Ecclesiastiques

William Bright Regius Professor of Ecclesiatical History at Oxford and Canon of Christ Church. Two Autograph Letters Signed to Philip Jacob Archdeacon of Winchester. one with long discussion of Christmas. With signed conclusion of third letter.

réf. 25041 — One dated 'University College Oxford / Innocents Day 28 December 1866'. Another on letterhead of Christ Church Oxford 'Whitsun Monday'. The last without date or place. Excellent affectionate and eloquent content including a moving expression of the conventional Victorian view of Christmas. See Bright's entry in the Oxford DNB. A total of eight pages six of which are closely written. Items One and Two addressed to ‘My dear Jacob’. Item Three is incomplete. ONE: ‘Univ Coll / Innocents Day 1866.’ 5pp 12mo. On bifolium. Bright’s signature ‘W. Bright’ and the conclusion of the letter i.e. the fifth page are written crosswise at the head of the first page. He begins by stating that Jacob’s letter ‘was a very good companion to one which I received from Newbolt’. He spent ‘a very happy Christmas’ at ‘SS Phil. James and Merton’. The following passage gives an indication of the letter’s quality: ‘It was striking to enter the former church at 7.30 when I went to take the first of the three celebrations and contrast the dim soft twilight outside with the splendour of the sanctuary lit up by sixteen candles and with the altar in its radiant Christmas garb. You remember how Liddon accounts for the use of the highly dogmatic and gospel rather than of any more historic or narrative selections; - Christmas is the day on which owing to the immeasurable condescenscion and the circumstances of infancy and poverty which surround it the Church owes and in fact cannot refrain from rendering a special recognition of the Divinity of the Virginborn. I never felt that so much as when I had to repeat the closing words of that interdiction to S. John’s gospel at that time and place.’ He praises ‘the best skill of the 16th century’ remarking that ‘the most accurate statements of doctrinal truth are precisely the forms most full to Christian minds of devotional power’ adding ‘I am always sorry when good men like Archd. Churton & Sir R. Palmer fail to see the immense advantage of exact orthodoxy in hymns or prayers’. In another paragraph discussing Christmas he writes: ‘I do not htink that its joy is as triumphant as the “Paschale gaudium” but it has in it a character of peculiar & exquisite sweetness: the secret of which I take to be that it unites all the tender and pathetic associations of infancy and motherhood and of a birthday with the intense convictions that express themselves in the worship of Our Lord see the Adeste Fideles. How deeply one pities this week that poor unhappy apostate at Pietermaritz.’ The reference is to Bishop Colenso. He describes the service at Merton in great detail before expressing great sympathy with Jacob’s ‘difficulties as to Church restoration in a rural parish. What is the right way I wonder of restoring’. He ends with affectionate words about their friendship. TWO: ‘Whitsun Monday’. 2pp 12mo. The commencement of the letter only. He had received the news of Jacob’s ‘new prospects’: ‘Witney will grieve - but you could not have declined such a call.’ He will keep a look out for a curate but is ‘greatly pressed by various occupations’. Signed ‘W Bright.’ THREE: Conclusion of letter only hence no date or place. 2pp 12mo. On single leaf. Signed ‘W Bright.’ Cuts in: ‘. secret of Edward King’s influence as Principal. One sees better what he is by observing his intense pastoral love as it comes out in his dealings with his parish boys and young men.’ Later he writes: ‘I thought S. Augustine’s phrase Ama et fac quod vis might be the motto of his ministry: and when he reclined under a tent for two or three hours watching a cricket match with a playful word for each boy or man who came back from his innings I knew that all this was part of his work.’ He continues with reference to ‘Charles Martin and Talbot’ Cuddesden Alfred Pott. ‘Hall has seen Bp Gray who told him that if Mr Butler went out to Nolet he would be received by the great majority of clergy and communicants: but that the fury of the heretical and irreligious body would make his life almost a life of martyrdom.’ He continues: ‘I had what I esteem the honour the day before yesterday of a letter from Miss Yonge. the author Charlotte Yonge I always think she is one of the best teachers last word underlined I ever had.’ One dated 'Univ[ersity] Coll[ege, Oxford] / Innocents Day [28 December] 1866'. Another, on letterhead of Christ Church, Oxford, unknown