h. "v^
 
 -J^a^/^-^j <Si. 
 
 A STATEMENT 
 
 OF THE I,ATE 
 
 PROCEEDINGS 
 
 LORD BISHOP OF CHICHESTER 
 
 AGAINST THE 
 
 WARDEN OF SACKVILLE COLLEGE, 
 
 EAST GRINSTED. 
 
 (NOT PUBLISHED.) 
 
 MDCCCXLIX.
 
 I 
 
 LONDON : 
 
 PRINTED BY JOSEPH MASTERS, 
 
 ALDERSGATE STREET.
 
 A STATEMENT. 
 
 Sackville College, in the town of East Grinsted, 
 was founded by Robert Sackville, second Earl of Dorset, 
 by his will, bearing date Februarys, 1609: — and is 
 mentioned by Dr. Willet, in his Synopsis Papismi, as 
 one of the most liberal foundations \Yhich have had 
 their oridn in the Reformed Church of England. 
 
 A Charter was granted by King Charles L, in the 
 year 1631 : a Corporate seal was given to the College : 
 and the Statutes, drawn up after the death of the 
 Founder by Lord William Howard and Sir George 
 Rivers, were confirmed and authorised by Act of 
 Parliament. 
 
 It consists of a Warden, six brethren and sisters, 
 and two Assistant Wardens : (the latter, householders, 
 resident in or near the town.) Besides these, six poor 
 widow^s are accommodated with rooms in the College, 
 but derive no further advantage from it. 
 
 On the 26th of May, 1846, the Earl and Countess 
 De La Warr (joint representatives of the Founder with 
 the Earl and Countess Amherst,) being anxious better 
 to provide for the spiritual as wxll as the temporal 
 welfare of the inmates of the College, appointed the 
 Rev. J. M. Neale, M.A., to the office of Warden, 
 
 B
 
 that post having once before been filled by a person 
 in Holy Orders. 
 
 But the arrangements of the Chapel would seem to 
 indicate that it was intended for the ministrations of a 
 Priest: there had been an altar; — the chancel was divided 
 from the nave by a roodscreen, bearing date 1619: — 
 and there were stalls within this screen, while the 
 seats for the poor people were without. It seems 
 probable that, when the Earl of Dorset was staying 
 in the College, his Chaplain read prayers, and admin- 
 istered the holy Communion ; while, at other times, 
 the Warden read prayers to the Collegians morn- 
 ing and evening. It is also not unlikely, from a 
 bench pinned into the east wall, and only removed 
 by the present Warden, that the — so called — Com- 
 munion was administered in the Chapel after the 
 form of the Directory. 
 
 It had also been generally understood that the 
 College, from its very nature, was exempt from epis- 
 copal jurisdiction. Half of the north side of the quad- 
 rangle w^as appropriated to the reception of the Earls 
 of Dorset on their way from their seat at Buckhurst 
 to London ; — and the portion so designed is to this 
 day known by the name of the Dorset Lodgings. In 
 the same manner, two halls were erected in the build- 
 ing : — one for the use of the brethren and sisters ; 
 — the other for that of the Earls, on their occasional 
 visits. It was, therefore, to be presumed that the 
 Warden, if in Orders, became ipso facto a kind of 
 Chaplain to the Patrons, — and, as such, was entitled 
 to officiate, in the College Chapel, without episcopal 
 licence. 
 
 Again, the privacy of the institution, both as 
 regards its outward construction, and its internal con- 
 
 :Uct:
 
 stitution, had always led to the same conclusion. It 
 might also be added that it has been customary to use a 
 prayer in the Chapel Service for the Patrons of the 
 College and their family — a thing inadmissible in a 
 public service. The fact of the Warden being in 
 Holy Orders, did not seem to affect the question ; for 
 if the Service in the Chapel were public in the case of 
 a Clergyman, it w^ere so also in the case of a layman, 
 and both were illegal ; and to assert that a Service was 
 public in a private Chapel, (for such it must be con- 
 sidered, as orders had been given that the College should 
 be closed during Service,) were a manifest contradiction. 
 
 The present Warden, on coming into residence, turned 
 his attention to the best means of rendering the charity 
 as effective as possible both to the temporal and spiritual 
 welfare of those with whom he was connected. 
 
 The first of these objects he endeavoured to promote 
 in many ways, which — although well known in the 
 town and neighbourhood of East Grinsted, and to 
 others ready and anxious to bear testimony to the 
 facts, — may, for obvious reasons, be omitted in this 
 narrative. 
 
 With regard to the spiritual welfare of the inmates 
 of the College, the Founder had thus ordered : — 
 
 Statute 6. "Item: that the said Warden shall 
 carefully see the said brethren and sisters morning and 
 evening to meet at a certain due hour in the Chappell : 
 there to pray, serve, honour, and praise Aln^ighty 
 God, according to the true intent and meaning 6f the 
 said Robert late Earle of Dorsett, expressed and men- 
 tioned in his last will and testament ; and the said 
 service and prayers there to be made by the said 
 Warden for the time, or such of his brethren as he 
 shall thereunto appoint."
 
 This statute, which, be it remembered, was con- 
 firmed by Act of Parliament, and, therefore, has itself 
 the authority of an Act, was, it appears, obeyed till the 
 late Warden, through ill health and infirmity, con- 
 tented himself with reading prayers twice a week, — on 
 Tuesday and Thursday mornings. 
 
