Henry Phillpotts
Henry Phillpotts, often called "Henry of Exeter", was the Anglican Bishop of Exeter from 1830 to 1869. He was one of England's longest serving bishops since the 14th century.
Life
Early life
Henry Phillpotts, D.D., Bishop of Exeter, was born on 6 May 1778 at Bridgwater, Somerset, England, the son of John Phillpotts, a factory owner, innkeeper, auctioneer and land agent to the Dean and Chapter of Gloucester Cathedral. He grew up in Gloucestershire, and was educated at Gloucester Cathedral school. John Phillpotts, Member of Parliament for Gloucester city between 1830 and 1847, was his elder brother. Two other brothers, Thomas and George, and two sisters, Isabella and Sibella, reached adulthood; a number of other siblings died in infancy or childhood.Elected a scholar of Corpus Christi, Oxford, at the age of only thirteen, he took his BA at Corpus Christi, and his MA at Magdalen College in 1795, aged eighteen. He took holy orders in 1802, being ordained deacon by John Randolph, Bishop of London, and priest by Henry Majendie, Bishop of Chester, in 1804.
He was selected university preacher in 1804, in which year he published his Sermon on 5 November, delivered before the University of Oxford.
In September 1804 he was presented to the Crown living of Kilmersdon, near Bath, which he held until 1806. He does not appear ever to have resided there, duty being taken by a curate named Daniel Drape, according to the parish registers.
Diocese of Durham
Philpotts married in October 1804 and in 1805 became vicar. He was appointed chaplain to Bishop Middleham, County Durham, in the succeeding year. For twenty years he was chaplain to Bishop Shute Barrington, in the Diocese of Durham.In 1808 he received his next preferment, being collated by the bishop to the large and important parish of Gateshead—within a year his rapid advancement continued with the collation to the ninth prebendal stall in Durham Cathedral.
"That at the age of 31 he should already have held four livings and a prebendal stall testifies to the regard in which he was held by his diocesan, and the usefulness of his marriage connection."
He now resided for a considerable part of the year at Durham, and on the chapelry of St Margaret in the city becoming vacant, he was presented to it by the Dean and Chapter on 28 September 1810. On 30 December 1815 Philpotts received yet further preferment, being collated by the bishop to the second canonry in the Cathedral, the emoluments of which were considerably higher than those of the ninth. This he held for five years, at the end of which period his literary and controversial abilities brought him into advancing prominence.
After holding the rich living of Stanhope, Durham, from 1820, and the Deanery of Chester from 1828, he was consecrated Bishop of Exeter in 1831, holding with the see a residentiary canonry at Durham which he secured permission to hold along with his bishopric, one of the last cases of the benefice in commendam by which medieval and later bishops had often profited.
Philpotts recognised the need to look after his family, extensive as it was — he had 18 children. When he was offered the bishopric in Exeter he realised that the stipend was not enough to support his family, so he asked to retain his parish of Stanhope, in Durham, which would be worth an additional £4,000 a year. As a compromise he was instead offered the canonry at Durham which was worth a similar amount, and was a post which he continued to hold until his death.
Diocese of Exeter
As bishop he was a strict disciplinarian, and did much to restore order in a diocese whose clergy had become extraordinarily demoralized and over which he wielded considerable power.The diocese at that time extended from the Somerset and Dorset borders to the Isles of Scilly in Cornwall. His episcopate was characterized by the establishment of many new parishes in Cornwall and considerable evangelical efforts.
In 1841 he built for himself a palace at Torquay, Devon. Bishopstowe served as the bishop's residence, which he preferred as a home to the Bishop's Residence attached to Exeter Cathedral. The gardens in the of private land stretching to the sea are still a major attraction today together with the Bishop's Walk at the local beauty spot of Ansteys Cove.
Phillpotts was aware that his appointment to Exeter was not popular locally and knowing of his unpopularity he at times took measures to protect himself from it. He admits in a letter to Ralph Barnes, his secretary, on 14 December 1830 to being "Cautious...in admitting adverse newspapers to my table, yet the caution has not prevented me from hearing of the extreme unpopularity of my appointment to Exeter."
