BISHOP BLOMFIELD

AND

HIS TIMES.

An Historical Sketch

BY THE

REV. GEORGE EDWARD BIBER, LL.D.,

PERPETUAL CURATE OF BOEHAMPTON.

"Nec vos moveat, fratres dilectissimi, si apud quosdam in novissimis temporibus aut
lubrica fides nutat, aut Dei timor apud irreligiosos vacillat, aut pacifica concordia non
perseverat. Prænuntiata sunt hæc futura in sæculi fine; et Domini voce, atque Apostolorum
contestatione prædictum est, deficiente jam mundo, atque appropinquante Antichristo
bona quæque deficere, mala vero et adversa proficere. Non sic tamen, quamvis novissimis
temporibus, in Ecclesia Dei aut Evangelicus vigor cecidit, aut Christianæ virtutis aut
fidei robur elanguit, ut non supersit portio Sacerdotum, quæ minime ad has rerum ruinas,
et fidei naufragia succumbat; sed fortis et stabilis honorem Divinæ Majestatis, et
Sacerdotalem dignitatem plena timoris observatione tueatur."-S. Cypr., Ep. lxvii.

Reprinted from the Churchman's Magazine.

LONDON:

HARRISON, 59, PALL MALL.
1857.

P R E F A СЕ.

THE idea of the following history did not originate with the writer himself. When it was first suggested to his mind by a literary friend, he felt at once all the delicacy of such a task-that of reviewing the career of a man still among the living, though functus officio. That man being, moreover, one to whom he had for years been privileged to look up as to his Ecclesiastical superior, he must have shrunk altogether from undertaking it, had it not been for a well-grounded confidence, which in the progress of his labours has not been disappointed, that the truth of history would not require him to pen one word inconsistent with the affectionate regard he cherished, and shall never cease to cherish, for his late Diocesan.

This he thinks it right to state in explanation, not only of the fact of his having taken in hand a theme of so much delicacy, but of the tone and spirit in which he has treated it. Bishop Blomfield was,

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PREFACE.

doubtless, no exception from the common rule, "Errare humanum est;" nor has the author felt himself called upon to suppress or to palliate those passages in his career which may be open to just criticism but neither has he felt it to be his duty,even if it could have become him to have done so,— to give to those features of his subject that kind of prominence which it is at once the fashion and the pride of the critical literature of the day to give to the failings and imperfections of the great and the good. He looks upon the spirit of detraction which pervades the productions of modern writers on public affairs and public men,—the tendency and the effect of which is to breed in the popular mind a vulgar and ignorant contempt of all who are placed in stations of superior power and usefulness,-as upon one of the chief sins of the age: and not only of its chief sins, but of its chief curses ;-for by a righteous retribution the effect of this indulgence of a spirit of injustice and ingratitude on the part of the public, is to scare away true genius and sterling worth more and more from the conduct of public affairs, and to cause the management of them to fall into the hands of stolid, selfish mediocrity, or of clever, scheming impudence.

That a spirit which even in regard to secular affairs is so reprehensible in its character, and so baneful in its effects, should, when displayed in matters affecting the Church, be tenfold more hateful and more pernicious, is a conclusion not to be

,

PREFACE.

resisted: but it is unfortunately one which does not always suggest itself to the minds of those who take a prominent part in the discussion of religious questions and of ecclesiastical affairs. Were it otherwis we should, assuredly, see less in the Church of the spirit of strife and contention, more of the spirit of love and godly concord. If we were more intent to mark in one another what is excellent and worthy of imitation,-to our neighbours' faults more blind, and more quick-sighted in noting our own, there would be less party hostility; differences which are now swelled into distressing magnitude would sink into insignificance; and our oneness with one another in Christ Jesus, that secret fountain of the Church's life and strength, would be more fully and more blessedly realized.

How far the author has succeeded in casting the narrative of the eventful period of our Church's history, during which Bishop Blomfield stands in the foreground of the picture, in the mould of these convictions, he must leave the judgment of his readers to determine. It has been his aim throughout, as regards Bishop Blomfield himself, to let his words. and actions tell their own tale; and, in general, to let facts speak for themselves. Not attached, himself, to any party in the Church,--having ever studiously kept himself from every religious tie and sympathy, except the tie which binds him to, the sympathy which links him with, the Church, the