 The present Warden, on his appointment, com- 
 menced the Services in the following manner. On 
 common days, morning prayers at 9 a.m., evening 
 prayers at 6 p.m. On Wednesdays and Fridays, the 
 Litany, additionally, by itself at 1 1 a.m. 
 
 On Sundays, the holy Communion was administered 
 in the Chapel at half-past nine, a.m. : — the Warden 
 and Collegians attended morning prayers in the parish 
 church at 11; — and after prayers at 6 p.m. in the 
 Chapel, the Warden preached. But, on the first 
 Sunday in the month, when the holy Communion was 
 administered in the parish church, it was not celebrated 
 in the Chapel. 
 
 On other holy days, besides morning prayers at 
 9 a.m., and evening prayers at 6 p.m., the holy Com- 
 munion was administered by itself at 11 a.m. The 
 Warden also frequently preached after evening prayers, 
 — either on the eve of a holy day — or Saturday even- 
 ing — or when a death in the College or other im- 
 portant event had occurred. 
 
 In order that these Services might be carried out, it 
 was necessary that the Chapel should be restored ; — 
 as from damp and disuse it was in a thoroughly dilapi- 
 dated state. This the Warden did, to some extent, at 
 an expense of about £100; — and, also, at his own 
 expense, provided lights and a fire during the time of 
 Divine Service in winter. 
 
 The Warden had all along — though believing that
 
 his position was legally tenable without it — been 
 anxious to procure episcopal licence: — and, accord- 
 ingly, in June, 1846, he had applied to the Patrons for 
 leave to solicit it from the Bishop of Chichester. 
 
 The Patrons, however, were of opinion that such a 
 proceeding was unnecessary, and couM not be taken 
 without injuring their rights and those of the College. 
 The Warden, therefore, though his wishes remained 
 the same, did not consider himself at liberty to carry 
 them out ; and he was the more disposed to acquiesce 
 in the decision of the Patrons, from having discovered 
 the following letter, addressed by the secretary of Dr. 
 Buckner, then Bishop of Chichester, to Mr. Palmer, 
 the late Warden. 
 
 Chichester^ 18th January, 1814. 
 Sir, — The Bishop of Chichester has desired me to say in 
 answer to your letter to his Lordship of the 3rd instant, that 
 he does not consider your office of reading prayers in Sackville 
 College to be subject to his episcopal jurisdiction. 
 
 I am, Sir, your obedient Servant, 
 
 (Signed) William Leeves. 
 
 In this state affairs remained for nearly eleven 
 months ; — the Services in the Chapel going on with 
 the utmost regularity ; and the whole tone of the 
 Institution rising in ^consequence of the pains taken 
 with it. On Michaelmas-day, 1846, the Earl and 
 Countess De La Warr officially visited the CoUege, 
 dined in the Hall with the brethren and sisters, 
 and attended evening prayers ; and during the winter 
 — a winter of remarkable severity — every attempt was 
 made by the Warden to alleviate the distress of the 
 poor, by inviting the largest possible number to the 
 Sunday dinners at the College, by occasional doles of 
 bread and beer in the College porch, and by placing
 
 8 
 
 the Hall, and his own parlour, at the disposal of the 
 Committee for the distribution of soup to the poor. 
 
 Towards Christmas, a Clergyman from the neigh- 
 bourhood of London, Mr. H., came to reside in the 
 neighbourhood of East Grinsted, but not in the parish, 
 nor in the Diocese. He visited Sackville College at 
 the beginning of February, and was, out of courtesy, 
 allowed to see the Chapel :— after which he called on 
 the Warden, and told him that he should feel it his 
 duty to present its arrangements to the Bishop."^ Mr. 
 H. kept his word ; and on the 8th of February, 1847, 
 addressed a letter to the Bishop, which did not reach 
 him till the 16th. After saying that he (Mr. H.) had 
 visited Sackville College, he proceeded thus : — 
 
 " On looking further about me, I found the Vulgate Edition 
 of the Scriptures, and a Roman Breviary. I should at once 
 have concluded it to be a Roman Catholic Chapel, had I not 
 found the English Bible, — though this was a Bible with 
 notes.^' 
 
 These charges will be explained presently ; — here it 
 is only necessary to remark that Mr. H. did not men- 
 tion the fact that there were plenty of Prayer Books 
 in the Chapel, besides one large one, on a lettern, 
 and another on the Litany desk, — but he implies, and 
 indeed more than implies, that there were no Prayer 
 Books, — for he says that his only reason for not thinking 
 the Chapel to be Roman Catholic, was that he saw an 
 English Bible in it : whereas, surely the presence of 
 Prayer Books in it must have been an equally good 
 reason for the same belief. The addition, though this 
 urns a Bible with notes, could have no meaning, unless 
 
 * The arrangements, if by this term be meant additions to the original 
 structure, being merely a wooden Cross on the rood-screen, and an Altar 
 with Cross and Candlesticks such as are to be seen in several churches in 
 the diocese of Chichester.
 
 it were intended to raise a prejudice in the Bishop's 
 mind, as if the Bible in question were not of the 
 EngUsh version, or at all events had Roman CathoUc 
 notes. The logical sequence of the sentence requires 
 this meaning. 
 
 The Bishop received the meaning that was intended ; 
 and on the 13th of March wrote to Lord De La Warr, as 
 one of the Patrons of the College. The following is 
 an extract from this letter. 
 
