bishop Wordsworth v/as chairman, which considered the sub-
ject of Reunion and Intercommunion. The resolutions of the
Conference based on the report of that committee are full
of significance ; and in particular Res. 62 is a practical guide
to many in the Diocese, and is the fruit of long labours of
the Bishops of Gibraltar with many others. It runs : —
" Res. 62. The Conference is of opinion that it should be
the recognized practice of the Churches of our Com-
munion (i) at all times to baptize the children of
members of any Church of the Orthodox Eastern
Communion in cases of emergency, provided that
pp. 11-23; March, pp. 42-53; May, pp. 75-8? 5 July, pp. 106-116;
September, pp. 131-139. This narrative was reprinted, with additions,
for private circulation as JVo^es of a Journey to Kurdistaii. See also
Dr. Mason's Life, pp. 100-128.
RELATIONS WITH OTHER CHURCHES 211
there is a clear understanding that baptism should
not be again administered to those so baptized ; (2)
at all times to admit members of any Church of the
Orthodox Eastern Communion to communicate in
our churches, when they are deprived of the ministra-
tions of a priest of their own Communion, provided
that {a) they are at that time admissible to Commu-
nion in their own Churches, and (^) are not under any
disqualification as far as our own rules of discipline
are concerned."
(c) Representative Character and Function of
English Clergy and Laity. — In the accounts here given
of the cultivation of closer relations with Eastern Churches
the actions of the Bishops of Gibraltar necessarily are pro-
minent. But it must never be forgotten that the maintenance
and advance of such intercourse does not rest with Bishops
and scholars alone. The English chaplains, mercantile com-
munities, travellers and governesses have a true and great
part to play herein ; and the more the English Church can
minister to her children in South-east Europe and Asia
Minor, filling them with her patience, spirit and consideration,
and train them in the truth as she has received and holds it,
the better will they play it. The slow but penetrative in-
fluencing of public knowledge by her own representatives,
clerical and lay, is indispensable for bringing the masses of
the Eastern Churches into appreciation of the English
Church. Bishop Collins was happy in leaving in our chap-
laincies at Athens, Smyrna, Constantinople, Odessa, Hughe-
sovka, and Baku clergy who realized this ; and such realization
must be always one great essential in English chaplains in
these regions. Without it, indeed, one important field of
their duty and interest, though difficult, will be lost to them.
(2) Relations with the Roman Catholic Church
{a) The Lambeth Conference of 1908. — To the
Roman Catholic Churches approach continued difficult. The
attitude of the Anglican Church found a definite expression
in Resolution 66 of the Lambeth Conference of 1908 : —
212 BISHOP COLLINS, 1904-1911
" The Conference is of opinion that it is of the greatest
importance that our representatives abroad, both clerical
and lay, whilst holding firmly to our own position,
should show all Christian courtesy towards the Churches
of the lands in which they reside and towards their
ecclesiastical authorities ; and that the Chaplains to
be selected for work on the continent of Europe and
elsewhere should be instructed to show such courtesy."
Bishop Collins himself went a step further than his prede-
cessors in attempting to show this courtesy. " He was unfail-
ing," writes Dr. Mason, " in his respect for the Roman Catholic
prelates in whose dioceses he ministered. He called upon
them, and explained that his work lay solely among English
people, and that the English Church has no desire to prose-
lytise. He seldom failed to obtain a kindly response." * But
no striking incident occurred to characterize these years in
this respect, save the outbreak of feeling at Barcelona arising
from the building and consecration of the English Church
(see supra, p. 185). The fact cannot be disguised that in the
western portion of the Jurisdiction the removal of prejudice
and advance in mutual understanding must call for infinite
patience, and that the furtherance of understanding must rest
largely on the attitude and conduct of local clerical and lay
representatives of our Church, as the 66th Resolution of the
Lambeth Conference just quoted implies. It will be long,
in some quarters, before the prejudices due to connexion
of our people with a Protestantism which excites much
resentment, but which has never been acknowledged by the
Bishopric of Gibraltar, are dispelled ; for their roots go deep
into the genius of the people, and are connected with ques-
tions social and political. These prejudices thus rooted make
the attitude of our representatives, clerical and lay, congre-
gations and individuals, towards movements of reform and
divers "missions," extremely difficult, and render imperative
an unambiguous and whole-hearted loyalty to the Anglican
Church on the part of her children. Bishop Collins himself
felt the keenest sympathy with all reforming movements, and
manifested it towards the Waldensians and the Lusitanians.
* Life, P» 77'
RELATIONS WITH OTHER CHURCHES 213
He was particularly interested in a reforming congregation
at Reggio ; but that congregation perished in the earthquake
of December 28, 1908, as well as Mr. Huleatt, chaplain at
Messina, who was in some way connected with it. But the
exact nature of the connexion of either Mr, Huleatt or the
Bishop cannot be stated, as the records disappeared in the
cataclysm.
{d) Reforming Movements in Italy and the Penin-
sula. — But during the episcopate of Bishop Collins these
movements in Italy and the Peninsula did not occupy the
attention of Church-people as in the days of earlier Bishops
of Gibraltar. Much of their original energy had passed away.
In Italy, if their influence continued to spread as leaven beneath
the surface, externally it was less apparent and aggressive,
and the lack of leaders was marked. In the Peninsula
the Irish Bishops had undertaken a certain directive respon-
sibility, which made more clear, if it could be, the duty of the
Bishop of Gibraltar and his clergy to confine their ministra-
tions to prescribed limits. The gradual shrinkage of the Old
Catholic movement in Italy, and Bishop Collins' innumerable
interests, ever-growing diocesan cares and work, wide travel
and failing health combined sensibly to reduce the place
which all such movements could claim and fill in his concern
as Bishop of Gibraltar.
