3 December 1882 A.D. Archibald
Campbell Tait Dies—93rd of 105 Archbishops of Canterbury; 1st
Scots Canterbury; Opponent of Tractaphiles & Ritualists
Editors. “Archibald Campbell Tait.” Encyclopedia
Britannica. N.d. http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/580894/Archibald-Campbell-Tait. Accessed 10 Jun 2014.
Archibald Campbell Tait, (born Dec. 21, 1811, Edinburgh, Scot.—died Dec. 3, 1882, Addington, Surrey, Eng.), archbishop of
Canterbury, remembered primarily for his efforts to moderate tension in the Church
of England at the height of the Oxford Movement.
The son of
Presbyterian parents, Tait became an Anglican while a student at the University
of Oxford, where in 1835 he became a tutor at Balliol College. A year later he
was made a deacon, and for five years he was also a curate at two nearby
village parishes. In March 1841 he joined others in a written protest against
Tract 90 of the Tractarian (or Oxford) Movement, which was devoted to
recovering the High Church ideals of the later 17th-century church. In 1842
Tait succeeded Thomas Arnold as headmaster of Rugby School, where he improved
the prefect system. He became dean of Carlisle Cathedral in 1849, was active in
1850–52 in the royal commission that advised reform at Oxford, and in 1856 was
made bishop of London. Stressing reconciliation, he avoided partisan issues and
thus faced opposition from both evangelical and high churchmen, who, following
the program of the Oxford Movement, often offended the evangelicals by
introducing liturgical elaborations that appeared to be inspired by Roman
Catholic practice.
As bishop of
London, Tait strengthened the diocese by supporting efforts to construct new
churches and by founding the Bishop of London’s Fund to finance additional
clergy.
Becoming archbishop
of Canterbury in 1868, Tait faced at once the bill to disestablish the
(Anglican) Church
of Ireland; his statesmanship largely accounted for its smooth
passage through Parliament. High Church opposition continued, notably to his
support of the Burials Act (1880), which legalized
non-Anglican burial services in Anglican churchyards, and to his dislike for
the sternness of the Athanasian Creed’s clauses regarding salvation.
Tait’s major
successes were in his work on the royal commissions on ritual (1867) and as
spokesman for the Anglican church, a role in which he commanded esteem in the
House of Lords. His numerous writings include The
Dangers and Safeguards of Modern Theology
(1861) and Harmony of Revelation and the Sciences (1864).
No comments:
Post a Comment