 " I need only mention that a casual visitor at the College 
 observed in that chapel a copy of the Latin Vulgate_, and an 
 English Bible with notes. Of this latter, the text may have been 
 that of our authorized version : but the Roman Breviary was 
 also found there : and this, together with the erection of a large 
 cross on the screen justify the suspicion that this Bible may have 
 been a copy of the Douay version, or of some other translation 
 of a Romanistic character." — 
 
 Here is Mr. H.'s inference put into words. 
 
 Lord De La Warr lost no time in requesting, as one 
 of the visitors of the College, some explanations of 
 these charges from the Warden. 
 
 It then appeared that a copy of the Vulgate was con- 
 stantly kept in the Chapel, and was frequently used by 
 the Warden, one of the brethren usually reading the 
 lessons. 
 
 With respect to the Breviary, (whatever degree of 
 blame was due if it had lain there for reference, and 
 intentionally) it appeared that the Warden was then, 
 and had been long occupied on a work treating of the 
 Liturgies and other offices of the Eastern Church : — 
 that his study was full of Liturgies and offices of all 
 sorts both of East and West ; that the Breviary in 
 question was frequently referred to by him ; that re- 
 pairs at that time going on in the Chapel, he was 
 
 c 2
 
 10 
 
 frequently in and out of that building : and it had 
 thus accidentally been left by him there. At the same 
 time the Warden protested very earnestly that, had the 
 case been otherwise, he was no more to be blamed than 
 if any other unauthorized book of Prayers or Hymns 
 had been found in the Chapel : as, for example, the 
 Selections of Hymns and the " Companion to the 
 Altar," so very frequently found in parish churches. 
 
 As to the Bible, it was an old one purchased about 
 1 790, by the then Warden, Mr. Knight ; and furnished 
 with " family notes " by the Rev. Thomas Bankes, 
 without date, but dedicated to the then Bishop of 
 Hereford, Lord James Beauclerk, and therefore pub- 
 lished between 1746 and 1788. It is, of course, the 
 authorized version ; the notes are violently anti-Roman. 
 
 With this private explanation Lord De La Warr was 
 satisfied : it soon appeared that the Bishop, to whom 
 it was communicated, was not. 
 
 On the 14th of April, J847, the Warden received 
 the following letter from the Bishop of Chichester : — 
 
 Palace, Chichester, 12th April, 1847. 
 Reverend Sir, — Having been informed that you have re- 
 cently come to reside at Sackville College, in East Grinsted, I 
 write to request that you will have the goodness to communi- 
 cate with me, before you officiate, if it be your wish to 
 officiate, in any church or chapel in this diocese. 
 
 I remain, Reverend Sir, your faithful Brother, 
 
 (Signed) A. T. Cicestr. 
 
 Rev. — Neale. 
 
 The Warden, in his reply, said, with respect to the 
 above letter, — 
 
 " If it were intended, as I cannot but fear it was, as a mark 
 of your lordship^s displeasure, I am deeply grieved that you 
 should have thought it necessary to pass such a censure on me :
 
 11 
 
 though, as far as the matter of fact goes, I have very seldom 
 officiated, and was not hkely to officiate, in the diocese of 
 Chichester.^' 
 
 And further on : — 
 
 "I should mention that, notwithstanding the exemption of 
 this College, I was very anxious to have had your lordship^s 
 licence before entering on the duties of Warden; and this I 
 thought might have been effected without compromising the 
 rights of the Patrons : I twice (at least) mentioned the subject to 
 Lord De La Warr : — and Mr. Sackville West^s reply was, 
 that the Patrons did not think the application for such a licence 
 desirable.'^ 
 
 To this letter the Bishop returned no answer, and 
 thereby apparently acquiesced in the claim of exemp- 
 tion on the part of the College, — which indeed up to 
 that time had never been disputed. 
 
 On the 7th of May, the Bishop held a confirmation 
 in the parish church of East Grinsted. What passed 
 on that occasion will be best related in an extract from 
 a letter written the same day by the Warden to Lord 
 De La Warr, — of the correctness of which three friends, 
 present at the whole scene, expressed themselves 
 satisfied. 
 
 *' In the Vestry, before the Confirmation, the Bishop inquired 
 whether 1 had any objection to his visiting the Chapel after service. 
 
 '' I said, Certainly not. 
 
 " Bishop. I may tell you, that I may possibly be advised to 
 inhibit your officiating in my Diocese. 
 
 " I said, Your lordship may undoubtedly do so. But that will 
 have no effect on my officiating in the College Chapel. 
 
 " Bishop. That is the very question I wish to try : and such 
 an inhibition will try it. 
 
 " I said. We of course claim exemption. Yet it is but fair to tell 
 your lordship that it was my wish to have been licensed by you ; 
 and that I actually applied for that purpose to Lord De La Warr.
 
 12 
 
 " Bishop. I ought to say that I probably might not have been 
 disposed to grant the licence. I could not, if the reports which 
 I have heard of Komanistic proceedings in the College be true. 
 
 " I said, The application, had I had my own way, would have 
 been made to your lordship before a single change had been 
 made in the Chapel. 
 
 " After service, the Bishop walked down to the College . . . 
 There were present the Bishop, Mr. Nevill, (the late Vicar of 
 East Grinsted,) Mr. H., (the complainant,) the Bishop^s Chap- 
 lain, myself, and a London Clergyman, a friend of mine. 
 
 " When we came into the Chapel, I said, — Now, my Lord, 
 as Mr. H. has asserted that I used the Douay Bible, — there is 
 the Bible, — your Lordship can examine it.* 
 
 " Bishop. You are mistaken. / suggested that it might be 
 the Bouay Bible : Mr. H. simply said that it was not the autho- 
 rised version. 
 
