Abstract
The long reign of Queen Victoria saw a transformation in the organization, structure and character of the Church of England. Having emerged just a few years previously from a constitutional revolution that saw the end of the privileged and protected position it had enjoyed since the late seventeenth century – and the end of the ‘confessional state’ – with the removal of civil disabilities on Protestant Dissenters and Roman Catholics, the Church underwent a process of far-reaching reform that, arguably, created the ‘modern’ Church largely as we know it. But reform led to internal division, and to the alignment of Anglicans according to the three competing ‘party’ identities – High or Anglo-Catholic, Broad or Liberal, and Low or Evangelical – that persist to this day. It was the task of Victoria’s archbishops to see this process through, and Michael Chandler, in his engaging new book, suggests that on the whole they did so successfully, and that the Queen and the Church were well served by them.
Chandler presents essentially a group biography, taking each archbishop in turn and giving a biography and a survey of the work of each figure. He is clear in his judgements, and accessible and open in his reliance on the scholarship of others. All of these individuals were remarkable men in their ways. But it is clear that he has an order of quality – by far the greatest, he thinks, was Archibald Campbell Tait, archbishop from 1868 to 1882, a man of extraordinary administrative and diplomatic ability who managed to contain – though not without much criticism – the divisive phenomenon of Ritualism. He is followed probably by Charles Longley (1862–68), convenor of the first Lambeth Conference in 1867, and Edward White Benson (1882–96), a formidable, brilliant character whose personal life has remained a complete enigma.
This is a well-written, readable introduction to the complexities of Victorian church history. It is not really a work for specialists. It is based entirely on secondary literature, and, for this reviewer at least, misses some important aspects of the subject, including a sustained consideration of Victoria’s own religious convictions and her consequent varying relationships with her archbishops and with the prime ministers who took the initiative in appointing them. Some important works of modern scholarship have been missed altogether in writing it, including books by Arthur Burns (on diocesan reform) and Peter Nockles (on the High Church tradition). There are some unfortunate errors – Victoria ascended the throne in 1837, not 1838 (p. 1), the abolition of the slave trade and of slavery itself are put the wrong way round (p. 7), and Hackney is definitely not to the south of Clapham (p. 8), among others. But these are minor slips in the main. This is a good read, and opens up an important field of study.