Excerpt from Canon Liddon: A Memoir; With the Four Sermons Preached at St. Paul's Cathedral

His principal at Cuddesdon was the Rev. A. Pott, now Archdeacon of Berks; the chaplain of the college was one Edward King, now Bishop of Lincoln. To these three men, undoubtedly, Cuddesdon owes all its fame and more than half of its usefulness. It was at Cuddesdon, however, that Dr. Liddon had his firsttaste of theologieal strife. Mr. Golightly, the last of the trenchant Protestant controversialists, returned again and again to the attack upon the college in the Quarterly, and again and again was repulsed by the suc cess, as well as by the silence, of his Opponents. However, the Bishop was greatly impressed with the strength of Mr. Golightly's position, and, true to his characteristically candid manner, made no attempt to conceal his feelings. Hence the crisis which, after five laborious years, checked the careerof Liddon and threatened to transform the character of the seminary. True, the Bishop had reason to waver, even at the last moment. Writing to Mr. Golightly in 1857, Dr. Wilberforce said I think my vice-principal eminently endued with the power of leading men to earnest devoted piety but with such a man I do not think I ought to inter fere except as to anything substantially important. In 1858, however, when Mr. Pott resigned the principalship, Mr. Liddon also tendered his resignation of the vice-princi palship, and the Bishop accepted it after consultation with Mr. Butler, now Dean of Lincoln, whose curate Mr. Liddon had been at Wantage, and the Bishop based his decision not only on abstract doctrinal difference as to Holy Com munion, but it is as much or more a moral question. I am sure he is entirely honest. In exact proportion to the fulness of my conviction that he is honest, and it is entire. Rises the conviction that in this matter he is not, so to speak, trust worthy - that is, that there is in him a strength of will and ardour, a restlessness, a dominant imagination, which makes him unable to give to the young men any tone, even exactly his own tone. Thebishopwith regret accepted his resig nation, but his friendship with Mr. Liddon never abated. Moreover, Cuddesdon is the. Same Cuddesdon still.

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