 " I said. Then I misunderstood Lord De la Warr, my Lord. 
 But if Mr. H. said that it was not the authorised version, he 
 said what was contrary to fact. 
 
 " The Bishop examined it. — This is the authorised version : 
 but it has notes. 
 
 " Mr. H. Yes, my Lord ; that was the reason why I men- 
 tioned it to your Lordship. 
 
 "I said, — One question, Mr. H. Did you, or did you not, 
 say that the Bible was not the authorised version ? 
 
 " Mr. H. I said so, — because it has notes, — and the notes 
 are not authorised. 
 
 " I said, — That is quite enough. Your Lordship will see that 
 the charge is false. 
 
 " Mr. H. That was not the chief thing. I am sure! — to find 
 a 4^rotestant^ Chapel thus ornamented, or to find a breviary in it — 
 
 " Bishop. I am not here with visitatorial authority : if I 
 were, — I should sweep away all that, — (pointing to the altar.) 
 
 * The unavoidable delay in the private circulation of this Statement, 
 occasioned principally by the long and serious indisposition of the Bishop, 
 enables the writer to mention in this place that his Lordship's impression 
 of the conversation at Sackvillc College differs in some degree from the 
 account of it given above ; the discrepancy, however, docs not appear to 
 ho in the least material to the main point at issue.
 
 13 
 
 *' Mr. H. Flowers and all, my Lord. 
 
 ^' I said. The altar, my Lord ? 
 
 " Bishop. I know nothing of Altars : the Church of England 
 knows nothing of altars or sacrifices : I would retain a decent low 
 table. I would not feed Christ^s little ones with the wood of 
 the Cross. 
 
 " I asked, — You would retain the table ? 
 
 " Bishop. I have said so already. But to be candid with 
 you, — all that our Church does not authorise, she prohibits. — 
 But, as I said, I have no visitatorial authority. Ex parte loci, 
 that is, I have none : whether I have not ex parte persona is a 
 different question, and I shall take advice.^' 
 
 The above conversation has been given with so much 
 minuteness, because it formed the sole and entire 
 ground of the subsequent proceedings against the 'Col- 
 lege, as will be seen in the sequel. 
 
 The Bishop meanwhile, now on his tour of Confirma- 
 tions, addressed the following inhibition to the Warden. 
 
 Frant Vicarage, 8th May, 1847. 
 Reverend Sir, — I feel it to be my duty to inhibit you, and 
 I do hereby inhibit you, from celebrating Divine Worship, 
 and from the exercise of clerical functions in my Diocese. 
 I am. Reverend Sir, your well-wisher in Christ, 
 
 A. T. CiCESTR. 
 
 The inhibition was accompanied with the following 
 letter. 
 
 Frant Vicarage, 8th May, 1847. 
 Reverend and Dear Sir, — I cannot transmit to you the 
 following inhibition without adding a fervent prayer that God 
 may be pleased to open your eyes to the dishonour done to 
 Him by supposing that His spiritual service can be promoted 
 by presenting to the eyes and thoughts of worshippers, the 
 f ripper}^ with which you have transformed the simplicity of 
 the Chapel at Sackville College, into an imitation of the de- 
 grading superstitions of an erroneous Chui'ch. 
 
 I remain. Reverend and Dear Sir, your faithful brother, 
 
 A. T. Cicestr.
 
 14 
 
 Lord De La Warr, on being informed of what had 
 passed on the 7th of May, and of the inhibition, thus 
 replied. 
 
 Upper Grosvenor Street, May 11, 1847. 
 Dear Sir, — I beg to acknowledge the receipt of your two 
 letters, and to thank you for saving, as far as in you lies, the 
 rights of the College. Into the general question between the 
 Bishop and yourself, it would be obviously improper for me 
 to enter at present. 
 
 Pray believe me, yours, most truly, 
 
 (Signed) De la Warr. 
 
 The question now was, What course was to be pur- 
 sued ? And after much consideration, it was determined 
 that the Warden should carry on the services in the 
 Chapel of Sackville College as usual, scrupulously ab- 
 staining from officiating either in the parish of East 
 Grinsted, or in any other part of what was, confes- 
 sedly, the Bishop's Diocese. 
 
 1 . The Warden came to this conclusion under the 
 impression that the Bishop did not expect that his 
 inhibition would be obeyed as far as the Chapel of 
 Sackville College was concerned ; His Lordship having 
 said, as the Warden believed, that an inhibition would 
 try the right of exemption for the College. 
 
 This is made still plainer by the following extract 
 from a letter written by the Bishop to Lord De La 
 Warr, dated March 20, 1847: 
 
 " I purpose writing to him,'' (the Warden,) " requesting 
 that he will abstain from officiating in any church or chapel in 
 my Diocese, if he should he requested to give such assistance) 
 until he shall previously have communicated with me." 
 
 Now it is clear that the Warden could not be '' re- 
 quested to give assistance" in his own Chapel, and
 
 15 
 
 therefore equally clear that the inhibition was not, at 
 that time, intended to refer to that Chapel. 
 
 2. The Warden, when placed in his present position, 
 was placed there with the full understanding that he 
 was to defend its rights and privileges, in as full and 
 complete a state as he had received them. It mattered 
 not whether exemption were or were not undesirable, 
 — were or were not an anomaly ; — a right of the Col- 
 lege it was supposed to be, and the Warden, believing 
 that right to have been invaded, thought it his duty to 
 defend it. 
 
