Archibald Campbell Tait

This article's lead section may be too short to adequately summarize the key points. Please consider expanding the lead to provide an accessible overview of all important aspects of the article. (December 2021)

Archibald Campbell Tait

Tait was born on Saturday, 21 December, 1811, at 2 Park Place

Rapid changes among the fellows found him, at age 26, "the senior and most responsible of the four Balliol tutors."[7] The experience gained during this period stood him in good stead afterwards as a member of the first Oxford University Commission (1850–52). He never sympathised with the principles of the Oxford Movement and, on the appearance of Tract 90 in 1841, he drafted the famous protest of the "Four Tutors" against it; but this was his only important contribution to the controversy. On the other hand, although his sympathies were on the whole with the liberal movement in the university, he never took a lead in the matter.^[6]

In 1842, he became an undistinguished but useful successor to Arnold as headmaster of

Not long afterwards, he was consecrated Bishop of London on 22 November 1856 at the Chapel Royal, Whitehall, by John Bird Sumner, Archbishop of Canterbury,^[9] as successor to Charles James Blomfield. His translation to Canterbury in 1868 (he had refused the archbishopric of York in 1862) constituted a recognition of his work but made no break in it. His last years were interrupted by illness and saddened by the death in 1878 of his only son, Craufurd (1848–1878), and of his wife, Catharine née Spooner (1819–1878).^[6] Five of his eight daughters also died in childhood. Tragically all died of scarlet fever in 1856, within a few days of each other.^[10]

Notable accomplishments

If Blomfield had almost remodelled the idea of a bishop's work, his successor surpassed him. Tait had all Blomfield's earnestness and his powers of work, with far wider interests. Blomfield had given himself zealously to the work of church-building; Tait followed in his steps by inaugurating (1863) the Bishop of London's Fund. He devoted a very large part of his time at London in actual evangelistic work; and, to the end, his interest in the pastoral side of the work of the clergy was greater than anything else. With his wife, he was instrumental in organising women's work upon a sound basis, and he did not a little for the healthful regulation of Anglican sisterhoods during the formative period in which this was particularly necessary. Nor was he less successful in the larger matters of administration and organisation, which brought into play his sound practical judgment and strong common-sense. He was constant in his attendance in parliament and spared no pains in pressing on measures of practical utility. The modification of the terms of clerical subscription (1865), the new lectionary (1871), the Burials Act (1880) were largely owing to him; for all of them, and especially the last, he incurred much obloquy at the time.^[6]

Dealings with liberalism

With regard to the liberal trend in modern thought, he was in sympathy with it. His object in dealing with questions of faith, as in dealing with the ritual question, was primarily a practical one: he wished to secure peace and obedience to the law as he saw it. Consequently, after his sympathies had led him to express himself favourably towards some movement, he frequently found himself compelled to draw back.^[6]

He expressed a qualified sympathy with some of the writers of

Dealings with the Oxford Movement

Public Worship Regulation Bill

"

As regards

Privy Council judgment in the Ridsdale case (1877); he was more closely concerned than any other bishop with the agitation against confession in 1858 and again in 1877.^[13]

His method throughout was the same: he endeavoured to obtain a compliance to the law as declared by the courts; failing this, he made the most earnest efforts to secure obedience to the ruling of the Ordinary for the sake of the peace of the Church; after this, he could do nothing. He did not perceive how much of reason the "

ritualists" had on their side: that they were fighting for practices which, they contended, were covered by the letter of the rubric; and that, where rubrics were notoriously disregarded on all hands, it was not fair to proceed against one class of delinquent only. In fact, if others were inclined to ignore it altogether, Tait could hardly realise anything but the connection between the English Church and the State. From such a position there seemed to be no escape but in legislation for the deprivation of the recalcitrant clergy; and the Public Worship Regulation Act 1874 was the result.^[13]

For this Tait was by no means responsible as a whole: some of the provisions which proved most irksome were the result of amendments by

High Churchmen, but among many who cared little or nothing for the ritual practices involved; and it seemed impossible to foretell what the outcome would be. But the aged archbishop was moved as much as anybody, and tried hard to mitigate such a state of things.^[13]

At length, when the Rev.

Public Worship Regulation Act became practically obsolete.^[13]

Death and legacy

Archbishop Tait died on 3 December (the first day of Advent) in 1882 at Addington, London. He is buried in the churchyard of St Mary the Blessed Virgin in Addington. The grave is marked by a large Gothic style Celtic cross on a stepped base and is by far the largest monument in the churchyard.

