Selected Works of Edward Newenham Hoare

As it has pleased Her Majesty to appoint a Royal Commission to consider the subject of Clerical Subscription, the time has clearly come when those who regard the principle of Subscription to be one of essential importance to the well-being of our Church should consider carefully by what arrangements that principle may be best maintained and carried out. It is the opinion of many that the wisest course is to endeavour to secure the present system without alteration, and earnestly to oppose any change of any kind whatever. Under many circumstances, I could believe in the wisdom of so doing; but if it can be shown that there are great objections against the present practice, then I think that, for the sake of the principle, we ought to be prepared to receive with gratitude such a change as may remove well-grounded and reasonable objections. The principle and the practice are so intimately connected in people’s minds that they are almost sure to stand and fall together; so that if there is any great defect in the practice, there is danger of the principle being made to bear the blame of it; and if the practice is such as to give reasonable dissatisfaction to reasonable men, it is almost sure to weaken the hold which the principle has on the public mind. On these grounds I am anxious to call the attention of those Churchmen who believe in the importance of the principle of Subscription to the practice as at present imposed by the Act of Uniformity on the beneficed clergymen of the Church of England; and I do so under the very strong conviction that, in order to maintain the principle and, I might almost add, on every other ground, there should be an united endeavour amongst English Churchmen without delay to effect a change.