On Fri, 15 Jan 1999 20:34:16 -0500 Carl Remick <cremick at rlmnet.com>
writes:
>Re Jim's: The Episcopal bishop in question was Bishop William
>Montgomery
>(1854-1937).
>
>Thanks for the lead. I looked further into this and learned that the
>fellow's name was actually William Montgomery *Brown.*
Carl is right of course, I am not sure why I excised the man's surname.
> Judging from
>the
>Web archive of a prominent British atheist -- Joseph McCabe (1867 -
>1955), a onetime Franciscan monk -- who appears to have been Brown's
>mentor, the Bishop was well-meaning, rich and not too bright. Here's
>what McCabe had to say about him:
Whoever said that bishops are noted for their brains?
>
>Brown called for my help when his brother-bishops of the Episcopal
>church threatened to disrobe him in 1924 as, he explained, it was
>chiefly reading my works in his retirement that made him a skeptic.
>From
>that date I wrote all the learned works which he put out to the great
>embarrassment of the bishops. He was a man of mediocre intelligence
>and
>very high but simple character, and his wealth (inherited) attracted
>cranks who, he later admitted, fatally complicated my defence of him.
I am not sure what McCabe meant by cranks, probably he was referring to the Communists and other revolutionaries with which he associated with.
>He
>was deposed but a few years later was ordained-he did not tell me what
>it cost-bishop of the Old Catholic Church. He explained that he
>thought
>the Church could be made a great social power if its formulae were
>taken
>symbolically but I suspect it was rather from a sort of loyalty to the
>memory of the pious rich lady who had him educated for the Church and
>left him her fortune. He was, in fact, a dogmatic materialist, did not
>believe in the historicity of Christ, and admitted God only as a label
>for whatever goodness there is in the universe.
Views which BTW are not uncommon among contemporary Anglican bishops. As I suggested see John A. T. Robinson's 1960s book _Honest to God_ or Don Cupitt's books. Anyway the notion that the formulae of the church should be taken metaphorically rather than literally has long been a commonplace among liberal theologians. That drives conservative theologians (and secular atheists who would prefer a clean break with religion) crazy but the historical record suggest that such a view has fairly ancient antecedents.
Jim Farmelant
>
>Carl Remick
>
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