Thus it was that in a very
short time eleven thousand signatures were obtained. Besides this,
deputations claiming to represent one hundred and thirty-seven
thousand laymen waited on the archbishops to thank them for
dissenting from the judgment. The Convocation of Canterbury also
plunged into the fray, Bishop Wilberforce being the champion of the
older orthodoxy, and Bishop Tait of the new. Caustic was the speech
made by Bishop Thirlwall, in which he declared that he considered
the eleven thousand names, headed by that of Pusey, attached to the
Oxford declaration "in the light of a row of figures preceded by a
decimal point, so that, however far the series may be advanced, it
never can rise to the value of a single unit."
In spite of all that could be done, the act of condemnation was
carried in Convocation.
The last main echo of this whole struggle against the newer mode of
interpretation was heard when the chancellor, referring to the
matter in the House of Lords, characterized the ecclesiastical act
as "simply a series of well-lubricated terms--a sentence so oily
and saponaceous that no one can grasp it; like an eel, it slips
through your fingers, and is simply nothing.
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