Mystical Geographies of Cornwall A Thesis by Carl Phillips (2006)

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.E.Gladstone, an open letter on the subject, setting out theusual arguments and need.The late Philpotts hopes for a diocese of Cornwall were finally realised through thesupport of his successor, Frederick Temple.In March 1875, seeing that no additionalstate funding would be made available for the new diocese, Temple had announced hisoffer of a proportion of his annual income in his case, �800 towards that of the newBishop.Lady Rolle of Bicton, on the River Otter between Exmouth and Sidmouth,offered �40,000, conditional on the total sum needed being forthcoming.The moneyhaving been raised within twelve months of Temple s initial offer, the Bill to establishthe Diocese of Truro was passed on 11 August 1876, and the Order in Council wasmade on 15 December, later that same year (Miles Brown 1964, 1976; Winter 1991;Everett 2003).It is to cultures of the mystical in the new Diocese that the discussionnow turns.4.2.2 A Sacramental Act : Anglo-Catholicism, the Diocese of Truro and theCeltic-Cornish RevivalRegardless of doctrinal differences, the clergy of the late nineteenth century Church ofEngland continued to take its pastoral task with deep seriousness and mountingefficiency, writes Hastings (1986: 34): New church buildings went up by the thousand,attendances steadily increased.England in the mid-Victorian age at least middle-classEngland can be claimed as one of the most consciously religious societies that everexisted. However, it was the Anglo-Catholic rather than the Evangelical wing of theChurch that had the greater influence upon Anglican theological doctrine (Hastings1986; Winter 1991).The relatively greater intellectual vigour of Anglo-Catholicismwas, to some extent, the consequence of the loss of Evangelicals to the more missionary-oriented overseas activities of the late nineteenth century movement.It was also aconsequence of the legacy of the mid-nineteenth century Tractarian movement: Anglo-Catholicism took many forms, some more, some less attractive, but itrepresented an intense desire to recover the deep sense of sacrament, ritual84and symbolism, the concern with prayer, mysticism and monastic asceticism,a theology of the Church, the consciousness of communion with the majorityof other contemporary Christians rather than of a self-righteous criticism ofthem, the willingness to listen to the whole past (rather than Scripture andReformation alone), an openness to art, music and literature (Hastings 1986:81).The national campaign of Anglo-Catholic proactivity was replicated at the regional scalein Cornwall, with the separation of a new Diocese of Truro from that of Exeter in 1876,though the new Diocese remains not quite coterminous with Cornwall, incorporating asit does two additional parishes in Devon (Davies et al 1991).Interestingly, on the secondreading of the Bill to establish the new Diocese, the voting was 76 for and 23 against, the opposition consisting of radicals, Irish and Scots dissenters and some who, recallingthat the finances were to be voluntarily raised, opposed a State-nomination of the bishopin which the Cornish had no say (Miles Brown 1976: 20).Not only was the Diocesecreated at a time of Anglo-Catholic ascendancy, but the first Bishop of Truro, EdwardWhite Benson [see figure 4.3], was also of Anglo-Catholic sympathies (Miles Brown1964, 1976; Everett 2003; Williams 2004). Perhaps for this reason, suggests Winter(1991: 157-8), high churchmanship has been a prominent characteristic of CornishAnglicanism since [Benson s consecration in] 1877, and this, of course, has served tounderline the differences between the Methodist and Anglican traditions. The diocesewas made, and made itself, immanent through these differences.Benson was nominallya broad churchman rather than a high churchman; he could recognise spirituality whereit existed, and could write sympathetically about elements of Cornish Methodism.However, he had no doubts as to the primacy of sacramental religion.There was also an early interest, in the new diocese, in the antiquity of the Church inCornwall.The idea of the Anglican Church as the Catholic Church in England, identicaland continuous with the early Celtic Church, was agreeable to those who adhered to theTractarian movement:85Figure 4.3 [above]: Edward White Benson [1829-96],Bishop of Truro 1877-1882Figure 4.4 [below]: November, from Cornish Church Kalendar, 193386 The very first issues of the diocesan Kalendar [see figure 4.4; for more onthe Kalendar, see section 5.2], the very first addresses of the new bishop, arefull of references to the Celtic and medieval past.There were articles on theancient Celtic Church,& lists of Celtic dedications of the churches, and theirparish feast days& This interest carried on, and underlies a good deal of thepreaching and activity of the time.Parishes were reminded of their antiquity;it gave meaning to otherwise meaningless survivals; it helped towards adiocesan and county identity (Miles Brown 1976: 35).In this version of Church history, England was united with the Celtic Fringe.In 1882,Gladstone, himself of high church sympathies, nominated Benson to be the nextArchbishop of Canterbury; in 1893, Cornish churchmen met in protest against thethreatened separation of the Church in Wales from the Church in England as part ofGladstone s Newcastle Programme.The principal evidence of the replication of the national campaign of Anglo-Catholicproactivity at the regional scale in Cornwall was, as Miles Brown (1976) observes, thebuilding of Truro Cathedral [see figure 4.5] as a visible symbol of the new diocese.NewCornish church buildings from the earlier part of the nineteenth century were, as MilesBrown (1976: 6) describes them, rectangular boxes devoid of any architectural grace,or& with skimpy Gothick adornments like a child s toy fort [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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