The great need of cautious patience, and the wisdom and
worth of Bishop Sandford's long experience and policy is
shown in another Resolution (69) of the Lambeth Conference
of 1908, running thus : —
Res. 69. " With a view to the avoidance of further ecclesi-
astical confusion, the Conference would earnestly
deprecate the setting up of a new organized body in
regions where a church with apostolic ministry and
Catholic doctrine offers religious privileges without
the imposition of uncatholic terms of communion,
more especially in cases where no difference of language
or nationality exists,"
214 BISHOP COLLINS, 1904-1911
(3) Need of Diocesan, congregational, and individual
loyalty to the Chtirch of England, especially in
relation to Nonconformists
In this connexion it is necessary to emphasize the fact
that " it is of the greatest importance that our representatives
abroad, both clerical and lay," should "hold firmly to our
own position," of which Res. 66 of the Lambeth Conference
of 1908 {supra, ■^. 212) speaks. The representatives of our
Church are not only our resident communities and their
churches and chaplains ; but equally in western South Europe
our sojourners and visitors, both clergy and laity. The most
significant way in which these and all can "hold firmly to
our own position" is by an open acknowledgment of the
obligations as to life and worship which their Church lays
on them. They abandon it as significantly by failure to give
such witness ; and by such abandonment they compromise
the Diocese and the chaplaincies which bear the burden
of permanent vindication of our position. This is too often
forgotten by many Anglican Churchpeople through either
a traveller's curiosity or interest in the worship of the Roman
Church. At the Conference of 1905 the Rev. C. E. Plumb
said, " Our services, and our attendance at them, are a witness
of our belief in our own branch of the Church. We may
rightly claim to worship with others from time to time under
special circumstances ; but to be present at a Mass where we
are refused communion can never in normal conditions be a
substitute for a Eucharist in which we have a right to share,
and which is also provided by the care of our own Church.
We have a right to complain that clergy and laity abroad so
often weaken our hands, and sometimes weaken their own
positions, by their actions in this respect. We are not in
communion with the Roman Catholic Church in England,
and are excommunicate in France or Italy ; and arguments
which base our Catholicity upon geographical accidents
merely are equally fatal to that claim whether at home or
abroad." It is not easy for the visitor to South Europe, intent
on seeing and learning all he can, and on getting all recreation
of mind and body, to grasp how seriously his conduct in this
matter may compromise the position of his Church, and make
RELATIONS WITH OTHER CHURCHES 215
It difficult for it, through its standing representatives, to claim
its proper place as Catholic and Apostolic. There is no way
of making that claim understood so effective as the regulation
by it of life and worship.
The due maintenance of our own position is an even more
delicate matter with regard to bodies of Nonconformists in
South Europe, In most of our mercantile communities, both
old and new, Nonconformists belonging to various bodies, and
in particular Presbyterians, are numerous, and have in several
places chapels and zealous and able ministers. It need hardly
be said that among visitors and tourists their numbers are
proportionate to numbers at home. In many places in Italy,
France, and the Peninsula these bodies of Nonconformists are
in intercourse with local reforming movements ; and this in-
evitably demands serious consideration on the part of Anglican
Churchpeople, In all places in the Jurisdiction — and they are
many, from the Atlantic to the Caspian — where Dissenters
are without the ministrations of their own ministers, the English
Church has striven to serve them with a generous charity.
This finds expression in Bishop Collins' Direction, dated from
Smyrna, November 15, 1904: —
"The plain rule of the English Church is that ' there shall
be none admitted to the Holy Communion, until such
time as he be confirmed, or be ready and desirous to
be confirmed.' In future this rule is to be strictly
carried out, so far as members of the English Church
are concerned. But it would not be equitable or
charitable to repel from Communion those who have
been admitted without Confirmation in times past ;
and my direction is that whilst such persons are to
be exhorted to come forward for Confirmation, they
are not to be repelled from Communion. As regards
persons who are not of our own Church, it is an old
and laudable custom that the English chaplaincies
abroad should take care, as far as possible, of those
who would otherwise be neglected. In pursuance of
this custom there have been admitted to the Holy
Communion, as guests, such communicant members of
other churches or denominations as have no places of
2i6 BISHOP COLLINS, 1904-1911
worship of their own to resort to, and would otherwise
be left unprovided for. In my judgment the practice
should not be interfered with." *
This wise generosity has not failed to win gratitude and
appreciation, and has served to show to many the true nature
of the Church of England.
At the Conference of 1905 Bishop Collins said that it
would not be wrong to pray with any men ; and that were he
in a place where all were Dissenters, if they asked for a
service, he should not hesitate to hold an extemporary service
for them ; and that under such circumstances he was of
opinion that it could not be said to be the primary duty of
a chaplain to conform strictly to the liturgical terms of the
Prayer Book. But he was careful to add that in some cir-
cumstances it might be misleading to worship with Dissenters
as it might be misleading to go to Roman Catholic services ;
and in answer to the question " May I go to Dissenters'
Communion?" he replied, " Undoubtedly not. The Church
has never set itself to determine the question whether the
ministrations of those who have not been episcopally ordained
are valid ministrations or not : the Catholic faith does not
consist in negations. But we know that we possess the
Apostolic ministry, and we have no right whatever to
jeopardize that which we have by treating those who have
it not as though they have it." And in the face of the
Roman claims, and the grandeur and the future of the
Anglican Church as " the potential mediator between great
communions, the rallying point for dififerent standards of
faith," the gravest duty rests on all Anglicans in South Europe
to subordinate loyally personal and individual inclinations
and impulses and even needs of the moment, in order that
that position, especially in South Europe, m 
