Temple, Frederick (1821-1902)

The papers of Temple run to over sixty volumes. The bulk of them consists of letters and papers addressed to the Archbishop or his chaplains. Although few of Temple's replies are preserved, his thoughts on most subjects of his correspondence may be discovered from his remarks, varying from incisive to cryptic, written on the letters. These notes enabled his chaplains to write the replies and served to indicate the Archbishop's immediate thoughts on and reactions to the subjects at hand.

The papers cover his six years as Archbishop of Canterbury 1896-1902. The year of his enthronement, 1897, witnessed the Fourth Lambeth Conference and the celebration of the Diamond Jubilee of the accession of Queen Victoria; that of his death saw the coronation of her son, Edward VII. In the years between, Temple was preoccupied with problems of national and colonial consequence as well as with the administration of the diocese and province of Canterbury.

The Church of England, still shocked by the Papal Bull, Apostolicae Curae, condemning Anglican Orders was in the throes of controversy concerning 'ritualist' or 'popish' practices. To meet the mounting criticism of the extreme Protestant wing of the Protestant Reformation Societies and the Loyal Orange Institutions, and the challenge posed by ritualists upheld by the English Church Union, Temple encouraged his suffragans to submit their doubts about the interpretation of provisions in the Book of Common Prayer to him. In May and June 1899, Temple together with the Archbishop of York heard the case for and against the use of incense, processional lights and candles, and duly delivered their opinion that their ceremonial use was not permitted by the law of the Church of England. In the same year, the two Archbishops followed a similar procedure for determining the legality of the practice of reserving the Sacrament, and in May, 1900, they individually announced their decisions that the practice of Reservation was not sanctioned by the Church.

As Archbishop, Temple continued to express his deep concern for education. He was party to the passing of both the Board of Education Act, 1899, and the 1902 Education Act. Throughout he tried to secure adequate provisions for religious instruction and Voluntary or Church Schools.

Looking beyond England, Temple had to face the problems of a colonial administrator. The task of finding capable and suitable clergymen willing to give up their careers in England to serve as colonial bishops was often long and tedious. Bishop Stirling of the Falkland Isles had to wait five years before he could be relieved of his office in 1902. A similar situation arose over the appointment of a new bishop of Zanzibar. In South Africa there were other more pressing problems: the Boer War and the continued schism of 'the Church of Natal'. In China, Brazil, the Hawaiian Islands, and Puerto Rico attempts were made to rationalize the division of episcopal jurisdiction between the Anglican Bishops and the Missionary Bishops of the Protestant Episcopal Church in America.

These form part of the Archbishops' Papers. These in turn form part of the archives of the Archbishops of Canterbury, which also comprise: Bishops' Meetings records (BM), Cartae Antiquae et Miscellaneae (Lambeth Charters) (CM), Convocation records (Conv), Court of Arches records (Arches), Faculty Office records (F), Lambeth Conference papers (LC), Temporalities records (ED and T), including correspondence on the Archbishops' estates (TR 8-36), and Vicar General records (V).

The original order of the papers worked out by Temple's chaplains has been preserved. The evidence suggests that at the end of each year, his chaplains, the Rev. Ernest Lawrence Ridge, 1896-1901, and the Rev. William James Conybeare, 1901-1902, sifted through the papers, discarding some, and arranging them in two alphabetical series, 'Home and 'Foreign'. Each bundle was given a letter and a number which were entered in the Letter Register (now volume 62). The only papers treated in a different way were those relating to the Archbishops' Hearings, the Boer War, and the Coronation. In these cases the papers were so voluminous that they were left as separate packets, noted at the end of the chronological sequence.

The papers are therefore in a roughly chronological order. However, many bundles contain papers for more than one year. The few letters for 1896 were amalgamated with those for 1897. Some subjects, particularly the foreign ones, remained open for a few years and were not registered until they were a 'dead collection'. The appointment of colonial bishops often covered a number of years: the majority of the papers relating to the bishopric of Zanzibar were not registered until 1901 although they begin in 1899. On the other hand letters concerning appointments to livings were entered under the year in which the benefice became vacant even where the institution of a successor was long delayed.

Open

An additional volume (61) was added in December 2002. These were papers found among the Archbishops' Assyrian Mission papers, and appear to have been removed from the papers of Archbishops Benson and Temple, possibly by Bishop Wordsworth, and kept separately from the Assyrian Mission and Benson & F. Temple papers. These came to light almost 30 years after the listing of the Benson and F.Temple papers, and have therefore been reunited with the Temple papers but at the end of the sequence.

The 19th-century Archbishops' Papers (Longley, Tait, Benson, Frederick Temple) are catalogued more comprehensively than most of the 20th-century Archbishops' Papers.

Catalogue records based on the published catalogued by M. Barber, Index to the letters and papers of Frederick Temple, archbishop of Canterbury, 1896-1902, in Lambeth Palace Library (1975), which attempted to combine a fairly comprehensive subject and place index with a selective index of individual correspondents. With a few exceptions, all persons noted in the register were indexed individually. All letters from bishops, the two archdeacons of Maidstone and Canterbury, and persons in the Dictionary of National Biography and the Complete Peerage have separate entries. Letters from clergy on subjects noted in the Letter Register (volume 62) are only individually indexed where they reflect some belief or practice of the correspondent or give details about parochial life. Letters of recommendation by clergy of other clergy are only entered under the name of the person recommended. Apart from those of the Rev. Henry Horace Pereira, rural dean of Croydon, and subsequently in 1904 Suffragan Bishop of Croydon, the letters of rural deans in their official capacity have not been indexed. However by searching for the parishes within their rural deaneries it should be possible to locate their letters.

References are to the volumes and folios only; the bundle number has been omitted. The Letter Register (volume 62) may be used to correlate the bundle numbers with the volume and folio references. The word correspondence has only been used where there is an exchange of letters between Temple and the correspondent. No attempt was made to index the notes and remarks of Temple on the letters, and the entries under his name have been kept to a minimum: to the Archbishops' Hearings and to letters about his speeches and views. There are no references to his chaplains because they may be regarded as the mouthpiece of Temple and were not expressing views of their own. In the same way letters addressed to the chaplains were primarily intended for the Archbishop.

Published list available to purchase exclusively from the Library.

OTHER MATERIAL AT LAMBETH PALACE LIBRARY

MS.1798 (letter book as principal of Kneller Hall, Isleworth; 1850-1851).

Fulham Papers, 1885-1896: F. Temple.

Temple's Register, 1896-1902.

Canterbury Diocesan Visitation Returns, 1898-1902.

Transcripts of the proceedings of the Archbishop's Hearings, 1899.

Lambeth Conference Papers (1878, 1888, 1897).

Letters of Temple may also be found in the Manuscripts sequence, and in the Papers of other Archbishops of Canterbury - Tait, Benson and Davidson - and in the other Fulham Papers - Tait and Jackson.

MATERIAL ELSEWHERE:

See National Register of Archives.

Further material relating to the life of Temple is found at Newcastle under Lyme School, among the papers of Dr Francis Elliott Kitchener, who was responsible for “Rugby Memoir, 1857 – 1869”, from volume 1 of “Memoirs of Archbishop Temple by Seven Friends”. Those papers comprise:

A collection of original letters from the papers of Francis E Kitchener concerning Frederick Temple.

A bound volume of typed copies of some of the letters written by Frederick Temple to his family whilst a student at Oxford.