Henry Phillpotts

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Henry Phillpotts (1778 – 1869), Bishop of Exeter or "Henry of Exeter," as he was often called, was England's longest serving bishop since the 12th century,(1830 – 1869), one of the most striking figures in the English Church of the 19th century and one of the last of the pre-Reform bishops.

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Contents 1 Early life 2 Career 3 Diocese of Exeter 4 Character 5 Politics 6 Restoration of Convocation 7 Publications 8 Legacy 9 References 10 Citations 11 See also

[edit] Early life

Henry Phillpotts, D.D., Bishop of Exeter, was born May 6, 1778 at Bridgwater, Somerset, England, the son of John Phillpotts, factory owner, innkeeper, auctioneer and land agent to the dean and chapter of Gloucester Cathedral. One of twenty-three children, he grew up in Gloucestershire, and was educated at Gloucester Cathedral school.

Elected a scholar of Corpus Christi, Oxfordat the age of only thirteen, he took his B.A. at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, and his M.A. at Magdalen College in 1795, aged eighteen. He took holy orders in 1802, being ordained deacon by Bishop Randolph and priest by Bishop Majendie in 1804.

He was selected university preacher in 1804, in which year he published his Sermon on 5th November, delivered before the University of Oxford.

[edit] Career

In 1805 Phillpotts became vicar of Stainton-le-Street, County Durham, and in addition was appointed chaplain to Bishop Middleham, County Durham, in the succeeding year. For twenty years he was chaplain to Bishop Shute Barrington, in the diocese of Durham. He was appointed vicar of Gateshead in 1808, prebendary of Durham in 1809, and vicar of St Margarets, Durham, in 1810. After holding the rich living of Stanhope, Durham, from 1820, and the deanery of Chester from 1828, he was consecrated Bishop of Exeter in 1831, holding with the see a residentiary canonry at Durham which he secured permission to hold along with his bishopric, one of the last cases of the benefice in commendam by which medieval and later bishops had often profited.

Phillpotts recognised the need to look after his family, extensive as it was - he had 18 children. When he was offered the bishopric in Exeter he realised that the salary (£3,000) was not enough to support his family, so he asked to retain his current parish of Stanford-le-Hope, in Durham (as a non-resident), which would be worth an additional £4,000 a year. As a compromise he was instead offered the canonry at Durham which was worth a similar amount, and a post which he continued to hold until his death.

He was one of the last of a clerical aristocracy, which, whatever their origin, expected to live on a scale comparable to that of the nobility.

[edit] Diocese of Exeter

As bishop he was a strict disciplinarian, and did much to restore order in a diocese whose clergy had become extraordinarily demoralized.

As his diocese at that time extended from the Somerset and Dorset borders to the Isles of Scilly in Cornwall he wielded considerable power. Amongst his achievements were the creation, midway through his term, of a separate diocese for Cornwall,with a cathedral at Truro .

The bishop built himself in 1841 a palace at Torquay, Devon. Bishopstowe (now the Palace Hotel) served as the bishop´s residence, which he preferred as a home to the Bishop´s Residence attached to Exeter Cathedral. The gardens in the 25 acres of private land stretching to the sea are still a major attraction today together with the Bishop's Walk at the local beauty spot of Ansteys Cove.

Phillpotts was aware that his appointment to Exeter was not popular locally and knowing of his unpopularity he at times took measures to protect himself from it. He admits in a letter to Ralph Barnes, his secretary, on the 14th December 1830 to being "Cautious...in admitting adverse newspapers to my table, yet the caution has not prevented me from hearing of the extreme unpopularity of my appointment to Exeter."

1831 saw Phillpotts as the victim of the Guy Fawkes Night custom of burning effigies of clergymen; knowing his reputation he took action by requesting protection, thus the 7th Yeomanry Calvary filled the palace at Exeter, whilst the crowd in the cathedral yard burned Phillpotts in effigy;

".... hollow turnip as head and candle as nose, clad in mitre and lawn sleeves..." (Chadwick I, 1997, p 29)

[edit] Character

Bishop Phillpott´character was of the type that determined never to give up on a fight and he persisted in applying his standards. There were many ways that unscrupulous clergy could abuse the Episcopal patronage system, but:

"so long as Henry Phillpotts was Bishop of Exeter they avoided the Diocese of Exeter, for they knew that this doughty fighter would fight them to the end if he smelt something improper, whatever the cost to his pocket, however unfavourable the publicity and whatever the inadequacy of his own legal standing." (Chadwick II, 1997, p 212)

He was:

".... a genuinely religious man with his religion concealed behind porcupine quills, he constantly quarrelled in the House of Commons, exposing opponents' follies with consummate ability, a tongue and eyes of flame, an ugly tough face and vehement speech." (Chadwick I, 1997, p 217)

The bishop´s strong views and lack of inhibitions in promoting them at times gained him many enemies in key places:

"That devil of a Bishop who inspired more terror than ever Satan did...of whom, however, it must be said that he is a gentleman." (Lord Melbourne, as quoted in Newton, 1968, p173)

Phillpotts at times became unpopular with former friends; one such was Rev. Sydney Smith, a former Tory ally who went on to say;

"I must believe in the Apostolic Succession, there being no other way of accounting for the descent of the Bishop of Exeter from Judas Iscariot."(Lambert, 1939, 39)

The text concerning a woman who anointed the head of Jesus with a 'very precious' ointment was chosen by the Bishop for his sermon at the consecration on August 24, 1837 of The New Cemetery in Exeter. The occasion was reported enthusiastically in the local newspaper The Flying Post (August 31, 1837):

"In its language this sermon was most elegant‚ its delivery was a masterpiece of eloquence, and it was one of the most instructive and enlightened discourses that has been heard."