 3. Tf it be said that, the case being so, that the 
 Warden could neither yield without betraying a trust, 
 nor persevere without seeming to oppose the Bishop of 
 Chichester, it was his duty to resign liis office, the fol- 
 lowing facts should be taken into consideration. The 
 Warden had been intrusted with the spiritual care of a 
 number of persons, for whom he was responsible ; per- 
 sons, not in the ordinary condition of parishioners, but 
 (for the most part) with one foot in the grave ; — per- 
 sons, to whom the ordinary means of grace in the 
 parish church were, from infirmity and deafness, inac- 
 cessible ; persons who, if deserted by him, were left to 
 their own resources in preparing for their own great 
 change. It is not argued that these, or that any, con- 
 siderations could make right a step in itself wrong : 
 but simply that, where the whole question seemed to be 
 one of expediency, such arguments may and ought to 
 have, great weight in its decision. 
 
 4. It is to be assumed that the Bishop of Chichester 
 wished for his simple right, and for nothing beyond it. 
 But had the Warden observed the inhibition so far as 
 regarded the College Chapel, what that right was could 
 never have been known. The carrying on the services
 
 16 
 
 in that building was therefore no more to be regarded 
 as wilful disrespect towards the Bishop, than the insti- 
 tution of a friendly suit in a civil court, supposes hos- 
 tility between the parties concerned in it. 
 
 In a few days, the Bishop wrote the following letter 
 to the Churchwardens of East Grinsted. 
 
 Hastings, 12tli May, 1847. 
 
 Gentlemen, — In consequence of what I saw in the 
 Chapel of Sackville College, I have felt it my duty to 
 inhibit the Rev. J. M. Neale from celebrating Divine Worship, 
 and from exercising clerical functions in ray Diocese. 
 
 You have no jurisdiction or authority within the walls of 
 that establishment. Nevertheless, you must have means hy 
 inquiry y if not, by reports which, without inquiry, may reach 
 you, of learning whether Mr. Neale obeys the inhibition, or con- 
 tinues to officiate there; and you are the fittest persons to 
 whom I can apply for such information. 
 
 I will be obliged to you then to inform me, by letter 
 directed to me at Chichester, if you hear of his doing so : 
 and to state the days and hours of the day when the offence 
 was committed, if you are able to learn them . 
 
 It is important also to me to know whether, in past times, 
 and especially since Mr. Neale officiated there, — the Chapel 
 has been open at the hour of Divine Service to others besides 
 the inmates of the Hospital ; — whether any person who chose 
 could walk in and be present. 
 
 I am. Gentlemen, your faithful Pastor and Servant, 
 
 A. T. Cicestr. 
 
 The first sentence showed what was the whole origin 
 and ground of the inhibition, nowhere, however, to 
 be found in the articles exhibited against the Warden, 
 although obscurely hinted at by the Judge who tried 
 the cause. 
 
 The Churchwardens waited on the Warden, to ask 
 what they were to do. The Warden declined to reply
 
 17 
 
 to any questions connected with the performance of 
 Divine Worship in the Chapel, on the ground that the 
 Bishop had himself said to them, " You have no 
 authority or jurisdiction within the walls of that estab- 
 lishment.*' But, with regard to the other question, 
 " whether any person who chose could walk in and be 
 present" during prayers, Mr. Neale informed the 
 Churchwardens — what they already knew — that 
 strict orders had been issued to the contrary, and 
 that these orders were very well known in the town. 
 
 One of the Churchwardens dechned to reply to the 
 Bishop's inquiries, on the ground of refusing to act as 
 a spy: — the other, from a general principle of obe- 
 dience to the Bishop, sent such particulars as he was 
 able to collect. 
 
 Nothing further occurred /or /i-e months. 
 
 On the 1 4th of November, 1847, the Warden re- 
 ceived intimation that articles were to be exhibited 
 against him in the Court of Arches, (the cause being 
 transferred thither by letters of request from the 
 Bishop's own Court,) for administering the holy 
 Sacrament, for preaching, and for pablicly reading 
 prayers, in a certain unconsecrated building commonly 
 known as Sackville Chapel, notwithstanding an inhi- 
 bition on the part of the Bishop of Chichester. 
 
 It is to be observed, that the office of Judge was not 
 promoted by any of the inhabitants of East Grinsted, 
 who might have been supposed interested in the case. 
 
 Legal advice being taken by the acting Patron, 
 Lord De La Warr, and the Warden, it appeared that 
 the administration of the holy Communion could not 
 technically be defended ; — that preaching was doubt- 
 ful; — but that the reading of morning and evening 
 prayers could not be an ecclesiastical offence, unless it
 
 18 
 
 were public, i.e., open to all comers. This, it was 
 evident, it never had been. 
 
 Pending the proceedings. Lord De La Warr had 
 more than one interview with the Bishop, in which 
 offers were made by him as the acting Patron, with the 
 concurrence of the Warden, for the removal from the 
 Chapel of such decorations as might be thought ob- 
 jectionable."^ 
 
 The Bishop's answer was as follows. 
 
 2, Hyde Park Place, 23rd January, 1848. 
 
 My Dear Lord, — With much anxiety, and with every desire 
 to stay my proceedings against Mr. Neale, if I could in any 
 way come to a conclusion that I may do so consistently with 
 my view of duty, I have thought over the proposal your 
 Lordship made to me on Friday. 
 