The year 1831 saw Phillpotts as the victim of the Guy Fawkes Night custom of burning effigies of clergymen; knowing his reputation he took action by requesting protection, thus the 7th Yeomanry Cavalry filled the palace at Exeter, while the crowd in the cathedral yard burned Phillpotts in effigy;
.... hollow turnip as head and candle as nose, clad in mitre and lawn sleeves...
In 1848 he placed an appeal in The Guardian of 5 January 1848, for help for the poor of Devonport; his request was answered by Lydia Sellon who was just about to travel to Italy for her health. Philpott's inspiration of Sellon led to the formation of an Anglican order which Sellon led.
Character
Phillpotts' character was of the type that determined never to give up on a fight and he persisted in applying his standards. There were many ways that unscrupulous clergy could abuse the Episcopal patronage system, but:so long as Henry Phillpotts was Bishop of Exeter they avoided the Diocese of Exeter, for they knew that this doughty fighter would fight them to the end if he smelt something improper, whatever the cost to his pocket, however unfavourable the publicity and whatever the inadequacy of his own legal standing.
He was:
... a genuinely religious man with his religion concealed behind porcupine quills, he constantly quarrelled in the House of Lords, exposing opponents' follies with consummate ability, a tongue and eyes of flame, an ugly tough face and vehement speech.
The bishop's strong views and lack of inhibitions in promoting them at times gained him many enemies in key places:
That devil of a Bishop who inspired more terror than ever Satan did...of whom, however, it must be said that he is a gentleman.
Phillpotts at times became unpopular with former friends; one such was Rev. Sydney Smith, a former Tory ally who went on to say:
I must believe in the Apostolic Succession, there being no other way of accounting for the descent of the Bishop of Exeter from Judas Iscariot.
The text concerning the woman who anointed the head of Jesus with a 'very precious' ointment was chosen by the Bishop for his sermon at the consecration on 24 August 1837 of The New Cemetery in Exeter. The occasion was reported enthusiastically in the local newspaper The Flying Post :
In its language this sermon was most elegant‚ its delivery was a masterpiece of eloquence, and it was one of the most instructive and enlightened discourses that has been heard.
In the foreword to Davies' biography of Phillpotts, Prof. Norman Sykes summarises the character of the Bishop:
Henry of Exeter, like Job’s war-horse, snuffed the battle from afar; and scented, moreover, a remarkable number and variety of contests in which to engage, without exhausting his capacity for polemic. Like William Warburton of an earlier age he was a born fighter. It was his fortune furthermore to live in an age when occasions of dispute were legion; and he threw himself with avidity into their several aspects. Born into the era of the unreformed Parliament and Church, he opposed Catholic Emancipation and parliamentary reform; and was a pluralist who wished to retain in commendam the golden rectory of Stanhope with the See of Exeter, and only compromised by the exchange of living for a rich prebendal stall of Durham, Yet he lived to adjust himself to revolutionary changes in both Church and State. In ecclesiastical matters he was a champion of the principles of the Tractarian revival ; he encouraged the wearing of the surplice, and was a pioneer in the restoration of diocesan synods, and became involved in controversy concerning religious sisterhoods in the Church of England. He was the protagonist in the famous Gorham controversy, and held his ground in defeat when Manning seceded to Rome in protest against the verdict of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in Gorham's favour. As a diocesan bishop he was outstanding in administration and pastoral oversight; and his episcopate left its enduring mark on the Diocese of Exeter.
Davies himself explains:
No biographer of Phillpotts could, I think, complete his task with a feeling of real affection for the subject of his study. His character and gifts must command respect, if not approval; but he exhibited a curious lack of balance, and a failure to appreciate and adapt himself to the mood of the times which must detract from a firm claim to greatness on behalf of one so impervious to the changes in contemporary thought and opinion. He deserves, however, to be commemorated as an outstanding figure in the Anglican Church of the nineteenth century, and in particular for his High Church sympathies before the days of the Oxford Movement, at the same time noting that he could never quite come to terms with the Tractarians; and also for his many innovations in diocesan administration, for example, his opposition to non-residence, his advocacy of theological colleges, and his courage in convening a diocesan synod – perhaps the most important event of his career. This study is therefore both an attempt to do justice to his virtues in fearlessly contending for his convictions, while at the same time not disguising those failings which were such a conspicuous feature of his character.