BISHOP GORE
PAINTED WINDOWS
STUDIES IN
RELIGIOUS PERSONALITY
BY
A GENTLEMAN WITH A DUSTER
AUTHOR OF "THE MIRRORS OF DOWNING STREET"
WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY KIRSOPP LAKE
It was simply a struggle for fresh air, in which, if thewindows could not be opened, there was danger that panes would bebroken, though painted with images of saints and martyrs. Light,coloured by these reverend effigies, was none the more respirablefor being picturesque.
J.R. Lowell.
WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY EMILE VERPILLEUX
NEW YORK AND LONDON
The KnickerbockerPress
1922
For the information presented in the biographical recordsconnected with the several chapters the publishers desire toexpress their indebtedness to "Who's Who."
FOREWORD
BY PROFESSOR KIRSOPP LAKE
No one who believes that the Christian churches have in the pastbeen the moral leaders of western civilization can fail to beinterested in the presentation of some of the English religiousleaders by "A Gentleman with a Duster" especially if, like myself,he have some passing acquaintance with most of them. Nor can anyneglect to regard seriously his warning that the Church is failingas a moral leader.
What is the reason for that failure? It cannot, I think, befound in lack of earnestness; for today all the guides of thechurches in England are serious, upright men, who would gladly leadif they could. Nor is it because they are voices uttering strangeannouncements in the wilderness; if they have a fault it is ratherthat they have so little to announce. The defect which is disclosedby the pictures given by "A Gentleman with a Duster" is primarilyintellectual, and I propose to devote to its explanation theintroduction which the publisher has asked me to write for theAmerican edition of Painted Windows.
From the third century to the eighteenth the Christian Churchpresented views of life and theories of the origin, weakness, andpossible redemption of human nature, which were both selfconsistent and rational. It offered men an infallible guide oflife, to be found in the Church, the Bible, and the Christ.Different branches of the Christian church emphasised one or theother, but the three formed in themselves an indivisible trinity.Nor did the laity doubt that this presentation was correct. Theclergy were the professional and expert exponents of an infalliblerevelation which they had studied deeply and knew better than othermen, and on which they spoke with the authority of experience. Itwas firmly believed that to follow their teaching would lead tofuture salvation; for the centre of gravity in life for seriouslyminded men was the hope of attaining everlasting salvation in theworld to come.
The situation today is changed in two directions. The Church,the Bible, and even the Teaching of Jesus are no longer regarded asinfallible. History first abundantly proved that the voice of theChurch was not inerrant; then science discredited the biblicalaccount of man's origin and development; and finally the "kenotic"theory of Bishop Gore showed that what were considered theipsissima verba