 * Lest the warden should be supposed to have introduced any 
 unusual decorations into the Chapel, the following extract from the 
 Bishop's letter to Lord De La Warr, of March 20, 1847, is given. — 
 " P.S. I advise the removal of the cross. That symbol has been 
 allowed to remain on the outside of our churches, and even in them 
 in places where there can be no danger of abuse. She (our Church,) 
 does not recognize the lawfulness of using any material symbol any- 
 where (but in the two Sacraments as ordained) for the purpose of acting 
 on the memory, or the thoughts, or feelings of those who worship in 
 her Communion. She uses the sign of the cross in Baptism not in this 
 manner, and carefully explains her use of it there. In the Homily against 
 the peril of Idolatry, the worship of Images is distinctly affirmed to have 
 grown out of the hazardous practice of employing them for such purposes. 
 And in the third part of the Homily, wooden crosses are specifically men- 
 tioned. We may remember too that the cross has attained to the honours 
 of Saintship, in the Roman Calendar. I would again ask then, is this 
 cross put up for no end? and no purpose? or, for such a purpose as is 
 hinted above ? In any case I advise its removal. Our Church recognizes 
 no material helps to devotion." 
 
 And in another letter ; — 
 
 " When I entered the Chapel and saw the degrading character of Ro- 
 manistic observances so decidedly exhibited, I felt it to be my duty by 
 whatever power I might have, to stop Mr. Neale from continuing to de- 
 base the minds of these poor people with his spiritual haberdashery,"
 
 19 
 
 When I state that my view is that I am bound to endea- 
 vom.' to effect the removal, or the silencing of Mr. Neale in my 
 Diocese, if practicable, either immediately, or at no distant 
 time, your Lordship will perceive that I cannot entertain a 
 hope that the conference proposed between the legal advisers 
 on either side will lead to a conclusion to which I could give 
 my consent. 
 
 If such an issue as I have intimated could be contemplated, 
 I would be far from objecting to its being accomplished 
 through the Visitors ; but I could not reconcile myself to an 
 arrangement which should stop short eventually of this 
 result. 
 
 Believe me, my dear Lord, yours very faithfully. 
 The Earl De La Warr. A. T. Cicestr. 
 
 Lord De La Warr urged that, supposing the Bishop 
 successful in every particular, the Warden would not 
 thereby be removed ; that the only difference would 
 be that the aged and infirm inmates of the College 
 would be deprived of the daily ministrations of a 
 Clergyman and of the weekly Communion : and, to 
 several, access to the means of grace would be rendered 
 well nigh impracticable. 
 
 The Bishop replied that he could not help the con- 
 sequences : and the suit went on. 
 
 Two circumstances occurred, while preparations were 
 making, which may not pass unnoticed. — The great 
 difiiculty with which the Bishop's lawyers had to con- 
 tend, was the attempt to prove the prayers public. A 
 gentleman attended from Chichester, sent privately for 
 witnesses from the town, took down the names of the 
 Warden's servants, inquired for the names of the ser- 
 vants of some relations who had been staying the pre- 
 vious summer at the College ; and, when there was a 
 difficulty in finding the residence of a maid servant who 
 had formerly lived in the Warden's family, the witness
 
 20 
 
 was informed that the reason for all this anxiety in 
 ascertaining where she resided arose from her having 
 come into a fortune ! 
 
 As it appears that proof could not thus be collected, 
 another attempt was made. The Chapel of Sackville 
 College has, at its west door, a curtain projecting in- 
 wards, and forming three sides of a square, for the 
 purpose of keeping out the wind. Behind this curtain 
 a stranger secreted himself during the beginning of 
 evening prayers : and during the first lesson, endea- 
 voured to slide quietly into the remotest and darkest 
 seat. The Warden fortunately saw him, and gave 
 orders that he should be requested to withdraw. Had 
 he not so done, it might have been said that the prayers 
 in the Chapel were public. 
 
 All preliminaries having been arranged, the Com- 
 mission of inquiry was opened in the parish church of 
 East Grinsted, on Monday, the 4th of April, 1848. 
 To those who are not acquainted with the method of 
 the Court of Arches, it may be proper to state, that 
 a proctor attends on either side, and a sworn examiner. 
 All the questions are by interrogatories, and written 
 counter interrogatories ; so that according to the system 
 pursued by the Court, a real and bona fide cross-exami- 
 nation is impossible. The examination is quite private ; 
 and the answers only known when, having been fairly 
 transcribed, they are communicated by the Examiner 
 to the proctors on both sides. The great aim of the 
 Bishop's proctor was to prove that strangers had been 
 admitted into the Chapel, and that it was consequently 
 public. The proctor had given notice that he would 
 have four witnesses examined ; he had a long private 
 conversation wdth all these witnesses before they went 
 into the examiner, and finding that one of the four
 
 21 
 
 witnesses would not serve his turn, he would not allow 
 her to be examined : and the usual method of proceed- 
 ing admitted of no remedy for this. 
 
 On Saturday, June 3, 1848, the case was heard in 
 the Court of Arches. 
 