[edit] Politics

Phillpotts was an energetic supporter of the Tory party, even when it acted contrary to his views in passing the Catholic Emancipation Act of 1829 In the House of Lords, Phillpotts opposed the 1832 Reform Bill and most other Whig reforms. He was a high-church reformer in his own diocese, aiming to increase the prestige, efficiency and orthodoxy of the church organisation. He was well known for using litigation to achieve his aims and was an earnest administrator, for example, fighting hard to raise the minimum salary for curates in his Diocese to £50, seeking to increase the rights of the poor under the Poor Laws and to ease the plight of children employed in coal-mines and as chimney-sweeps.

[edit] Restoration of Convocation

One of Bishop Henry's greatest political battles was over the restoration of Convocation, which has developed into the General Synod (as it is now called). He was convinced that the Church needed to establish its rulings in a legislative body, and in a communication in May 1843 to his friend, the Rt Hon J.W. Croker, he explained:

".... I wish it to sit again, only for the purpose of synodically devising a better synod than itself; one, more like the synods of the early church – in one house, with less of power to the Presbyters – but more means of counsel and aid from them to the Bishops than their separate house gives. I need not tell you that Convocation is not the ancient Synod of our own Church. We need, – and must have – a legislative body, sitting for real business from time to time. It ought to consist of bishops either solely (in the presence of Presyters who should have a right, not to debate with them, but, hearing what they discuss, to represent by writing their opinions, when they think it necessary) or of bishops and such divines and representatives of the clergy, as shall be found necessary, securing a real preponderance to the bishops.... I am confident that it is hardly possible for us to go on long without restoring to the Church a real Church legislation.... There is not perhaps enough needing amendment in the Rubrics, of itself, to require a Synod. But of the Canons this cannot be said.... They must be altered if the Church is to last in England, under the pressure of all that is opposed to it in privileges (supposed or real) of Dissenters – and with the little of real power of restraint over its own members, even its clergy, which it at present has."

[edit] Publications

Phillpotts was renowned for his political pamphlets and the fact that he aired his opinions on every matter of current affairs, although he was not the greatest of diplomats:

"The House of Lords expected a humane and courtly manner of bishops and was horrified at the fury of his tone, at the incongruity between his violence and his lawn sleeves." (Chadwick I, 1997, 217)

His published works include numerous speeches and pamphlets, including those connected with his well-known Roman Catholic controversy with Charles Butler (1750–1832) and with the Gorham case, in which he was a principal player. He was a prolific writer of articles on matters of politics, social order and religion, propounding conservative and often controversial views. He was regarded as an opponent of Catholic emancipation, and on this theme published Letters to Charles Butler (1825), Letters to Canning (1827) and A Letter to an English Layman on the Coronation Oath (1828). However, he eventually approved of Peel's scheme for granting relief to Catholics in 1829.

[edit] Legacy

Dr. Philllpotts' position was that of the traditional High Churchman, with little sympathy either with the evangelicals or with the Tractarians, although he was considered to represent the conservative high church wing of the Oxford Movement and emphasized liturgical forms of worship, episcopal government, monastic life, and early Christian doctrine as normative of orthodoxy.

On the one hand, the famous Gorham judgment was the outcome of his refusal to give the living of Brampford Speke to George Cornelius Gorham (1787–1857), who had expressed disbelief in rebirth through baptism; on the other hand, he denounced the equally famous Tract XC in his episcopal charge of 1843. Though accused^{[citation needed]} of avarice and pluralism, Phillpotts was generous in his gifts to the church, founding the theological college at Exeter and spending large sums on the restoration of the cathedral.

An allegation made at the General Synod in 2006 claimed that Phillpotts was paid almost £13,000 (£12,729.5s.2d) in 1833 under the terms of the Slavery Abolition Act of 1833 as compensation for the loss of slaves from the Codrington Plantation that had formerly belonged to the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel when they were emancipated^{[citation needed]}. It has not been established that Phillpotts received any such funds, equivalent to more than one million pounds sterling in presentday value, nor what he might have done with them. Exeter Cathedral states that ^[1] Phillpotts was able to restore the Bishop's palace in a "most creditable manner" but both the office of the present Bishop of Exeter, Michael Langrish, and the Devon County Library (which holds Diocesan records), have stated that they hold no record of an involvement in the slave trade by Bishop Phillpotts.

Additionally, the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (published 2006), which requires extensive research to be carried out by all the contributors, with lists of all sources supplied, has no record of the bishop as having been a slaveholder or slaveowner, nor of any involvement in the slave trade, neither in his own name nor as a representative of the Church or the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel.

Phillpotts died on September 8, 1869 and is buried in the churchyard, near his wife, Deborah, née Surtees, at St Marychurch, Torquay.The church tower was restored in 1873 at a cost of £3,500 in the bishop's memory.

[edit] References

• Burns, Arthur. Henry Phillpotts in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford: University Press, 2004)
• Chadwick, Owen. The Victorian Church Parts One and Two: 1829-1856, 1860-1901 (London: SCM Press Ltd, 1997)
• Croker, Rt. Hon. John Wilson. Correspondence and Diaries (London: John Murray, 1884) Vol. III, pp 4–6
• Davies, G.C.B. Henry Phillpotts, Bishop of Exeter (London: Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge, 1954)
• Lambert, R.S. The Cobbett of the West (London: Nicholson & Watson Limited, 1939)
• Newton, R. Victorian Exeter 1837-1914 (Leicester: Leicester University Press, 1968)

[edit] Citations

[edit] See also

• Constance Kent case

Religious Posts
Preceded by Christopher Bethell	Bishop of Exeter 1830–1869	Succeeded by Frederick Temple