Archibald Tait

Archibald Campbell Tait ( born December 21, 1811 in Edinburgh, Scotland, † December 3, 1882 in Addington, Surrey, England ) was a British clergyman of the Anglican Communion, and finally from 1868 to 1882 Archbishop of Canterbury.

Life

Studies and Dean of Carlisle

Originally from a Presbyterian family Tait occurred early the Scottish Episcopal Church and studied at the University of Glasgow. After he received a scholarship from the Snell Exhibition there in October 1830 he became a student at Balliol College, University of Oxford and graduated degree in classical languages ​​, ancient and Literatures ( Literae Humaniores ) with distinction from 1833. Subsequently, he became a Fellow and Tutor at Balliol College, next attended a seminary in 1836 and received the ordination to the diaconate. After his ordination as a priest, he became in 1838 curate of Baldon.

Due to rapid changes within the tutors shaft he at that time was also the one of the four tutors at Balliol College with the longest tenure and greatest responsibility. As an opponent of the Oxford Movement, he organized after the publication of written by John Henry Newman Tract XC 1841 the famous protest of the four tutors of Balliol College against the attempt to bring the Anglican Catholic underlying principles and early church orientations increased to advantage. Although he other hand, had sympathy for the liberal policies at the university, he took a leading role within this group.

In 1842, Tait successor of Thomas Arnold as headmaster of Rugby School, had this office but after a serious illness in 1848 to resign. In 1843 he married Catherine Spooner in Rugby. After he had recovered from the disease, he became the Dean ( Dean ) of the City of Carlisle appointed in 1849 and held this post until 1856. During this time he was also from 1850 to 1852 Member of the Commission of the University of Oxford and earned addition to an extraordinary pastoral work great services for the renovation of Carlisle Cathedral. In the spring of 1856 he suffered a severe personal blow as within five weeks five of his children died of scarlet fever.

Bishop of London and Archbishop of Canterbury

On November 22, 1856 he was ordained as the successor of Charles James Blomfield Bishop of London. As Bishop of London he continued the reorganization begun by Blomfield of the episcopal office with great effort and strong interest. While Blomfield particularly committed in church, Tait founded after his inauguration in 1863 the Bishop of London Foundation (Bishop of London 's Fund ). He spent a large part in London with the evangelism and was in particular an for an expansion of the pastoral work of the clergy of his diocese. Together with his wife he was instrumental in the construction of women's work and contributed a lot in the necessary organization of the Anglican sisterhoods. In addition, he conducted successful measures to manage and organize, trying to achieve through his with the Office of the Bishop affiliated membership in the House of Lords practical use for his work.

After he had in 1862 rejected the appointment as Archbishop of York, in 1868 he was the successor of Charles Thomas Longley, Archbishop of Canterbury and Primate of the Church of England and held this office until his death. His last years were marked by illness characteristics as well as the death of his only son Crauford Tait and his wife in 1878.

Work, achievements and controversies

Tait was instrumental in the redesign of the conditions of employment as a priest (1865 ), the new lectionary (1871 ) and the Law on burials (1880 ). On it went beyond the establishment of the Royal Commissions on rituals ( Royal Commissions on ritual ) in 1867 and of the ecclesiastical courts, known as the Ecclesiastical Courts, back in 1881. In addition, he was also crucially involved in the creation and implementation of the Lambeth Conferences.

However, on the other hand, he had little success in dealing with the later liberalism and the later Catholic tendencies of the Oxford Movement. Although he sympathized early even with liberal ideas, his views on matters of faith and religious rituals mostly of a practical nature were: He wished to secure peace and obedience to the law, as he saw it. After his sympathies made ​​him look useful for a movement, he saw himself forced to revise views. He expressed his appreciation for some authors of Essays and Reviews, but then joined in 1861, the censorship of this publication. A similar behavior was also seen in other cases, as in the case of the Bishop of Natal, John William Colenso in 1863 and the controversy surrounding the practice or abuse of the Creed of Athanasius the Great in 1872.

On the other hand, he saw himself throughout his episcopate confronted with katholizistischen flows, in particular in relation to religious rites. During his time as bishop, it came in 1859 to the riots in the town of St George in the East as well as in 1867 in St Albans. In 1877 he took part in the negotiations as an assessor in the Ridsdale case before the Privy Council and was more than any other bishop involved in the agitation against the confession in the years 1858 and 1877. His method was always the same: he made ​​an effort to litigate compliance with the law by the courts. When this failed, he tried to enforce the observance of the rules of a professor to secure the Church peace. He did not notice how much reason had " Ritualists " on their side: that they fought for practices which, they claimed, were covered by the rubrics in the Missal and that where sections have been left notoriously ignored, it does not do justice was to proceed only a group of offenders.

While others ignore this, Tait could only point to the relationship between the Church of England and the state. Because of this position, it could only come to a law relating to the dismissal of rebel cleric, which was implemented in 1874 with the Public Worship Regulation Act. However, Tait was not solely responsible for the regulations contained therein, but it was rather the result of agreements between the bishops and the president of the British Bible Association, Anthony Ashley -Cooper, 7th Earl of Shaftesbury. The implementation of the law inevitably followed: the clergy as Thomas Pelham Dale were subjected to a hearing before a new tribunal and settled not only by the ministry, but imprisoned. A widespread sense of outrage spread then not only among high churchmen, but also among many who had little or not at all interested in the impugned ritual practices. Tait then tried to mitigate the situation as in the dismissal of the priest of St Alban in Holborn. This meant that although the disagreement about the religious rites is not resolved, but was subsequently treated differently so that the Public Worship Regulation Act was virtually obsolete.

Source

Source of the article is, among other things, the detailed biography from Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 55 ( Tait, Archibald Campbell by William Henry Fremantle )

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