 For the Warden, the Queen's Advocate and Dr. 
 Bayford contended that Mr. Neale was bound by the 
 Statutes of the College to read prayers morning and 
 evening ; that these prayers were strictly private, as 
 being confined to the inmates of the College, and such 
 friends* as might be paying a visit to the Warden ; that 
 on two occasions strangers had been actually turned 
 out of chapel, and in many more, warned that they 
 could not attend it ; that this prohibition was known 
 in the town ; that with respect to the administration 
 of the Holy Communion, it had been done without 
 licence, because a licence was believed to be unneces- 
 sary ; that it could not be a crime in itself ; that 
 preaching to such a congregation was not public 
 preaching, but merely private exposition ; in itself 
 praiseworthy and not ecclesiastically forbidden : that 
 the notion of the exemption of the College, if a 
 mistake, was not a mistake of Mr. Neale's, but had 
 been believed and acted upon, for years ; that it would 
 therefore be unjust to punish him for what was. in 
 itself laudable, and if technically wrong, technically 
 wrong only from a mistake which came down to him 
 by a tradition of two hundred and forty years, which 
 
 * It would not be difficult here to show, that the Bishop himself never 
 considered such attendance in Chapel as public, any more than the atten- 
 dance of Lord and Lady De La Warr and family, after a visit to the 
 College, and a dinner in the hall, on Michaelmas Day, 1846; or even the 
 attendance of the Children of the National School, when invited to a 
 Christmas Party by the Warden — all which circumstances were well known 
 to the Bishop.
 
 22 
 
 was believed by the Patrons of the College, and main- 
 tained as a part of their rights. 
 
 For the Bishop, Dr. Addams and Dr. R. Phillimore 
 contended that the Chapel of Sackville College 
 could not be shown to be, according to the Seventy- 
 first Canon, " dedicated and allowed according to 
 the Ecclesiastical Laws of this realm ;'' the Holy 
 Communion had nevertheless been celebrated, and 
 sermons preached in it ; the Charter was nothing to 
 the Court ; the praiseworthiness of the action was 
 immaterial to the present inquiry. 
 
 The following is the judgment of Sir H. J. Fust : — 
 
 " The learned judge said, that the question was one not con- 
 fined to Sackville College, but of general importance. He 
 should like to have had some authority stated to him upon vi^hich 
 the Court could rely, for saying that any Clergyman had a 
 right to perform Divine offices, save to his own private family, 
 without the licence of the Bishop. There was nothing to satisfy 
 him that the inmates of this college formed one family establish- 
 ment. There was, however, something in this case behind what 
 appeared on the face of the papers. He collected it from an 
 interrogatory address to one of the witnesses, who stated in reply 
 that the parishioners of East Grinsted were composed of two 
 parties, the high and the low Church ; that by the former Mr. 
 Neale was highly esteemed, and by the latter equally disliked. 
 The -Seventy-first Canon was conclusive on the point before him. 
 There was no proof whatever that there was in this College any 
 chapel dedicated and allowed by the Ecclesiastical law of the 
 realm. Mr. Neale, according to the evidence, was the Warden 
 of the College; but why the Court was not to have laid before it 
 in the usual course of pleading the foundation of the College, 
 and why Mr. Neale claimed to himself a right to officiate in 
 spite of the Bishop, he (the learned judge) could not conjecture. 
 In one sense the inmates of the college might be said to be 
 under the same roof; they might have private apartments and 
 a common dining table, but that would not constitute them a
 
 23 
 
 private family. Occasionally other persons, certainly not very 
 numerous, had been permitted to attend the chapel. Under 
 what pretence had they been introduced ? That of taking tea 
 with Mr. Neale. It also appeared that the rev. gentleman 
 administered the Sacrament three Sundays in every month ; 
 that he read the Litany on other occasions, and that he read 
 prayers every Sunday afternoon. If this were not a private 
 family, these ministrations must be regarded as pubhc. Those 
 persons who were stopping, as it was termed, with the rev. 
 gentleman, might be considered as part of his household, but 
 the performance of these Divine offices, not only without a 
 licence from the Bishop, but against his positive injunctions, 
 was in his (the learned judge's) opinion an ecclesiastical offence. 
 What might be the motives of the Bishop he knew not, but 
 doubtless his Lordship was justified in instituting the proceed- 
 ings. Something might have turned on the production of the 
 charter if it had been exhibited. It was said that the Warden 
 was compelled to perform the duties; it appeared, however, 
 that the predecessor of Mr. Neale was a layman, and that he 
 read prayers twice a-week in conformity probably with the 
 statutes. Mr. Neale was liable to ecclesiastical censure, but 
 the Court would be satisfied with admonishing him to abstain 
 from officiating in future without due authority, that authority 
 being the licence of the Bishop. Mr. Neale must also be con- 
 demned in the costs of the proceeding s.^' 
 
 By way of contrast to these proceedings, within ten 
 miles of East Grinsted, and in the same Diocese, is a 
 chapel in a very similar situation with that of Sackville 
 College — itself unconsecrated, its Clergyman un- 
 licensed, yet neither interfered with by the Bishop, and 
 all the Services therein notoriously public. 
 
 Sackville College is, therefore, now left in a very ano- 
 malous condition. A Warden in holy orders, eager to 
 carry out all the privileges of the Church in its daily 
 prayers and weekly communions, yet unable to officiate 
 in the College Chapel ; poor people who have in some
 
 24 
 
 degree learnt the value of those privileges, who are tot- 
 tering on the verge of the grave, and are forced to con- 
 tent themselves with the morning and evening prayers, 
 as read to them by one of their brethren ;■ — sermons 
 prohibited, though from deafness and infirmity the in- 
 mates of the College reap little benefit from those 
 delivered in the parish church : the means of grace in 
 the celebration of the Holy Communion withheld from 
 them within the walls of their asylum. 
 
 And for what reasons? — The Bishop has already 
 assigned them : — " In consequence of what I saw in 
 the Chapel of Sackville College, I have felt it my duty 
 to inhibit the Rev. J. M. Neale." The reader will ga- 
 ther from the preceding statement, what the Bishop 
 really did see, and will draw his own conclusions as to 
 the comparative weight of the offence and of the pu- 
 nishment. 
 
