Bishop of Lincoln's Defence

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume II, Issue 299, 16 May 1889, Page 4

Bishop of Lincoln's Defence

THE CLERGY AND THE LAW,

London, May 14.

The defence fund of the Bishop of Lincoln has been given a very popular tone, and it now amounts to about £22,000, some of the contributions being from Australia and New Zealand.

A London newspaper gives the fctiowing report of a portion of the proceediags in connection with the above ease :—The Aiohbishop of Canterbury and his assessors reassetnb.ed this moraiug at Lambeth Patace to hear the promised oanolusion of ,Bir Walter Phiilimore'a argument in sur.nort of tho Bishop of Lincoln’s protest against his j-atia. dktion. Sir Walter soon turned to what he termed the positive side of his argument, in dealing with wliioh he undertook 'a satisfy the Archbishop that the C Jurt of Convocation which could if necessary proceed to try a bishop, Coke s Institutes 6 f the Laws of “ d .. *“ hooted as laying f[ own that the jurisdiction was to deal with heresy and Khlims, and other more spiritual aLd ec-olesi-astioal cases. Of the mere spiritual ?” queried the Archbishop, “Yes,” replied Wir Walter, “that moans purely spiritual. An ecclesiastical court would not, of course, try a probate case,” But Convocation dealt with many things besides heresy, as counsel undertook to show. It dealt indeed, as he showed later on, like a secular court of the present day, with “forged letters.” First, however, he quoted the case of one WUHain Bartrey, a chaplain who in 1401 developed such an abandoned course of heresy that he was ultimately had) up before Convocation, tried, and sentenced to be burned, He was

f ried and condemned by the Primate with the assent and consent of the Archbishop and his suffragans and the clergy of the province, and the actual sentence was that the culprit should be committed to the fire in some public place, and caused to be ‘•burned n the same fire, in manifest example to other Christians and he was so burned. The case of forged letters was that of two men who were found to be engaged in making out forged letters of orders. They were tried before Convocation and dealt with. In 1421 one William Taylor was tried in the library at Lambeth Palace, the very room in which they were then engaged in discussing the case of the ;Bishop of Lincoln. Taylor was suspected of heresy. He was brought before Convocation, and the whole body deliberated, and with their approbation the Archbishop pronounced the sentence of the court in a formidable Latin document. Poor William at once showed signs of sorrow and repentence, and sentence was mitigated to imprisonment in the Bishop of Worcester’s prison And so the argument proceeded through various cases dealt with by Convocation. The Bishops yawned, and a lady, who had commenced an industrious note of the proceedings, as sentence followed sentence, read verbatim et literatim, in Latin, soon retired. Even the burning case fell flat, and the “ forged letters ” scarcely suggested a coincidence elsewhere. The whole court felt hopelessly dull. Dr Stubbs, who makes prolific notes, shook bis head, and gave it up, or confined his attention to a very occasional note. But Sir Walter continued his enjoy, ment of Latin, rarely condescending to a translation. True, early in the morning he did apologise for some of the Latin he was obliged to indulge in, much to the amusement of Bishop Temple. Having completed his citation of cases counsel] pointed out that they were all tried most formally by Convocation exactly in the way in which tho Court of Arches would try any clergyman for an offence at the present time, with a citation declaring a man contumacious if he did not appear, and with evidence, taken of course not by the whole body, but by commissioners deputed by the whole body, and finally sentenced by the Archbishop, with the consent of the Bishops, like any other act done in Convocation and with the consent of clergy.