Tait was a Churchman by conviction; but, although the work of his life was all done in England, he remained a Scotsman to the end. It was the opinion of some^[who?] that he never really understood the historical position of the English Church and took no pains to learn. John Tillotson, one of his predecessors in the archbishopric, was a favourite hero of his, and in some ways the two men resembled one another. Tait had none of Tillotson's gentleness, and he rode roughshod over the obstacles in his way. He cannot be called a great ecclesiastical statesman, but he administered his office well and was undoubtedly one of the foremost public men of his day.^[13]

His daughter Edith Murdoch Tait (1858-1936) married Randall Davidson who (partly due to Tait's influence) was later also Archbishop of Canterbury.^[14]

Memorials

After his death, a stone monument with bronze bust was erected in Edinburgh, on the site of the house in which he was born, west of the University of Edinburgh's McEwan Hall on the rear of the Edinburgh Medical Faculty facing Teviot Row.^[15] The monument survives but is in a hidden location away from public roads.

His most important memorial stands in

H. H. Armstead erected in 1884 in the south transept.^[16]

Addington Palace survives but was converted into use as a golf course in the 1930s.

Works

• The Dangers and Safeguards of Modern Theology (1861)
• Harmony of Revelation and the Sciences (1864)

Notes

1. ^  One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Stanley, Arthur Penrhyn". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 25 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 777–779.
2. ^ Anon 1870, p. 327.
3. ^ Team, National Records of Scotland Web (31 May 2013). "National Records of Scotland". National Records of Scotland. Retrieved 28 October 2022.
4. ^ Edinburgh Post Office Directory 1811
5. ^ "Robert Burns Country: The Burns Encyclopedia: Tait, Crawford or Crauford (1765? - 1832)".
6. ^ ^{a b c d e f} Collins 1911, p. 363.
7. ^ Davidson, Randall Thomas; Benham, William (1891). Life of Archibald Campbell Tait, Archbishop of Canterbury Volume 1. London ; New York : Macmillan. p. 61.
8. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/50739. Retrieved 10 December 2020. (Subscription or UK public library membership
   required.)
9. ^ Stubbs & Holmes 1897, p. 155.
10. ^ "Archibald Campbell Tait".
11. ^ Collins 1911, pp. 363–364.
12. ^ Crouch 1904, Ch. V. The Riots.
13. ^ ^{a b c d e} Collins 1911, p. 364.
14. ^ "Archibald Campbell Tait".
15. ^ Berry 1990.
16. ^ "Archibald Campbell Tait".

References

• Anon (1870). The Royal Kalendar, and Court and City Register for England, Scotland, Ireland, and the Colonies. London: R & A Suttaby.
• Berry, Elizabeth (1990). The writing on the walls. Edinburgh: Cockburn Association in collaboration with the Scottish National Portrait Gallery and the Saltire Society.
  OCLC 24699879
  .
• Collins, William Edward (1911). "Tait, Archibald Campbell" . In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 26 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 363–364.
• Crouch, William (1904). "Chapter V. The Riots". Bryan King and the riots at St. George's-in-the-east. London: Methuen & Company – via Project Canterbury.
• Fremantle, William Henry (1898). "Tait, Archibald Campbell" . In Lee, Sidney (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 55. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
• Marsh, Peter T. "Tait, Archibald Campbell (1811–1882)".
  doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/26917. (Subscription or UK public library membership
  required.)
• Stubbs, William; Holmes, E. E. (1897). Registrum Sacrum Anglicanum. An attempt to exhibit the course of episcopal succession in England from the records and chronicles of the church (2nd ed.). Oxford: Clarendon Press.

Further reading

• Davidson, Randall Thomas; Benham, William (1891a). Life of Archibald Campbell Tait. Vol. 1. London: Macmillan & Co.
• Davidson, Randall Thomas; Benham, William (1891b). Life of Archibald Campbell Tait. Vol. 2. London: Macmillan & Co.
• Tait, Archibald Campbell; Benham, William (1879). Catharine and Caraufurd Tait. London: Macmillan & Co.

External links

• Media related to Archibald Campbell Tait at Wikimedia Commons
• "Archival material relating to Archibald Campbell Tait". UK National Archives.
• Portraits of Archibald Campbell Tait at the National Portrait Gallery, London

Church of England titles
Preceded by Samuel Hinds	Dean of Carlisle 1849–1856	Succeeded by Francis Close
Preceded by Charles James Blomfield	Bishop of London 1856–1868	Succeeded by John Jackson
Preceded by Charles Longley	Archbishop of Canterbury 1868–1882	Succeeded by Edward White Benson