 In the nine months which have elapsed since the 
 above Statement was written, several attempts have 
 been made to induce the Bishop to grant a licence 
 to the Warden ; — or at ail events, to withdraw the 
 inhibition, and allow matters to resume their old 
 footing. The two following letters conclude the cor- 
 respondence. 
 
 Sackville College, March 26, 1849. 
 My Lord, — Holy Week now drawing on, a time in which 
 above all others the poor people here have been accustomed to 
 prayers and instructions, from which this year they will be 
 debarred, T am induced to make one more appeal to your Lord- 
 ship for them and for myself.
 
 25 
 
 If in anything that I may before have written, I may either 
 have inadvertently said what has given your Lordship offence, — 
 or if I have been carried away by what seemed to me the neces- 
 sity and the hardship of the case, to say more than I intended, 
 or more than I ought, I earnestly hope that your Lordship will 
 forgive it. I should be unworthy to be a Priest in our Church 
 did I not severely feel the deprivation of the power of acting as 
 one where I am placed : and, what I feel strongly, I may pos- 
 sibly have expressed too strongly. Your Lordship will, I am 
 sure, and more especially at this time, forgive me if such has 
 been the case : but above all things will not visit that fault of 
 mine upon those amongst whom I am. 
 
 Every offer that I could imagine your Lordship could even 
 wish, has been by Lord De La Warr and myself already made. 
 I have nothing more in that respect which I can do. I can but 
 say again, that every arrangement of which your Lordship 
 might disapprove should — so far as I am concerned — be altered. 
 I can but again protest that there is no one, in the whole Church 
 of England, more faithful to her than I am : no one to whom 
 it would be more impossible to desert her for Rome. Why am 
 I not to be believed, when I assert this ? which I do most strongly, 
 and as in the presence of God. I may safely challenge any one 
 to show a single passage I have ever written which looks Rome- 
 wards ; while I can point to many and many intended to satisfy 
 the doubting as to the claims of the English Church. Your 
 Lordship will allow that the Dublin Review ought to be a good 
 judge of what has a tendency to Kome. In reviewing the first 
 two volumes of my " History of the Eastern Church," they say, 
 of one account : — "It can only be explained on the hypothesis 
 of strong prepossessions against Rome." And of another, that 
 " it presents more decided indications of a partizan spirit, and 
 a greater leaning to the anti -Roman side than any other portion 
 of these volumes ;" and so through the whole review, which is 
 of some thirty pages. 
 
 My Lord, all we ask is, that the suspension may be withdrawn 
 as far as regards the College. "We ask for no formal removal, only 
 for a tacit allowance. T have neither time, strength, nor wish 
 (exce])t so far as the removal of a mark of disapprobation must
 
 26 
 
 necessarily be pleasing), to officiate elsewhere in the diocese. 
 But in this place, to be able to officiate, there is nothing right, 
 nothing allowable, that 1 w^ould not say and do, — no trouble 
 that I would not willingly take. Your Lordship speaks of inter- 
 ference in another man's parish. Surely, if the Vicar does not 
 feel the intrusion, there can be none. I am now taking the 
 very lowest grounds, and I am very much mistaken if, — did the 
 decision rest with him, — it would not be in my favour. Nothing 
 is further from my wish than to interfere with him ; as he, I 
 am sure, would be the first to confess. When he has been 
 willing to accept my services, he has had them, and shall have 
 them. 
 
 In conclusion, I would entreat your Lordship to reconsider a 
 case which you owned to Lord De La Warr " seemed a hard 
 one." I appeal to your Lordship's generosity, because the 
 power is entirely on your side : to your Lordship's sense of 
 justice, because a year's suspension is considered sufficient 
 punishment for very flagrant offences : to your Lordship's deal- 
 ings in similar cases, for few Clergymen coming for institution 
 could produce higher testimonials than those which Lord De La 
 Warr submitted to you : and lastly, if your Lordship has felt 
 hurt, or has been injured, either by the lawsuit, or by any 
 behaviour of mine, — to your remembrance of Him, Who at this 
 time set us an example of forgiving : and on all these grounds 
 I ask your Lordship, as earnestly as a man ever asked anything, 
 to allow me, on what conditions you please, to officiate in this 
 place, (I say nothing of the diocese in general,) it being clearly 
 in your Lordship's power at any moment, to withdraw that 
 permission, and to restore the present state of things. 
 I remain, my Lord, 
 Your Lordship's obedient and faithful Servant, 
 
 J. M. Neale.
 
 27 
 
 43, Queen Anne St., 28 March, 1849. 
 Reverend Sir, — In reply to your letter received this morn- 
 ing, I beg to say that I never have alleged that you have given 
 me any offence, and that I should hope I have neither said, or 
 done anything which should lead to the conclusion that I have 
 been influenced by any such motive. With respect to the 
 request now again proffered by you, nothing has occurred in 
 the interval since my last reply to alter the position in which, 
 respectively, we are placed ; neither do I think the situation of 
 the inmates of the Hospital a ground on which to call upon me 
 to take the step you propose. 
 
 1 remain. Reverend Sir, Your faithful brother, 
 
 A. T. CiCESTR. 
 
 Rev. J. M. Neale. 
 
 JOSEPH MASTERS, PKINTBR, ALDBRSGATE STRBBT, LONDON.
 
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